Photo via SLOLA website

>> Big City Forum presents Fast Forward: Los Angeles on the Verge, featuring a panel of speakers that will harness creative methods for a lively discussion around livability, sustainability, community, and the politics of place in Los Angeles. Takes places tonight, Wed., Mar. 7 at 7 pm at the Armory Center for the Arts, 145 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena. Cost: free.

>> What exactly is a ‘genetically modified seed’? What is ‘heirloom’? How do seed saving and local food growing relate to local and global peace? Who owns the future of food? Join the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Friends Peace Dialogue, speakers Megan Bomba (SLOLA) and Deanna Marie Weakly (Master Gardener, founder of Skid Row Rooftop Garden), and green LA girl writer Nisha Namorando Vida to learn and dialogue on these questions this Thu., Mar. 8 from 7-8:30 pm at the AFSC headquarters, 634. S. Spring St., 3rd Floor, Los Angeles. Cost: free.

>> The G2 Gallery has begun a weekly screening of Ken Burns’s six-part documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. The screenings provide a deeper understanding from a historical perspective of the people and places that shaped America’s national parks. The screenings will be held every Thu., Feb. 9 – Mar. 15 at 2 pm. Check out this week’s screening “Great Nature (1933–1945)”, on Thu., Mar. 8 at 2 pm, G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice. Cost: $5. All proceeds will be donated to the World Wildlife Fund and the Sierra Club.

>> Santa Monica College is conducting its 10th annual Environmental and Urban Issues Speakers Series. Join Genevieve Bertone and other Santa Monica College faculty, staff, and students to learn how we are working on transportation, energy, food and other projects that make SMC more efficient and a better neighbor on Tue., Mar. 13 at 6:30 pm in HSS 263 on Santa Monica’s Main Campus (Map). Cost: free.

Photo via Big City Forum

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Want to shop less and live more? Maybe reading about how companies entice you to buy stuff you don’t need will help you avoid their pull. Martin Lindstrom’s book “Brandwashed” could help you do just that. Martin, a guy often hired by major companies to convince people open wallets to products, shares his trade secrets in this book — arming readers with the knowledge to figure out when they’re being taken advantage of.

“Brandwashed” is full of both hilarious and shocking stories of how companies get people to buy. Sure, you may think you’re above all the ads that unrealistically promise everlasting love and fantastic sex — yours simply for buying a product. But did you know companies start grooming you for their goodies — while you’re still in utero? Some of the crazy tactics companies use — from stealth social marketing to skeevy online info mining — will likely shock you.

Buying unnecessary products means buying into more enviro damage — so greenies have a clear impetus to avoid such clandestine marketing ploys. But “Brandwashed” will open your eyes to even more reasons to avoid conventional products, to shop less, and to opt for eco-friendlier products on the occasions you do need to buy. Did you know, for example, that some conventional lip balm products actually contain ingredients that chap your lips? Or that Silk, when it started selling conventional soy milk, simply kept the same packaging while swapping out the word “organic” for “natural,” thereby fooling harried shoppers into buying their unorganic stuff?

The news in “Brandwashed” isn’t all doom and gloom for environmentalists. Sure, there’s a lot of greenwashing going on, and even more goods being marketed quite fantastically without even a nod to eco-friendly ideals. But one of the strongest form of marketing, according to “Brandwashed,” isn’t even done by companies. Instead, it’s done by individuals like yourself, through word of mouth.

Walk your green talk then talk about your walk — in an attractive, non-creepy, non-judgemental manner, of course — and you’ll be able to influence your neighbors into doing the same.

“Brandwashed” is available at bookstores now — and online. Amazon has it for $15.39.

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Want to take an academic look at fair trade coffee? Pick up “Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America” — a collection of academic essays, published by The MIT Press, that looks at coffee issues from a variety of disciplines — agroecology, environmental studies, latin american and latino studies, and more.

If short news articles and clips about fair trade just aren’t cutting it for you, this book’s where you can get a lot of great raw data and serious evaluative studies. Considering the fact that a lot of the impetus behind the fair trade movement relies on anecdotal or single-case stories, the more in-depth, numbers-based studies in this book lend a welcome, somewhat less biased perspective on the problem.

The examples and stories in the essays in this book are less sugarcoated. Because while there are communities where fair trade has shown a clear difference — sent kids to schools, health, community development, empowerment, etc. — that get featured in Fair Trade USA’s brochures, there are also communities that have participated in fair trade programs where concrete changes are tough to see.

One study in the book takes Venezuela as an example. There, fair trade helps mitigate crises and softens economic blows, but the coffee industry’s still full of problems. Farmers are selling 70% via conventional market due to the difficulty of finding buyers — and are struggling for those and other reasons. This study shows that while fair trade can help, a community or country embracing fair trade isn’t necessarily a magic bullet solution that suddenly and significantly improves people’s lives.

In fact, some of the studies more honestly deal with some of the current conflicts between the fair trade model and the organic models — mainly by pointing out that eco-friendly practices aren’t always financially viable, especially in countries where environmental laws are few. One essay studying Veracruz, Mexico notes that the ecofriendliest farms there have the lowest harvest output — not a financially sustainable model, even with the price premiums from organic or fair trade labels.

There is encouraging stuff in these essays too, of course, about increased yield after converting to organic farming — and especially about “intensified” organic farming that can boost yields.

But more than anything, the essays in this book show how complicated everything is. There are, for example, very many different ways of coffee growing — beyond just organic vs. conventional, sustainable vs. technified. And there are many other issues to consider in most coffee growing countries — from the histories of colonialization to transitional farming possibilities to all sorts of other technical and political stuff we usually aren’t faced with in the supermarket when buying a bag of coffee.

The studies do make you wish things were simpler. If only we had solid data — i.e. something like how fair trade certification allowed for an x% incrase in the standard of living of producers — consumer choices would be easier to make. But nothing like that’s available. In fact, what many of the essays emphasize is the necessity of dealing with things on the micro level — looking closely at the diversity of issues, and citing the need for local and regional focus.

Compared to all of that, the current quibbles about fair trade certification seem — small.

Confronting the Coffee Crisis is a heavy read, but there’s lots of interesting stuff to interest the coffee lover — from an essay on the difficult paradoxical work of organic standards inspectors in Oaxaca to a more poetic essay about landscapes. And of course, the book provides a general overview of history of coffee crisis that answers background questions.

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If watching “Who Killed the Electric Car?” depressed you, watch the merrier, happier sequel of sorts, “Revenge of the Electric Car” — free. The eco-docu is now on Hulu!

“Revenge” basically starts off where “Who Killed” ended — with the “killing” of GM’s EV1 cars. Then, “Revenge” follows four car-preneurs — all men, as you may have guessed — as they exact revenge.

Not being a big car person, I was a bit reluctant to watch this film — but I got into it! “Revenge” frames the return of the electric car as a three-way race between Tesla, Chevy Volt, and Nissan Leaf. The men behind those companies all have big personalities and big egos — and the turbulent times, with the recession putting the simple existence of two of the companies hanging precariously in the balance.

The fourth protagonist’s an L.A. guy who goes by “Gadget” — who converts regular cars into electric cars and somehow keeps running into a strange string of trials and tribulations, ranging from an arsonist burning down his garage to a new warehouse that turns out to be full of lead and other poisons.

Celebs like Danny Devito, Jon Favreau, and Adrien Grenier, as well as politicians like Gavin Newsom and Arnold Schwarzenegger (who tells Elon Musk the Tesla would be “perfect for Maria”) all make an appearance in the movie. Los Angeles also plays a feature role, kicking off the film with shots of packed freeways and playing host to the Plug In America parade.

Though just released last October, “Revenge” already feels dated, since the electric cars in question have been on the roads for a while now. Now if only I and other apartment dwellers had somewhere we could plug in and charge those cars so we could actually consider buying them….

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>> Come join Women of the Green Generation  for a special Women of the Green Generation Holiday Event. Large Marge Sustainables will provide organic foods and GQ Eco Bartending will serve up organic drinks. The event takes place this Thu. Dec. 15 from 7:00- 10:00 pm at a private home in Santa Monica. The address will be disclosed to registered guests. Cost: $10; visit their website to register.

>>  Heal the Bay is coordinating its fifth annual A Day Without a Bag, which urges consumers to forego environmentally harmful single-use plastic or paper grocery bags in favor of reusable totes. Visit one of the more than 60 Giveaway Locations this Thu., Dec. 15 for a free reusable bag. Cost: free.

>> The Los Angeles Bioneers will be screening the film The Big Fix, the newest documentary from the creators of Fuel. The Big Fix will be screened this Fri., Dec. 16 at 7 pm at the G2 Gallery at 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice. Cost: free. If you want to attend, RSVP to srnichols@mac.com.

>> Cruise into the holiday spirit with C.I.C.L.E.’s 4th annual Holiday Toys and Mittens Ride, which will gather toys and warm articles of clothing for Burbank’s Salvation Army, to be given to local families and children through their Giving Tree. The relaxed-paced, 7.5 mile ride will stop at various sites in Burbank. Join the ride this Sat., Dec. 17 at 10 am at Burbank City Hall, 275 East Olive Ave., Burbank for a fun-filled and family friendly day. Cost: the ride is free, but please bring a toy or article of clothing to donate.

>> Freedom and Fashion, an organization dedicated to educating society about the global issues of modern day slavery, sex trafficking, child labor and human rights violation, is holding a fashion show featuring seven fair-trade lines. The event takes place this Sat., Dec. 17 from 6-10 pm at the Cooper Design Space Penthouse, 860 South Los Angeles Street, 11th Floor Penthouse, Los Angeles. Cost: Ticket prices range from $25-100 and are available online.

>> Join GOOD LA in creating a giant human infographic to attack L.A.’s traffic problem. Currently, 81 percent of Angelenos drive to work. On average, they spend 72 hours of that drive stuck in traffic every year. It’s time to take action. Come out this Sat, Dec. 17 at noon at the intersection of West 4th Street and South Figueroa Street in downtown LA. Cost: free. Be sure to RSVP if you would like to attend.

>> Genetically modified food is in the majority of our food items today. The FDA is allowing these foods to go untested and unlabeled. Culture Club 101 is hosting a GMO Labeling Signature Gathering Training to train people in how to gather signatures in order to put a proposition on next year’s ballot to label foods containing GMOs. The training takes place on Sun., Dec. 18 at 7 pm at Culture Club 101, 30 S. Wilson Avenue Pasadena. Cost: free. Reserve your space on their website.

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