If you’ve ever tried to opt for sustainable seafood dishes at a restaurant using Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide, you know that the seemingly-simple guide can be tough to follow. Why? Often, the restaurant staff isn’t knowledgeable enough to tell you what you need to know — like whether the grilled salmon’s the sustainable kind that’s wild-caught in Alaska, or the farmed kind known to wreak havoc on the environment.

That’s why eco-pescatarians love dining at Santa Monica Seafood Cafe, with its sleek oyster bar and always-busy dining area. While not all seafood here’s sustainable as at Border Grill, the staff at Santa Monica Seafood’s knowledgeable about their food and where it comes from — which makes it easy for diners to make greener choices.

I went for the Grilled Mahi Mahi Flat Bread when I stopped by a couple months ago. According to the oyster bartender, the mahi mahi was caught in Hawaii — making my fish dish a “good alternative,” according to Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch. Plus, the tasty dish came with organic greens –

Of course, I’d love Santa Monica Seafood even more if all its seafood was sustainable. The family-owned and operated company is, on the bright side, taking some steps in a green direction. Last October, Santa Monica Seafood announced a 5-year partnership (PDF) with Monterey Bay Aquarium. The goal: To shift Santa Monica Seafood’s purchases toward sustainable sources — a pretty big feat, considering the fact that the company’s the largest seafood distributor in the southwest.

It’s unclear, however, how green Santa Monica Seafood will go. The agreement simply states that Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program will “support” and “help” Santa Monica Seafood find greener seafood suppliers, and make “a stepped-up outreach effort to its 1,500 client chefs and restaurants.” And the quote from Michael Cigliano, executive vice president of Santa Monica Seafood — “Ultimately, our goal is to reach a point where a majority of all our seafood purchases come from sustainable sources” — implies that 100% sustainable seafood isn’t the goal, and that currently, not even 50% of what the company sells can be considered sustainable.

All that’s to say that Santa Monica Seafood’s making green strides — but discerning eco-pescatarians should take advantage of the knowledgeable staff and still ask questions when making their seafood choices.

As for the dining experience itself: The mahi mahi flat bread was deliciously warm with a tasty pesto aioli. And though the popular cafe was full, my friend Bryan and I found seats at the oyster bar where service was friendly and efficient. Next time I want to try the grilled salmon — after verifying it’s wild-caught.

Santa Monica Seafood. 1000 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. 310.393.5244. Also a retail store and cafe in Costa Mesa.

Earlier: A Sustainable seafood guide for the digital age

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Stepping into Purity Organic Spa is like entering a cool green oasis, with its sunny space and relaxing atmosphere. Here’s where natural beauty seekers come for organic pampering from Carol Dobson-Zubrin, a green-minded esthetician who’ll give you an eco-luxe facial that’s calming, non-toxic, and very effective.

I stopped in for an Organic Phyto Collagen Renewal Facial last week — and my face still shows its soothing results. At Purity, skin care really is organic, with natural exfoliation, relaxing massages, and customized masks — all done with skin care products that do their work without harsh or harmful chemicals.

Carol’s facials are decadent affairs with lots of thoughtful touches, beginning with the cozy bed — prewarmed with heated stones! I slipped in and enjoyed a deep steam and cleanse, followed by a quick extraction and a cool plant collagen mask loaded up with live enzymes. While the mask was doing its work, Carol treated my hands and feet to relaxing hot stone massages. And post-mask, my face got a Chinese pressure point massage!

Formerly in the entertainment industry, Carol got into organic skin care long before green became the new beauty buzz word, opening Purity’s doors 8 years. She’s a wealth of knowledge when it comes to finding natural solutions for better-looking skin, going far beyond simply recommending (or pushing, as many facialists do) beauty products to discuss dietary habits and potential allergies. Of course, Carol can also recommend organic products if you need help making the switch from the usual toxic drugstore stuff. Some of her favorite products include those from Von Natur and Pure Skin Junkie, though Carol still picks and chooses individual products that she knows work well instead of recommending any single line.

Post-facial, my skin not only looks clearer, but feels cleaner. My skin’s more even, with fewer dry and oily patches — and even the little bumps under my skin that didn’t show but could be felt are now gone!

The Organic Phyto Collagen Renewal Facial costs $95 for 75 minutes, but Carol offers a full range of facials, from 20-minute quickies at $45 to 110-minute Pure Luxury Facial at $155. Massages, hand treatments, and waxing services are available at Purity too.

Purity. 3487 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Bungalow B, Los Angeles. 626.818.4753. By appointment only.

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Santa Monica’s Montana Avenue’s pockmarked with sad empty stores and “For Lease” signs these days, but at least one green-minded business seems to be keeping busy. Palmetto, a beauty store specializing in organic and natural products, attracted a steady stream of shoppers seeking beauty sans weird chemicals when I stopped by on Sunday.

“Green for 25 years,” boast the writing on Palmetto’s glassy walls, and the yummy beauty products for sale really do reflect that eco-claim. Here, green beauty seekers can smell and sample organic and natural products from eco-minded companies like 100% Pure, Chivas Skin Care, Soaptopia, and many more. I turned a lot of lotion bottles over to read the labels — and didn’t see a single mention of parabens!

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1. Find your love for wheels. Two wheels, that is. Singular, a magazine for happily single people, is organizing a Valentine’s Day Beginner’s Mountain Bike Ride in the L.A. area. Bike 5-6 miles through the Sullivan Canyon in Brentwood on Valentine’s Day from 10 am to 1 pm. Plus, Singular magazine can be a great Valentine’s Day gift for all your happily single friends.

2. Make art for the environment’s sake. Clear your Saturday night for Lucent L’Amour, an annual “visionary lovefest” with art exhibits, bands, and other live performances happening this year at the Shrine in Los Angeles. In the midst of all the entertainment will be Lighting in a Paintcan, when 20 live painters will create art pieces with used and recycled paint. A silent auction during the event lets attendees bid on the pieces — with the proceeds going to buy art and music supplies for local underfunded schools. Support eco-art and a future generation of local musicians and artists too, while enjoying the lovely spectacle.

3. Lust after free fair trade yummies. WorldofGood.com’s giving away 15 fair trade gift baskets — worth $98 each — filled with a handmade bear, chocolates, cocoa, and candles. To win, all you have to do is reveal who you’re going to give the gift basket to and why in 75 words or less.

Winners will be judged on a “variety of factors including, but not limited to, originality, humor, sincerity and/or desperation” — so a humorous note about why you sincerely deserve to eat the entire gift basket yourself could work. Enter by Feb. 7 — and even if you don’t win, you’ll get a coupon for $10 off a $25 purchase of fair trade goodies from WorldofGood.com.

4. Embrace public transit and celebrate Valentine’s Day a few days early by taking the bus or train to the Move LA Valentine Celebration. The local pro public transit nonprofit is raising funds while celebrating car-free travel in L.A. with music from KCRW’s Tom Schnabel, live music from Latin salsa band Opa Opa, and more. The party begins Thurs., Feb. 11 from 6 pm – 10 pm at The Center at Cathedral Plaza, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles. $50 gets you in.

5. Spread the handmade love. Why buy a single Valentine for one person when you can get bargain package deals on Etsy for all your lovers? At the L.A.-based Marmoset shop, get a pair ($4) — or quartet ($8) — of handmade Valentines crafted with upcycled and reclaimed paper to send to everyone you love — in post-consumer recycled brown kraft envelopes, of course.

6. Have a crayon heart. Want little gifts to go with those cards? An instructables member who goes by Some Art Mama’s put up photo-illustrated, step-by-step instructions for turning old crayons into pretty little hearts. Collect old crayons and a few simple supplies — and a little messy work later, and your homemade, eco-friendly, pretty-as-well-as-useful gifts will be ready.

7. Find love for your glove. Lost a glove? Find your widowed glove a mate by sending it in to Glove Love, a cute little initiative by a green website called Do The Green Thing that pairs up single gloves with sorta-matching partners. Jasmin Chua at Ecouterre calls it a “matchmaking service for lovelorn mitts.” You can also buy a pair of pre-loved, mix-and-matched Glove Love gloves for £5.

The bad news: As you may have guessed from the “£,” Glove Love’s in the U.K. A closer-to-home green glove idea’s to plan a Valentine’s Day clothing swap — that includes lonely accessories like single earrings and gloves, or if you’re bold, shoes — to mix-and-match or upcycle.

8. Get green bling. Have too much room in your jewelry box after upcycling the earrings sans partners? Keep your shopping eco-friendly by opting for recycled and ethically-sourced jewelry. I love my Peace Love Earth recycled sterling silver necklace from Annatarian (right, $60), and have my eye on a recycled Silver Butterfly Pendant from Brilliant Earth ($50). Of course, buying pre-loved jewelry is an even greener option — so don’t forget about my guide to pre-loved fashion shopping in Santa Monica!

9. Give with chocolate. Yes, that “with” is supposed to be there, because why would you give chocolate to others when you can eat the perfectly delicious stuff yourself? Okay — Nicobella’s organic fair trade vegan dark chocolate truffles (my review here) come in a pack of six, so sharing does actually come easy — but purchase a $27 duet pack of these and $2 will be donated to help the victims of Haiti through the Happy Hearts Fund, thus letting give with your chocolate while eating it too.

Get the pack by emailing nichole@nicobellaorganics.com or calling 609.792.5231. Fair trade chocolate, by the way, also gives chocolate producers a fairer share of the profits from the money you spent on the delectable desserts.

10. Write a love poem. The Valentine Peace Project collects poems about peace and love, written by individuals who want to share peace and love. Anyone can write a poem to contribute to the project, whether online or in their neighborhoods.

Photos via marmoset/Etsy, Do the Green Thing, Nicobella, Singular, WorldofGood.com

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There’s a RiteAid next door I visit on occasion, and about the only green products I’ve found there are Green & Blacks organic chocolate bars — a somewhat bittersweet benefit of the fact that Green & Blacks was bought up by choco-giant Cadbury, which has recently been bought up by Kraft. Only one Green & Blacks’ flavor, however is currently fair trade certified, which means that as a general supporter of fair trade and its certification system, I’ve tasted a lot more of the orange-flavored, fair trade-certified Maya Gold bar than any of the other flavors I’ve wanted to try.

That’s about to change. Late last month, Green & Blacks announced that it would switch to fair trade ingredients for all its products worldwide. In the U.S., Green & Blacks chocolate bars will start being made with fair trade certified ingredients mid-year. Expect to see fair trade certification logos on 100% of Green & Blacks chocolate bars in the U.S. by the end of this year!

Green & Blacks’ move to fair trade may seem like a brand new initiative, especially to those who’ve thought the company’s single fair trade certified product showed only a token commitment to ethical sourcing. In fact, the story’s a lot more complicated. Green & Blacks’ Maya Gold bar was actually the first fair trade certified product in the U.K., but apparently the choco company had a fallout of sorts with Fairtrade Federation, the certifying organization for fair trade products in the U.K.

Craig Sams, one of the founders of Green & Blacks, goes into more detail about Green & Black’s history with fair trade certification in a 2006 interview on City Hippy. There, Craig says Green & Blacks’ commitment to fair trade practices has never wavered:

We have never changed the way we do business. We always pay fair prices, deal with democratic cooperatives, support our growers with long term contracts, give them cash up front if they need it to pay the cooperative members, help them on maintaining organic standards.

In the same interview, Craig goes on to say that the conflicts Green & Blacks had with Fairtrade Federation happened “several years ago and I think that things have changed and are changing.” Apparently, things have changed enough to reunite the choco company with the fair trade nonprofit now.

This is good news for last minute Valentine’s Day shoppers who’ll be able to grab soon-to-be-fair-trade-certified Green & Blacks bars at pretty much every store near them, though I’m guessing some hardcore eco-ethical foodies will still be loath to buy anything owned by Kraft. Will you be buying more Green & Blacks chocolates?

Earlier:
>> Consumerism and its discontents: The Eco-shopper’s Dilemma
>> When non-eco companies have more-eco products than eco companies

And earlier chocolatey posts:
>> Equal Exchange’s new bars: Dark pleasures for eco-ethical chocoholics
>> nicobella vegan organic chocolate truffles: Decadence with antioxidants
>> Where to get fair trade chocolate in Los Angeles
>> Give me a break of that fair trade Kit Kat bar?

Photo by Quasimime

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If H&M’s quick promise to stop destroying unsold clothing appeased you enough to shop its eco-friendly spring line, I have some bad news for you. What you thought was a cute organic cotton outfit may actually be made of genetically modified cotton.

That’s what the German edition of the Financial Times is reporting. For those who, like me, can’t read German, Ecotextile News has the lowdown in English. Apparently, an independent testing lab tried testing some of the fabrics labeled organic cotton from European brands H&M, C&A and Tchibo — to find that 30 percent of the samples contained genetically modified cotton! (via EcoSalon)

How could this lapse occur? The problem’s been traced back to India, which grows nearly half of the world’s organic cotton. According to Ecotextile news, “reports from reliable, trusted organisations and producer groups about fraud within the Indian sector of the organic cotton industry have been common-place,” with third party certification agencies EcoCert and Control Union even getting fined in April 2009 for alleged fraud.

Who’s to blame? The onus falls on the industry as a whole — which “needs to establish firmer rules of governance over organic cotton production” — the third party certifiers, as well as the brands themselves — which “need to invest more in improved supply chain transparency and more thorough testing,” according to Ecotextile News. As of yet, it’s unclear what actions the industry will take, since the brands involved are still investigating the issue:

A spokeswoman for the Swedish clothing chain H&M told news agency AFP that the company became aware of the incident last year and admitted that GM cotton could have made it into H&M‘s organic range. C&A are said to be undertaking a thorough investigation.

Until the problems get cleared up, eco-fashionistas may want to avoid clothing made with organic cotton from India, instead supporting clothing companies like Cottonfield USA that make their clothes from organic cotton grown in the U.S.

Photo by Ambrosiana Pictures

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Chocolate lovers: Look forward to indulging in 2010 with two new organic and fair trade bars from Equal Exchange. Well known for helping to pioneer the fair trade movement in the U.S., Equal Exchange is ever-expanding — this time with an Orange Dark Chocolate bar and Panama Extra Dark Chocolate bar.

Read through the all-organic ingredient list, and you’ll notice these yummies are made with simple, recognizable ingredients with no weird additives or synthetic stuff. The Orange Dark Chocolate’s got a powerful fruity kick in its 65% cacao content bar while the Panama Extra Dark Chocolate, with a very high 80% cacao content, is a dark chocolate lover’s dream.

As with all Equal Exchange products, these chocolate bars are made via fairer partnerships with small farmer-owned co-operatives. The fair trade chocolate comes from the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Peru, the fair trade sugar from Paraguay and Costa Rica, and fair trade vanilla from Madagascar.

Honestly, I’m more of a milk chocolate girl — so while I enjoyed the Orange Dark Chocolate, I found the Panama Extra Dark Chocolate a bit too intense. If you’re a dark chocolate person though, I strongly encourage you to give this bar a try! And of course, Equal Exchange has other yummy chocolate bars — some of which friends and I tried out at a choco tasting party. More expert, less alcohol-tainted reviews of those bars can be found on Cybele’s Candyblog.

You can find Equal Exchange chocolate bars — and coffee, tea, and other snacks — at Whole Foods stores, many neighborhood co-op stores, and online at Equal Exchange’s web store. Each bar costs $4.25.

Photos via Equal Exchange

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Today marks not only Halloween, but also the last day of Fair Trade Month. Thus, here are 3 tasty coffees that are not only all triple certified — but have an additional little story to make you feel good about what you’re drinking while jolting you awake  too.

Arbor Day Specialty Coffee. Here’s a coffee literal treehuggers will adore. Yes, it’s organic certified, fair trade certified, and Smithsonian Bird-Friendly certified — but the eco-goodness doesn’t stop there. The proceeds from this coffee go directly to the Arbor Day Foundation’s Rain Forest Rescue Program to preserve rain forests.

In fact, according to the foundation, a single cup of this coffee will preserve more than two square feet of rainforest! The coffee’s grown by the ISMAM Co-op in Tapachula, Chiapas in Mexico. Take the online tour to see how the coffee gets from the sustainable forest to your cup.

Eco-altruism tastes good too. Coffee Review gave the Arbor Day Blend a 92 rating — and having tried the yummy coffee myself, I’m seriously considering buying a membership to Coffee Club. That would get me a 10-ounce bag plus an Arbor Day mug for $6.95 — with two more bags sent every four weeks  at $8.95 per bag. You can also just buy a single 10-ounce bag for $8.95 if you want to try out the coffee for yourself — or commit to the 5-pound bulk bag if you’d like to reduce packaging and shipping costs.

Little Feet Coffee. Athletes and sports fans — This coffee’s for you. If you’ve got fond memories of playing in Little League or other kid sports teams, here’s your chance to give a little kid with fewer privileges a taste of the fun opportunities you got. Buy your morning brew from Little Feet Coffee Company, and you’ll be helping to deliver soccer balls to underprivileged kids around the world.

The tasty coffee — which Coffee Review rated an 88 — is also impeccably eco-ethical, since it’s shade-grown by the Las Capucas Cooperative in Honduras and organic, fair trade, and Rainforest Alliance-certified. But it’s the soccer story that’s really heartwarming. Yes, there is a girls’ team!

I discovered Little Feed Coffee at Whole Foods, where a 12-ounce bag (also available online) costs $12. Right now, you can also get a bag of coffee with a soccer ball for $30. A monthly subscription program’s also available, though it doesn’t really save you money (12 ounces of coffee for $13.95 every  month including shipping).

Caffe Ibis’ Cafe Femenino. Feminists who want to help underprivileged women succeed economically should brew this coffee as their morning pick me up. The Cafe Femenino Coffee Project’s “a social program for women coffee producers in rural communities around the world,” giving women economic power in what tends to be a male-dominated profession in male-centric places.

Cafe Femenino coffee’s actually roasted and sold by a number of eco-ethical companies — but Caffe Ibis, whose founder I met a few years ago, adds a triple-certified element to the mix. As you can tell by the name of the company, Caffee Ibis is all about birds — and offers a whole list of triple certified coffees — organic, fair trade, and Smithsonian Bird Friendly certified — to prove its feather-friendly commitment.

Caffe Ibis’ Cafe Femenino coffee’s grown by woman-owned and operated farms in Peru. Get it online at $9.99 for a 12-ounce bag — or in bulk at Co-opportunity for less.

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Confused as to what all these certifications mean? Here’s a quick guide:

>> Organic certification, whose guidelines in the U.S. are set by the USDA, basically ensures that dangerous pesticides weren’t used in growing the coffee. Yes, there are many legitimate controversies about whether or not these standards are tough enough.

>> Fair Trade certification for coffee, provided in the U.S. by nonprofit TransFair USA, ensures that the coffee’s grown by cooperative farms that receive a more economically sustainable price for their coffee and a social premium to invest in farmers’ communities. Again, yes, there are many legitimate controversies about whether or not these standards are high enough. Some activists are pushing for higher minimum fair trade coffee prices, others for more co-op centric standards (tea producers, for ex, don’t have to be organized into co-ops).

>> Smithsonian Bird Friendly certification ensures that the coffee’s not only organic but also shade-grown — with the money from certification fees going towards funding bird research. Word on the street is that this is one of the most expensive certification seals to get — though also one of the most rewarding for bird and rain forest lovers.

>> Rainforest Alliance Certification provides some environmental guarantees — but tends to be controversial as it makes vague economic and environmental promises without actually guaranteeing price premiums for farmers. While Rainforest Alliance certification helps some companies make greener steps, the certification program is often criticized for helping greenwash some of the biggest, most abusive corporations (Chiquita, Dole, Kraft) that refuse to commit to more stringent standards demanded by other certifications.

Earlier:

>> 6-step program for the caffeine-addicted

>> Shade grown backgrounder

Images via Arbor Day Foundation, Little Feet, and Caffe Ibis

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Enjoy an organic brunch while listening to a musical performance — then hear an eco-foodie panel (that I’ll be on) before taking in a screening of The Future of Food this Sunday!

Dubbed “Peeling Back the Label: Shedding Light on the Food Industry, Misleading Consumer Information and the Impact on Human Health,” this midday event will likely be a lot more upbeat than the official title sounds!

When: Sun., Oct. 4, 11 am – 2 pm
Where: Multeepurpose Café, 269 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles.
Cost: $10 ($5 for brunch, $5 for screening). RSVP required to info@alliancehollywood.org or 310.993.6762.

“Peeling Back the Label’s the first of the Activist Salon Series put together by Alliance Hollywood, a lobbyist group for the entertainment industry on issues of like global warming and education, and Effortless Activism, a company that seeks to make activism simple. Come out to mix and mingle with fellow eco-foodies and activists over an organic brunch catered by Two Peas Catering!

Then starting at noon, I’ll be part of a panel about organic food, sustainable agriculture, and health along with Greg Steltenpohl, founder and former CEO of Odwalla and co-founder of Adina for Life; Felicia Marie Tomasco, editor-in-chief of L.A. Yoga magazine; nutritional counselor Ashley Koff; Mary Papavasiliou, chemical engineer and organizer for the Sierra Club’s True Cost of Food Campaign; and Jessica Vitale, who works on wellness campaigns at Zeno Public Relations Group.

Post-panel will be a film screening of The Future of Food, directed by Deborah Koons Garcia highlighting the compromise of human health and the environment by corporate agriculture. Here’s the preview:

Hope to see you there!

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Vegan chocoholics don’t neet to get their fix from mercury-laced, high-fructose corn syrupy Hershey’s stuff. Behold this beautiful box of nicobella vegan organic dark chocolate truffles!

Look at nicobella truffles’ ingredient list, and you’ll notice there are no strange, unpronounceable ingredients in there. In fact, the truffles are full of ingredients known for their antioxidant power — from blueberries to green tea to ginger!

Created by dietitian, nutritionist and yoga instructor Nichole Dandrea, nicobella truffles are made with 70% dark chocolate — fair trade, of course — and slightly sweetened with agave nectar and brown rice syrup. Open the package and you’ll be able to identify the flavor of each truffle by the decorative garnish. The Ginger Green Tea truffle (right), for example, is sprinkled with a green tea powder; the Blueberry Almond truffle has a piece of almond pressed onto a corner.

How do the truffles taste? My favorite of the six is the most crunchy-sounding of the bunch: Walnut Flaxseed Crunch. This decadent truffle had a perfect nutty creaminess — full of Omega-3s, to boot. I also loved the Pumpkin Chia truffle, which tasted like a rich, flavorful pie covered in chocolate, and the Ginger Green Tea truffle, which had a fierce ginger kick that made it the most intense of the six.

I did find the Pure Cocoa Bliss and Blueberry Almond truffles a tad bland — and I actually disliked the Sunflower Banana Butter truffle, which tasted oddly like a low-carb energy bar. But since I generally dislike most truffles in any given variety box, nicobella truffles box scored higher than most for me!

I’m hoping nicobella will start offering boxes with just one type of truffle — in which case I’d order boxes containing just the Walnut Flaxseed Crunch — or mix-and-match options — in which case I’d still order boxes containing just the Walnut Flaxseed Crunch (Yes, I often eat the same breakfast every day too — I’m a creature of habit).

Because nicobella truffles come in an attractive, plastic-free package — made from FSC-certified paper, no less — a box makes a fantastically pretty gift for your favorite eco-chocoholic, vegan or not! nicobella’s Pasadena’s based, but sells its creations through Theo Chocolates in Washington. A box of six truffles costs $15.

Top photo by Siel; bottom photo via nicobella

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