A guide to drinking like an environmentalist — aka a post to organize all my alcohol posts. The list’s organized by alcohol content, so you’ll have to read all the way to the end to get to the mojito info –

1. Drink beer, save world. Take it from beer activist Chris O’Brien: Drinking local, organic, and/or fair trade brews can transform the world around you — and I’m not just talking about beer goggles. Go local just by popping into your fave local brewery, or look for organic beer at Co-opportunity, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and Wild Oats.

2. Sip on yummy wine. So much organic and local and fair trade wine, so little time…. Click for a guide on creating your own enviro-conscious wine list.

3. Find your fave organic vodka — or tequila, or rum, or gin. Some’re at a store near you, though others’ll have to be ordered via the web.

4. Mix up your fave organic cocktail. A guide to organic mixers and DIY green cocktails — like an organic mojito with home-grown mint garnish –

5. Share the drinks! Have an organic mojito party, organic wine tasting, or just head over to LA Green Drinks to meet like-minded drinkers. The Culver City location now offers organic Square One vodka –

Reverse the order if you actually wanna try all these tips in a single day. As my friend Erin likes to remind me, wine then liquor, never been sicker –

Tags: alcohol, cocktail, mixer, organic, wine, beer, happyhour, environment

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[Here’s the complete happy hour roundup]

You know where to get organic liquor now — but environmentalists cannot live on shots alone. Thus, a guide to organic mixers:

Make insta-organic cocktails with Modmix — all organic cocktail mixers in 3 flavors: citrus margarita, lavender lemon drop, and pomegranate
cosmopolitan. Guaranteed to entertain.

Another simple option: Just add juice — organic, of course. Nice, simple screwdrivers — breakfast of champions — are just not appreciated enough these days.

For a lil variety, try an organic chai cocktail! Get a bottle of fair trade, organic chai from Slo Chai (their web shop’s s’posed to improve soon) — and take advantage of the cocktail recipes conveniently printed on the labels. My fave: Bermuda Chaiangle –

If you’ve got the patience to make the more complicated stuff, get eco-friendly sugar and garnishes. For ex: My mojito party featured organic limes and lime juice, organic sugar, and freshly grown organic mint from friends’ gardens. The mint was perhaps the best part cuz it was free — perhaps a good reason to plant a lime tree, if you’ve got the room –

Lastly — For those serious ’bout pursuing a cocktail career (or lifestyle?), take a Sustainable Cocktail Class taught by Natalie Bovis-Nelsen, self-dubbed “The Liquid Muse.” Learn about the diff between an organic cocktail and mixed drink (does it matter?) while educating yourself on basic bar tools and techniques. The last class at the X bar in the Hyatt Regency cost $27.50; contact Natalie at Natalie@theliquidmuse.com or 310.717.2850 to get in on future classes.

Tags: cocktail, mixeddrink, organic, alcohol, liquor

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[image from District Cotton]

The main thing I like about District Cotton T-shirts — They’re really, really soft, and they have a huggy, fitted cut. And they only cost $15!

For those addicted to the fit of American Apparel T-shirts — Well, now you can get a nice sexy hip fit like that without the sexual harassment. District Cotton’s T-shirts’re thinner, softer, and better designed even than T.S. Designs’ goods. They’re long enough to cover midriff; they’re fitted to hug your body gently so you feel comfy and sexy –

On the surface, District Cotton might sound like yet another organic cotton T-shirt company. But ask a couple Qs, and you’ll find District Cotton’s goods’re way more hardcore than, say, American Apparel sustainable edition stuff.

For ex: Despite the fact that all District Cotton’s goods have met strict social responsibility policies, Brett of DC says “there are only 2 products of mine that I feel comfortable calling ‘fair trade.”

Huh? Brett elaborates: “I feel that there is a big gap between ’sweatshop free’ and ‘fair trade.’ In other words, while I am 100% confident that the factories I buy from have good labor standards, I believe that to be called fair trade, the workers really need to have a stake in the business.”

Thus, while most businesses — if they sourced their goods the way District Cotton does — would call ALL the goods fair trade, District Cotton reserves that label for items like the Fair Trade Tote Bags, made by an all-woman-owned sewing cooperative in Northern Mexico. Says Brett, “They truly benefit from their work by more than just getting a regular paycheck.”

Aside from the bags, all other District Cotton goods’re made in factories with strong labor compliance in Mexico and Pakistan. Yes, the T-shirts, hoodies, and caps are organic cotton / organic cotton blends. And the fair trade messenger bags’re made from recycled Cambodian mosquito netting!

Plus, 10% of gross sales (as opposed to profits) on all the T-shirts and baby clothes go to nonprofits — currently the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

District Cotton’s brand new! They’ve only been in business for about 6 weeks. If I actually needed more Ts, this is where I’d go –

Tags: districtcotton, organiccotton, tshirt, fairtrade

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The Chicago Diner.’s v. chilled out — popular, but not frenetically busy on a Friday night — with a really well-stocked bar for a diner.

This all vegetarian, vegan and raw-friendly diner serves fair trade coffee — as well as organic vodka cocktails.

Anne and Kelly aren’t vegan but they really liked their Radical Reuben and Red Pepper Ravioli. My Wilted Spinach Salad was super fresh and yum too –

The vegan chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich was a bit hard, making it really difficult to split 3 ways, though it was yum once we divided and conquered it.

I took some pics of the food, but those taken without flash’re reddish and dark, and those with are orangey and washed out. I shoulda gone to the Food photography panel at the BlogHer conference –

But to the right’s a pic of the Reuben from The Chicago Diner’s website –

The Chicago Diner. 3411 N. Halsted. 773.935.6696. M - Th 11 am - 10 pm, Fr 11 am - 11 pm, Sa 10 am - 11 am, Su 10 am - 10 pm.

Tags: chicagodiner, chicago, vegetarian, diner, restaurant

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Calm your caffeinated panic attack — We’re not talking about quitting coffee. This is a 6-step program for drinking better coffee — for the environment, society, and you and your java addiction.

If all the coffee chatter about triple certification labels or the Make Trade Fair campaign gives you nervous heart palpitations and jitters, just follow these half-dozen steps to get on a sustainable, alert-but-not-wigged-out caffeine high.

1. Say bye-bye to yucky coffee. This means a big adieu to Kraft, Nestle, Sara Lee, and Procter & Gamble — AKA the “big four.” These coffee biggies helped engineer a huge overproduction of coffee that made coffee farmers dirt poor — a situation dubbed the coffee crisis. The four also got the American public used to drinking swill. If you’re drinking canned Folgers coffee, you’re probably downing twigs, dust and floor sweepings.

2. Get a local roast. Brew coffee at home? Then get to know your local coffee roaster — You can get a quick list of fair trade coffee roasters in your state here to start. Not only will you support local business, you’ll also get tastier, freshly roasted coffee. Plus, you won’t incur more food travel miles by having your coffee shipped to you from, say, Seattle. Unless you live in Seattle, in which case you might try Pura Vida or Cafe Humana.

3. Opt for organic and fair trade. Why organic? So people don’t have to pick coffee amid pesticides, and so you don’t have to drink pesticides. Why fair trade? Fair trade coffee ensures that farmer co-ops receive at least $1.26 per lb of green coffee — a lot more than most coffee farmers get in the commodity market. Finding double-certified (both organic and fair trade) coffee isn’t hard — And in fact, it’s a fast-growing niche! Chances are, if your coffee roaster offers fair trade, it also offers double-certified coffee; about 80% of the fair trade certified coffee coming into the US is also organic. And if you’re up for a challenge, you might look for triple-certification (organic, fair trade, and shade grown), but those are rather tough to find, especially locally.

4. Step away from that Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks gets great PR — They have excellent marketing people. But beyond the miniscule amount of fair trade and organic coffees offered in those ubiquitous stores (the mermaid doesn’t have a single blend that’s both fair trade AND organic), Starbucks has also been charged with unfair and predatory business practices that drives out local businesses, as well as union-busting. Or if you must go — maybe because all your local indie stores have already gone kaput — take the Starbucks Challenge.

5. Check out your local indie coffee shop, especially if they offer organic or fair trade options. If you had a big Starbucks habit, you’ll be in for a shock, because each indie coffee shop will be — gasp — different! It’ll be a thrilling coffee adventure that’ll keep your money in the local economy. Plus, indie coffee shops usually come with a lot of little privileges, like free wifi, locally baked goods, and friendly owners who listen to what you want — and might change things up for you (again, amenities will depend on location). Which brings us to –

6. Convert your coffeehouse. Dilemma: Your coffee shop’s cute and local, but it doesn’t brew anything organic or fair trade. What’s a coffee addict to do? If you’re feeling up to it, have a little chat with the owner or other people working there, starting with, “Hey, I love your coffee shop, and I was wondering….” Not that brave? Then send your coffee shop an email: “Hi! My name is [insert name] and I love your coffee shop, and I would bike over with all my friends every morning if you offered organic, fair trade coffee….”

7. Relax with your coffee. Resist the temptation to freak out because you can’t find a triple-certified, solar-power-roasted coffee from a local cafe that composts and uses only CFL bulbs. That kind of all-or nothing thinking will only lead to a sad, Nescafe overdose! There is no “perfect” cup of coffee. Plus, each of our situations has its weird quirks. Maybe you’re in a town where the only indie coffee shop’s owned by a Hummer-loving oil magnate — in which case your best option might be to get the closest Cooperative Coffees company to ship some java over to you, ASAP….

Drink happy, stay caffeinated –

[I originally posted this at Treehugger]

Tags: coffee, fairtrade, starbucks, starbuckschallenge

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Behold — Mint has risen up from the dead(ish).

Plants are magical. I got this mint as a clipping from Jenn and Nat, neighbors of mine who have a whole urban edible garden.

All Nat did was chop off the top part of one of his mint plants, pinch off a few leaves, then instruct me to poke it into dirt and water it.

This is how the mint looked at first. But now, I have real, living mint plants!

Granted, I got 2 clippings, and the left seems to be doing a lot better than the right one, which appears somewhat damaged and yellowish, though not yet dead –

Mojitos are in order — And I recommend that all urban gals with a balcony get themselves a lil mint clipping –

[crossposted on BlogHer]

Tags: mint, garden, gardening

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While at Vons, I discovered a new-to-me phenomenon — Organic oreos.

For newbies to the organic movement: Organic oreos are considered a bit of an oxymoron cuz organic proponents are generally about fighting for unprocessed, fresh, healthy food, and against sugar-intensive, over-packaged, obesity and pollution-friendly stuff. Organic activists tend not to like “food” that might’ve been grown organically but then got the hell processed out of it and packaged into a petroleum-made plastic carton, then an airtight plastic bag, then a cardboard box that may or may not’ve been made by razing rainforests before getting stained with toxic inks.

So back to the cookies: These’re generic oreos, aka “Organic Vanilla Creme Sandwich Cookies.” And they appear to be part of a larger generic organics line at Vons, including but not limited to organic crackers and other snacky things.

Partly due to curiousity — and partly to celebrate the completion of a draft of the critical portion of my dissertation — I bought the box for about $4.

Got home, ate 5, then felt a bit sick from all the sugar.

I’m not sure what to do with the rest of the cookies — there are like an additional 30. Throwing them away seems rather wasteful, but eating more of ‘em seems kinda gross at this point.

So I’ve learned my lesson and promise not to buy “organic oreos” from Vons again. I shall celebrate with organic wine like a normal organic foodie.

As a footnote: I rarely go to Vons, but dropped by when a search for creamed coconut proved futile at both Whole Foods and Co-opportunity. I’ve since discovered that omitting creamed coconut from recipes that require it seems to have minimal effects on the tastiness of the resulting dish.

Tags: oreo, cookie, organic, vons

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Become a regular green blog reader, and when you flip through paper mags, you’ll find you’ve already read ’bout the bulk of the “new” green news. That’s how I feel when I leaf through my review copies of Body+Soul, Martha Stewart’s green mag.

Still, the June issue offered some intriguing features — Most notably one featuring 3 women who decide to go into organic farming, each for different reasons. All ended up doing a stint at The Farm School in Massachussets– a year-long farming education program, which costs $10,000 for instruction, room and board.

On the one hand, the idea of organic farming sounds idyllic and beautiful — perhaps just what I need to relax and get my thoughts and life together. On the other hand, I’m afraid a year sans the city might drive me to suicide. I’m one of those people who appreciates the idea of preserving nature more than the reality of living and working in the dirt. Also, I don’t have $10,000 laying around.

But if the idea of hardcore farming appeals to you, Body+Soul’s put together a handy list of organic farming resources –

Tags: body soul, farm, farming

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Could this note from the USDA use any MORE confusing acronyms? The title: “NOP and NOSB Collaboration on Grower Group Certifications.” Can you name what those N-somethings are for me?

If so, you might be able to figure out this note has to do with the recent news about the USDA’s National Organic Program ruling that would’ve made organic certification pretty much impossible for most small farmer co-ops.

Luckily, Coffee and Conservation’s interpreted the note for the rest of us:

The USDA issued a statement that the rules for organic certification will not change at this time, but that the matter will be discussed further in the fall and amendments to the rules are a possibility in the future.

So it’s good news. It’s just really, really tough to figure out that it actually is good news –

Tags: organic, coffee, usda

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So the USDA’s National Organic Program ruling that would’ve made organic certification pretty much impossible for most small farmer co-ops has been making big news, specifically because of Samuel Fromartz’s article in Salon on April 3 highlighting the potential problem with the USDA’s decision.

Lots of you emailed me ’bout this — thanks for that — but I didn’t write about it because there just wasn’t enough information on what coffee drinkers could do to address this issue. It’s disheartening — and in my opinion, usually pointless — to get news that doesn’t offer any incentive to action.

But now, we can act.

Fair trade company Equal Exchange, for one, along with the National Organic Coalition, wants co-signers for a letter that will be delivered to the USDA expressing concern. Sign by Tuesday, APRIL 24th.

For a good primer on the issue, visit Equal Exchange’s page about this debate, complete with words of solidarity from many of the farmer co-ops that Equal Exchange works with.

You actually have a few petitions to pick from. Aside from Equal Exchange’s petition, Organic Consumers Association’s put together a similar letter, also with the National Organic Coalition. And someone called Rene Friberg’s put up a petition with similar intent (via Coffee and Conservation).

I suppose you could sign all 3…. I’m just going to sign the Equal Exchange one, since I know the company, know they’ll act, and know that they’ll get shit done on a deadline, as per the April 24 sign-by deadline.

Update, 5/2/07: Organic coffee’s safe for now, at least until the matter’s discussed again in the fall.

Tags: coffee, organic

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