Nearly 10% of L.A. County residents need food assistance — yet perfectly good food gets thrown in dumpsters around our city every day — which has environmentalists and freebie seekers alike dumpster diving for free food.

Freeganism’s not new news anymore — but a film about freeganism is! It’s called Dive!. Watch the preview’s below (via MNN):

Dive! is screening in L.A.-area venues this month:

>> Thurs., March 11 at 7 pm Conscientious Projector screening at Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. FREE.

>> Sat., March 13, 6:15 pm at the 15th Annual International Family Film Festival, Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Tickets cost $10 each.

>> Mon., March 15 at 7:30 pm as part of 7 Dudley Cinema at The Talking Stick, 1411 Lincoln Blvd., Venice. FREE.

More screenings will happen in April and May, if you can’t make these. I like the idea of freeganing, but I tend to be very afraid of food-borne illnesses, since recalls even on food still on supermarket shelves seem to happen every month. The L.A. Times recently reported that food-borne illnesses really cost you:

A new consumer research report released Wednesday has found that the health-related costs of food-borne illnesses total $152 billion a year, including the costs of medical bills, lost wages and lost productivity.

Get ill and you could end up spending a lot more than you saved on your freegan food. So to freegan more safely, read Leah Koenig’s dos and don’ts of dumpster diving.

Freeganing not adventurous enough for you? Try being a frugan — a frugal vegan, according to one Katherine Fairfax Wright, who dumpster dives for her animal-product-free eats and resells salvaged trashed goods at a profit. She blogs at Frugal Living.

Earlier:
>> Dumpsters get popular: Freegans and junk yard tours
>> Book Review: The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved

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This week’s green weekender went up yesterday — but a lot more’s happening this week!

>> Catch a free screening of Rock the Boat, a documentary about Angeleno activists who kayaked 51-miles of the L.A. River in 2008 to show that the river is a navigable waterway — and thus falls within the Clean Water Act. According to LAist, the screening happens tonight at 9 pm at the Electric Lodge, 1416 Electric Ave., Venice.

>> The next West Side Green Drinks happens at The Green Life, where you can get a really great deal on recycled envelopes. The party begins this Thurs., March 4 at 7 pm at The Green Life, 2409 Main St., Santa Monica.

>> Help save pelicans at G2 Gallery’s “Fill The Bill” reception to support International Bird Rescue and Research Center’s pelican rescue efforts. According to Will Campbell at Metblogs — who says he’s too often “been up-close and personal with a dead brown pelican along Ballona Creek” — that event happens this Fri. at G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice.

>> Get your cat neutered with a free voucher from Actors and Others for Animals. Los Angeles County residents who want one of the 400 vouchers must register at online by March 9, and complete the surgery by April 20.

>> Work out at Lemon Grove Park in East Hollywood, which now has a new fitness trail and exercise zone that includes a 10-piece set of exercise equipment.

Photo of Joe Linton kayaking the L.A. River via L.A. Creek Freak

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After Blogger Beach Cleanup last year, we knew where to go for our celebratory dinner: SEED. This Japanese-American fusion vegan macrobiotic restaurant in Venice donated prizes for Blogger Beach Cleanup volunteers, after all!

So The Daily Ocean’s Sara Bayles and I headed over to try the vegan fare, made with local, organic ingredients. My curry smelled so amazing I quickly stuck a biodegradable fork in it to take a bite — then remembered to take a picture (above).

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>> Rolling Stone’s put together a list of “The Climate Killers: 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming.” First up, profiteer Warren Buffett.

>> A Cali eco-hero’s retiring: California Energy Commission member Arthur H. Rosenfeld will retire this week, after decades of helping to enact some of the toughest efficiency standards in the world:

These mandates have yielded about $30 billion annually in energy savings for California consumers. They’ve eliminated air pollution that’s the equivalent of taking 100 million cars off the roads. They have been copied by states and countries worldwide.

>> Fans of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars: Remember how the the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s anti-whaling ship Ady Gil collided with a Japanese whaling ship last week? Ady Gil’s still sinking — but last week Ady Gil, the man who furnished the money to buy the boat named after him, threw a fundraiser — hopefully to buy an Ady Gil II.

>> Want a plot in a community garden in Venice? If you can’t wait to make it to the top of city-owned plots, you can get a plot in a privately-owned lot for $25 a month, according to Tara Tiger Brown at Metblogs LA.

>> Enviro groups oppose parts of Cali’s green building code because its standards are weaker than LEED certification and “rigorous standards adopted by Los Angeles, San Francisco and more than 50 California jurisdictions.”

Cover image via Rolling Stone

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Were you at the The Great L.A. Walk Saturday? I joined the annual many-mile trek down major thoroughfare (or two)  of the sprawling metropolis on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This year, the Walk was a 14-or-so-mile trek starting at the Shrine Auditorium.

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Angelenos apparently can’t get enough of green films, because we have about a green film festival a month in this town. Following closely on the heels of Blue Planet Film Fest, Bicycle Film Festival, and the green Downtown Film Festival comes The Green Screen Environmental Film Festival & Salon, promising 4 days of films and fun.

When: Thurs., Nov. 19 – Sun., Nov. 22
Where: Electric Lodge, 1416 Electric Ave., Venice in Los Angeles
Cost: Some events and screenings are free (keep reading below), but in general, pay $5 per screening, $10 for 3 screenings, or $15 for a festival pass excluding special events. Get tickets through Brown Paper Tickets.

Produced by the Electric Lodge — a performance, visual, and educational center in Venice with an environmental mission — the goal of Green Screen is to use “the power of film to bridge distances and reveal our common deep connection to our planet and each other.” Festival films — grouped into 6 programs with themes like “blue water” and “green earth”– will screen all afternoon on Saturday and Sunday — but lots of other fun and free events are happening outside the screening rooms.

In fact, Green Screen will kick off off with a free Sustainable Drive-In on Thursday, when everyone’s invited to a free outdoor solar-powered screening of Flipper , preceded by a concert by Tom Freund. The kid-friendly event will offer face-painting and a “giant jumper” — which I assume to be something like a bouncy house.

Then on Friday, the film fest will celebrate Amazon Night with live Brazilian music and dance — followed by a screening of Crude. Cost: $12 ($10 for the screening only, $5  for the performance only).

A free Celebrate Earth environment and arts fair happens Saturday from 10 am – 6 pm, featuring food, games, entertainment, local arts and crafts, shopping from eco-vendors, and a mini-electric car show.

On Sunday, festival goers will be able to burn off all the organic snacks they’ve eaten by joining the Watershed Bike Ride to cycle from the upper Santa Monica watershed to the Ballona Wetlands to the Electric Lodge — to fill up again with a brunch. Cost: $20 for the bike tour, brunch and reusable water bottle.

Go for the films, the fair — or the free reusable water bottles given out to the 100 first people at the Saturday fair!

Image via Electric Lodge

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Perfume’s often a conundrum for green minded girls who aren’t into pachouli. After all, many major perfumes contain phthalates and other scary, undisclosed ingredients — all grouped under the all-encompassing ingredient “fragrance.”

But eco-thinking perfumers are providing an alternative for the anti-phthalate crowd. In Venice, Calif., Strange Invisible Perfumes‘ Alexandra Balahoutis makes boutique perfumes out of the greenest ingredients available — no synthetic chemicals allowed. Using 100% organic grape alcohol as the base for perfumes, Strange Invisible Perfumes sources fair trade and organic oils to create its unique fragrances — which ensures that 85 – 100% of its products are certified organic.

Walk into the Venice boutique, and Strange Invisible Perfumes’ eco-mission’s clearly evident — The yummy scents that immediately hit your nose simply don’t have that synthetic, sneeze-inducing quality. Plus, all the other lines carried in the store share Strange Invisible Perfumes’ green ethics. Here’s where you can pick up both organic certified hair and body care products — plus fair trade, organic certified chocolate — from Intelligent Nutrients and other uber-eco companies.

On Wednesday night, Strange Invisible Perfumes threw a party with Ecostiletto to celebrate the launch of its latest perfume: Fire and Cream. Eco-fashionistas stopped by the boutique to enjoy 360 Vodka cocktails and organic nibbles by The Brunette Gourmette while trying on the new perfume — a blend of “hydro-distilled orange, orange blossom, tuberose, frankincense, white lavender, vetiver, sandalwood and patchouli.” The autumnal scent’s a much darker than what I usually wear — but could be perfect for those who prefer a a more intense, musky perfume.

Stop by Strange Invisible Perfumes to try on Fire and Cream ($195 for 1/4 fl. oz. parfum or $145 for 1.7 fl. oz. of Eau de Parfum) and other eco-perfumes.

Strange Invisible Perfumes Boutique. 1138 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice. 310.314.1505.

Earlier:
>> Honore des Pres: Perfume sans patchouli or phthalates
>> EWG’s Skin Deep v. EWG’s fragrance-free campaign

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>> The closing reception for “Topography, Light and Magic” by conservation photographer Robert McGinley will feature a speech about land and resource conservation by eco-actor Ed Begley, Jr. Plus, proceeds from the exhibit benefit Heal the Bay and Santa Monica Baykeeper. Be there tomorrow, Friday, July 31 from 7 – 9 pm at Blue Seven Gallery, 3129 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. RSVP to Ali Sivak at 323.936.1447 or ali@caapr.com.

>> Friday must be gallery night. The opening reception for “Land Sea Air“ will feature “three installations that reflect the land, sea and air of Huntington Beach presented by artists Robert Wysocki, Peter Segerstrom, and the Cypress College Contemporary Art & Technology Seminar” — whose students have created “a large inflatable Pterodactyl (her name is Prana) that changes color based the quality of air outside of the museum,” according to Ed Giardina. Be at the Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main St., Huntington Beach on Friday, July 31 from 7 pm to 9 pm. The exhibit will be on view until September 06, 2009.

>> Curious about Colony Collapse Disorder? Go to a fundraiser for and a sneak peek of the documentary film The Vanishing of the Bees, where you’ll see clips from the film, hear a Q&A with filmmakers George Langworthy and Maryam Henein, and maybe bid in a silent auction. All that happens Fri., July 31 at 7 pm at G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice  Cost: $10 donation.

>> Don’t forget about Fallen Fruit’s 4th annual Public Fruit Jam on Sunday, Aug 2, 10 am – 1 pm at Machine Project in Echo Park.

>> Sign up for the next series of Green Living Workshops with Sustainable Works. The 6-week workshops meet once a week to cover many aspects of green living. Pick from Sunday (starting Aug. 23), Tuesday (starting Aug. 25) or Wednesday (starting Aug. 26) classes, both offered in Santa Monica locations. Cost: $25 for Santa Monica residents; $50 L.A. residents.

>> Also sign up for the Malibu Public Beaches Safaris and take back the beach! The free events happen on Saturdays and Sundays in August.

>> Bike advocates: Don’t miss the 4th Street Bike Blvd Campaign Meeting! Help make 4th St. a real Bike Blvd. by participating on Thurs., Aug. 6 from 6:30 pm – 8 pm at Shatto Park, 3191 W 4th St., Los Angeles.

>> Drink pinot responsibly if you drive your plug-in electric car to Plug-ins, Pinots and Progress, Plug In America’s annual fundraiser. You’ll see rare plug-in electric vehicles, enter auctions for cool items, nibble on organic yummies, drink wine, and just party with other eco-thinking folks. The event happens Sun., Aug. 9 from 4 pm – 8 pm at Thomas Fogarty Winery, 19501 Skyline Blvd., Woodside. Tickets start at $120.

Image via Heal the Bay

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Earth Day Festivals don’t just happen in April anymore. This weekend, the second annual Venice Eco Fest is expected to attract more than 20,000 people to Venice Beach, Calif. The green-themed free music and arts festival, put together by the Venice Chamber of Commerce and Earth Day LA, features a solar-powered sound stage with bands, speakers, and belly dancers, 150+ exhibitors, and a cooperative community art exhibit.

When: Saturday, June 27, 10 am – 6 pm
Where: Venice Beach Plaza and Recreation area at the end of Windward Ave., Venice.

This year, the Eco Fest’s theme is green travel, fossil-fuel-free. Foodies will want to journey straight over to the international vegetarian food court, after a layover at the Fat Tire Beer Garden. Afterwards, attendees can listen to speakers and watch performers on the solar-powered stage, or simply mingle with all the other eco-curious neighbors at the fest.

At 12:30 pm, a “One Planet” Parade will begin its march, with Anjelica Huston and L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl serving as Grand Marshals. Fellow paraders include the Jane Goodall “Roots and Shoots” Giant Peace Doves, Heal the Bay Aquarium children’s group in recyclable costumes, and many more organizations, performance groups, and activists.

Really want to get into the green travel theme? Join “The C.I.C.L.E. Goes to the Beach Ride” with your bicycle and “pedal along the byways and waterways that makes Venice such a unique community.” Meet at the parking lot of Danny’s Deli at 23 Windward Ave, Venice at 11 am to start riding at 11:30 am.

Don’t forget about the Green Girls Anniversary Bash and other eco-inspired events happening this weekend!

Image via Venice Eco Fest

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>> Got a bike stolen? The LAPD busted a bike thief in the Venice area — and found a bunch of bikes. Westside Bikeside has the deets on how to find out if one of them’s yours. Earlier: A Theft-repellent bike and Grade your bike locking job.

>> Need more closet space? Give away the shoes you never wear by walking over to Venice’s First Fridays on Abbot Kinney. Just drop off your gently worn shoes on June 5, 6 pm – 10 pm, at the stations on the corner of San Juan and Abbot Kinney, or California and Abbot Kinney. You can also drop them off at your nearest Finish Line store anytime before Sept. 7 — for a $5 coupon off a new pair of shoes. Earlier: One good reason to visit Nike.

>> What to do about overnight sleeping in cars in Venice? Lots of unofficial Venice residents are sleeping in their cars — and many of them are otherwise homeless. The debate about what to do about this technically-already-illegal practice continues.

Image via abbotkinney1stfridays.com

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