The Red, White, and Green

Like any foodie, I really savor going to my local Whole Foods (or farmers market, if I manage to wake up early enough on a Sunday morning) to pick out my fresh fruits and veggies for the week. But I’ve noticed lately that my weekly — sometimes twice weekly — marketing trip has been eating up a big chunk of my work schedule. I start nibbling samples, get distracted by new products in the store, and before I know it, my 20-minute kale-and-carrot run has turned into a two-hour excursion. So I considered it a sign from above when a Spud.com delivery truck passed me on the way home from the market today.  

Spud is the largest organic food delivery company in North America, serving more than 19,000 customers in major metropolitan areas on the West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle), in addition to Canada. Here’s how it works: You go to the Spud website, select your organic groceries, and your order is delivered to your door in a reusable container on the designated day of the week for your area. You can also create a standing order so that the same products arrive weekly, every two weeks, or monthly. 

All of the produce on the Spud website is organic and fresh — produce is bought every day, and 95 percent of the produce leaves the warehouse within 24 hours — and the company is committed to buying from local, independent suppliers whenever possible. The company also offers a wide selection of natural foods, including bulk staples like beans and pasta, dairy products, meat and seafood, and fresh bread from local bakers. And by delivering groceries to each neighborhood on a set route each week, the company minimizes fuel consumption. All of those Spud customers also won’t be making as many individual trips to the market, which also benefits the environment; according to the company’s website, 120 car trips are avoided by each Spud van carrying 60 orders. Prices are competitive, too: A recent look at the produce selection revealed celery and swiss chard for $1.99 each — about what I pay at Whole Foods. 

I’ve never tried an organic delivery service, but after looking at Spud’s website, it looks pretty tempting. I’ve also heard good things about Farm Fresh to You, an organic produce delivery service direct from the farm, which is coming to my area this summer. FFTY, unlike Spud, doesn’t let you select specific fruits and vegetables, but instead delivers a mixed box with whatever produce is local and seasonal. A bit daunting at first, I imagine, for the local-produce newbie who receives that first box containing fiddlehead ferns and fenugreek, but sure to inspire creativity in the kitchen.

If you don’t live within delivery reach of either of these companies, do a quick Google search for “organic produce delivery” and you’ll find similar delivery services in nearly every corner of the country: Door to Door Organics in Colorado, Michigan, and throughout the East Coast; Boxed Greens in Arizona; and Greenling in Central Texas, to name a few. Give it a try: You’ll save time, cut down on car trips (and save gas money), eat more organic produce, and support local farmers. Happy eating!

–Jennifer Grayson

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I first mentioned this product in a February post that discussed the effect of higher oil prices on packaging trends. For many companies, reformulating products or changing the packaging to create a smaller and/or lighter load has resulted in lower shipping costs — and, subsequently, lower CO2 emissions. 

Arm & Hammer Essentials, a new line of plant-based cleaning products with no ammonia or phosphates, achieves this lighter load by taking the water out of its product. Shoppers purchase an empty, reusable 32-fl.-oz. spray bottle that’s sold with an attached 1.2-fl.-oz. bottle of liquid concentrate, to be mixed with tap water at home. Refills are purchased separately.

My initial reaction was that this was a brave and bold step for a mainstream company, albeit one that’s hawked an environmentally friendly household product — baking soda — for more than 150 years. But it was a shock to see an empty bottle on the shelf of my local Target, and I wondered how the average “bigger is better” consumer would react. 

When I ran out of my regular green cleaning spray and went back to Target to give the Arm & Hammer product a try nearly a month later, I was surprised to see only two bottles left on the shelf. And no wonder: It was the week that unemployment figures were released, and California had hit the double digits. No doubt penny pinchers rejoiced at sight of the Arm & Hammer spray  ($2.74) — 10 cents cheaper than Clorox Green Works’ ($2.84) and 25 cents cheaper than Method’s ($2.99), with refills that make each subsequent bottle of A&H only $1.89.

After seeing how cheap the refills are, I wanted to just buy the refills and use an empty spray bottle I had at home. However, there’s a disclaimer on the bottle and the refills that says you can only use the concentrate cartridge with the corresponding A&H container. I’m sure your kitchen won’t explode if you use a generic spray bottle, but I figured since I was reviewing the product, I probably should follow the directions. And it is pretty nifty how the refill cartridge just screws right into the top of the bottle to release the concentrate. The sprayer on the bottle, too, is excellent: It delivers a fine mist of product, unlike the dribbly sprayer I had at home. 

Only the Cleaner & Degreaser was available (A&H also makes different versions for multi-surface and glass), but it’s proven to be a very effective all-around cleaner, especially in the kitchen. It cuts right through grease on the stovetop, and easily wiped away the coffee residue on the hot plate of my coffee maker. It also polishes my tile countertops to a nice shine. It seems more powerful than other green cleaners I’ve used, but perhaps that’s because it also contains “other biodegradable cleaners” (according to the website), although I haven’t yet been able to determine which ones.

The only thing I’m not crazy about is the smell, which is actually quite mild (you have to really lean toward what you just sprayed to get a whiff, and it dissipates soon after spraying), but more in the category of traditional (chemical) cleaner smell than the “I am green” lavender-and-eucalyptus scent I’ve grown fond of. The A&H website says “no harsh chemical fumes,” though, so maybe this is just the scent of the natural cleaners in its product. 

Seeing that everyone is looking for ways to cut costs these days — consumers and companies alike — I expect other refill products to hit the market soon. Great news for our bottom line and the earth’s.

–Jennifer Grayson

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Loyal RWG reader AS tipped me off to a new product that I think does as much to stimulate debate as it attempts to introduce a new eco-friendly product to the marketplace: boxed water. 

 You heard me right — boxed water. My first thought was, “How Emperor’s New Clothes-esque. This must be some kind of art exhibition by environmental activists trying to draw attention to the bamboozling of the public into believing that tap water is somehow healthier and more palatable when it comes in a container.”

Then I took a look on the Boxed Water Is Better (BWIB) website, and realized that I was only partially right. The boxed water is indeed for sale — although as of yet only in local stores near the Grand Rapids, MI, startup’s headquarters — but the “sustainable water company” (their words, not mine) does add “part art project” to its company credo.

BWIB packages its carbon-filtered, purified Minnesota water in Tetra Pak containers — those laminated paperboard containers that house everything from soup to soy milk — filling them only as demand is created. This, along with the smaller space requirements for shipping the flat, unfilled boxes (the company says the boxes it can fit on two pallets, or 5 percent of a truckload, would require about five truckloads for glass or plastic bottles), greatly reduces the company’s carbon footprint.  

BWIB launched on March 13, although even after reading about the company’s commitment to sustainability and giving I still think a more fitting launch date would have been April 1. But then, how is water in a box any more ridiculous than water in a bottle? I think it’s just the starkness of the bold black type on the white box; it doesn’t try to trick you into thinking there’s something sexier inside than just, well, water. It might as well say, “Why the hell are you buying me?”

But if you have to buy a bottle of water, I suppose this would be a better option than a plastic bottle, even though Tetra Pak recycling isn’t yet widely available. The company has also committed 20 percent of its profits to world water relief and reforestation foundations (another component of the company credo: philanthropy), which seems to fall into the same category of giving as Philip Morris’ smoking cessation program, but is laudable nonetheless.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the boxed water debate. Leave me a comment and let me know where you stand!

–Jennifer Grayson

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My husband’s been urging me to give up the doom and gloom for a day — the Pacific Trash Vortex and space junk will still be there tomorrow, unfortunately — and expound on a lighter subject. So readers, I offer you a fun and eco-friendly gadget: The Soda Club fountain jet home soda maker!

Now, I’m not advocating soda consumption — we do care about health as well as the environment over here at RWG — but if you do enjoy the occasional cola (or seltzer, like me), Soda Club offers an amazing appliance that lets you make your own at home, no batteries or electricity required.

The basic fountain jet starter kit comes with the fountain jet soda maker, two 60-liter carbonators, reusable BPA-free carbonating bottles — although you can purchase additional ones — and enough soda mix to make 36 liters of soda. Soda flavors are available in regular and diet, and are free of high-fructose corn syrup and aspartame. 

Considering the over 50 billion beverage cans and bottles that have been landfilled, littered, and incinerated in the U.S. alone so far this year — and that even recycling requires energy, not to mention the CO2 expenditure from all the trucks transporting those bottles of soda from the bottling plant to the store shelf — switching to Soda Club is a simple way to really help the environment. 

We’ve had ours for two years now, and the carbonators last a surprisingly long time. We average one liter of seltzer a day, and we actually only have to replace the carbonator (110 liters; ours is an earlier model) about every six months. And when we need to order another one, it couldn’t be easier: We just call our local Soda Club distributor and he comes to our apartment the same day to exchange our old empty carbonators for new ones. He can also drop off flavor refills, too. 

And aside from being green, a home fountain jet saves you a lot of green, too. A 110-liter carbonator refill is $21.99 — that’s only 19 cents a bottle (although we seem to get more than 110 liters out of one cartridge, so it’s actually even less). Figure about 99 cents for the average 1-liter bottle of store-bought seltzer or soda, and you’d save over $85 by going with a home soda maker. Soda Club’s starter kit is on sale right now for $79.99, so you could expect to recoup the initial cost after your first carbonator. Now if only they could make a home beer maker that’s this easy!

–Jennifer Grayson

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Last week, I wrote about the Environmental Working Group‘s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, which shows you how to reduce your exposure to pesticides up to 80 percent by avoiding (or buying organic) the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables. Conversely, you can save money by buying conventional produce in the “clean 15″ — those fruits and veggies with the least amount of pesticide residue — if organic is out of your price range.

I wanted to find out exactly how much you can slash your grocery bill by buying conventional produce in the clean 15, so I went on a mock shopping trip this morning. I couldn’t find conventional and organic types of everything on the list, but here are the results:

Now, obviously this isn’t an exact comparison of what your groceries would cost (after all, the average cabbage weighs at least 2 pounds, and when was the last time you bought only one measly pound of sweet potatoes?), but it does give you an idea of the potential savings. Let’s say you did this very shopping once a week. You’d save almost $13 by buying conventional versions of the clean 15. The savings add up quickly: $52 a month, or $624 a year — that’s no small potatoes (sorry)!

Of course, organic is always the best choice when possible. In addition to the obvious health benefits, buying organic also supports small (and often local) sustainable farms. But if you’re pinching pennies like most of us these days, it’s nice to know that you can lower your pesticide load and your grocery expenses at the same time.

I did discover something surprising while conducting this experiment, however: Organic isn’t as expensive as you think. You just have to shop at the right store, as well as choose the produce that offers the most bang for your buck.

I started my mock shopping trip this morning at Whole Foods, but because I couldn’t find conventional versions of everything on my list, I also stopped by Ralphs (a So Cal grocery chain). I found that organic produce at Ralphs is considerably more expensive than at Whole Foods, and quite often, the conventional produce at Ralphs is, in fact, the same price or more expensive than the organic produce at Whole Foods. For example, Whole Foods’ organic green leaf lettuce was $1.99; Ralphs’ conventional green leaf lettuce was the same price — and 50 cents more for organic. Organic avocados: $2.99 at Ralphs, $1.50 at Whole Foods. And while the prices for cabbage in the chart above were from Ralphs — since Whole Foods only offered organic and I wanted to show an accurate comparison — the organic cabbage at Whole Foods was actually only 69 cents a pound.

The moral of the story? You really can save significantly by purchasing conventional produce in the clean 15. And when you do buy organic, avoid the big chain grocery stores. Whole Foods or your local farmers market is a much better deal.

–Jennifer Grayson

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I followed up this morning with the marketing supervisor at my local Whole Foods to see if the store is planning on taking part in Preserve’s Gimme 5 recycling program, which recycles used Brita pitcher filters as well as other No. 5 plastics (polypropylene). At present, there are no drop-off locations in Southern California for this type of recycling; the only way to recycle these products is by mailing them to Preserve’s recycling depot in Cortland, NY. 

The marketing supervisor seemed interested in taking part in the program, and asked me to email her the information I had come across on the Preserve website. I decided to call Preserve to find a direct contact for her, and was informed that Preserve is, in fact, currently in talks with the So Cal Whole Foods division to roll out No. 5 collection bins in stores across the region. The gentleman I spoke with said the first bins would be available within a couple of months. He encouraged me to have the marketing supervisor contact him, however; he said that grassroots support would help move the process along.

If your local Whole Foods isn’t currently taking part in Gimme 5, do your good deed for the week and take five minutes to talk to a supervisor the next time you’re grocery shopping and express your support for the Brita filter recycling program. Pass along this number: 888.354.7296. The supervisor can call and speak with someone directly at Preserve about how to get involved.

–Jennifer Grayson

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Just when you thought our pollution problems couldn’t get any worse — countries running out of landfill space, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, pharmaceuticals in our water — it seems we’re approaching the final garbage frontier: outer space. 

Do a Google image search for “Earth,” and our beautiful blue planet appears, luminous and striking against the blackness of space. The reality, however, is grim.

Computer-generated image of space junk orbiting Earth (European Space Agency, 2008)

Space exploration in the past five decades has turned the low orbit of our planet into a hovering junkyard, a mix of dead satellites and discarded rocket hardware. The LA Times reported last month that this space garbage — euphemistically referred to as “space debris” — isn’t just an eyesore for visiting space aliens; it also poses a serious hazard to space shuttle missions, as well as the International Space Station. This junk isn’t just floating in space, it’s hurtling around the earth at 18,000 mph. A collision could have devastating consequences. 

It was exactly this scenario that NASA scientists feared this week, when it was reported that astronauts on the station might have to evacuate due to a possible collision with a piece of an old Soviet satellite. Luckily, the astronauts got good news today that the space station was safe from space junk. It was a close call, though; because it was deemed too late for NASA to move the station, the crew had taken shelter in the Russian Soyuz before receiving the all-clear today. 

The UN passed a set of space-debris guidelines in 2007, but obviously more serious action needs to be taken to confront this issue. Hopefully this week’s nail-biter will be a wake-up call.

–Jennifer Grayson

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In the past few months, I had already made my way through two soap-dispensing plastic handle brushes that had cracked. I knew I needed to buy another dish brush, since the one I had was no longer able to hold soap without leaking, but I felt guilty about buying another non-recyclable short-lifecycle product that would soon find its way into the landfill. Enter this nifty little bamboo palm brush from Natural Home that I stumbled across at my local Target the other day for $6.99 (sold without the stand that’s shown above). 

According to the Natural Home website, the brush is made from natural palmyra bristles, which gently scrub away baked-on food from dishes and pots and can be used safely on nonstick cookware. The bamboo handle is naturally water resistant, and inhibits germs and bacteria. Bamboo, too, is an eco-friendly resource, since it’s rapidly renewable — reaching maturity in just four years.

So far, I’ve found the bristles on this brush far more effective than the nylon ones on my old Oxo one. The wood handle is obviously less flexible than a plastic one, and takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s easy to maintain a firm grip, even in soapy water. We’ll see how it holds up over the next few months — hopefully it’s as durable as it seems — but it feels good to know that at the very least, it’s biodegradable. Looks pretty cute on my kitchen counter, too.

–Jennifer Grayson

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Eating organic fruits and vegetables is the surefire way to go if you want to reduce your exposure to pesticides. But with household budgets tightening, choosing conventional produce over organic seems like a necessary way to cut costs. Thankfully, the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization that advocates for policies to protect individual and global health, just released the fifth version of its Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, which shows you how to greatly reduce your exposure to pesticides, even when buying conventional produce. According to the EWG, people can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 80 percent by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables. 

The “dirty dozen” this year are: peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, kale (new to the list), lettuce, imported grapes, carrots (also new to the list), and pears. If you want to reduce your risk (and if you’re wondering why you should, click here), always buy these organic, or don’t buy them at all.

The “clean 15″ are: onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes. If you’re looking to cut your grocery bill, it’s OK to buy these conventional. 

Download the easy-to-read list from the EWG website and post it on your fridge to remind you before your next trip to the market. Next week, I’ll do a mock grocery shopping using the list and report back on how much you can save by buying the “clean 15″ conventional versus organic.

–Jennifer Grayson

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So I was at the office of one of my freelance editing clients the other day, and as usual, the air conditioning was on, even though it was a cool 60 degrees outside. The air conditioning there is always on full blast, evidently — summer or winter –and there’s no way to control the temperature from each office; the building management sets the temperature for the whole building. While the people in the office said they’ve talked to management about it on several occasions, so far the only remedy to the solution has been for people to walk around the office bundled up in jackets and blankets. In balmy LA! 

Now, obviously this is an incredible waste of energy. But it also could be affecting people’s health, according to recent research conducted at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This new research reveals that operating buildings in ways designed to save energy — with indoor temperatures slightly cooler in winter (in colder climates where the heat is normally on) and warmer in summer — also improves the health of its occupants. Among the findings? That symptoms such as headache, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating increased by over 50 percent in buildings that used air conditioning to keep temperatures below 73.4 degrees in the summer. Read the whole story here.

–Jennifer Grayson

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