From Columns

Ethical Foods On A Budget, Waste-Free Lifestyle, reviews, interviews and more.

Slaughter Your Own Thanksgiving Turkey

Slaughtering Your Own Thanksgiving Turkey

With the holidays approaching, some are preparing to don aprons while others are preparing themselves to take the life of the animal that will grace their table. Small, local farmers are increasingly giving customers the opportunity to not only choose their own heritage breed bird, but to learn to kill and dress it as well.
Keep reading
sustainable holiday meal planing eco conscious

Waste-Free Kitchen Holiday Tips

With the appropriate planning, you can save money this holiday season without throwing your food ethics out the window.  Forget canned green beans, factory farmed turkey and pre-packaged stuffing.  This year, serve your family a healthy, delicious holiday feast and avoid food waste. The winter holidays are all about abundance—being surrounded by friends and family,…
Keep reading
how to use thanksgiving leftovers

Holiday Leftovers: Vegan Cranberry Quickbread

Like many of us, Jenn Sebestyen, author of the Veggie Inspired Blog, found herself with plenty of holiday leftovers.  So what do you do with your gorgeous home made cranberry sauce?  How about transforming it into a treat you can enjoy for breakfast, with tea or as dessert.  Jenn shares this whole food, vegan recipe…
Keep reading
Is eggnog a seasonal food?

What’s In That Eggnog?

Despite the tradition of having a hot cup of eggnog at a Christmas party, or perhaps at the hearth of a roaring fire, this rich and creamy wintertime beverage is in fact seasonally out of place.
Keep reading
Child Poverty & Hunger During The Holidays

Child Poverty & Hunger During The Holidays

Many children who live in low income families depend on free or subsidized school meals, without which they would literally go hungry. But what happens when the winter holidays arrive? For some children, poverty doesn’t just mean a lack of presents or going without a Christmas feast. It means two or more weeks of hunger.
Keep reading
sustainable gift ideas

Sustainable Eco Friendly Gift Ideas

These eco friendly ideas make great gifts on their own, or thoughtfully curated into sustainable gift boxes for friends, colleagues and neighbors. Eco Friendly Tech Tech products are notoriously difficult to recycle. Here are some eco friendly options. Nimble For Good. Eight day fast portable charger, made from plant bioplastics and recycled aluminum. They don’t…
Keep reading
Compostable straws made of hay plastic alternative

Ending Plastic Pollution: Alternatives to Plastic Straws

Sustainability isn’t just about giving up all your favorite stuff… It used to be going green started with a long list of stuff you had to stop doing, stop using, stop buying. And there wasn’t always a realistic option to replace what you’d given up. But these days there are better options becoming available all…
Keep reading
Ben Ripple Big Tree Farm Bali
Featured

Sustainable Farming in Bali | Ben Ripple of Big Tree Farms

On the forefront of developing sustainable, community enhancing food systems in Bali, Indonesia Expats Ben and Blair Ripple left their organic farming jobs in Washington and moved to Bali, Indonesia, in the late 90s. Since then, they’ve been become somewhat famous in their efforts to bring artisinal Indonesian products to a larger market and to establish and…
Keep reading
Reusable Lunch Box Kits
Featured

Waste-Free Lifestyle: Reusable Lunchbox Kit

Who knew that bringing that brown bagged lunch to school or work every day added up, not just in cost but in environmental degradation? Investing in one of these reusable lunchbox sets will save you money over time, and lighten the load on our landfills.
Keep reading

Slow Fast Food: Forager Project Cold Pressed Juice

Juicing is a big business with dozens of companies vying for a corner of this booming market. Where most rely on heat treating produce and packing their juices with grams upon grams of sugar, Forager Project has taken a different route. With ingredients such as apples, cucumbers, kale and sweet potatoes—to more unusual additions like turmeric, balsamic vinegar, matcha…
Keep reading
New Forest Farm Mark Shepard

Interview With Mark Shepard of New Forest Farm

Working with and within nature using perennial food crops and restoration agriculture. Mark Shepard has created something of an environmental oasis at his Wisconsin homestead, New Forest Farm. Shepard, a farmer and author, is a longtime proponent of restoration agriculture, the practice of recreating healthy, naturally occurring, economically viable perennial farms. Packed with biodiversity, these…
Keep reading

Meet Greg Nielsen Of Numi Tea

Greg talks about where Fair Trade ends and Fair Labor begins, the role of B corporations and the importance of choosing organic tea. Greg Nielsen is the Director of Marketing for Numi Tea—an organic tea company founded in Oakland, California by siblings Reem and Ahmed Rahim.  Numi Tea is a Fair Trade, Fair Labor B…
Keep reading

Food Is Free Project

Fresh, healthy, nourishing food is a human necessity. However, in modern society, food often comes with high out-of-pocket and environmental costs, is increasingly depleted of nutrients and is produced miles from where it is enjoyed, offering consumers little to no connection to the farmer or the growing process. These troubling aspects of modern food production…
Keep reading
Marv Extra Food Marin Food Waste

Ending Food Waste: Getting Extra Food to Those In Need

Ending food waste, keeping perfectly good food out of landfills and feeding people who need a little help in your own community. It’s easier than you might think. Have you ever wondered where all the leftover food from places like your local supermarket or restaurants ends up? How about the gorgeous produce that remains after…
Keep reading
Featured

Daily Bread: Doing Business and Doing Good

JP and Michelle MacFadyen are dedicated to sustainable practices in their restaurant and to sharing the bounty of their bakery with others through local food donations to feed the hungry. By now we’re all familiar with the locavore ideal: buy food from local producers, family farms and businesses. In the pursuit of this ideal, sometimes…
Keep reading
how to make ricotta cheese

Healing Your Body: Affordable Clean Food Diet

A wholesome diet of carefully sourced clean food is the foundation of good health. If you are struggling with IBS or intolerance to common foods such as dairy, soy or gluten, this is especially important. Charlotte shares her insights about discovering the diet that’s perfect for you, and how to eat well on a limited…
Keep reading
Small Local Farms

Does Convenience Make Life Better?

When I first became aware of how my food choices were affecting my health, my community and the environment, I set out to make changes in my life to reflect my values, my desire to not participate in the exploitation and careless destruction that seemed to be built into our modern food system.  I felt…
Keep reading

Panettone: Read the Label

Do cage-free eggs make up for mono and diglycerides in your baked goods? Panettone is a Milanese specialty that’s enjoyed throughout Italy as a Christmas treat. Making it takes a long time, and it’s expensive, since it’s enriched with egg yolks and butter. Needless to say, the resulting tall, round and flavorful bread is well…
Keep reading

Claire Hope Cummings on Seeds, Synbio, GMO and the Future

Claire Hope Cummings does not mince words when it comes to the state of global food production and sustainability. The award-winning author, journalist and environmental lawyer has been speaking out about the dangers of genetic modification for years, and has traveled the world documenting both the changing climate and the proliferation of genetically modified seeds. Her book Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds, received high praise from Michael Pollan and the New Yorker, and was described by fellow author Vandana Shiva as “a wake-up call about the threats facing our seeds and the freedom of the seed.”…
Keep reading

Global Farmers Market: Buying Coffee Directly from Growers

Coffee farmers devote years to producing top quality beans enjoyed by coffee lovers around the world. However, due to a lengthy and inefficient supply chain, these largely independent farmers are rarely rewarded with financial security. Inspired by a Nicaraguan women’s coffee cooperative, Noushin Ketabi, Rob Terenzi and Will DeLuca founded Vega Coffee to help give farmers a larger share of the global coffee market. Tell us about Vega Coffee. How are you working to make the coffee trade more equitable for farmers? “We started Vega to completely reinvent coffee’s broken supply chain. Specialty coffee farmers often earn around $1 per…
Keep reading
reusable straws

Ending Plastic Pollution in Bali: Reusable Bags and Straws

Following a stroll on a lovely, yet plastic-strewn, Balinese beach, Glenn Adams and daughter Gaia Shekhinah set out on a mission. The two formed The Last Straw, a campaign that encourages island businesses to end their use of plastic straws and embrace reusable alternatives.  The two spoke enthusiastically about their efforts, and their next plan…
Keep reading

Artisan Ice Cream: Interview with Tara Esperanza

Tara Esperanza spends her days dreaming up and dishing out small batch ice creams with names like beet balsamic, chocolate tarragon and goat cheese blueberry.  By choosing her locations, supplies and partners as carefully as she does her local, organic ingredients, Esperanza’s eponymous ice cream company is creating innovative foods and a culture of sustainability. Today the bustling ice cream business produces more than 150 unique and sophisticated flavors – and an ever-shrinking carbon footprint. What led you to become an ice cream entrepreneur? Was there a certain flavor that helped you make the transition from enthusiast to business owner?…
Keep reading
Featured

A1 vs A2 Milk: What’s the Difference?

Beyond the serious issues with animal and environmental welfare in the dairy industry, I have another problem: eating dairy makes me feel sick. I can have some, but not too much and not too often. I’ve been tested for allergy to dairy casein as well as lactose intolerance, and both tests came back negative. I…
Keep reading
forage sf iso rabins

Foraging Your Dinner: Iso Rabins of forageSF

As a cook, entrepreneur and food advocate, Rabins is something of a pioneer. In just six short years he has developed San Francisco’s first foraged food delivery service, started a highly popular roving underground supper club, and his formerly under-the-radar Batch Made Market events are now the talk of the town.
Keep reading
Lexicon Of Sustainability

Lexicon of Sustainability: What’s in a Word?

These days, the word sustainability has become fairly ubiquitous, but what does it actually mean? Through innovative photographic collages, short films and a traveling exhibition featuring some of the leading thinkers in food, farming and conservation, this constantly evolving project is helping change the way we think – and speak – about sustainability.
Keep reading
Marji Guyler-Alaniz FarmHer

FarmHer: Interview with Marji Guyler-Alaniz

Iowa photographer Marji Guyler-Alaniz has been getting lots of attention for FarmHer, her captivating photography series highlighting female farmers. We interviewed Marji about her project, her inspiration, and future plans.
Keep reading

Interview With Winnie Abramson

Growing up in one of New York City’s most famous restaurants, The Quilted Giraffe, Winnie Abramson got a great head start in clean, healthy eating. Today, the naturopath, food writer, photographer and burgeoning homesteader helps others to simplify their diets and focus on seasonal, sustainable foods with her popular blog, Healthy Green Kitchen.
Keep reading

Sustainable, Local Raw Food Diet

Is a raw food diet affordable? Is it possible to eat a raw food diet in the winter? In an interview with Ani Phyo, author, teacher and celebrity proponent of gourmet raw food, EthicalFoods.com learns a thing or two about going raw.
Keep reading
Local Sustainable Food

The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture

A must-read interview with Dr William L. Preston about the effects of climate change on agriculture, and what you can do, what we all must do, to ensure we have safe and available food in the midst of extreme weather transition.
Keep reading

Book Review: Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal

Helen Cameron, co-owner of the 2013 awarded “Greenest” Restaurant in America, Uncommon Ground, recommends Everything I Want To do Is Illegal: War Stories From The Local Food Front by Joel Salatin. In his book, Joel Salatin writes about the
Keep reading
Who Pays For Climate Change?

The Financial Cost Of Climate Change

Climate change: what it costs and who is footing the bill. Maximilian Auffhammer, Associate Professor and Agricultural and Resource Economics Director at UC Berkeley, looks at the effects of climate change through a different lens than most.  As an environmental economist, Professor Auffhammer breaks down actions that cause damage to the environment and puts a…
Keep reading

The Solar Powered Kitchen

Will the kitchen of the future run on alternative energy? What does the kitchen of tomorrow look like now that we are well on our way into the 21st century? Although many of the solar powered kitchen devices
Keep reading

Family Cooking From Scratch

How to cook healthy, home made meals and snacks your kids will love. We all know by now that the best way to ensure healthy eating is to get in the kitchen and cook. Cooking your own food allows you to know and control what’s in it, and to source the best quality ingredients. But for many there is a gulf between knowing they should be cooking more and actually figuring out how to put home cooked healthy meals on their family’s table and in their kids’ lunch boxes day after day. That’s when clean food bloggers like Jacquelyn of…
Keep reading

Carriage House Farm

Meet farm manager Richard Stewart, garden manager Kate Cook, and native plant specialist Abby Artemisia of Carriage House Farm. In a recent interview with EthicalFoods.com, they discuss the reasoning behind switching from conventional farming to using no pesticides or chemical fertilizers, why they are not certified organic, and how large agricultural corporations try to gain advantages over small independent farms.
Keep reading
Starting A Free Communal Food Exchange In Your Neighborhood

Starting A Free Communal Food Exchange In Your Neighborhood

Owen Dell talks about his experience starting a free neighborhood food exchange and working toward food security through converting ornamental suburban landscaping to edible ones. Owen Dell is a sustainable landscape architect and advocate of edible landscaping in suburbia.  In my interview with Owen, he describes how a free food exchange that he and a…
Keep reading