Posts: 3

1. The Golden Arrow: Changing Our Consumer Culture

   10.Jan.08, 16:17 EST
   
   Share It | Spread It | Comments: 0

   
   Are you working your butt off, but still don't have what you want?
   
   Annie Leonard spent 10 years traveling around the world to find out what's really going on in the way of manufactured goods and the impacts on people and the environment.
   
   Click on the link for a really awesome explanation of how our consumer culture really got its start (hint, hint, our government during the '50s). It's interesting and not overly preachy. You'll be motivated.
   
   Story of Stuff
   
   Watch it now! ;)

2. 

   Counter's Organic Delights (skip the $665 martini)

   28.Dec.07, 09:25 EST
   
   Share It | Spread It | Comments: 0

   Organic food really is more delicious and better for you. But in addition to the green-washing of products ranging from cars to shampoo, the hope of organic food as a miracle-worker is often overemphasized. There's a hemp-infused sucker with raspberry essence born every minute.
   
   I was invited to Counter in Manhattan, a vegetarian restaurant with its own version of "haute cuisine". Although I visited in the winter, the restaurant's rooftop garden is its true heart, where fruits and vegetables are harvested the rest of the year for a truly sustainable experience. It does have an impressive menu, and the faux-meatloaf with mashed potatoes was hearty and savory.
   
   However, the most interesting part of trip was the look at the drink menu. There we saw "The World's Most Expensive Organic Martini" listed at $665. Ingredients? Organic Rose & pomegranate infused vodka, peach nectar and Iridium.
   
   What are some of the claimed benefits of Iridium? It's an element of the periodic table usually reserved for alloys with platinum as well as having radioactive properties. But in a more New-Agey sense, it could be any one of the following: the "The Golden Tear from the Eye of Horus", the ancient Hebrew "Food of the Gods", or perhaps one part of a trilogy of elements to cure almost anything. So many claims for a few drops!
   
   An author over at NY Magazine was able to sample the expensive elixor, and estimated its actual price by ingredient (closer to about $24).
   
   The mixed drinks have a few distinctive names, and my friend who eloped to Tahoe over the summer surrendered to the "Married in a Fever". If you truly want to get your friends to raise their eyebrows at some drinks, hop over to Marion's X-rated martini list on the Bowery.

3. What's Worth Eating

   04.Sep.07, 12:45 EDT
   
   Share It | Spread It | Comments: 1

   A visit to my local Whole Foods opened with islands of in-season berries and glistening fruits that greeted me, beckoning with bright colors and labels sprinkled with exclamation points. A traffic jam ensued, with kids in carts reaching for peaches and my husband knocking over the brussel sprouts still on the stem. I was drawn to the purple asparagus, but chose the common green variety after seeing the price. The bombardment of the word organic everywhere I looked led me to ask -
   
   What's actually worth buying organic?
   
   According to the Environmental Working Group, there are a few foods to really look out for, but there are definitely other fruits and veggies where the conventional version is just fine. Here's the top 10 produce items that are really susceptible to pesticides and you're better off buying organic:
     
           - peaches
           - apples
           - red bell peppers
           - celery
           - nectarines
           - strawberries
           - cherries
           - imported grapes
           - pears
   
   No need to sneer at the conventional bananas, they're ok! Now all you have to worry about are all those honeybees getting disoriented and banana trees going sterile.