Share and Voice: Organic Farming

This weeks Share and Voice is highlighting the Pinederosa Produce farm.  I strongly believe in supporting organic farmers, and I think the work they do is amazing! This farm raises a variety of animals including cows, chickens, goats, turkeys, lamb, and pigs.  In the spring, their garden includes:  Apples, asparagus, beans, blackberries, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, garlic, grapes, lettuce, herbs, kohlrabi, melons, onions, pears, plums, potatoes, pumpkins, raspberries, rhubarb, squash, strawberries, sweet corn, sweet peas, and tomatoes.  They also tap trees to make maple syrup.

So as you can see, this is a pretty incredible farm.  I purchased their fresh produce all summer at the farmers market, and my family recently purchased 1/4 of a cow.  Their moto is, "No walls, no quotas, no drugs, no bottom-line paranoia.  Just good food raised in a natural way."

Check out their website to see some more of their pictures and get more information!




          

All images from http://pinederosaproduce.wordpress.com

Share & Voice: Website

For this weeks Share & Voice, I have decided to write about this website. http://www.gaiam.com/home.do

Gaiam (pronounced guy-um) is the combination of "Gaia," mother Earth in ancient Greek, and "I am." The Minoan civilization (early Greek inhabitants) valued the concept of Gaia which believes that the Earth is directly connected to existence and daily life, and is a living entity that must be respected and protected.

Gaiam was founded in Colorado in 1988 by Jirka Rysavy, and provides products to customers who value the environment,  healthy lifestyles, and alternative healthcare and personal development. They offer a large variety of products including: Bed & Bath, furniture, decor, clothing, yoga materials, fitness DVDs, cleaning products, and healthy & beauty products.

I had ordered some Yoga DVDs from this company a few years ago, but I had no idea they offered this wide of variety!

These were some of the items that I liked.

Share & Voice: Ask a Question

This weeks Share & Voice was inspired by our first true snow fall, and the current lack of food I have in our refrigerator.  When attempting to make myself dinner tonight, I asked myself, “What I am going to eat all winter?”  I am relatively new to the healthy eating/healthy living concept, as I didn’t put any thought into my diet until I took a human nutrition course my freshman year of college.  With the start of my sophomore year, I decided to change my diet and become healthier.  My meals were based around fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.  Later on in the year, I became a vegetarian and was presented with information on organic foods.  Our Environmental Health class has inspired me to go as organic as my minimal budget will allow, so this is the first winter where I won’t have as many alternatives to the fresh produce I normally eat.  So, now I ask you readers the same question I ask myself. “What am I going to eat all winter?” Do the health benefits of eating fresh organic produce outweigh the environmental costs of shipping foods cross-country?  I am very uncertain of how to answer this question, so I am looking forward to reading all of your comments! 

http://thumbs.ifood.tv/files/images/Fruits_and_vegetables_are_very_important_for_the_health_of_children.jpg

Share and Voice: An environmentally friendly project/program

If you have ever been to the Eco-building at the Minnesota State Fair you might recognize the project I have chosen to blog about.  It was there that I was introduced to the U of M's Center for Sustainable Polymers program.  Launched in 2009, CSP focuses its research on creating plastics from renewable, natural, and sustainable resources instead of fossil fuels.  Materials researchers work with include vegetable oils, starches, sugars, and terpenes.  They are also very concerned with renewability, functionality, degradability, and toxicity of ingredients used and studied.  Not only has U of M performed cutting edge research, they also focus on partnering with industries and educating students and the public.  A few of the 24 companies that have been recruited are 3M, Dow, Cagill, and H.B. Fuller.  I admire U of M's goal to be eco-friendly and love the work they have done.  When sustainable polymers become more widely studied and used, we will have less garbage for landfills and more compostable material.

Some of the trade names of different sustainable and partially sustainable polymers are: Ingeo, Mirel, BiOH, Mater-Bi, Sorona, NatureWax.

References:  http://www1.umn.edu/news/news-releases/2011/UR_CONTENT_354893.html 
 http://www.chem.umn.edu/csp/polymer_questions.html

Picture: http://oecotextiles.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/classification-of-man-made-fibers.gif

Here is a video if you are interested and want more information. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTDMeZcf_Uk&feature=player_embedded

Welcome to Let's Go Green With Emily! This blog is going to give tips on being more eco-friendly.  

There are 5 possible types of posts on my blog.  They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Read 'n' Seed
5. Share and Voice

The members of my web groups are:

1.   Jamie@Perserving the Ways of Hanauma Bay with Jamie Kay 
2.   Ashley@AshleysGoneGreen
3.   morganne@morgannesintentsoutdooradventure 
4.  Dr. V.@Enviro-Surfing

You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile." 

Hope you enjoy reading my blog, and learn some new information on going green!