GreenPepper Blog

Enough Packaging

By Ann Barlow, GreenPepper

This past weekend, I was at Safeway doing the usual biweekly (Triweekly?  Daily?) grocery shopping.  Cereal was on the list, so I picked up the usual Kellogg’s Smart Start for my husband, Bob.  I don’t like a lot of the mass-produced cereals, not so much because I prefer small, locally produced fare, but because I just prefer the taste. So I went to the ‘organic’ aisle to see if I could get some granola. At my local Safeway, the organics are relegated to their own section rather than being interspersed with the regular chips, yogurt, cereal, etc.  As if they could catch high-fructose corn syrup or trans fats if they came too close.

But I digress.  I bought a bag of granola, which had 12 oz. of cereal versus the 14 oz. box that Bob picked up.  The difference in the sizes of the packages, though, was laughable.  The granola bag was about a third the size of the Kellogg’s box.

That got me thinking.  The razors that I put in the shopping cart were so surrounded by plastic and cardboard that we would need an electric saw to open them.  The Oil of Olay night cream came in a box with two more plastic boxes inside, one above the jar and one below. The contact lens solution came in a large box and the spout was basically hermetically sealed against any tampering.

When, oh when, are we going to cut out this incredibly wasteful packaging, and who will lead the charge?  It’s absolutely unconscionable that we allow this to continue.

It probably won’t be the grocery store chains who call for change. Clearly they couldn’t care less, so long as the current packaging allows them to get as much as possible on the shelves and display them in the most convenient and attractive way.  And it probably won’t be the manufacturers either.  They’ll no doubt cite the Tylenol scare as reason to avoid eliminating anything that increase the public’s, and their own, risk.

But wouldn’t it be great if Johnson & Johnson, which became the de facto standard of safe packaging, led the way in creating new packaging that was less damaging to the environment?  And surely they have the kind of power necessary to convince grocery and drug stores to be more environmentally friendly, too when it comes to shelf-stocking?

Here’s hoping.  In the meantime, I’m going to start buying the less packaged stuff.  I hope you’ll do the same.

How Does Her Garden Grow?

By Sandy Pfaff, GreenPepper

If Michelle Obama does nothing else in the next (hopefully) 8 years, she will have forever endeared herself to the food world with the ground-breaking of the new White House garden two weeks ago.  Long-time foodies like Alice Waters and Michael Pollan cheered, and rightly so.  With her vision for a sustainable future  – and her shoveling -  we just experienced one of the greatest and timely breakthroughs in the drive for a healthier planet.  I applaud her inspiration and follow through to build the first garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt.  There is no telling what positive changes this will create for consumers and the food industry alike.

And while the estimated expense of $200 for a myriad of seeds and soil seems too good to be true, the message is clear – we can all benefit from building a garden, no matter how big or small.  It’s healthy for us and the planet, affordable during a tough economy, and it is a great way to engage kids who are the greatest champions for the environment, and are also at the center of the obesity crisis.  What better time and place to get them involved in this exciting movement.

Michelle Obama’s wish was to make the White House the “People’s House” and it will be wonderful to see how the “people’s garden” grows.  And she showed that there are many simple steps we can all take to bring organic, fresh produce into our own homes with just a little effort and some dirt under our fingernails.  With spring in the air, and Earth Day just around the corner, my garden is under way with new tomato plants, eggplant and zucchini, fresh herbs and even hopefully a few bees buzzing.  It’s also buzzing with the promise of a healthier and sustainable future.

As Michael Pollan says, “eat food – not too much, mostly plants.”  Wise advice, indeed.

Challenging a Green Assumption – Organic is Best

By Ann Barlow, GreenPepper

Like most things of great importance, sustainability requires constant learning and – more difficult – a constant review of assumptions.  A great example of the latter is what I’ve been reading and hearing about lately regarding organic food.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m a fan of organic, locally grown, free range – it’s all good in my book.  But if we are to feed a population that continues to grow exponentially while land in developed countries continues to be redeployed to house and employ that population rather than feed it, their simply won’t be enough food to go around unless we maximize production.

Chris Goodall from the UK Guardian pointed out in a recent column on the 10 Big Energy Myths: “(The) uncomfortable reality is that we already struggle to feed six billion people. Population numbers will rise to more than nine billion by 2050. Although food production is increasing slowly, the growth rate in agricultural productivity is likely to decline below population increases within a few years…So we need to ensure that as much food as possible is produced on the limited resources of good farmland.”

 More recently, we met with some people in the food production business who challenged our own assumptions regarding pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer.  When I think of such products being sprayed on crops, I see the plane out of North by Northwest descending on the fields in northern Indiana to dust crops (and Carey Grant, of course).  At that time, you needed a lot of stuff to stave off encroachers, and we gave little if any thought to what the run-off could be doing to our water supply.  We also used some nasty stuff over the decades.  I don’t think many would advocate for the return of the likes of DDT, benefits notwithstanding.

But today’s processes require infinitesimal amounts of ingredients, and digital soil mapping can be used to determine exactly where they are – and aren’t needed.  The result is that a single gram can take care of an entire acre.  And the result is food yield of up to 50 percent greater than without the use of such things.

Like most people who think about such things, I would prefer to use whatever is natural to stave off pests and weeds that could kill our food supply.  But if there are indeed better – and essential – alternatives now available, I think we need to take a practical and unbiased view at what works best to help feed the world.