It's Not All About You, Charlie

One good link leads to another. Or one good lead links to another. After reading my May 27th blog on the best and the worst seafood for you and the environment, reader Karen Nemsick wrote to say the Monterey Bay Aquarium website also has good information. But that's not the half of it. The Aquarium also had some seriously guerilla-style ideas to get friends and your local restaurants thinking about healthier seafood buying practices. But I'll come back to that (and give you a link) in a few minutes. Some serious stuff first.

While snoogling around the Aquarium site, I found a link to some deeper information about mercury levels. I know some of you come here for the short version, and it's here, presented simply and visually on a map linked below. And I don't want to scare you, but after reading a bit, I realized this is serious enough to offer you enough information to keep you safe. It turns out it's not all about canned tuna. First, check this visual link, courtesy of U.S.A. Today, to a map showing mercury levels by area of the country, and listing the local fish to avoid - those most mercury-impregnated:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/graphics/toxic-legacy/flash.htm .

If you have more time, here are three articles focusing right in on the science. Any of them is excellent alone. If you're a news hound like me, you won't find them overly repetitive. They all have a different focus.

A New York Times article here: http://tinyurl.com/n7svo3

An article from Deep Sea News here: http://tinyurl.com/mmpnpv

U.S.A Today weighs in here: http://tinyurl.com/35o7mc

Now, as promised, here's the link for a little guerillafish warfare on the seafood front. Download free these printable cards from The Monterey Bay Aquarium (use card stock) to hand out at restaurants that either compliment them on their purchase of safe seafood, or (very gently) chastises them and ask that they be more aware. They are tastefully done, non-offensive. The cards have a fun fish photo on one side and the message on the other. There are many other tools for seafood lovers on the Aquarium's website, as well as some pretty interesting info on the Aquarium itself (duh!). Link in at www.montereybayaquarium.com or go straight to the hand-outs: http://preview.tinyurl.com/kwdu2j .

By the way, I don't want to do a disservice to Starkist Tuna. Starkist tuna is wild caught, and the company has had a dolphin-safe catch policy since 1990 - possibly the first company to do so. About their mercury levels, I prefer to quote their official site FAQ. Note, however, that this information applies only to their "light meat tuna," and not their white tuna:

"Q. Is there Mercury in Canned Tuna?

A. Canned tuna is safe and canned light meat tuna is listed on the EPA/FDA advisory as one of the fish that has very low levels of methylmercury. The trace levels of methylmercury found in canned tuna are far below the 1.0 parts per million (ppm) standard the FDA has set as safe. FDA testing has shown that canned light meat tuna has an average of 0.1 parts per million (ppm) and that Albacore (white meat) tuna has an average of 0.35 ppm. StarKist has appropriate testing procedures in place to ensure that both our light meat canned and white meat canned tuna are well below the FDA limit of 1 ppm."

You can read the rest of their FAQ at http://www.starkist.com/template.asp?section=faqs.html , or learn more at the FDA's website at www.fda.gov or the FDA Center for Food Safety Information Line, 1-888-SAFEFOOD.

50 Ways To Lose Your Rubbish

Still working on my interview presentations - with a lot less stress, since Jody and I are doing our synergistic creative thing. But it's not your loss, because I couldn't have written a simpler, more "to the point" article on basic recycling than the one I found on RecyclingCenters.org. The link below takes you to a list of 50 things easily recycled, and gives you some advice about how to make it happen.

Now, I warn you, it seems pretty clear that the site owners came up with a good piece of content and surrounded it by click-through advertising, with the idea of raking in a little dough for themselves. But good content is good content. And to their credit, the site isn't the visual chaos one finds on some ad sites, tastelessly plastered with jarring multi-colored advertising. The owners have kept it simple and tolerable.

Don't stop at the list of 50. In the left hand margin are additional content links, to a Recycling Center Locator, a blog, information about recycling your Electronics, Water Conservation Tips, Home Energy tips, Earth Day and Environmental Data. Scroll past the ads in the left-hand margin, you'll find a link to Footprint Calculators, Recycling Techniques, Car Donation Charities and Recycling News. It's worth the trip!

Top 50 Things To Recycle and Reuse

The Seven Sins of Greenwashing

Green-wash (green’wash’, -wôsh’) – verb: the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

From sinsofgreenwashing.org comes the 2009 Greenwashing Report. The site, with its catchy cartoon graphics and excellent explanations, is worth a visit.

The Seven Sins of Greenwashing » Greenwashing Report 2009

The Seven Sins:

1. Sin of the Hidden Trade Off

2. Sin of No Proof

3. Sin of Vaguenss

4. Sin of Worshipping False Labels

5. Sin of Irrelevence

6. Sin of the Lesser of Two Evils

7. Sin of Fibbing

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

This is a story about soybean oil, palm oil, small unwanted visitors, and President Obama's way with words. Not in that order.

I've been reading lately about the way President Obama is shifting the dialogue with the Arab nations away from an "us-them," "good guy-bad guy" conversation to one focused on mutual respect. We're not going to stop going after terrorism. But we will no longer treat Arab nations with disdain simply because they are Muslim. One columnist, I cannot for my life recall where I read it, actually counted the number of times Mr. Obama used the word "respect" in speeches about the middle east in the course of one week. I, myself, did an "all these words" search on Google for the words "Obama," "respect" and "Islam," and got 283,000 entries.

From all indications, the President's words are having an effect. This week, Iran released Roxana Saberi, the American freelance journalist arrested for illegally buying a bottle of wine. Her charges were then converted to working without a press credential and espionage. Over loud U.S. protests and even despite an unprecedented letter written by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asking the judges to make sure Saberi had a fair trial, Saberi was summarily convicted and tossed in jail. Then, POOF! She is out.

So I thought I'd try a little Obama-style detente myself. With some bugs.

I have a minor ant problem of unknown origins, and a fly problem of my own making. I leave my back door open so the dogs can get in and out. And because I like fresh air. Trade off. Fresh air for bugs.

Fortunately, there aren't many ants. They march one-by-one, but that is the extent of familiar ant behavior. Oddly, there are more ants at night (maybe 15 or so at any given time), but far fewer by day (maybe three or four). Looking like little scouting parties, they are always far from any obvious point of entry. They are clutzy. Often one of them will turn around, bump into the fellow behind him, have a longish rant about the accident, and then finally turn forward and continue on. I've watched them for as long as my ADD-addled brain will allow, and have yet to see them make it all the way to a point of exit.

There aren't many flies either. But it doesn't take many of those fat, filthy little buzzers pub-crawling on the rim of my ice tea glass, or grazing one of my precious dark chocolate covered espresso beans (COME ON!) to get my dander up. To put this in context, one summer during college I waited tables at a restaurant in Vail, Colorado called the Iron Kettle. One morning, I had a large mug of lukewarm coffee waiting for me on a ledge in the kitchen, from which I hurredly swigged between table trips. The last swallow yielded something unexpectedly solid. Can you guess? What I spit back into the mug was a horse fly. There was unrestrained gagging, lots of screaming, customer interest, and an unhappy boss. I am not exaggerating when I say that the gag response hasn't ended for me to this day. I cannot think about that episode without gagging.

I imagine that fly, if it had any last thoughts, was no happier about its fate than I. And I imagine the flies in my kitchen would also prefer a happy ending. Still, I have an aversion. And I don't want to share my espresso beans.

I tried rerouting the ants with lemon juice. I tried placing bitter liquid barriers along every crack, crevice and window ledge. I hung a towel from the door to the lintel to discourage the flies from entering. I built a little insect restaurant that I hoped would attract my visitors and allow me to move them all back outside. I tried reasoning with them. Yes, I talk to ants and flies. I even used the word "respect" several times, hoping to recreate the Obama magic.

But ultimately, I opted for Ortho's new line of non-toxic insecticides. Yes, I feel guilty. But at least I killed them with soybean oil, the active, non-toxic ingredient in Ortho's new product, EcoSense Indoor Insect Killer. Killing bugs with soybean oil made me feel somewhat better about being a murderess. Until I started reading up about the product.

First, it turns out that EcoSense is not actually eco-friendly. Non-toxic, yes. Eco-sensible, no. I suppose EcoSense is a more marketable branding decision than NonToxicSense would have been, but it is not a more ethical marketing decision. Ortho's online data page says that anyone placing information about the product into an ad or other presentation material must use the following disclaimer near the product:

DISCLAIMER TEXT: “Not intended to imply environmental safety either alone or in comparison to other products.”

Whoa! It's near impossible to fathom how the company could believe that the name "EcoSense" would not imply environmental safety.

Wondering what could be non-toxic but still earth-unfriendly, I checked the other, "non-active" ingredients: Polyglyceryl oleate (a vegetable-based emulsifier) 3-7%, Lauric acid (another fatty acid found in coconut and palm oil and believed to be an anti-microbial) 3-7%, Sodium Caprylate (salt and another fat-derived acid with anti-fungal properties and a bitter taste) 1-5%, and Sodium Benzoate (a commonly used food preservative) 0.1-1%. I'm guessing the culprit is the Lauric acid. Lauric acid is a by-product of palm oil. Seventh Generation has a great article posted about the enviro issues associated with palm oil. Here's the short skinny:

"The ugly side of growing palm is that, in order to make way for large-scale plantations, vast tracks of old growth rainforest in places like Indonesia and Malaysia have been clear cut. As the global demand for palm oil skyrocketed over the last 20 years (with an almost six fold increase in production), deforestation has continued on an epic scale. It’s a ticking environmental time bomb." http://www.seventhgeneration.com/learn/news/what-s-problem-palm-oil.

Palm oil is in so many products we use. According to Seventh Generation, more than fifty percent of all cleaning products contain it, so it's pretty hard to avoid. However, Seventh Generation is currently doing for palm oil growers what Starbucks has done for fair trade coffee, and palm oil can now be obtained from growers using sustainable practices.

You know, I don't want to over-malign Ortho. I think it's good news when a company comes out with a non-toxic insecticide. On the other hand, the name EcoSense is very misleading. And I would like to see Ortho go the rest of the way toward sustainability, and opt for sustainably grown palm oil. My plan: to write the Ortho people and ask them to get ahold of the 7G people for help finding sustainable palm oil sources. And to take them to task for mislabeling and misleading.

It's simply a matter of R-E-S-P-E-C-T.