‘Green’ Cheese: What to Think About Before You Buy

It’s not the kind of cheese Dr. Seuss might have written about, but what actually makes a cheese ‘green’ is something we probably don’t think of beyond being organic and non-GMO. But cheese, like other mass-produced food items, can have a detrimental impact on the environment.

The Huffington Post asked five cheese experts to name their favorite sustainable brands – including a vegan brand.

Jeff Roberts: Long before sustainability was celebrated, Lazy Lady Farm in northern Vermont utilized green practices. The farm operates completely on solar and wind power, while the hillside aging caves take advantage of ambient temperature and humidity to make a diverse array of seasonal and organic goat’s and cow’s milk cheeses. La Petite Tomme, a bloomy-rind disk from goat’s milk, is a signature product. The soft surface yields to a moist interior with hints of mushroom, milk, and nuts. $11 for 6 ounces, available seasonally at gourmetlibrary.com Continue reading

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FDA Bans BPA in Baby Bottles – But Not Anything Else

This week, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that BPA (short for bisphenol A), an industrial chemical that has been used in some plastics since the 1960s, can no longer be used in baby bottles and children’s drinking cups. It can, however, still be used in other common household products.

According to the NY Times, FDA spokesman Steven Immergut, emphasized that the decision did not amount to a reversal of the agency’s position on the chemical. The FDA declared BPA safe in 2008, but began expressing concerns about possible health risks in 2010.

“Today’s action is based on industry’s abandonment of these uses of BPA,” Mr. Immergut said. “The agency continues to support the safety of BPA for use in products that hold food.” Continue reading

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5 Green Ways to Shop at the Grocery Store

Kermit the Frog wasn’t right about one thing – it IS easy being green. Small simple deeds go a long way, you don’t have to be perfect at your attempts, and every little bit counts! We’ve put together a short list of 5 simple green ways to shop at the grocery store. Follow any one of these (or better yet, all of them) and you’ll be on your way to living the green life!

  1. Bring your own bags. This is so easy to do. At the same time, it’s just as easy for us to get caught in an unplanned trip to the store and not have any bags. Avoid this scenario by keeping those reusable bags everywhere – in your car, in your bicycle basket, next to your keys, etc.
  2. Buy things with little packaging. If you have a choice between two products, one wrapped in plastic and cardboard and more plastic, and one with minimal packaging, choose the one with the minimal packaging. It took less energy to create and will leave less of a carbon footprint. Plus, minimal packaging creates less waste.
  3. Shop the perimeter. In food writer, Michael Pollan’s 7 Rules for Eating, he advises that you stay out of the middle of the grocery store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad. Continue reading

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Is Your Food Genetically Modified?

Genetically Modified foods (GM) are food sources that have been genetically altered for a number of different reasons. Those reasons include making fruit and veggies larger and seedless as well as making them resistant to certain kinds of pesticides. Are food products containing genetically modified organisms a health risk? Possibly. Do we want to know if our food is genetically modified? Definitely.

While the DEA has yet to make companies slap labels on foods that straight up let us know they are genetically modified (no thanks in part to biotech giant Monsanto), there is a system in place that can help us make better informed decisions at the market.

By reading the numbers on PLU labels (those little stickers), we can identify whether produce is organic, conventional or genetically modified. Continue reading

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