Ready for Blog Action Day? Great! We are all about saving the planet and staving off climate change in any way possible. Every little bit helps!

Here are ten easy things we can all do to reduce emissions:

Walk everywhere you can but especially if it’s less than 1.5 miles. The less gas you use, the less fossil fuels burning in the atmosphere. The more exercise you get the better you feel!

If you drive a diesel, look into converting to used vegetable oil to fuel it.

You can save your own used oil or ask your local fast-food chain for their waste. It’s a great way to ‘get off the grid’ so to speak and take your energy needs into your own hands. One more way to cut down on the use of fossil fuel and save yourself a lot of cash in the process!

You’ve heard it many times before but it bears repeating: Switch every lightbulb in your home to super efficient CFL’s or, even better, LED’s.

You’ll save money every month on your electric bill and be accomplishing more than you realize. If every U.S. household replaced 1 incandescent bulb with a CFL or LED, it would be the equivalent of taking 800,000 cars off the road!

Limit your red meat intake to twice a month.

Beef is only 30% of all meat consumed but is responsible for 78% of the emissions. Another happy side effect will be the amount of precious clean water used. It can take from 441 to 18,492 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef.  Hamburgers are the Hummers of food.

Have one meatless day a week.

Sample menu items: BREAKFAST – Oatmeal, fruit, yogurt. LUNCH – Salad, lentil soup, Pita with hummus. DINNER – Bean burrito’s, falafels, pasta primavera.  You can get more information and countless recipes at http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

Teach your cat to go outside.

At the very least get it used to something other than traditional cat litter. Most cat litter is made of bentonite clay or its cousin, fuller’s earth; both materials are extracted through surface mining, an environmentally taxing process. Meanwhile, because the litter is nonbiodegradable, there’s no place for it to go but the landfill.

A better option would be to use newspaper or commercial litters that come from recycled newspapers, wheat, corn cobs or reclaimed sawdust. These litters—along with the cat waste—can be composted, as long as you use the right precautions, and they provide a good use of recycled material.

Composting

There are many different ways to compost. You can bury your food scraps in the backyard, use community compost centers, worm composters, etc. If you live in an urban area there are even compact electric composters you can store under the sink for your food waste. This creates less garbage, less garbage trucks on the road, less landfill.

Buy and use recycled paper products of all kinds

Computer paper, toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, napkins and so on. Every paper product is a tree that is no longer here to clean our air.

Take your reusable bag everywhere you go

Between the trees that are chopped down to make paper bags and the natural gas and oil used for plastics, not to mention the energy expended in processing – those free bags at the grocery store aren’t much of a bargain.

Grow a little garden of your own

If you have a back yard then set aside some space to grow your favorite veggies. If all you have is a window ledge try growing your own fresh herbs. You’ll save emissions by having less food transported to you and everything grown by your own hand tastes that much better.

Find out more at www.blogactionday.org

Getting down, dirty, and delicious!

Everyone wants to feed their families the healthiest food possible but sometimes that seems easier said then done. The number one reason people say they don’t buy organic fruits and vegetables, despite the fact that they are now widely available, is cost. It’s a shame that money can deter us from doing what’s best for the planet, our health and our families well being.

We’re all about keeping things easy, and a good place to start is easing into organic eating by first being aware of which items you don’t necessarily need to buy organic, and avoiding the ‘dirty dozen’ by replacing them with healthy, fresh, organics. This keeps the overall amount of pesticides ingested to a minimum and also helps to keep the grocery budget down.

The ‘dirty dozen’ is a list of produce that has been tested extensively for pesticides and found to be consistently the most contaminated. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), consumers can reduce their pesticide exposure by 80% by avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating only the cleanest. If consumers get their USDA-recommended 5 daily servings of fruits and veggies from the 15 most contaminated, they could consume an average of 10 pesticides a day. Those who eat the 15 least contaminated conventionally grown produce ingest less than 2 pesticides daily.

Many studies suggest that organic produce has more nutrients than its conventional counterparts, most likely because the soil is in better condition. Many organic farmers believe in allowing soil to ‘rest’ after a season or two so that it does not become spent, losing nutrients, with repeated plantings.

Please keep in mind that even locally grown produce isn’t necessarily safer. In fact, cherries grown in the U.S. were found to have three times more pesticide residue then imported cherries. While eating local produce is often a great way to find the tastiest and ripest produce possible, not to mention the added benefit of supporting your local farms, it still may not be safe in terms of pesticide use. Finding a local farmer that grows organically is the best way to go all around.

The 15 items of produce found to have the least amount of pesticides are Onion, Avocado, Asparagus, Frozen Sweet Corn, Pineapple, Mango, Frozen Sweet Peas, Kiwi, Cabbage, Eggplant, Papaya, and Watermelon, Honeydew Melon, Grapefruit, Sweet Potato, Tomato, Broccoli. You can safely and confidently buy and eat all of these items with little to no fear of pesticide contamination.

The top 12 selections of produce to replace with organics:

Peach

Apple

Sweet Bell Pepper

Celery

Nectarine

Strawberries

Cherries

Kale

Lettuce

Grapes

Carrot

Pear

By adding the organic counterparts of just these twelve items to your menu you are keeping your pesticide load to a minimum, ensuring tastier eats and better health!

Bon apetite!