Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun! (That's cantonese for Merry Christmas)

Awesome upside down tree at Oxford Floral.'Tis the season for decking the halls and whatever else you've got with the sparkliest, stripiest red, white and green stuff you can find! And if it smells like frasier fir or peppermint, even better!

I was in the Christmas aisle at Walgreens a few weeks ago, when a young lady asked me a question.

"Do you know if I need to buy a stand for those Christmas trees they're selling at Walmart?"

"Are you buying a fake tree or a live tree?" I asked.

"A fake one."

"No, then you won't need a stand. The pre-lit ones open up like an umbrella and they come with feet."

From MSNBC.com Business News:

In 2007, 17.4 million people bought artificial Christmas trees -- a whopping 87 percent jump from the previous year's total of 9.3 million, according to a survey conducted for the National Christmas Tree Association, whose members are farmers and retailers of real trees. Rick Dungey, a spokesman for the association, could not explain the huge jump and said it seemed to be a statistical anomaly, although the margin of error for the survey is only 3.1 percent.
While live trees are still outselling fake ones, with about 31.3 million bought last year, all signs indicate their artificial counterparts are becoming a bigger and bigger piece of the Christmas tree buying pie.

To fake or not to fake?

Sure it's easier, but it's not always cheaper. I'm sure the fake trees at Walmart are the cheapest you can get, but much like all those cheap decorations and ornaments, what exactly are you buying? Where did it come from? What is it made out of? Can we save the U.S. economy by spending our dollars on cheap stuff that no doubt has a Made in China stamp right next to the Warning Flammable?

In my own search for answers this holiday season, I discovered the truth about fake trees. I do not condemn anyone who has chosen to go faux, it's too late now, right? But for future consideration for all of those folks considering buying a fake tree, consider these words from Umbra Fisk from Grist:

[In search of information on fake Christmas trees]

I've looked on site after site and called various places, and I can tell you that polyvinyl chloride is the monoculture of the artificial forest. Even worse, lead is apparently used to stabilize certain PVC products, which is why you'll see a label on faux Christmas trees cautioning you to avoid inhaling or eating any bits of lead dust that may fall from the "branches" of the family heirloom. Now, I'm not saying you need to run screaming from the house, but between the lead and the vinylness, I just can't support artificial trees.
If you must have a tree, the good old-fashioned wooden kind is the right option. That does not necessarily make them a great option, though, and you should do your tree-selecting with care. Christmas trees are an agricultural product and carry the attendant issues of all mass agriculture. There are trees grown with pesticides and herbicides vs. organic specimens, there are family operations vs. large-scale producers, etc. The bottom line: Go for the actual tree and try to support a small-scale sustainable grower if you can.

The key word here for me was small-scale sustainable grower.

However, we did not have room for a full-sized tree. And in the end, I could not find anything appropriate for the space we have. To my surprise, I came across a true Mississippi anomaly: the handwoven kudzu Christmas tree! And it's pre-lit!

Mark Barnes collects the long and winding strand-like branches of the kudzu that silently engulfs the Mississippi woodlands. If you've never heard of kudzu, it is also known as the vine that ate the South. It's that crazy palnt/vine that turns trees into green elephants. It's the stuff you see of the highway that has engulfed all vegetation.

From Wikipedia:

Kudzu was introduced from Japan into the United States in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where it was promoted as a forage crop and an ornamental plant. From 1935 to the early 1950s the Soil Conservation Service encouraged farmers in the Southeastern United States to plant kudzu to reduce soil erosion as above, and the Civilian Conservation Corps planted it widely for many years.

In the Southern United States, where the plant has been introduced with devastating environmental consequences,[14] kudzu is used to make soaps, lotions, jelly, and compost.[15] It has even been suggested that kudzu may become a valuable asset for the production of cellulosic ethanol.[16]

People are constantly spraying and cutting kudzu to keep the perpetual jungle in check. Mark Barnes turns this Eastern Asian invader into something useful and lovely. He weaves the kudzu strands into baskets and cone-shaped trees. He then inserts Christmas tree lights inside the cone so that they come through the tight kudzu weave. You can find his trees at Mississippi Hand Made on the downtown Oxford square.

I heard a program on NPR over a year ago that talked about Walmart's shopping monopoly. The program claimed that 10% of all Americans shop at Walmart once a week.

I thought back to the first time I heard of Walmart. In high school, a Target came to Richmond. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So much stuff! So cheap! I loved it. When people first started talking about the new Target in Richmond, they explained that it was a store like Walmart, but nicer. I had never heard of Walmart in 1996. And the first time I set foot in a Walmart was in college, probably around 1999. All I remember is that it was big and disorienting, and I never went in there again until I was in graduate school, on a budget, and living in Savannah. I really only went there to buy stuff in bulk for art projects.

It's easy for so many urban dwellers to say "down with Walmart."
Those urban folks probably have a myriad of grocery stores, fancy boutiques, specialty stores and craft shops like Ben Franklin or Michaels. But for those of us who live in more rural areas, we are very limited in our selection of stores. And here in Oxford, MS, Walmart proves to be the one-stop-shop with very low prices. There are a few generic brand items sold at Kroger that are cheaper than Walmart's "Great Value" brand. However, folks who are in a hurry (who isn't?) are going to take the easy way out: they are going to go to Walmart and buy everything in one fell swoop and head back to their homes with all of their Walmart goodies, most of which are cheaply made, low-quality products. And those foks are going to live happily ever after. Are they not?The untold story of Walmart and so many other big brands and companies that sell mass-produced items is slowly being exposed. If you want to read more about it, pick up Charles Fishman's book, The Walmart Effect. It is so disturbing that I can't finish reading it.

I have to give Fishman a shout-out here, he was very thoughtful to post a comment on my blog.

We have much to be thankful for this Christmas, though times are tough for the average American. (Times are tough for the daddy Warbucks too!) If we make informed decisions in the grocery store and at the super store, we CAN, over time, influence what items are offered. If no one bought organic food and products, no one would be selling them. In my opinion, what is most important for Mississippians and Americans alike, right now, is to buy locally produced and manufactured goods and to support local small business. We live in a sprawling country, a giant landscape capable of producing everything we need. If we can make the choice, as a nation, to buy everything we can from our neighbors and neighboring states, rather than what seems like EVERYTHING from China, we can influence our own situation. I realize that all of these electronic goodies that folks want are not made in the USA. But the idea is still something to consider. Everyday, I consciously try not to buy anything that is made outside of the US. I make exceptions for items made in Canada or Mexico, since we are continentally linked. I want to take this action further with this New Year's resolution:

No more shopping at superstores of any kind.

Care to join me?

Pick It Up Oxford will be back in January of 2009.

Happy Holidays and a hope for a Fantastic New Year!

It's the Holidays... Don't be mean, be Green!

The Oxford Christmas parade was a big hit on the Square last night. So many floats were dedicated to recycling this year, I was really surprised and impressed. Check out this pic below of a towering tree of aluminum cans! It was an awesome site, however, I really hope the folks who break down this float actually recycle those cans. (Bah humbug.)
Grinch spotting!

The back of this float said, "Don't be mean, be green!"

There were a lot of folks in Grinch costumes in this year's parade. Again, playing on the going Green themes.

The Regents Bank float was my favorite Green-themed float. If you can tell from this pic, they had kids dressed up as the Oscar the Grouch, or maybe they were supposed to be Grinches, but the whole theme was recycling, and these kids were popping out of trashcans on the back of this float. It was hysterical!

Market Rhes - Going the way of the Crystal Palace

The good news: all of Market Rhes's dry goods are 20% off.

The bad news: Market Rhes is going out of business.

This fabulous little market and lunch spot opened only one year ago. It provides speciality groceries like you won't find anywhere else in the region... sometimes even in this country. They provide exceptional meats, seafood and cheeses, all fresh and cut to order.

I don't know any details about when they plan to close, but I am devastated that this little shop has gone the way of so many other little independent shops in Oxford, like the Crystal Palace that used to be on University Ave. The Crystal Palace was a great little bead shop, the ONLY bead shop in Oxford, much like Market Rhes is the ONLY shop of it's kind in Oxford.

Market Rhes is open from 10:30AM - 6:30PM, Monday through Saturday, and they serve lunch from 11AM - 2PM daily. Check out their website here.

Market Rhes

721 North Lamar Boulevard

Oxford, MS 38655

Please support small businesses during the holiday season and during these hard times. You may pay a tiny bit more for products in some cases, but you are paying for quality and craftsmenship, and you are supporting your neighbors, as opposed to supporting our friends over in China.

Meanwhile, while all the small businesses suffer, Walmart racks in the record-breaking profits.

Did we shop our way straight to the unemployment line? Check out this article from 2003 by Charles Fishman: The Walmart You Don't Know. It seems that some of us can still look up from our shopping cart in time to see the future.

Buy Handmade and Support Local Artists and Craftspeople this holiday season

The countdown is on, and despite the worsening economy, I've noticed a lot of shoppers in Oxford, MS actually shopping.

What I ask the Oxonians to consider is this: buying handmade, locally-resourced products.

Why, you ask?

According to www.buyhandmade.org:

Buying Handmade makes for better gift-giving.

The giver of a handmade gift has avoided the parking lots and long lines of the big chain stores in favor of something more meaningful. If the giver has purchased the gift, s/he feels the satisfaction of supporting an artist or crafter directly. The recipient of the handmade gift receives something that is one-of-a-kind, and made with care and attention that can be seen and touched. It is the result of skill and craftsmanship that is absent in the world of large-scale manufacturing.

Buying handmade is better for people.

The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. We are encouraged to be consumers, not producers, of our own culture. Our ties to the local and human sources of our goods have been lost. Buying handmade helps us reconnect.

Buying handmade is better for the environment.

The accumulating environmental effects of mass production are a major cause of global warming and the poisoning of our air, water and soil. Every item you make or purchase from a small-scale independent artist or crafter strikes a small blow to the forces of mass production.

We can look at the idea of shopping and consumerism from many different viewpoints. For example, when citizens of the USA were issued extra funds in their rebate checks, critics hoped this little extra lift would boost our own economy. But many Americans used their rebates to purchase new flatscreen TVs that were manufactured in China, and therefore gave a big boost to the Chinese economy, and not to our own. Companies like Circuit City still went bust. If Americans had invested their money entirely in locally produced, manufactured or handmade goods, our economy may have gotten a leg up on what is turning out to be a global recession. Time will tell, and in all truth, buying gifts from smaller companies or local artists is a great way to give a gift that is more unique and more thoughtful, especially if you are seeking gifts for those who seem to have one of everything.

Oxonians are lucky this year that the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council is hosting a Holiday Arts Market during the first week of December. 22 different vendors from Oxford and beyond will turn the Powerhouse Community Arts Center into a handmade gift-shoppers one stop shop. More details to come!

Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.

- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Text from the memorial archway:

Today we place a marker on that road. It is a marker that tells us not only where we have been, but where we need to be going.

-Former Gov. William Winter
Open Doors Ceremony, October 1st, 2002

Last Wednesday, after hearing the news of Obama's victory, I decided to take a few photos of the James Meredith statue on the campus of Ole Miss.

I had never visited the statue before. The bronze cast of Meredith, approaching the archway reading "Opportunity" on one side, and "Courage" on the other, marks the event that forever changed the face of the University: the day that a black man was admitted as a student.

That was in 1962, only 46 years ago. It seems shockingly recent, in terms of a lifetime. It seems disturbingly close, as if it is just on the other side of a time-shut door. When you stand next to Meredith's statue, the memory of that moment is contained, and it is intensely tangible. In the same way that the War Between the States ended 143 years ago, it seems that you don't even have to stretch to reach back in time and touch something of it that still exists, or see something that reminds you of it, and the ways that war hurt everyone who was envolved.

James Meredith's walk to school 46 years ago caused a violent riot on campus. Two people were killed in the clash between protesting segregationalists and U.S. Federal troops that day. The blazing hatred of that historic day still exists, just as the fierce hope for equality keeps breathing.

The Daily Mississippian reported on Thursday, November 6, that there were a few disruptions on campus, specifically in the dorms as the election result was announced. The University Police Chief compared the incidents to celebrations for Monday night football, and though students were handcuffed, no arrests were made. The multiple incidents were said to be caused by the exchange of racial slurs between white and black students.

Everyone knows that emotions run high during elections. As the Ole Miss Police Chief also noted, disturbances were reported at other schools as well. We also know that many election parties at Universities across the nation came to an end without violence or hateful language.

No one is immune from the adrenaline, but we can learn to control our anger, when things don't go our way. According to Dr. Steven G. Pratt of Superfoods Healthstyle, anger robs us of our health.

In one study of over one thousand medical students, it was revealed that those with the highest levels of anger, expressed or concealed, were at significant risk for developing premature heart attacks versus those with lower levels of anger. A high level of anger not only serves as a potential trigger for a heart attack, but in this study it was a trigger for causing a premature heart attack. These students with excessively angry responses to stress appeared to initiate biochemical changes marking them for an early heart attack.

Pratt suggests that finding Personal Peace is the key to relieving stress. However, there's no simple prescription for finding one's personal peace. He suggests that relaxation, meditation, breathing deeply, listening to music, thinking positively and seeking fun and friendship are just a few ways to tap into your personal peace. Finally, he writes that embracing nature plays an essential role in our health and well-being.

Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts: the sight of a deep-blue sky, and the clustering stars above, seem to impart a quiet to the mind.

-Jonathan Edwards

Obama at the wheel!

Obama’s Top Priority: Spark a New Energy Economy - October 27, 2008
by Jessie Jenkins of It's Getting Hot In Here: Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement

Barack Obama’s top priority if elected president is to launch an Apollo-style national project to build a new, clean energy economy. That’s what he told Time magazine reporter Joe Klein last week.
With America’s economy rocked by a one-two-punch of spiking energy prices this summer and the credit crisis this fall, our nation needs a president with a clear sense of how to free our nation from dependency on oil and a plan to get America back to work. And with climate change continuing unchecked, we need a president that will take the lead in building a post-carbon energy system. A national project to build a new, clean energy economy is the right answer to these interlinking challenges, and Obama knows it.

From Time:
[Obama] has a clearer handle on the big picture, on how various policy components fit together, and a strong sense of what his top priority would be. He wants to launch an “Apollo project” to build a new alternative-energy economy. His rationale for doing so includes some hard truths about the current economic mess: “The engine of economic growth for the past 20 years is not going to be there for the next 20. That was consumer spending. Basically, we turbocharged this economy based on cheap credit.” But the days of easy credit are over, Obama said, “because there is too much deleveraging taking place, too much debt.” A new economic turbocharger is going to have to be found, and “there is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy … That’s going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office.“

Hold him to it! And I will believe it when I see it!

The hard work of the Obama supporters at the poll here in Oxford did not pay off for Mississippi, who went red instead of blue. But it seems that much of the hard work paid off elsewhere.

Let's hope for the future of these little tykes that Obama can pull together a plan, a nation and an economy that has been so thoroughly poisoned by foreign oil and politics.

Ole Miss Green Initiative attempts to combat gameday trash

There have been many mixed messages coming from The Daily Mississippian in the last couple of weeks, concerning the efforts of the Ole Miss Green Initiative. One article quoted students saying that the recycling receptacles were not conveniently placed in areas where students eat and create trash, such as the Student Union. Other news claims that bus-riding numbers are up on the Oxford University Transit, a great sign that the program will continue.


I was on campus yesterday in the Barnard Observatory, and I noticed that at just about every doorway and exit there were multiple recycling receptacles. I won't call them trash cans, because they are actually white boxes with a hole cut in the top. Here's what I'm talking about.

Thursdays are all about preparation for the big game in Oxford. You will start seeing the, "RV No Right Turn" signs close to the highway exits on Wednesday before the game. If you cruise through the square Thursday morning, you will see the big beer trucks pulled up in the round about, unloading cases and kegs to all the various bars and restaurants.

This is the site you will see in the grove on Thursday before the game. Not a recycling receptacle in sight. But this is because the Ole Miss Green Initiative passes out green trash bags, for grove-goers to collect their bottles and cans themselves and take them home to recycle them, or to the appropriate recycling facility. This is a great way to promote recycling in the grove, however, I have always hoped that the University of Mississippi would take on the problem of gameday waste in a more responsible manner. If Ole Miss is prepared to haul the multitude of cans it sets out in the grove, why are they not able to place some white recycling receptacles out there as well?

I'll tell you why. Game day in the grove is all about the party. It is the biggest and most well-known tradition associated with Ole Miss, in my experience anyway. (I love the grove, I frequently visit the grove and am not trying to knock this tradition in anyway.) And from personal experience, I would say that when people are having a good time in the grove, it is difficult for them to remember to recycle, and they might also forget NOT to put the wrong sort of trash in a recycling receptacle. So for now, the green trash bags are as good as it gets, I suppose. But the quantity of trash and recyclables that accrues during a single game is quite huge. I imagine that many of the grove-goers are not inclined to drive back to their homes in other counties and cities, with a giant green trash bag in their car. They may actually not have room in their car for such a large trash bag, considering space for the kids, the luggage, the game day gear, the tent, the tables, the left over tupperware and trays, vases, camping chairs, etc.

Check out this article and particularly the video of the Ole Miss Green Initiative taking steps to promote green partying in the Grove.

http://news.olemiss.edu/index.php/Ole-Miss-News/News-Releases/greentailgating.html

Lord of the Seeds - scarier than anything Halloween

If you have not read Harvest for Hope, from the New York Times bestselling author of Reason for Hope, Jane Goodall, you must do so. The book so clearly and effectively explains much of what is going on in the world of agriculture and human consumption of resources.

According to Jane Goodall:

Some of the multinational corporations that are taking over the farmland of North American are also buying up seed companies and literally attempting to patent the world's seeds. This is not science fiction. It's happening now. In January of 2005, Monsanto (now dubbed "Lord of the Seeds") took over Seminis, the world's leading seed company. At this rate, a few multinational corporations are close to gaining control of the world's seed supply.

If you don't know about Monsanto, and the various things they are buying up and patenting, including pigs, google it and find out more!

More between Michael Pollan and the Lord of the Seeds...

The following article appeared in the New York Times online magazine on October 9, 2008.

Farmer in Chief
By MICHAEL POLLAN
Published: October 9, 2008

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.

Complicating matters is the fact that the price and abundance of food are not the only problems we face; if they were, you could simply follow Nixon’s example, appoint a latter-day Earl Butz as your secretary of agriculture and instruct him or her to do whatever it takes to boost production. But there are reasons to think that the old approach won’t work this time around; for one thing, it depends on cheap energy that we can no longer count on. For another, expanding production of industrial agriculture today would require you to sacrifice important values on which you did campaign. Which brings me to the deeper reason you will need not simply to address food prices but to make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on — but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them. Let me explain.

After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — as much as 37 percent, according to one study. Whenever farmers clear land for crops and till the soil, large quantities of carbon are released into the air. But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases. This state of affairs appears all the more absurd when you recall that every calorie we eat is ultimately the product of photosynthesis — a process based on making food energy from sunshine. There is hope and possibility in that simple fact.

In addition to the problems of climate change and America’s oil addiction, you have spoken at length on the campaign trail of the health care crisis. Spending on health care has risen from 5 percent of national income in 1960 to 16 percent today, putting a significant drag on the economy. The goal of ensuring the health of all Americans depends on getting those costs under control. There are several reasons health care has gotten so expensive, but one of the biggest, and perhaps most tractable, is the cost to the system of preventable chronic diseases. Four of the top 10 killers in America today are chronic diseases linked to diet: heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. It is no coincidence that in the years national spending on health care went from 5 percent to 16 percent of national income, spending on food has fallen by a comparable amount — from 18 percent of household income to less than 10 percent. While the surfeit of cheap calories that the U.S. food system has produced since the late 1970s may have taken food prices off the political agenda, this has come at a steep cost to public health. You cannot expect to reform the health care system, much less expand coverage, without confronting the public-health catastrophe that is the modern American diet.

The impact of the American food system on the rest of the world will have implications for your foreign and trade policies as well. In the past several months more than 30 nations have experienced food riots, and so far one government has fallen. Should high grain prices persist and shortages develop, you can expect to see the pendulum shift decisively away from free trade, at least in food. Nations that opened their markets to the global flood of cheap grain (under pressure from previous administrations as well as the World Bank and the I.M.F.) lost so many farmers that they now find their ability to feed their own populations hinges on decisions made in Washington (like your predecessor’s precipitous embrace of biofuels) and on Wall Street. They will now rush to rebuild their own agricultural sectors and then seek to protect them by erecting trade barriers. Expect to hear the phrases “food sovereignty” and “food security” on the lips of every foreign leader you meet. Not only the Doha round, but the whole cause of free trade in agriculture is probably dead, the casualty of a cheap food policy that a scant two years ago seemed like a boon for everyone. It is one of the larger paradoxes of our time that the very same food policies that have contributed to overnutrition in the first world are now contributing to undernutrition in the third. But it turns out that too much food can be nearly as big a problem as too little — a lesson we should keep in mind as we set about designing a new approach to food policy.

Calidad Superior! 25% Mas Hojas! Yes, I'm blogging about toilet paper and learning Spanish.

Premium Softness!

25% More Sheets!

The Walmart in Oxford, MS has added yet another brand of toilet paper to the all ready sprawlingly large selection. If you had been buying the only recycled brand they previously carried, Scott Naturals, which contained only 40% recycled content at 4 rolls for $2.97, you can now switch to 100% recycled with White Cloud's Green Earth series. It's even 11 cents cheaper for 4 rolls at $2.86, go figure.

White Cloud's Green Earth claims to be made of 100% recycled fibers and is available only in Giant Rolls (Rollos Gigantes! - I love it that I can learn Spanish phrases from just about any products I buy in the superstore these days!)

I started buying toilet paper made from recycled content in 2005, and everyone who found out made so much fun of me. I mean, when my family and friends came to visit, and figured it out, they thought I was nuts. Why would anyone make such a sacrifice!? Well, I was very thankful that Publix carried a cheap brand that I could afford, and I was happy to buy it and do my little save the world part, even if the Publix Greenwise, non-bleached tp was close to the consistency of children's newsprint or art craft paper.

According to the NRDC, if every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll (500 sheets) of virgin-fiber toilet paper with 100 percent recycled TP, we'd save almost half a million trees.

When I moved to Oxford in 2007, I was glad to see that Kroger carried all of the Seventh Generation products. But being on a budget as I was and as I still am, I was not about to spend $4.00 for 4 rolls. Talk about flushing your dinero para gastos down the toilet. So White Cloud's Green Earth is good news, but not great news. What would be even more impressive:If Walmart carried an affordable brand of toilet paper that is made from 100% recycled fibers, packed in 100% recycled plastic packaging (Green Earth is only a lame 5% minimum post industrial recylced content) AND a toilet paper that was not bleached with chemicals that cause cancer and genetic mutations for those exposed to said chemicals in the process. NO WHERE on the packaging for White Cloud's Green Earth tp, nor on their charming website, http://www.mywhitecloud.com/, does this company reveal it's bleaching process. And it's quite obvious, that this paper has been bleached.

There are several methods of bleaching paper products, some far better than others. The one to avoid is Elemental Chlorine (chlorine gas). This is the worst of the bunch, and is responsible for the release of chlorinated compounds like dioxins and furans, which are powerful carcinogens and mutagens. These chemicals can adversely affect immune systems and reproductive systems and are dreadful for aquatic life and wildlife. The Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) process may be okay—this method employs a chlorine derivative such as chlorine dioxide rather than chlorine gas, and is not the best choice, but is a cleaner process than the use of elemental chlorine. Process Chlorine Free (PCF) does not use not bleach with chlorine or its derivatives. Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) is the best choice—this is pulp that has never been bleached with chlorine or its derivatives.

With all of the plastic bags that folks return to these handy recycling bins at Walmart, you know the world is bound to have enough discarded plastic bags to collect and re-process into shrinkwrap for WhiteCloud. Once again, Walmart is one step ahead of Kroger by offering these drop-off locations for plastic bags.
Posted by Live Better Lizzie at

Get On O.U.T.! Oxford University Transit is free until January 2009! Please keep this program alive!

As I ran errands around town this morning I noticed two new things:

1. A tiny sign at the corner of Jackson Ave and South 9th Street. The sign is so small and with the white background and green or blue lettering, you can barely read it as you drive by. But it clearly marked a new bus stop, a product of the Oxford-University Transit system.

2. Just as I was squinting to read the tiny sign, a short bus style vehicle approached the stoplight and turned, and I saw the words, Get On O.U.T.! Oxford University Transit. Never had I seen this short bus before. I just assumed that it was some new thing for Ole Miss students, sort of like the notoriously unreliable buses that SCAD provides for their students in Savannah, GA.

I make a stop at the bank, and pick up the University of Mississippi's daily, student-edited publication: The Daily Mississippian. Monday, October 20, 2008. The most important headline I've read in Oxford news concerning green initiatives in months is placed beneath a giant photo of the AOPi's sorority house, with a tragic story about how their main water pipe burst during Rush week:

OXFORD PUBLIC TRANSIT OPENS

by JB Clark

(This is incredible news...copied directly from the website)

Oxford-University Transit (OUT) opened its bus doors to the public for the first time Monday morning, and those in charge of the system have high hopes for its operation.
“In the first few weeks, we hope to have at least 300 passengers per day, but this is a totally new system so we’re anxious to see how the population sees it,” said Jack Howard, chairman of the Oxford-University Transit Commission. “We think that the more the public sees the buses, the more comfortable they will be with it.”
The transit system will be a free service until January of 2009.
“There are not too many public transit systems in the South, let alone in Mississippi, so we want people to get used to it and see its benefits before we implement a fee,” Howard said.
The commission will hold a public hearing before the fees are implemented, but the anticipated cost will be one dollar per ride with discounts for students and senior citizens.
“It’s going to be a great service to our community and to our campus as well. I hope many students get to ride the transit system and save on gas,” Vice Chancellor for University Relations Gloria Kellum said.
“Public transit is a good idea; it will help with gas and traffic. I cannot wait to start using it,” sophomore political science major Antonia Bird said.
The OUT commission’s budget runs just over $1 million per year. Commissioners anticipate it will take $87,000 in passenger fees annually to keep the program running.
“This is a not-for-profit public service, but if we can get people to ride the buses, then we can expand to other parts of the city,” Howard said.
According to Howard, the system will greatly benefit Oxford’s disabled and elderly population, allowing them to get to medical facilities with ease.
“We made sure that the routes run to the medical facilities on South Lamar so that people who are not able to get around easily wouldn’t have to rely on other people in order to get to a medical facility,” he said.
The transit system will also benefit University of Mississippi students, especially those without their own vehicles.
“In a small town like Oxford, when there are so many people and so much congestion, to not have public transportation is out of the question,” sophomore English major Caitlin McNally said. “I’m glad that it is finally available.”
“I just hope that everyone understands that this is a public service, and we are anticipating that people will use it. We want feedback to help us better run things,” Howard said.

Farmers Market - the store - in Oxford, Mississippi - by far the best place to buy groceries in Oxford

And you thought Kroger and Walmart were your only options!

If you have not or do not frequently attempt to buy all of your groceries at Farmers Market (the store - not to be confused with the Midtown Farmer's Market) please make an experiment of it. When the Midtown Farmer's Market ends every October, I try to only buy my food from the Farmer's Market store on CR 101, and I let the produce from this store dictate all of my meals. They really do have the best selection and BEST variety of local foods. What I love about this place is the little hand-written signs that tell you what town or county the food came from. And seriously, the price is right at this place. I bought a buldging pint of local yellow cherry-sized tomatoes for $1.27 today. You can buy a mediocre pint of red cherry tomatoes right now at Kroger for $1.50 and they have been hauled in all the way from San Antonio, Texas. We're lucky, down here in the South, to have Texas near by, considering the wealth of fruits they produce, but according to google maps, from San Antonio to Oxford it's approx. a 12 hour and 16 minute drive. Oxford can't produce everything on their own of course, so I often buy produce from other Southern states as well, but I am most happy to support locally owned, small businesses like Farmers Market, located at 274 County Road 101, Oxford, MS 38655.

Check out these Japanese Persimmons grown in Houston, Mississippi, about an hour and a half drive away from Oxford.

While Oxford's Midtown Farmer's Market is over for the season, some of their lovely local goods are still available.

Zion Farms' beef, pork and chicken are available all year. Get on Ron Brandon's email list at zionfarms@gmail.com. Don't forget to get on the list for a holiday turkey.

Providence Farms eggs are available by emailing happyhouseinc@bellsouth.net.

For breads, get in touch with Frog's Pearl Station by emailing Rebecca at Dutch van Oostendorp at frogspearl@bellsouth.net or call 662-609-8394. Hearty winter breads and bagels will be availble. You can also special order, with delivery in the parking lot of the Turner Center on the Ole Miss campus.

Bost Farms should have squash, tomatoes and beans available for a while. Call 234-3425.

Fresh local honey is available from beekeeper Larry Carr, call 473-2506.

All natural, preservative-free breads from Otto and Annie Puttman at Loafing Around are available by emailing naturalpath@doctor.com or calling 281-0309. Get on their list for Christmas cookies!

Pump this: drilling here drilling now won't help in the short term. But there are a few things that you can do right now when buying gas.

So the darling of the green voters admits that he will consider offshore drilling. Obama also tells that drilling here drilling now will do little to help us. The USA is currently the biggest gas guzzler of all, and there simply is not enough estimated oil beneath our coasts to keep our entire country running.

Here are a few tips from a friend of a friend who works for Kinder Morgan Pipeline in San Jose, CA. There are some things that we can all do to help ourselves and our country at the pump.

TIPS ON BUYING GAS:

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so if you buy in the afternoon or in the evening, your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up, do not squeeze the nozzle's trigger to fast speed. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. You should be pumping on low speed , thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid on the way to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked back into the underground storage tank so you're really getting less worth for your money.

Important Tip: FILL UP when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY!
Reason: the more gas you have in your tank, the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck we load is temperature compensated, so every gallon is actually the exactamount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, Do NOT Fill Up!!--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

WHERE TO BUY USA GAS:

Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia. Just buy from gas companies that don't import their oil from the Saudis. You need to know from which oil companies are the best to buy gas and also, which major companies import Middle Eastern oil.

These companies import Middle Eastern oil:

Shell.......................... 205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco......... 144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil............... 130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway... 117,740,000 barrels
Amoco...........................62,231,000 barrels
Citgo gas is from South America

Here are some large companies which do NOT import Middle Eastern oil:

Sunoco..................0 barrels
Conoco..................0 barrels
Sinclair................0 barrels
B P/Phillips............0 barrels
Hess.......................0 barrels
ARC0....................0 barrels

All of this information is available from the Department of Energy. Each company is required to state from where it gets its oil and how much it is importing.

Soap and Hot Water - it's that simple

It's that time of year again. Humans, young and old, are coughing, sneezing, drinking and eating after eachother and not washing their hands before they do anything, all over the place.
The Mississippi State Department of Health clearly states on their website that handwashing is the single most important means of preventing the spread of infection.

Our hands bring us into contact every day with disease-causing bacteria and viruses, including those that cause flu. Frequent handwashing can remove or destroy these germs. It's a powerful tool against disease.

Thoroughly washing every part of the hands is essential. A proper handwashing takes at least 20 seconds.
Wet your hands under warm running water and apply some soap.
Lather up — apply soap and rub your hands together hard to scrub dirt and germs away.
Wash hands front and back, and between the fingers.
Wash around your wrists and under your nails.
Rinse well in warm water.
Dry your hands completely with a paper towel. Use the paper towel to turn off the water source, and to open the bathroom door to exit.

You should wash your hands before:
Handling food
Setting the table
Eating
Treating a scrape, cut, or wound
Tending to someone who is sick
Putting in or taking out contact lenses

You should wash your hands after:
Going to the bathroom
Changing diapers
Coughing or sneezing
Preparing food
Touching burns, cuts, or sores
Playing with pets or animals
Handling dirty dishes, utensils, or touching cabinet tops where food is prepared
Being around someone who is sick
Taking out the garbage

It is so shocking to me that people do not frequently wash their hands for whatever reason. It's such an easy thing to do. If you are not able to get to a sink and wash your hands, carry anti-bacterial wipes in your purse or in your car. They may not be environmentally friendly, but in some way, if you can prevent spreading germs to others, you are doing the environment a favor. I know that when I get a cold, I go through at least 3 boxes of tissues or more. No one wants to spend money on something that gets thrown away, but if you think that preserving trees is more important than what you wipe your nose with, consider this information found a the NRDC's site:
If every household in the United States replaced just one box of virgin fiber facial tissues (175 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 163,000 trees.

The bar of soap is a quickly vanishing thing of the past in public restrooms. If you use liquid soap at home, consider switching back to the good old bar of soap. It's less expensive and it saves packaging waste. The average bar of soap lasts for about twenty showers. Depending on how much you use it, a sixteen-ounce bottle of body wash lasts for an average of 80 showers. However, your fancy body wash costs on average more than 4 times as much as a bar of soap. And it every U.S. household replaced a bottle of body wash with a bar of soap, roughly 2.5 millions pounds of plastic containers could be diverted from the waste stream.

In my opionion, with the introduction of the Autumn through Winter season of sickness also comes the responsibility of all people living in the U.S. to go out and get a FLU SHOT. The MSDH has posted on their website that flu shots will be available starting Tuesday, October 7 from MSDH clinics statewide. You can also check with your doctor, or look for a commercial flu shot clinic in your area. In Mississippi, flu shots from Department of Health clinics cost $25 for adults and $10 for children six months through 18 years old. Pneumonia shots are $48. Medicare or Medicaid prices may be lower; bring your card if you have one. Pneumonia is the deadliest complication from flu; over 600 Mississippians a year die from flu and pneumonia. The pneumonia vaccine can reduce the severity of pneumonia and the chance of hospitalization or death. If you have not had a recent pneumonia vaccination, check with your doctor or county health department to get one. $44; Medicare and Medicaid prices may be lower.

So this is just a reminder to all: wash hands often, cover your cough and stay home if you are sick. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. The flu virus easily enters the body when you touch a contaminated surface and transfer the virus to the eyes, nose, or mouth. Stay home when you are sick. You are more likely to catch the flu if you are already sick with a cold or other illness. If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick to keep yourself and others well. If you are sick, continue to follow the handwashing guidelines above.
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing to prevent the spread of any illness to others. Wash your hands after using a tissue.

If you live in Mississippi, click this link to find a flu shot distribution area nearest to your home.

If you blink you might miss it... searching for the green cleaning section at Kroger

In between the dog food and the frozen desserts section at our one and only Kroger that exists in Oxford, there is a small section of eco-friendly cleaning and paper products. Before I left Oxford, 4 months ago, I shopped regularly in this section for my preferred brand of laundry detergent and the occasional splurge on recycled paper towels and toilet paper. A week ago, when I checked in with Kroger for the first time in months, I was pleasantly surprised to see these few shelves fully stocked and hosting more products by Seventh Generation and Biokleen. When I shop for products that when used eventually go down the drain, out the pipes and on to the rivers, I only buy Phosphate Free.

Why? It's funny how 7th grade Science suddenly becomes more applicable to every day life than 7th grade Math ever did.

If you don't remember things that sounded creepy at the time, like Algal Blooms, here's the latest info about what is happening to our rivers and coastal waters, RIGHT NOW.

Phosphorus, generally in the form of phosphates, has historically been one of the main ingredients in detergent. In the detergents, phosphates served as a “builder” to improve the detergent’s cleaning efficiency. Their strong cleaning performance, however, has increasingly been overshadowed by their harmful effects on rivers, lakes, streams, and other fresh waters. Levels of phosphates in these fresh water bodies can be much higher than normal as the result of contamination from municipal and domestic wastewater that contains phosphates -- some or much of which (depending on your perspective) comes from phosphate-containing detergents that go down the drain after use.

Although phosphates are an important plant nutrient, higher than normal phosphate levels can destroy the health of the lake, stream or other fresh water body, as they allow algae in the water to grow faster than would naturally occur, turning clear lakes and rivers green and cloudy. This extra algal growth is not only unappealing to look at, but can also make the water smell bad and make it unsuitable for swimming. It can also make drinking water more expensive to filter and can spoil the taste or smell of the drinking water. In the long run, the excess algal growth can have devastating impacts on the health and age of a fresh water lake or river, causing eutrophication to speed up, where lakes and other water bodies fill in with dead algae and other organic matter and eventually turn into dry land.

Unfortunately, there are many types of phosphates finding their way to the sea. Some also come from agricultural and urban runoff; more specifically, from agricultural fertilizers and lawn-care products that break down to release phosphates into the soil. Because plant growth can be limited by the amount of phosphorus in the soil, it has become common practice to apply fertilizers which increase the available phosphorus and the crop yield.

So we can debate all day about whether my singular choice in buying phosphate-free products changes the world, but instead of doing so, I would suggest that everyone in Oxford consider all of the chemicals and cleaners that they dispose of on a daily basis. Are they headed to the Gulf, which we have tried so hard to restore? Are they clogging up the muddy shores of the mighty Mississippi? Or worse: are the chemicals we use leaching into our groundwater and ending up in our watertable?

Yeeesh.

Last Day at the Midtown Farmer's Market

Today is the last day to get your veggies at the Midtown Farmer's Market in Oxford.

Why shop at your local Farmer's Market?

Here's why:

Of the total energy used in the United States per year, 4 percent is used to produce food, and between 10 and 13 percent is used to transport it. On average, U.S. supermarket food travels 1,500 to 2,500 miles before it reaches the family table. Buying local food can reduce the amount of petroleum consumed to transport your dinner as much as 95 percent. Plus, local food is so much fresher and tastier. Try it, and I promise you will notice the difference.

Have you ever seen a purple pepper?

Beware of the Phantom Loads!

Here's a special treat, just in time for the upcoming Halloween holiday - a guest post by Annabelle of i [heart] mountains.

What's scarier than a Halloween goblin?
Phantom Loads (bwahahaha!)
A phantom load is the energy that an appliance or piece of electronics draws down, even when it's not turned on. Taking an extra second or two to unplug electronics that you don't need to leave on--like a computer, coffee maker, toaster, TV, or phone charger--can save you some serious cash on your monthly power bill! According to Ideal Bite, 40% of the power that appliances use is consumed after they've been turned off.
At our house, just taking the time to unplug the computer and modem in the office + the coffee maker and toaster oven saves us money each month. The easiest way to set this up is to put similar electronics like a computer, modem and printer all on the same power strip and unplug the strip at night or while you're away. Some of the newer powerstrips don't even draw a phantom load if you switch them off. Check out this model. We haven't figured out how to set up the washer and dryer this way, but when our September power bill arrived and it was only for $45, we weren't complaining! Just don't unplug your fridge or hot water heater. Not worth the savings people!Also check this out: Kill a Watt electricity usage monitor if you really want to geek out and track this stuff (or don't believe me).
Next up: Yes, you really can wash the clothes on cold and no, a clothes line is not tacky.

Ole Miss Green Initiative

According to Jim Morrison, Coordinator of Campus Sustainability, the debate in Oxford did not aid the University in their progress to attain climate neutrality.

I inquired via email as to whether or not there was a website dedicated to the initiative. The program is indeed lacking a website due to the Presidential debate, which pulled most of the Ole Miss website developers in a different direction.

What little buzz the program has gotten so far, mostly can boast about the beginnings of recycling on campus and in the grove. Read more at The Daily Mississippian...

Oxford Recycles?!

After a successful pilot program, the city of Oxford has decided to move forward with a cubrside recycling program for residents living within the city limits.

(For those of you living beyond, sorry. You will still have to haul your items to the very remote recycling destination.)

Check out the order form here. I don't understand why there is an option to check the box for "I want the bins, but I would not like to pay for them." It clearly states that if you don't have bins left over from the pilot program, getting new bins will cost $12.00 per household/set and $6.00 for each additional bin. Wheel kits are $5.50. If ordering bins/wheel kits, an invoice will be included with the delivery of your order. Stickers are free! You may use them on your bins or on our bins. The cost of the bins is optional.

If you miss your pickup, recycling drop-off locations are available. Bins are available for each recyclable: Aluminum and steel cans, mixed paper, newspapers, plastic and cardboard. There are drop-off locations at the following sites:
Municipal Center (City Shop) on Molly Barr Road beside the police station
Highway 7 South next to Oxford Fire Station #3
Recycling Center at the City of Oxford Landfill on County Road 321 (Pea Ridge Road)
Curbside Recycling Program

Amberlyn Liles, Recycling Coordinator

Attention Walmart Shoppers...

Living in a small town with 2 options for one-stop-shopping for groceries and other amenities: Kroger and Walmart, can be quite limiting on the green scale. However, it seems to me that Walmart is leading the charge for affordable green cleaning products.

Many folks in the USA are pinching their pennies so tightly that their thumbs are turning white. As you may have noticed, green products are often not the cheapest. Last Spring, the Walmart in Oxford, MS began carrying many more varieties of green cleaning products. As of yesterday, all most ALL of the green cleaning products are on sale. I'm not sure if they are being discontinued, but one of the price tags said, "deleted." In any case, get your cheap green cleaners at Walmart today before they're all sold!

*Note - I do not know how green these products are in reality, but many of the claims on the lables say non-toxic, not tested on animals, bottle made of recycled plastic. It's not Shaklee but it's as good as it gets for those of us who are trying to save money, our personal health, and the health of the oceans, lands and inhabitants around us. Brands on sale include: Palmolive's Pure & Clear, Simplicity's Hypoallergenic Non-toxic Certified Biodegradable (certified by whom? it doesn't say) and Clorox's Greenworks brand.

Ivory's Ultra Pure-Pur is not on sale. The brands that are on sale are all marked down to $2.00 each and they seem to be selling quickly. As you can see, the shelf below is empty. I sincerely hope that Walmart continues to carry these products. But it may be the case that they are being discontinued.

I was so impressed last Spring when I saw a commercial that Walmart was carrying a new brand of t-shirts made from recycled plastic bottles. Coca-Cola partnered with Wal-Mart to support the mass retailer’s Earth Month program designed to highlight products in-store that can help consumers live a more sustainable lifestyle.

When I found the time to go to Walmart and see these t-shirts, I was sort of appalled by the slogans and designs. The new line of t-shirts,"Drink 2 Wear", was displayed in the standard giant cardboard shelf display running down the center of an aisle, near the shoes and children's clothing. One t-shirt said something like, "6 bottles of coke and all I got was this t-shirt," or "Save the Humans" with an image of a whale spouting a rainbow. One t-shirt actually favored Paris Hilton by saying, "Recycling is Hot". I've looked online and apparently there were other less idiotic slogans along the lines of, "Make Your Plastic Fantastic" and "Rehash Your Trash". In any case, the fact that they would put the word, "hash" on any t-shirt for children sort of blows my mind.

Fast forward past Earthday month 2008 to October 1st:

Three standard four-sided cardboard display units still stocked with plently of recycled plastic t-shirts.

"Drink 2 Wear" t-shirts that were once $15, $10, and $8 are now all $5, whether they have short sleeves or long. A sign of the times? Or a sign that their marketing campaign needs a facelift in the slogan department? Or is it the general problem of Walmart having such a large quantity of merchandise that it always goes on sale? Let's hope that sustainably-made clothing is not just an Earthday fad.