What I'm Reading (a Short List of Green Favorites)

OK, here's the truth. Since I had my third baby, I often go months without opening Google Reader. I love a great green tip as much as the next gal, but I just don't have the time to keep up with all the awesome green blogs out there. I do try to keep up on the news, particularly news related to environmental and health issues. Here are the websites and blogs I still manage to regularly peruse for information and inspiration.

Environmental Working Group
Home of the Cosmetic Safety Database, the Shopper's Guide to Pesticide in Produce, and the Guide to Healthy Cleaning, EWG is one of my favorite resources for reducing my family's exposure to toxic chemicals. I also heartily admire and support their work to reform our national Farm Bill. EWG's blog about environmental connections to public health, Enviroblog, is at the top of my Google Reader.

Healthy Child Healthy World
Another great resource for avoiding toxic chemicals. Their blog helps keep me up on the latest research and legislation with toxins. They frequently feature posts by experts, and have many great posts for parents beyond the topic of toxic chemicals, such as a post about toddler development with respected pediatrician Dr. Greene (including how to handle toddler meltdowns), or ideas for family nature adventures. I get their weekly e-newsletter to make sure I don't miss anything.

My Plastic-free Life
I am always trying to further reduce my use of plastic, and particularly disposable plastic, and Beth's blog (and book) are my best resource for doing so.

Green Phone Booth
I post about once a month now at Green Phone Booth, but read almost every post published. I love this collaborative and the sense of community fostered there, and the diverse perspectives offered by this awesome group of eco-heroes.

Additional Suggestions
There are many more blogs I wish I had time to read. If you are looking for additional green bloggy reading, may I suggest the contributors to the recently launched Green Sisterhood. I also recommend checking out the many blogs that are part of the Green Moms Carnival, such as Groovy Green Livin or The Smart Mama. You can check out additional organizations I frequently use for research on green topics and safer products here.


I also do my best to stop by the blogs of readers who comment whenever I have the chance. Thank you for your questions and encouragement!


What are your favorite green websites? 

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Weekend Links (U.S. Food Regulation)

Food for Thought:  U.S. Regulation of Food
Schwan Food Company and Tyson Foods race to create "healthier" pizzas and nuggets.  Since watching my low-income students eat the school cafeteria's fare daily for both breakfast and lunch (usually food I would never eat nor serve to my own children), I have had an interest in the school lunch program and wish so much that it were better:

How Food Companies Are Scrambling to Stay on School Lunch Menus

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New Dirty Dozen and Other Weekend Links

The big news is that EWG published their new Dirty Dozen (and Clean Fifteen). Here is the cute printable guide. I prefer to print out the full list. Each year, EWG ranks pesticide contamination of popular fruits and vegetables based on their analysis of 51,000 tests for pesticides on these foods, conducted by the USDA and the FDA. You can read more about the methodology here.  A few facts that will make your head spin (from EWG):

• As a category. peaches have been treated with more pesticides than any other produce, registering combinations of up to 57 different chemicals. Apples were next, with 56 pesticides and raspberries with 51.
• A single celery sample was contaminated with 13 different chemicals, followed by a single sample of sweet bell peppers (11), and greens (10).

If you value this kind of information, please sign EWG's petition telling the USDA to stop funding a California-based pro-pesticide, big agriculture group, which has accused EWG of discouraging produce consumption (P.S. The USDA has also not yet released the latest pesticide residue data). Consumers aren't smart enough to make up their own minds about pesticides, so the argument goes, and all this information just scares them unnecessarily! This is the same argument used for not labeling GMOs, by the way.  If only we could actually trust the USDA to make decisions in the public interest, instead of acting like the lap dog of Big Ag.  In the meantime, give me the information please.

In other breaking news, the USDA has replaced the Food Pyramid with My Plate.  Definitely more useful, but personally I won't be looking to the USDA for eating advice anytime soon.  Check out this awesome comparison of what the USDA recommends you eat versus what foods they subsidize.  Love that USDA!

A few more reads:

Another reason to eat organic meat.

Tips for avoiding food poisoning without toxic chemicals.

And a fun instead of depressing one: finds at the antique shop!

Happy Father's Day!

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Winner and Weekend Links

The winner of the Nothing But Soap natural laundry soap giveaway is: Heaventaste!

Thank you to all who participated.  If you are like my sister, now that you know you didn't win, you can go ahead and make your purchase from Nothing But Soap.  Amber has great prices!

And if you haven't done so already, remember to enter the giveaway for a set of stainless steel straws made by Etsy shop The Mulled Mind.  There will be 2 more Etsy giveaways in June as well.  Stay tuned!

A few reads for the weekend:

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Weekend Links

I think we've all accepted this cannot be a weekly series for me.  But I like to do it when I get the chance because I read a lot of great stuff during the week.

A new study examined the amount and type of flame retardants chemicals in baby products, such as car seats and nursing pillows.  Great coverage of this study by Enviroblog (EWG's blog) and Healthy Child Healthy World.  Question #1 for me is: why do we need flame retardants in car seats and nursing pillows?

Just in time for summer, the ever-helpful Environmental Working Group just released their latest Sunscreen Guide.  Here is their own blog post explaining the highlights.

The store MightyNest (for which I am an affiliate) just rolled out a new kitchen section for their store.  Read this great post about 12 ways to avoid toxins in your kitchen from their blog.  I'll be posting my review of their stainless steel cup on Monday.  Use the code Friend10 for 10% off your entire order!

You might want to enter this Dream Green Giveaway from Lullaby Organics with 3 prizes worth $750 to $2,250. If you win, please include me in your living will.

My post on artificial sweeteners featured in Healthy Child Healthy World's Blog of the Week series.  I guess I'm glad someone likes my posts.

On a personal note, fellow blogger, mastermind behind the riveting Green Holidays series, and young mom Kelly Smith is having a brain tumor removed soon.  If you read Kelly's blog miskellany, you might be interested in learning more and pitching in to get her a little gift.

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Weekend Links

 

How many weeks have I missed now?  Two?  Three?  So I'm just including a very few choice links in this post.  If you want to check out more posts and articles I find interesting, you can consult the gadget in my right sidebar called "Best of Eco-novice's Google Reader" or just click HERE.

Eco-novice around the Web

Art Books for Kids
My guest post on megwrites.

School Lunches Need a Food Revolution
Eco-novice is Blog of the Week on Healthy Child Healthy World.

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Weekend Links (Double Edition)

Wow, so many interesting and disturbing reads in the last 2 weeks.  All the Plastic and Food links are followed by a short excerpt from the article or post.  

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Weekend Links

Eco-novice around the web
My guest post on Eco-snobbery Sucks:

Going green gradually: Baby steps with a baby

My guest post on Heirloom Wooden Toys' blog:

What Happens to a Toy When It Dies?

Two posts I wrote for GoodBlogs:

Can You Potty Train a Baby?
What Should I Do First???

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Weekend Links

Food for thought (and another reason to shop at your Farmer's Market):
For Every Dollar You Spend on "Food," Less than 16 Cents Pays for Food

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Weekend Links

This is my first attempt at a Weekend Links post. I'll be sharing some of the best posts and articles I came across this week.  Some of these posts/articles are rather old, but they are new to me, and hopefully will be new and of interest to you too.  Also, this list is a little long, because I've been accumulating links for about a month.  We'll see if I can keep this up weekly in the future.

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