Fair Weather Vegan

Now There's A Rhetorical Question

On the cover of a recent issue of  Men's Health magazine, one may find the headline "Can You Be A Man and Not Eat Meat?" Leaving aside how idiotic it is to buy into any trope about what it means to be a 'real' man (or woman), the next line is "Jonathan Safran Foer investigates."  No need to read the 'investigation,' then, is there?  Or indeed use the word 'investigates' at all.   Foer is best known for being the author of Everything Is Illuminated, but his secondary claim to fame is being an extremely doctrinaire vegetarian.  It's like sending Michael Moore out to do a piece on whether corporations are evil. 

Recycle #5 Plastics In The New Year

If you don't live in a municipality which recycles #5 plastics,* like yogurt tubs, prescription bottles, and Brita filters, Preserve Products has created a program to help you.  Its Gimme 5 initiative allows you to mail these plastics to Preserve for recycling or drop them off at a Whole Foods.  Preserve is known for making entirely refurbished plastic products like flatware, toothbrushes, and razors.   

*San Francisco supposedly does but I'm skeptical. 

Method Thinks Sexual Harassment Will Sell Green Cleaning Products

You know, my nose has started to hurt when I use conventional cleaners, but one thing that isn't analagous to is sexual assault.  I'm not going to link to a vid, because I don't want them to get the hits, but the latest ad from Method, a popular brand of non-toxic cleaning products, features a woman being harassed in the creepiest possible way in the shower by male chemicals.  It sounds ridiculous when I write it, but they knew exactly what they were doing to invoke an actual threatening situation, implicitly linking using non-green cleaners and rape.  The company has done nothing but push back at the customers who are writing in with outrage.  They are allegedly incredulous that anyone could read the ad that way, especially since the situation is portrayed as bad!  That's problem one, of course, because there's nothing alike about the negative scenarios they run together.  Even worse, in the real world nothing is bad enough not to earn the approbation of our rape culture, and there have been many comments on the vid that laud and imitate the 'funny' male-identified harassers.  What on earth was this company thinking?  Yet another in the long line of allegedly environmental pitches that uses misogyny as its selling point.  I'm a Seventh Generation buyer anyhow, but now I will go out of my way to encourage friends and neighbors to avoid Method. 

In Which FL Channels Her Better Self

Dear Lush-

This professional critical thinker, who just wrote a positive post a few days ago about Squeaky Green that you might find interesting, thanks you for the time and effort your employees took in commenting.  It may behoove you to think about your PR strategies in terms of not appearing to either lecture or patronize those who are, in fact, being extremely measured in their discussion of certain issues and who ultimately come out in support of Lush. 

Best,

-FL

Lush Products: A Further Word

Just FYI, Lush solid shampoos and a number of their other products contain Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. I've heard of people being allergic to this ingredient, and some environmentalists eschew it.  I tend to trust the Lush crew to be responsible (they just created a palm oil-free soap base, for instance), but if you're not into SLS, here are some organic hair care choices courtesy of Greenopia. 

You Can't Eat It: Lush Squeaky Green Shampoo

Is there a more fanatical demographic than Lush fans?  We can find our way to a shop simply by closing our eyes and waiting for the distinctive Lush product smell to waft over us.  They always keep their doors open for just this purpose.  One of the many amazing things about the storied British cosmetics company is their commitment to environmental causes.  Far from being greenwashers, they are constantly on the watch for ways to make their handmade products and packaging more earth-friendly.  From soap to bath bombs, many of their products don't use packaging at all.  One of their brightest ideas was the solid shampoo formula, which obviates the need for plastic bottles.  The shampoo comes in fun little discs and you can save it in a tin.

My first experience with a Lush solid shampoo was not a success.  I tried Soak and Float and not only did it smell of charcoal (which Lush cheerfully admits), it also made my head itch, which was the exact opposite of its stated intent. I also found the usage somewhat difficult, and never quite got the hang of swiping the bar on wet hair and then lathering up.  So it took a few more years for me to try again, and this time I chose Squeaky Green, with rosemary and peppermint.  My scalp does seem to like it much better, and one day after washing my hair is soft and has a lot of body.  I don't know where the reviewers are coming from who say it dries out hair, because that hasn't been my experience.  Unfortunately, the day of washing it's usually flat since not only am I trying to deal with a new, longer style but it's hard to gauge how much goes on and it's quite difficult to rinse out.  You always need fewer swipes than you'd think and more rinsing time than you'd normally take. 

I recommend Lush shampoo bars for a fun, green alternative but they do need some getting used to and it takes time to find the one that's best for your hair type. 

More Corrupt Kashrut Officials

This seems like a story out of the early part of last century, when there was so much money to be made in the kosher food industry and so little institutional control, that anyone could set himself up as an authority and any butcher could be certified.  Things are supposed to be better now, but in the course of my search for an opinion that would let me eat catfish (a cursory scan didn't turn up anything, so I had a panini and skirted the issue of whether something cooked on a treyf grill is essentially just as bad), I found various examples of refusals to use the tablet K heksher.  Then it randomly came up in conversation with friends later on.  Although widely accepted within my minyan, the heksher is rejected by one friend because she knows someone whom the rabbi in charge offered to bribe.  What a lovely piece of work.  Thus far the only product I see on FWV that has the tablet K is Belfiore Mozzarella, but I think that some of the foods I've only marked as 'hekshered' have it too (Precious Mozzarella as well, maybe?).  So I'll try to be more careful in future in identifying which heksher something has in case readers want to avoid this one. 

Red Vic To Show "The Cove" On November 15th

A documentary team literally risked their lives to film this story of a Japanese dolphin sale and slaughtering culture so secret that even most Japanese people don't know about it (and were horrified by the footage).  Shot with hidden cameras worthy of a spy ring and while under constant threat from the government and the fishermen*, the film has won numerous prizes including an audience choice award at Sundance.  It is playing one San Francisco date at the tiiiiiiny theater in the Haight where they give you wooden popcorn bowls. 

*term used advisedly since they all seem to be men; this in contrast to what I've recently learned about the world's farmers, a majority of whom are women

What Food-Related Tweeters Float Your Boat?

The 'food' column on my version of Tweet Deck is much shorter than my other categories.  I follow some local faves like BiRite Market and Shuna Fish Lydon, some well-known food bloggers like Ganda, and of course awesome activists like Fat Nutritionist.  What should I add to my list? 

"You Don't Need To Tease The Cakes"

As much as I hate all forms of food ads that are predicated on women's insecurity about their weight, Yoplait's latest is pretty cute ("Oh yeah?  Well who ever heard of a bear sheriff?").  If only yogurt could actually be a substitute for cake, or any other product with carbs in it, its cuteness wouldn't got to waste.