green consumption Tag

breastfeeding A baby nursing at mother’s breast will ingest a better concoction of vitamins, sugars, essential minerals and proteins than Purina Petfood could ever dream of providing for the world’s most pedigreed show dogs. Baby will also benefit from enzymes and antibodies that can ward off ailments ranging from nasty infections to cancer. Mixed in with all the good stuff, baby will also be fed trace amounts of paint thinners, dry-cleaning fluids, wood preservatives, toilet deodorizers, cosmetic additives, gasoline byproducts, rocket fuel, termite poisons and flame-retardants. These were the results when Florence Williams sent off a sample of her breastmilk to a lab in Germany. Then she wrote a book about it.

Earth - IllustrationI just read an article that called our youngest generation the "re-generation" (sorry, can't find the url), alluding to their familiarity with the reduce, reuse, recycle slogan and their attentiveness to environmental causes. I haven't found any hard statistics that actually support the idea that the Homelanders will be more environmentally conscious, but OK, I'll go with the idea that environmentalism is since environmentalism is gradually entering into our psyches over time a sense of urgency and importance might be greater among the young. One thing I learned from judging at the Texas Future Problem Solvers competition this weekend is that the fervent climate change deniers and "drill, baby, drill" knuckleheads are not making inroads into the mindset of the young. From my own experience it does indeed seem as if 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle' resonate on a much deeper level and are more actionable and instinctive with our the youngest cohorts.

Cow A former co-worker sent me this link a few days ago. A few years back when we did futures research and trend watching for a nutritional company, breast vs. bottle was a big issue. The trend is certainly a return to more natural forms of child rearing where breast-feeding (or providing breast milk in BPA free bottles at the very least) is the quintessential deed for parents. Even the latter option is viewed with some skepticism by the most devoted “lactivists”. Since breastfeeding often is viewed as more than just nutrition, a bottle served in a nursery is pitiful regardless of the contents of that bottle. Breastfeeding in this sense is about establishing a self-reinforcing symbiotic cycle of oxytocin generation. A mother-baby cocoon manifested by the wrappings of fair-traded, ethnic patterned, organic cotton slings where no commercial, genetically modified and climate threatening products can intrude. And yes, it’s also about identity and image.

An article in Treehugger takes issues with a NYT story which claims that green consumption is down due to the recession. The writer argues that the NYT writer takes a very narrow view in what constitute green consumption. She says the mentioned products affected by...

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