Think That Company is Green? You're Probably Wrong

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Feb 19, 2010 at 13:22:43 PM PST

Some of the greatest confusion surrounds the food and beverage sector. Of the 115 firms we analysed, producers of food and drinks stood out as having the highest environmental impact - significantly different from media firms, retailers, technology companies and manufacturers of personal and household goods. Yet there were no significant differences in consumer perceptions between the sectors. In general, US consumers fail to recognise the high environmental costs associated with agriculture and food processing. [emphasis mine]

The article goes on to say that Whole Foods has a very green reputation but it ranked no higher in actual greenness than conventional supermarkets like Safeway. However, that assessment comes with a BIG caveat:

That doesn't mean Whole Foods isn't doing what it says it is. Rather, the company has not disclosed all its key environmental data, forcing Trucost to model its impact from an analysis of its overall operations - including sourcing produce, distribution and running its stores - which will be similar to other food retailers. "We cannot update our data without disclosure from a company," says James Salo, Trucost's vice-president for strategy and research.

Once Whole Foods does publish a full inventory of its greenhouse gas emissions - which it promises to do this year - its score may improve, but only slightly. That's because "it will be hard to match the performance of retailers selling goods other than food, which don't have to account for the high environmental costs of agriculture in their supply chains."

If you want to have some fun, check out the interactive graphic showing perception vs. reality. Rather notable in the graphic is how BAD Del Monte ranks and how GOOD Green Mountain Coffee Roasters ranks.

Miss America Gets Into the Greenwashing Game

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 13:14:37 PM PDT

These are good questions to ask, but let's start with a little bit of honesty. PLA can't be composted by your average composter. A friend sent me the following email about attempts for composting PLA:

[A friend] and I have talked about the issues with PLA and other "compostable" or "biodegradable" quite a bit.  Beyond the initial problem with most of them being made from commercially grown corn or other vegetables, they rarely live up to their claims.  Even the ones that I have seen that are made from organic corn (usually from China) don't seem to break down well at all.  None of this takes into account the fact that we live next to the ocean and none of these products break down in water.  I ran a test on the potato based cutlery and after one year in ocean water they had barely changed.  If these get into the water, they are just one more part of the Pacific Gyre.

My friend sent me this picture of an attempt to compost a PLA cup:

As you see, it didn't work out so well. Better stick to drinking out of reusable cups and water bottles.

UPDATE: About the picture, the person who sent it to me said this:

That picture is from a commercial compost pile that was using the latest in composting technology.  The temperature and oxygen levels were constantly monitored to maintain peak efficiency.

Sampler Platter 09.25.09

by: JayinPortland

Fri Sep 25, 2009 at 13:00:00 PM PDT

• The State of Oklahoma's lawsuit against the poultry industry for fouling (easy pun passed over, heh) the Illinois River watershed got underway in a Tulsa federal courthouse yesterday.  Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is suing Tyson, Cargill and nine other companies for violation of numerous state and federal laws.

• Jim Hightower takes on local-washing and corporate-speak.  "Such 'down-home' companies as Unilever and HSBC"... lol!

• The Humboldt jumbo squid that have been swarming the San Diego coastline all summer are now beginning to wash up as far north as the central Oregon Coast; a sardine mystery is being investigated on Oregon's North Coast; and US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco publish an Op-Ed on the government's Northwest salmon plan.

• Here's another piece on the culture clash between the old and the new in New York City street food.

• The City of San Jose, California has just passed what is called the nation's strictest bag ban. The ordinance will prohibit all retailers except for restaurants and nonprofits from giving out single-use plastic bags, and will only allow them to give out paper bags (which must be at least 40% recycled) for a fee.

• Sustainable transportation news roundup: a census survey released today ranks Portland as #1 of America's 30 largest cities in terms of bicycle commuting, with 6.4% of Portlanders getting to work via bike, a jump of more than 50% since 2007; Streetsblog NYC makes the case for openness in MTA data to improve riders' transit experience; and the feasability study on reinstatement of Amtrak's old Pioneer Route (Seattle & Portland to Salt Lake City & Denver via Eastern Oregon and Idaho) has just been released.  Why is it that highways and airports are never expected to be self-sustaining, while rail transit always is?  It's long past time that we stopped leaving most of the West to the tyranny of compulsory private automobile travel.

• The Bend-La Pine School District in Central Oregon is seeking to make its new elementary school one of the greenest public schools in the nation.

Newsweek Jumps On Greenwagon, Smacks Face on Bumper

by: JayinPortland

Fri Sep 25, 2009 at 07:00:00 AM PDT

Let's take a look at what they've come up with.  According to Newsweek, McDonald's (yeah, McDonald's) is the 22nd "Greenest" Big Company in America.

Leader among its peers in extending environmental concerns throughout its supply chain.

Talk about setting the bar low.  But then there's this -

Buys fish from sustainably managed fisheries

Whoa, back up there...

Sustainably managed what?

Anyways, I'm obviously no fan of Whole Foods here... but according to Newsweek, McDonald's ranks 45 spots higher than Whole Foods on their "green" scale.  Now call me crazy, but I don't think the average McDonald's meal is 3 times "greener" than something you can find at WFM.  

Littering the landscape with garish, flimsy little boxes from sea to shining sea (or is it now the land that shines, from tacky backlit plastic signs and highway lamps; while the seas appear dull and dead?) in service of our extreme car culture isn't very environmentally friendly.  I've also gotta wonder whether employee pay, benefits, etc... were included in their calculations.

Another interesting observation - Coca-Cola and WalMart are, respectively, 9 and 8 spots higher than Whole Foods, as well.  Okay, if WalMart (!) is fifty-something in a "green" survey?  I think that's the point at which you lose all credibility.

Ironically enough, Newsweek also has a new article up online discussing corporate greenwashing.  No mention, though, of the author's own publication's recent foray into same...

Sampler Platter 07.18.09

by: JayinPortland

Sat Jul 18, 2009 at 17:45:04 PM PDT

• Check out this fantastic piece on when overeating starts (very) young, from New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, I Was a Baby Bulimic.

• Maybe they just want autographed copies of Jill's book?  Deep sea jumbo flying squid have invaded the waters off San Diego...

• Meh, the only way for fast food franchises to "go green" is to cease existence.  A few building upgrades won't change the fact that they're still serving 3,000-mile caesar salads, 1,800-mile french fries and 7,500-mile hamburgers with tomatoes picked by modern-day slaves in Florida, etc...

• Looking towards the future of our cities - I love what Flint's been doing, and hope Detroit and other cities follow suit.  Are we seeing the beginning of a return to traditional urban living patterns of dense centers immediately surrounded by farmland?

• African-American churches on the South and West Sides of Chicago are battling food deserts themselves, opening new farmers' markets and starting community gardens on their properties.

• Time again here for my favorite berry - Pete Petersen brings us a quick primer on marionberries.

• A whole bunch of new Portland food carts!  I am definitely hitting Asaase sometime this week.  Afro-Caribbean vegan!  Can't wait for the new Mississippi Avenue food cart block to open soon, either.  I want a new Polish cart!

• Sticking with the Portland theme, two San Franciscans just spent a day eating through our city.  Decent tour, and they even hit a place I haven't been to yet, "Tao of Tea" on Belmont...

• Here's a piece on how farm-to-school in Portland has worked over the past few years.

Sampler Platter 07.16.09

by: JayinPortland

Thu Jul 16, 2009 at 17:22:04 PM PDT

• Boo!  California's Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee, the board charged under that state's Proposition 65 with identifying and listing substances that can cause birth defects, developmental or reproductive harm, quivered and kneeled down before NAMPA and their other BPA industry chronies, voting 7-0 against listing BPA as a chemical believed to cause reproductive harm.  The difference between the US and the EU's approach to the public health was clearly on display here - the board members "voiced concerns over the growing scientific research", yet ignored their own concerns because human lives have always taken a back seat to corporate profits in America.

• Beware of stealth Starbucks stores posing as local independent coffee shops, coming soon to a neighborhood near you...

• A massive, jellyfish-entangling mystery blob has been found floating off the Alaskan Coast.  The US Coast Guard has ruled out any manmade explanations (i.e. - oil spill); although it may be an algae bloom, none of the researchers have ever before seen anything quite like this.

• A second breeding pair of wolves have now taken up residence in Eastern Washington.

• A Bush Administration-era bull trout protection plan was just tossed by a judge in Montana, now giving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service six months to come up with a new plan to protect the endangered fish's habitat.  Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Julie MacDonald was found in December 2008 to have taken "actions that potentially jeopardized the Endangered Species Act decisional process in 13 of the 20" decisions investigated by the Office of the Inspector General, and this (bull trout habitat protection) plan was deemed "too illogical to withstand legal review" by the court.

• From the Christian Science Monitor, another article on urban beekeeping.

• Homeless advocacy groups, after reviewing policy and practices in 273 US cities, have released a report this week naming Los Angeles as the American city which most criminalizes homelessness; other cities on the "Top 10 Meanest" list include Orlando, Atlanta, Honolulu, San Francisco and Berkeley, CA.

Sampler Platter 06.14.09

by: JayinPortland

Sun Jun 14, 2009 at 17:37:07 PM PDT

• Farmers' markets in Oregon have been affected by the Bush Depression...in a good way.  Record crowds have been counted at markets here in Portland this year, and purchases are up over 20 percent from last year.  Also, people on food assistance have spent almost 3 times as much at some markets as compared to last year, and markets are receiving many more vendor booth applications than they have space for.

• David Suzuki and SeaChoice have teamed up with a regional chain of supermarkets, who will no longer carry yellowfin tuna, Chilean sea bass, orange roughy and other non-sustainable seafood at their 117 locations throughout British Columbia and Alberta, Canada.

• Should the Washington Farmers Market Association allow nuts from around the world to be sold at farmers' market booths?  One local hazelnut grower thinks not.

• "They've survived ice ages, asteroids colliding. They've seen the dinosaurs come and go. And now they're going extinct in unprecedented numbers." - that's Kerry Kriger, founder of Save the Frogs.  They may have met their match in us.  Native amphibians in Oregon are disappearing at an alarming rate.

• The (Vancouver / Victoria, BC) Tyee takes a look at the ongoing battle between two rival forestry certification non profits who certify eco-friendly wood products - the industry-created "Sustainable Forestry Initiative", and the "Forest Stewardship Council", a group formed by environmental activists.

• Nevin Cohen takes a look at New York City's recently unveiled "Food Retail Expansion to Support Health" (FRESH) plan to bring more supermarkets into low-income sections of the South Bronx, Upper Manhattan, Central Brooklyn, and Downtown Jamaica (Queens).

• Big Ag's gonna hate this!  Food, Inc. was the top-grossing independent film at the box office this weekend, finishing ahead of even Francis Ford Coppola's (director of the Godfather trilogy) new film.  Reviews of the film can be found here from Jill and from me.  See it!

McGreenwashing

by: Jill Richardson

Thu May 21, 2009 at 21:12:34 PM PDT

As you can see from the GOOD magazine chart above, this is clearly a case of McGreenwashing. Would you like fries with that?

Some Unintentional Humor from the Biotech Industry

by: Jill Richardson

Mon May 18, 2009 at 11:47:07 AM PDT

Sustainability is more than just a buzzword; it is increasingly the benchmark by which consumers, investors and governments evaluate products and technologies. The challenges of population growth and global climate change will require sustainable and creative solutions to meet increasing demands for food and fuel.

Today, BIO has assembled top executives from British Petroleum, Coco-Cola, DuPont, McKinsey & Company and Burrill & Company, government and policy leaders from the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business and National Corn Growers Association, and Andrew Young Jr., Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to examine the question of future sustainability.

I've replied to the email asking for more information, since I can't make it to Atlanta for the event. But I am dying to hear what Coca-Cola and DuPont have to contribute to sustainability.

Beware of 'Eating Right' Brand and/or Lowfat/Nonfat

by: Curtis Abbey

Tue May 12, 2009 at 17:23:23 PM PDT

Greenwashing Beef

by: OrangeClouds115

Sun Aug 10, 2008 at 09:55:20 AM PDT

From the site:

Grain-fed for Minimum 350 Days

Our one-of-a-kind feeding program is a key contributor to incomparable taste and tenderness. For a minimum of 350 days, our cattle receive a high-energy diet consisting of corn and whole grains. It's a wholesome, nutritious diet that our cattle thrive on.

They say that after going on about how good the cows are for the environment, hormone-free, yadda yadda. Going back to Michael Pollan's article Power Steer:

We have come to think of "cornfed" as some kind of old-fashioned virtue; we shouldn't. Granted, a cornfed cow develops well-marbled flesh, giving it a taste and texture American consumers have learned to like. Yet this meat is demonstrably less healthy to eat, since it contains more saturated fat. A recent study in The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the meat of grass-fed livestock not only had substantially less fat than grain-fed meat but that the type of fats found in grass-fed meat were much healthier. (Grass-fed meat has more omega 3 fatty acids and fewer omega 6, which is believed to promote heart disease; it also contains betacarotine and CLA, another "good" fat.) A growing body of research suggests that many of the health problems associated with eating beef are really problems with cornfed beef. In the same way ruminants have not evolved to eat grain, humans may not be well adapted to eating grain-fed animals. Yet the U.S.D.A.'s grading system continues to reward marbling-that is, intermuscular fat-and thus the feeding of corn to cows.

More below the flip, including why I think it's cruel that Vintage Natural Beef feeds cows a grain diet but no antibiotics.