California Healthy is a new guide book written by Patricia Hamilton, a native Californian. The book claims to be "The adventurer’s guide to local delicacies, fine wine, great walks and the good life." While it doesn’t do all that it purports, it certainly is a useful tool in some regards. As a native to the state myself, I was impressed with some of the book and disappointed by the rest. The current edition is Southern California-based and while I have lived in San Francisco for the last decade, I spent the first 20 or so years of my life in San Diego. Would California Healthy live up to my sustainability expectations and satisfy my green needs?

The book is broken into sections by county, and each includes restaurant listings, wineries, walks and local festivals. By far the best part of this guide are the walks, taking you to beautiful and scenic places, and listing dog parks for healthy fun with Rover. The local events section, although not complete, lists seasonal festivals throughout the region and is a useful tool and one of the book’s strengths.

The restaurant listings are on the other hand are weak at best. Granted, some of my favorite joints are listed, but the descriptions are limited, leaving the reader with little idea of why they should go. Most disappointing is that the list is nowhere near comprehensive. There are thousands of restaurants in SoCal, and the organic and local food movement is thriving, yet California Healthy names only of a handful of the good places out there, and gives the reader no sense of what they have in store.

The book is supplemented with recipes and a cooking guide from Chef Biron of Stanford fame. His additions are thoughtful and delicious, and but slightly out of place. Despite its attempt to be more, California Healthy is a walking book, not a health book. Absent are yoga and pilates studios, bike, skate, and surf rentals, a comprehensive listing of restaurants, holistic health practitioners, masseuses and environmentally friendly spa services, among other truly valuable health information.

Photo credit Scott Beale

Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson are an example of the new media- independent, grassroots reporters and news. The couple runs Ryan is Hungry, a videoblog that interviews and features green gurus, tips, and information. They look for “stories that don’t get covered in the mainstream media worlds of television and newspapers,” and they bring that news to us.

Their medium, video, is powerful and far reaching, and the Internet, limitless. Their message is environmental and technological activism. From a quick browse through the site, I learned about an ecological shipping container hotel, clothing swaps, permaculture gardens, and underground supper clubs. This video blog is delivering culture! That’s the new media.

Ryanne and Jay also run Node 101 an open source video blogging (vlogging) collaborative project, for teaching and spreading the technology worldwide. In their words, “the goal of Node 101 is to teach media literacy as a life skill and to change the current media landscape from being a lecture to being a conversation.”

Resources such as Node 101 make vlogging and blogging easy and have opened the “the conversation” to virtually everyone. You no longer need technical expertise to run your own blog or even vlog site; just a computer, a digital camera, and some motivation. I started my blog in, literally, five minutes and instantly I was a published author. A few weeks later, I joined Green Options, a group blogging site. If you are writing or videoing beyond a personal diary, and sharing on the Internet, you are the new media.

Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, PBS, and BBC no longer decide what is newsworthy. We do, and the networks are scrambling to keep up. The Washington Post featured a series of articles about how the spread of cell phones with cameras and other digital technology are making journalists out of average citizens worldwide. Their site (as do most on-line news sites) even features citizen bloggers in addition to staff reporters.

The field is open to those who want to play. The traditional media is looking for writers to cover events as serious as the presidential primaries. Public relations firms seek coverage for their projects. Opportunity for sharing what is news to you abounds. Site aggregators such as Hugg, Digg, and Stumble offer additional exposure to the self-published. I had a post end up on FARK and it received over 4,000 views in two days. It is that easy.

Sure, a blog post is not always the same as a news story, but it is the way we are communicating. It is raising media awareness and changing the ways we exchange ideas and information. We are learning from each other and our ideas are spreading like wildfire. Governments can’t contain our enthusiasm and the balance of control is shifting. Follow Jay and Ryanne’s lead: be the media. They’ll even teach us how.

A movement of underground restaurants has taken off in recent years, with private dinner parties among strangers being hosted world wide. This phenomena is surely the result of online communication, the same world-changing action that has made the environmental and social justice movements advance with unprecedented momentum in the last decade. Cook the Vote unites the community building of a private supper club with what is, or should be, on most American’s minds right now: the upcoming presidential race.

A non-partisan event, Cook the Vote is advanced social networking with a dual purpose: 1) To provide the best, local seasonal food ingredients in a gourmet meal at a reasonable fee (something traditional restaurants, which generally speaking, either compromise on quality or charge exorbitant prices, cannot provide), and 2) to unite community and create an alternative media outlet for discussing our country’s politics.

This weekend, a Cook the Vote feast was held in a private home in Berkeley. A delectable three course Mediterranean style dinner with a Persian flair was served, right along with a healthy portion of grassroots democracy. The evening was moderated by a proctor who had done his homework and the topic of the evening was focused on just one candidate, Barack Obama. The intent is to continue hold dinner parties, to discuss all the candidates, and to follow the progress of the election, right up until the BIG day.

The dinner attracted a diverse crowd, from supporters, to skeptics, to the formerly disconnected coming forward to re-connect. After the last two presidential elections, many Americans have been disheartened at their ability to affect political change. On the other hand, there is also an ever-increasing network of people who believe that change is on the horizon. Cook the Vote, brought artists, performers, financial analysts, Internet professionals, chefs, activists, parents and bachelors together at the same table, to discuss a concern relevant to everyone in this country, its leadership.

The night provided insights, connections, and a room full of full bellies. Just like the environmental movement, Cook the Vote inspired me to be involved and educated about the vote, rather than apathetic. Connections like these are the force that is changing the world, right before our eyes. If we rely on traditional media outlets for passive information, we are doomed. Conversely, underground events like Cook the Vote contribute to an informed and active populous. Serve democracy at your next meal and participate in Cook the Vote.

Roast Carrots with Gremolata: Image credit Chili Und Cibatta, a German food blog. To make this dish, substitute potatoes for carrots in recipe below and adjust cooking time. Thanks to technology cooking is easy. I am not referring to microwave ovens and prepared foods from the deli section of your grocer's freezer. I am talking about the Internet. Whenever I want to make something, anything, that I don't know how to make, I search for it on Google. A battery of recipe results leads me to pick and choose the best elements from several recipes and combine them into a unique, personalized version. Most recently I have been enamored with my version of a classic Italian seasoning combination, gremolata. Enter Cilantro Gremolata di Schidlowski.

The traditional version is made by processing parsley, garlic, and lemon zest into a fine grind. The mixture is then spread over meat (most commonly used in Osso Bucco) or fish and baked or broiled, but it can also serve as a topper for roasting veggies, a sauce for pasta, a seasoning for rice or couscous, and the list goes on. Gremolata is delicious and versatile adding a subtle character and depth to anything it touches. Prepare it, spread it on your food, and cook! It's that easy.

My version replaces the parsley with cilantro and adds ginger and shallot. The result, an Asian inspired gremolata, with a flavor that will keep you coming back for more. Below is the recipe with both a meaty and veggie application. Enjoy!

Cilantro Gremolata (Di Schidlowski)

One bunch of fresh cilantro
2-3 garlic cloves
2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp fresh grated lemon zest (optional)
1 shallot (optional)
½ tsp salt

Remove stems from cilantro for use in the compost pile. Process all ingredients to a fine dice. That's it, the gremolata is ready to go. Now choose your application:

Pork Tenderloin with Cilantro Gremolata

2 Pork tenderloin (bought farmer direct if possible)
Cilantro Gremolata di Schidlowski

Lay tenderloin flat on counter. Spread gremolata on one side. Roll loin, small end first, like a sleeping bag. Tie with string or set inside small bowl (choose a bowl that will fit the loin snuggly so it retains it's rolled shape). Cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-35 minutes or until pork is cooked through. Cooking times may vary by oven and loin size. Remove from dish and discard fat. Serve rolled or slice into medallions. Your main dish is ready to be accompanied by grains and veggies for a complete meal.

Roasted Potatoes with Cilantro Gremolata

4 Potatoes (any roasting variety will do)
Cilantro Gremolata di Schidlowski
Cut potatoes into 1-2 inch cubes, no need to peel. Toss lightly with olive oil and salt. Top or toss with gremolata. Cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, covered for 20 minutes. Remove cover and cook for additional 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft throughout. Cooking time may be adjusted according to oven, dice size, and vegetable used (try carrots instead of potatoes for example). Enjoy!

Image credit Scotch Print DeustchlandMcDonald's, United Kingdom announced last week that it will begin producing biodiesel from its own used vegetable oil, to power its fleet of 150 freight trucks. While the idea of McDonald's being green is in some respects preposterous, the move is, at the very least, noteworthy.

Clearly, McDonald's is nowhere near being a “sustainable” business, and the idea of it being so is impossible. Some say all things sustainable are also inherently local and Mickey D's is as far from local as one can get, super-transnational. Their end products are all highly processed, their animals are raised in unspeakable conditions, and the nutritional value of their “food” is negligent.

This is just the beginning of a long list of what is wrong with McDonald's and it's too easy to come up with more. But is McDonald's all bad? Is Ronald's influence great enough to make smart business moves, like producing fuel from industry waste, common practice? It might be.

The future of corporations lies with the individuals who run them. As our collective awareness about environmental degradation from industry intensifies, we can expect more business people to make responsible decisions on behalf of corporations.

Of course it is important not to be satisfied with simple answers. As good as making biofuel from waste oil might sound, it doesn't address the fundamental underlying issue, such as, whether trucking fast food cross country is a sustainable way of nourishing ourselves. Whether this scale of production can be healthy for people, animals, or the environment, regardless of how the shipping fuel is made, is questionable.

The benefit of McDonald's move is that it creates an opening for green issues and technology to address the audience that still patronizes McDonald's and drives SUV's. If we want radical ideas to really be mainstream we have to enter the discussion at a level where we will be heard. Ronald McDonald can do that.

Solar Field: Represents the latest in solar technology. Artists rendition by Sandia National Laboratories

Is the solar energy revolution upon us? Solar Energy: Saved By the Sun, a PBS NOVA show first aired in Spring 2007, asks that question and presents a battery of solar related arguments. While light on science, the program provides a solid, basic understanding of the solar energy debate and a picture of where it is heading.

After waiting 30 years for solar to be the “next big thing”, the recent spotlight on global warming has raised the country's collective concern about how our energy is produced. In the U.S. we use natural gas, nuclear, hydrogen, and coal power, and only 1% of all energy is created through sun or wind energy. Now, that balance is shifting as we are withdrawing our reliance on fossil fuels and other non-renewable sources of power.

Solar is a $38 billion year industry and is growing rapidly. The film introduces viewers to several scenarios that show promise for its implementation at multiple scales, from residential and commercial to municipal and federal. It stops short of telling us what to do, instead providing enough information for a newbie to have a conversation about solar technology as well as a platform for further investigation. The DVD can be purchased online, or you can explore the website that accompanies the film free of charge.

Some ideas from the film and reasons to think seriously about solar power:

Amory Lovins : Eats a Banana from his Colorado GreenHouse. Photography by Ben Stechschulte

• Kramer Junction is a solar power generating plant that uses hyperbolic mirrors to heat oil, that boils water, to create steam, which turns turbines, to create energy for 150,000 homes in Los Angeles. Locating solar “farms” outside of cities, on rooftops, and in creative spaces, can equate to cities powered in large part by the sun.

• Germany has created a system of solar subsidies and guarantees the purchase of consumer energy. The result is that 30% of the country is powered by the sun. Getting solar in the national politics has led to a healthy solar manufacturing industry and the debunking of the idea that solar isn't feasible if it isn't always sunny. It isn't, especially not in Germany, but the sun still provides a significant amount of the national energy and this equates to a huge savings in fossil fuel usage and carbon emissions.

• Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute is convinced that solar can serve his energy needs, and then some. In his Denver home he has built a solarium that yields bananas, papaya, passion fruit, loquats, grapes, and tomatoes. He captures sunlight, heat, and hot water, creating an indoor tropical micro-climate. He is not trying to defeat nature he is letting solar design work for him.

• Technology such as solar film, electron conducting solar paint, and multi-junction solar panels will equate to higher efficiency and less expensive sun energy. As our collective conscience shifts toward less polluting lifestyles, our governments are beginning to subsidize the development of solar technology, just as they have with nuclear energy for half a century. Take advantage of the subsidies in your state, and take part in the solar revolution.

Container architecture is a way of up-cycling one of the waste products of international shipping. Over 7 million shipping containers enter U.S. ports each year, and only 2 million leave. A reflection of imbalanced international trade, the result is an excess of containers, dotting the landscape across the country. In the spirit of resourcefulness, however, that is changing as shipping containers are becoming inexpensive or less-expensive green alternatives to standard construction.

Group 41, a San Francisco architecture firm, is currently offering their design services to landowners willing to undertake stylish, modern container projects on their property. “Group 41 will provide schematic and design development services at no cost. The firm will oversee the remainder of the project through construction documents, permitting/bidding, and construction phases charging at cost for all services rendered. However, architect Joel Karr, will continue to donate his time free of charge throughout the duration of the project.”

That amounts to up to $10,000 in donated design services for your container project. Karr, an architect with an impressive design portfolio, should have quite a few clients sign up. Shipping containers are the perfect modular building blocks, essentially a prefabricated structure, that is ISO (International Standardization Organization) standardized in 20 and 40 foot lengths and made to stack. They are 8 feet wide and have 8.5 foot ceilings.

Containers already have industrial gauge wood floors and are made of corrugated steel that can be insulated with a thin ceramic layer. Containers can be stacked for high, 17 foot, ceilings, or lofts. Walls can be removed (while structural integrity is maintained), doors, windows, and skylights added. Tiered stacks can create balconies, overhangs and other design features.

The newest in green building, container projects are being used worldwide for everything from youth hostels, to custom beach homes, emergency shelters, solutions to inadequate housing, and state of the art live/work complexes. There are enough excess shipping containers to circle the globe twice. Already manufactured, very little energy is expended in building a container home because the structure is already built.

Construction costs are cut in half for custom designed homes making a green dream home affordable to a whole new sector of society. Care can be taken to maximize energy efficiency, light, passive heating and cooling, water cycling, and the geographic features of the land. In the words of Group 41 the “sky is the limit” with versatile, modular, pre-built, custom green building units.

Up-cycling is when the functional value of the reuse is greater than the functional value of the original product. In the case of shipping containers, the value of a living space is greater than that of an often discarded temporary storage space.

The Heineken World Bottle was designed with multiple functions. Image courtesy of hyperexperience.comIf we really want to be sustainable when it comes to our brew, we will consider the package. Let's take a look beyond recycling into the future and back to the past of the bottle.

Zero waste designers tell us that the function of an object is more valuable than the materials. The function of a bottle is as a container for liquid.

In the recycling process the function is lost as the bottle is broken. The glass has to be sorted and melted down and remade again, using energy and material resources.

Around 1960, before recycling came on the scene, Alfred Heineken saw the problem with single use beverage containers. As a solution, he commissioned the design of a bottle with a secondary function, one that would serve after it had served as a single-use container.

The World Bottle (WOBO) was the inspiration of inadequate housing and abundant trash, including his discarded beer bottles, that Heineken saw on an overseas island, presumably Dutch Curacao.

Strauss Milk : is sold in glass bottles. A deposit and return system keeps these bottles in circulation. Why not for beer?If he was surprised by the bottle waste, we can assume things were different at home. Was there a deposit and return program in place in 1960's Netherlands? Probably. There is still a deposit and return system for milk bottles, like Strauss.

Heineken designed a bottle that was flat on two sides, for stacking. The WOBO also had a recessed bottom, in which the mouth of another bottle would fit. Not only would this bottle serve as a single-use beverage container, it could be used as a building block for a house or other structure.

In one simple design decision, Heineken, saw a solution to excessive waste and inadequate building materials. What was once the waste of consumer beer drinking, was now the material input for low-income island housing.

Nothing short of brilliant, the WOBO never made it beyond the factory.

The bottle wall is nothing new, but the World Bottle, was designed specifically to make walls. It was an example of the Cradle to Cradle design ahead of its time. If the World Bottle were reintroduced today, would it survive?

William McDonough and Michael Braungart: Cradle to Cradle designers teach us that waste is a design flaw.

When we follow nature's rules, growth is good. The question before us is not growth versus no growth, It is: what would good growth look like? And this is a question of intent, of design. What if we grow health instead of sickness, home ownership instead of indigence, education instead of ignorance?"

In a one hour film narrated by Susan Sarandon about the designer duo William McDonough and Michael Braungart (MBDC), we get a refresher course on Cradle to Cradle design theory. We review waste=food, the role of biological and technical nutrients in production, and why being less bad is no good. The MBDC design tenets result in buildings with net energy returns and products so safe they are edible.

The film takes us up close and personal with five examples of MBDC's zero waste design. We venture on a tour of the Herman Miller factory, with its extensively daylighted building and workers that are so content they have perfect attendance, a Swiss textile factory whose industrial wastewater is cleaner than the incoming supply, and the O'Berlin College Student Center's indoor wetlands graywater system. These examples, along with Nike's new ultra safe sustainable rubber and Ford's twenty-year sustainability plan are used as case studies of Cradle to Cradle to design.

The delightful movie was hosted in San Francsico at the Roxie Film Center, as part of the Urban Alliance for Sustainability's Green Movie Night and Forum. Following the film, a discussion ensued that addressed questions such as: Can a non-toxic rubber be sustainable if trees are clearcut for its production? Can a shoe be sustainable if workers are not paid a fair wage? Can a car be sustainable if a car society is not?

The forum questions pushed the audience to think critically and to realize that the film was presented from a particular bias. In theory MBDC design is beautiful, hopeful, and inspirational, but it is not always perfect in practice. The audience picked up on that point. McDonough, himself, notes in the film that Ford is not sustainable yet, but that they might be the first to get there. The fact of the matter is that his vision for design and good growth are influencing our green future. This film is definitely worth a screening or two, to get everyone familiar with Cradle to Cradle design and to insist upon it.

Art by Chris Jordan depicting the 2 million single use bottles used in the U.S. every five minutes. Though it's unusual for someone living in the US, as a general rule, I don't buy foods that come packaged. That includes drinks packaged in recyclable bottles. Even though bottles can be recycled, the thought of the excessive amounts of energy used in the process and the sheer numbers of single serving beverages consumed in our country, makes me turn away at the grocery store shelf.

Every now and then, however, I want an Adina Mojita drink, because it is delicious, organic, and refreshing and I know the glass bottle can be recycled. It's okay, right? In the hierarchy of choice, glass is better than plastic, so Adina drinks fit the environmental bill, right?

The answer is not so simple if you keep the heirarchy of three R's in mind: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle".

Zero Waste expert Paul Palmer tells us "recycling is the lowest form of reuse you can find. This is because the most important thing to reuse is not the materials of which an item is made but the function that it serves." The highest function of a bottle, plastic or glass, is as a container and this function is destroyed in the recycling process. When we have the choice to consume or not, recycling is a way to clear our conscience of our throw-away habit. If we put the bottle in the blue bin, all is well, right?

Palmer says "No." He points out that most recyclables end up in landfills or worse, and that it's not okay to rely on recycling as a solution to the ills of consumption.

To reinforce the idea, I ran across an image depicting the fate of bottle caps and other post consumber debris and I share the thought with you:

I looked a little further and learned that one quarter of the world's surface is congested with post-consumer, mostly plastic, debris that will never degrade. According to Moore, plastics

…photodegrade, a process whereby sunlight breaks them into progressively smaller pieces, all of which are still plastic polymers. In fact, the degradation eventually yields individual molecules of plastic, but these are still too tough for most anything—even such indiscriminate consumers as bacteria—to digest.

Translucent zooplankton are found with pieces of colored plastic in their bellies. Fish eat the plankton and we eat the fish. From the bottom of the food chain up, we are ingesting plastic. Moore's study shows that there are 6 pounds of debris to every one pound of plankton even in the remotest parts of the oceans.

I learned that birds are feeding ocean debris to their babies and 2 out of 5 chicks are dying. How about a turtle washed up on a tropical island with 1000 pieces of non-degradable discards in its body? Still want a soda? All the little pieces of plastic and metal, the lids, the lighters, the odds and ends that don't get recycled are floating in the middle of our ocean. So are tires, oil drums, diapers, and condoms, and bottles that could have been recycled, among other artifacts of our culture.

We can trace the world's environmental degradation directly to our choices in the store. This information fuels what I call the Point of Sale (POS) conscience that says “don't buy that single use container; there is a better alternative." If we don't keep up on the issues, it is easy to disconnect from the ocean and marine life, nature, and other victims of the far-reaching effects of contemporary human lifestyle. But harrowing pictures, like the one above, sink deep into our consciousness and help us make our daily choices.

Kombucha : Kombucha: According to GT Dave this cultured tea drink has been used for hundreds of years throughout the world as a daily health tonic. Image- wikipediaWhen I am at my favorite family-owned grocery , I stand in front of the cooler and rationalize my desire for a single-use beverage: Even though the package can be recycled, is there a better alternative? Do I have a sparkly homemade beverage at home that will satisfy my need for a quick refresher without any packaging or tranport costs? Can I be satisfied without relying on my city to get rid of (recycle) a bottle and cap for me?

More often than not, I can answer “Yes." In part because of my POS conscience, I make Kombucha on a regular basis and keep my home stocked with alternatives to factory bottled beverages. For water, I reject plastic bottles and use a refillable container like Klean Kanteen . This practice helps balance the desire for instant gratification with the POS conscience, the mind that remembers the tragedy of consumption and doesn't want to participate. So I leave the bottle on the shelf and go home for a glass of homemade sparkling lemonade, root beer, or kombucha.

Look forward to a DIY post on home brewing soda and other non-alcoholic sparklers.