Comments sje333 has made

...am I missing the punchline on this one?

...so instead of paying KFC to deep-fry CAFO-raised pre-breaded chicken body parts, we should buy raw CAFO-raised chicken carcasses, chop them up (exposing our families to EVEN MORE salmonella), and cook the body parts ourselves?  Is this Grist's idea of an April Fool's joke?  That holiday is still the first of April, right?

This is why the right-wingers refer to this kind of mindset as "hippy crap."  We might as well say that it's okay to buy Lay's Potato Chips from your local grocer, but you're a bad person if you buy the same bag of Lay's Potato Chips from your local Wal-Mart Supercenter.  You can put organic ketchup on either one!

Mr. Friese seems too intelligent to honestly believe the "often-undocumented" workers who slaughter the chickens he buys are magically NOT among the "1 in 3" who "is injured to the point of hospitalization every year."  How does the solution he suggests make an improvement?  Granted, there is no way to put a dollar value on the family time spent preparing a meal together.  Those are the moment that make you immortal through the memories of your children.

...but how about a healthy alternative?  Instead of replacing the breading and sauce, let's replace the whole system!  Let's not force the working poor to do our dirty work for us, dehumanizing, desensitizing, and hospitalizing them at the same time.  After all, if you're going to sell a chicken carcass, it MUST BY LAW go through a USDA-approved slaughterhouse.

This was a really disturbing article.On Cheap-chicken ad from KFC hides true cost of food; here's a tastier, low-cost alternative posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago 17 Responses

hardly in good taste...

It's hardly in good taste, but I fail to see where decency rules were violated.  How is this any more perverse than using scantily-clad women to sell cars and boats?  Because you can see the womens' tongues?!

Maybe the guys and gals exploiting sexy women to sell cars and boats don't get shut out of major media outlets by the other advertisers.  If I didn't have better things to do, I would watch the superbowl and count how many of the advertisers are promoting the exploitation of animals.
On Did NBC squash PETA corn-porn? posted 10 months ago 44 Responses

WTF?!

How is testing pesticides on humans MORE insane than testing them on animals?  It's not like the rabbits are the ones who want tomatoes to be 2% cheaper because of some new miracle pesticide!  If mankind wants or needs some weird new chemical, leave the rabbits out of it!On Grist looks back at the WTF moments of the George W. Bush years posted 10 months, 1 week ago 3 Responses

move to Florida to save the world?

I've been casually looking for some calculations that give the carbon footprint of typical American homes in different climates.  Does the 600-SF Manhattan apartment use more energy than a 2500-SF suburban 1-story Florida McMansion?

Of course, re-use of existing buildings is important, and I don't want to see all of Florida paved over...but I'm still curious.On Ask Umbra's video advice for saving money on your heating bill posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 4 Responses

orang-utans and biodiesel

Again, I'm not rabidly anti-diesel, but biodiesel is driving up demand for palm oil (as a feedstock), which is leading to plantations being cut into the jungle in South America and Asia.  If we continue at this rate, Orangutans will be extinct by 2020.

http://redapes.org/?s=biodiesel

We also have to consider the immediate impact on CO2 emissions from burning rainforests to plant palm oil plantations.

Those are problems that can be and should be solved...but until they are I will only buy biofuels very grudgingly.  Unfortunately, E10 is the only gasoline available in the Orlando area.On Umbra on biodiesel vs. hybrids posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 12 Responses

It messes up my plans

It would be funny if it hadn't screwed up my renovation schedule!  Now I have to wait until 01January2009 to make the final payments and close out the building permits on my renovation.  The new roof, windows, doors, insulation, and appliances will earn me a nice federal credit...but only if they are put into service in 2009!

I wonder how many people started renovations expecting the credit to be renewed (I did!).  I wonder how many of them will be pinching pennies because of this absurd gap.  I wonder if they'll be less inclined to "go green" after the federal government leaves a bad taste in their mouths.

The PV and solar water heater credits are still valid in 2008, but I'm waiting until January for the PV because the $2000 cap will disappear.  My $20k system will get me a $6k credit in 2009 instead of the $2k credit it would have gotten me in 2008.On Bizarre gap year in residential conservation tax incentives posted 11 months, 4 weeks ago 3 Responses

I was hoping this article was a joke

How is a heritage breed more environmentally friendly--especially if it's air-lifted in by FedEx?  A locally raised bird might keep all of the turkey feces and urine (and the offal when it's slaughtered) local, but that's hardly something to brag about.  The animals (even "pastured" turkeys) are still being fed huge amounts of grain that is shipped in from the grain-producing areas.  Going local means shipping 20# of grain across the country instead of shipping a 5# piece of turkey muscle.  In the end, all commercially available meat comes from big USDA-certified slaughterhouses, where mass consumption and mass production guide all decisions.

The key to a green Thanksgiving is replacing the meat, not substituting one type of offal for another or moving it from one area to another.  http://gentlethanksgiving.org/  has plenty of recipes.

You can enter a contest for a new eGo scooter here:  http://gentlethanksgiving.org/
You just have to correctly guess how many pounds of grain will be saved by Tofurkey Brand tofurkeys in 2008 (hint, this one manufacturer reduced grain consumption by about 1.6 MILLION pounds in 2007)

Grist has really disappointed me on this one.  Grist contributors, PLEASE do some reading:
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?142On Smaller breasts are better, and other advice for holiday-bird quandaries posted 1 year ago 28 Responses

Some useful suggestions?

It's already well-established that a good vegan diet is healthy and good for the environment (BTW, dairy cows are cows, and egg production is horrible).  How about some links to new foods and recipes?

www.tryveg.com  has some good recipes.  I'd suggest trying quinoa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa).  It's an ancient Incan grain "discovered" by Americans 40 years ago.  It makes a great substitute for rice or pasta, adding variety to the recipes you already know.  At $2.50/lb in most health food stores, it's cheaper than Spam--by the time you add water to quinoa and cook it, its weight doubles.  When you buy meat, most of what you're getting is water, which escapes during cooking.

You can walk into any Indian grocery store and pick from dozens of different types of peas and beans.  Learning to make a simple curry is pretty easy.  West Indian corn dumplings (similar to polenta) are delicious and extremely filling.On What's so eco about all those eco-meat labels? posted 1 year, 2 months ago 15 Responses

Best deoderant: Baking Soda

Packaged deodorant gels and sprays and pastes are just a money-making scam.  A 40-cent box of baking soda can last for a year.  An $8 crystal stick can last for a decade.

I've used baking soda for years now, and I bike to and from work every day (I'm a civil engineer who has to be clean and odor-free for work).  Keep a box of baking soda in the bathroom.  At the end of your shower put 1tsp into your hands, add enough water to turn it into a slurry, and wipe it into your armpits.  Wipe the leftovers on your feet, rinse your hands, and you're finished.

I used a crystal for about 8 years before switching to baking soda.  I used ONE crystal.  It was only about halfway used when I dropped it and broke it after about 8 years.  I was happy with it, but I'm even happier with baking soda.
On Making a stink about green(ish) deodorants posted 1 year, 3 months ago 36 Responses

Horrible emissions

The answer mentions ultra-low sulfur diesels.  That's impressive technology, but it's still dirtier than gasoline-burning engines.  The Blutech "eco engines" that Mercedes-Benz is so proud of is FILTHY:  epa.gov/greenvehicles

Stick to gasoline-electric hybrids for the next couple of years, and then you can make the jump to green-fueled vehicle:  a battery-electric car, recharged from the solar panels in your back yard!On Umbra on diesel hybrids posted 1 year, 4 months ago 16 Responses

Missing the issue

If you gut the animal's body ahead of time, and you leave all of the feces in the streams running past the factory farm, OF COURSE there won't be any waste!  It's like bleaching the stains out of clothing, washing it in Tide, then washing it in eco-friendly detergent.  Some people could claim (with a straight face) that you've eliminated all bleach from the clothes-washing process.  That is a prime example of greenwashing.

How can minimizing meat for environmental reasons be a moral imperative for someone who says they ca

I try to stay positive and constructive, but this is the most disappointingly short-sighted article I've seen in a long time.  You've managed to top USA Today in the "lack of a basic understanding" category.  Blogging about an experience is great.  If you're going to write an article, you need to add some research to the "experiencing."On If you're going to eat meat, you can't shy away from the whole beast posted 1 year, 4 months ago 41 Responses

100% post-consumer, without recycling

Recycling has serious downsides, including emissions from the recycling facility, waste generated, transportation costs to and from the factory, and energy input at the factory.  I refuse to accept plastic grocery bags from friends and family, because that would encourage them to keep producing waste plastic bags.

I get my trash bags for free by stealing them from the recycling collection bin in front of the store (in Florida, Publix and Albertson's both have bins that are easy to get into).  This keeps the bags out of the recycling stream (a dirty process), and eliminates my need for expensive 100% post-consumer recycled bags.  I look forward to the day when there aren't any free trash bags available!  Then I'll switch to biodegradable corn-based bags.

BTW, a few people have given me strange looks over the years, but if anyone ever questions me, I'll say the bags are fuel for my time machine and run away cackling.On Umbra on trash bags posted 1 year, 8 months ago 21 Responses

This study seems to be deeply flawed

The base case for NOx grams per mile is too high by a factor of 10 for LDGV.  .207g/mile (See page 2-27 of Volume 2 at http://www.epri-reports.org/) corresponds to an EPA rating of 3 of their 1-10 scale.  That is about 10X as much NOx as a vehicle with a rating of 9 (MANY vehicles achieve this rating:  http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicle/all-rank-07.htm )

Has anyone else read the full report? Another major flaw I see is that the worst-case coal scenario assumes CO2 emissions per kWh will be reduced by 30% by 2050!  Their WORST-CASE scenario assumes widescale implementation of CO2 sequestration!On Really posted 2 years, 4 months ago 44 Responses