My favorite meal of the day is breakfast. It gets my brain and day going. These organic blueberry ricotta pancakes have it all, antioxidants, protein and carbs! :) Not only that, but they are very tasty.

What You Need

1/2 cup all-purpose organic flour
2 teaspoons organic baking powder
1/2 teaspoon organic sea salt
1 cup organic ricotta cheese
4 organic egg yolks
3 tablespoons organic sugar
1/4 cup organic milk
1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen organic blueberries
4 organic egg whites

What You Need To Do

1. In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In another mixing bowl beat together ricotta cheese, egg yolks, and sugar until well combined. Add to flour mixture; stir until smooth. Stir in milk. Fold in blueberries.

2. In a small mixing bowl beat the egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). Gently fold the beaten egg whites into batter, leaving a few puffs of egg white. Do not over beat.

3. Heat a lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat until a few drops of water dance across the surface. For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup batter onto the hot griddle. Spread batter into a circle about 4 inches in diameter.

4. Cook over medium heat until pancakes are golden brown, turning to cook the second sides when pancake surfaces are bubbly and edges are slightly dry (about 1 to 2 minutes per side). Serve immediately or keep warm in a loosely covered oven safe dish in a 300 degree F oven. Makes 16 pancakes.

Eat well.

-Cara

It’s a theme within a theme day. This shopping entry is going to cover green bath products, so let’s get started.

I remember when I was a kid and my Nana and Papa’s house they always had a soap pouch in their shower. They didn’t use it for a new soap bar, but you know when the soap gets so small you can’t do much with; well they would take all the small slivers and keep them in the pouch. This way no soap ever went to waste. My Papa grew up really poor and lived through the depression, so he knew how to make every penny count. He taught me a lot in this aspect. I remember sticking my finger into every pay phone slot we walked by and jingling the handle. You’d be surprised, I got a lot of money that way growing up. He is the best.

Fair trade, 100% organic cotton and dyed with natural, metal-free colors frog washcloth. I just think it is so cute.

I think q-tips are the greatest invention and yes I throw caution to the wind and stick them in my ears every morning after my shower. I think they are great and organic.

Don’t be dirty.

-Cara

That’s the truth. This week has been a busy one. I started to fall behind on my entries, but I am almost back on track. You know I never mind a challenge and I had a great Memorial Day weekend, so I don’t mind.

I updated my Muxtape mix with all new jams, well I left one I couldn’t delete, but it still counts.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

-Cara

Executions are known to have been carried out in the following countries in 2007:

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, China, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Korea (North), Kuwait, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, USA, Viet Nam, Yemen.

Amnesty International remains concerned that executions may have taken place in Mongolia and Malaysia. However, due to the secretive nature of the use of the death penalty the organization was unable to obtain reliable information.

An appeal for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty

I am not a killer.

-Cara

Some days I think I am so smart and know so much when suddenly I realize I truly know very little of the world outside of America or even New York City. I think it has a lot to do with being raised on American televised news and in American schools that didn’t teach me much about the world outside of these great states. Don’t get me wrong, I love America and am sure she was only trying to protect me from the big, bad, scary world out there…or was she? I digress, this is not the point of this entry.

The point is, until today I don’t think I ever heard of Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma). Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Burma’s liberation leader Aung San, who negotiated Burma’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, and was assassinated by his rivals in the same year. Aung San Suu Kyi showed an early interest in Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent protest. After receiving her education in Rangoon, Delhi and at Oxford University, Aung San Suu Kyi then worked at the United Nations in New York and Bhutan. For most of the following twenty years she was occupied raising a family in England (her husband is British), before returning to Burma in 1988 to care for her dying mother.

After having long refrained from political activity, she got involved in the “second struggle for national independence” in Myanmar in 1988. She became the leader of the National League for Democracy on September 27th, 1988, and subsequently was put under house arrest on July 20, 1989. She also emphasizes the need for conciliation between the sharply divided regions and ethnic groups in her country. She was offered freedom if she left the country, but she refused. The election held in May 1990 resulted in a conclusive victory for the opposition. The regime ignored the election results. Suu Kyi refused to leave the country and since then, she has been kept under strict house arrest.

One of her most famous speeches is the “Freedom From Fear” speech, which begins:

“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”

The whole reason I found out about her is I think at times Sarah Silverman is hilarious and she participated in this website, www.fanista.com. It is a program where each day in May celebrities do a P.S.A. to spread awareness about Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma.

Here is Sarah Silverman’s for your viewing pleasure.

Aung San Suu Kyi is super fresh!

-Cara

Reason 101 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

When you fork over that $1.89 for those 7 ounces of Brown ’N Serve Sausage Links, it’s really quite a bargain, or so you might think. But such purchases–collectively trillions of them across the globe–accumulate a steep ecological deficit. In time, the debt will come due. Future generations will be the ones remitting its payments, in installments, with global warming, aquifer depletion, topsoil erosion, desertification, collapsed fisheries, wildlife extinction, deforestation and lost ecosystem services. Isn’t it time to start eating lower on the food chain? Get Hip. Go Veg!

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It has been 101 days since I started the 101 Reasons Why I Am A Vegetarian journey. I commend Pamela Rice for her commitment to wanting to protect the wild animals, human animals (sometimes wild as well) and the planet we live on. I might not have agreed with every thing she said or maybe more of how she said it, but always with her mission. There are not many people out there who believe in a humane cause and then follow it up by actually doing something, something big. It is a sign of great character and I respect that.

Thank you.

-Cara

My Sust House is a fresh flash game that teaches us about issues of sustainability in design and planning. There are two games dedicated to exploring what sustainability means and how it relates to our homes. What I love is the two characters that lead you on this ecological journey posses charming Scottish accents, which makes the game more pleasurable…at least for me!

Here is information on the two games from the creators of My Sust House.

Game 1

Environment explores ways to create a more sustainable environment. Subjects covered are: location of a house, saving energy, water, and waste. Player receives a printable certificate with their score. Suitable for pupils from 9 years.

Game 2

Building challenges the children to build a sustainable house. Subjects covered are: building materials, insulating materials, power for a house, heating a house. Player receives a printable certificate with their score. Suitable for pupils from 12 years.

In choosing their materials, students must take both cost and environmental sustainability into account. They have £100,000 to spend and the budget is displayed on screen. If you exceed the budget you must repeat the game The sustainability meter is displayed at all times and varies according to the player’s choices. In addition there is an animated globe in the top left corner, which changes appearance according to the current score.

I hope you enjoy it.

-Cara

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Reason 100 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Eating vegetables keeps the brain young, a chorus of research shows. One recent 6-year study in Chicago tested 2,000 seniors, their mental acumen paired off with vegetable intake. Subjects who ate more than two servings of vegetables per day appeared about five years younger by certain indicators than those who ate few or no vegetables. Green leafies (spinach, kale, and collards) appeared most beneficial.

The big Memorial Day weekend is finally here. That means summer is just around the corner (June 20th). Nothing goes better in the summer than guacamole, some chips and a fantastical margarita. Enjoying it on the beach would be nice as well.

This guacamole is no everyday type of guacamole, it is an awesome guacamole. The flavor combination is super fresh. I have yet to make any since last year and am drooling just thinking about it.

What You Need

2 tablespoons julienned organic sun-dried tomatoes

1 ripe organic avocado

1/4 cup finely diced organic ripe papaya

2 tablespoons organic lemon juice (from an actual lemon, not a plastic one!)

1 teaspoon organic honey (to make this a vegan recipe you can replace honey with organic rice syrup)

1 clove minced organic garlic

1/2 teaspoon minced organic fresh cilantro

1/8 teaspoon organic sea salt

What You Need To Do

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in warm water for at least 15 minutes and no more than 20 minutes, then drain and put them off to the side. Peal the avocado, remove the pit, then mash it into a paste. You want to have about 1/2 cup of avocado. Then in a mixing bowl, combine the tomatoes, avocado, papaya, lemon juice, honey, garlic, cilantro and salt and mix well. Cover and refrigerate. You can leave it at the least in the refrigerator for an hour, but I leave it overnight so the flavors really develop. Serve cold and with some plain corn chips and be ready for the best guac ever!

¡Buen provecho!

-Cara

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Reason 99 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Agriculture science inexhaustibly works to eke out every last bit of commodity wealth from farmed animals via genetic selection. Wild jungle fowl lay 2 dozen eggs per year; today’s maligned descendants lay an egg nearly every day. Sows in nature give birth to 5 piglets; today’s factory-raised litters yield 12 young. A hundred years ago a steer took 4 to 5 years to grow to market weight; today the process takes only 14 months. Just 50 years ago cows gave 645 gallons of milk per year; on dairies today, cows give over three times this amount.

Since we learned so much about what makes bamboo eco or not in yesterday’s entry I decided to list three “Certified by Cara” super ecological bamboo products.

OK, finding eco bamboo clothes I have decided is like the search for the Holy Grail. I mean no one is mechanically pounding bamboo into yarn, thread, or t-shirts for that matter. If they are their marketing/PR team is lacking the skills necessary to promote said bamboo products. Everyone who makes bamboo clothes is close, but no cigar. The best company I found so far is, Bamboo Body.

They state, “The bamboo in our fabric is grown in the Yunnan Province in China without the use of any chemicals or pesticides. The plantation is managed in strict accordance with the international organic OCIA/NOP standard.

Bamboo yarn is produced by pulverizing the bamboo stalks and then regenerating the fiber. This process does not use harmful chemicals. Our fabric is dyed using azo-free dyestuffs. Our factory operates in conformity with ISO9001:2000 quality standard and is committed to the environment by reducing emissions and recycling waste. The factory pays all workers appropriately and does not employ staff under the age of 18.

While bamboo is grown organically, without the use of pesticides or chemicals, bamboo fabric is not certified organic. The process of converting bamboo to yarn does not meet the strict criteria for organic certification.

Our bamboo fabric is certified by oeko-tex 100 standard which confirms that it is environmentally sound and does not include any harmful chemicals.”

Everyone else either states that oeko-tex 100 is not all it is cracked up to be or “that it is impossible to be 100% ecological, but as technology advances they hope to be”….technology…for all the companies waiting for the future to arrive, here is the past, what I like to call the anti-technological way, also known as the “mechanical way”. The mechanical way is done by crushing the woody parts of the bamboo plant and then use natural enzymes to break the bamboo walls into a mushy mass so that the natural fibers can be mechanically combed out and spun into yarn. This is essentially the same eco-friendly manufacturing process used to produce linen fabric from flax or hemp. Bamboo fabric made from this process is sometimes called bamboo linen. Very little bamboo linen is manufactured for clothing because it is more labor intensive and costly.” What that means is it messes with these “green” companies bottom line.

The next company that makes the “Certified by Cara” seal is Totally Bamboo. I really like the twist chopstick set they sell. According to Totally Bamboo they had a chemist develop a high grade, non-toxic formaldehyde free food grade glue which they use exclusively on their cutting boards. Also. they do not use artificial dyes or stains. Their factory is ISO 9000 compliant which is a rating system covering non-polluting environmental issues and employee welfare, safety and minimum age. There are 2 colors, light and dark. The light is the natural color of bamboo. The dark is “cooked” to perfection, literally, a result of the heating process. The natural sugar in the wood is caramelized, producing the beautiful honey color. This is permanent and will not wash off. This allows the boards to be sanded if needed. They have other cool stuff on their site as well, like bamboo director chairs, for those eco Hollywood directors…lol.

Next to finding truly eco fabrics, eco flooring was the runner up as far as hard to locate. One company that receives the “Certified by Cara” seal, is Eco Timber.

This is what they have to say about how they are super awesome bamboo flooring rock stars, “EcoTimber bamboo flooring is made from bamboo plantations — not from wild habitats. Bamboo is a highly renewable resource, harvestable only four to six years after being planted. Its low moisture absorption properties make it ideal for humid climates and applications where moisture might pose a challenge for other types of flooring.

EcoTimber Bamboo flooring is made with a Low-VOC adhesive that easily meets the strict European E1 standard for indoor air quality.

There are currently dozens of bamboo flooring manufacturers, some of which have flooded the market with poorly-made products. Click here to see what sets them apart from others. “

The business of greenwashing is becoming an art form these days as the big players are joining the “green” game. I expect it from them, but am sad to see some small business jumping on the greenwashing train to nowhere.

I thought this blog entry was going to be easy, but I was wrong.

Keep it real.

-Cara

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Reason 98 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Every year, 24,000 fishers die on the job, making fishing the most dangerous occupation in the world, according to the FAO/UN. Meatpacking has the highest serious injury rate by far of any occupation. Repetitive stress disorders and knife cuts are rampant in meat plants. Poultry processing workers earn wages that are, for a family of four, below the poverty level. Full-time contract poultry growers clear incomes of only $21,000 annually.

I am on the “buy bamboo bandwagon”. I have been for awhile. I was thinking about it today, I have an idea why bamboo is considered a sustainable, environmentally-friendly substance, but just an idea. I decided on this lovely day to become informed and discover the truth behind bamboo.

Let’s start out with some interesting bamboo facts, one, bamboo is the fastest-growing plant on Earth. It has been clocked surging skyward as fast as 121 cm (47.6 inches) in a 24-hour period. It can also reach maximal growth rate which exceed one meter (40 inches) per hour for short periods of time. After harvesting, bamboo does not require replanting, it has an extensive root system that continually sends up new shoots, naturally replenishing itself, making it one of the most renewable resources known. It has also been around since the prehistoric era, which I just think is cool.

Next, there are 91 genera and about 1,000 species of bamboo, found in a number of diverse climates and you don’t need to spray them down with gallons of pesticides or fertilize them for them to thrive as they do so naturally. These variables make this plant more like a super weed, than a member of the true grass family, Poaceae and this is also what makes bamboo a renewable resource.

Fabrics made from bamboo have an extraordinary water absorbency quality. This characteristic makes bamboo fabric three times more absorbent than cotton. Bamboo fibers also keep moisture away from the skin, speeding up the evaporation process, keeping the wearer naturally drier and more comfortable. The fabrics made from bamboo are known to be extremely soft, breathable, hard to wrinkle and possess antibacterial properties! I also heard something about bamboo blocking out a large percentage of the Sun’s UV activity, but I could not find any solid facts on that, so wear your sun block, not your bamboo shirt, because skin cancer is a horrible thing to have!

There is one major man made issue which makes bamboo clothing either an eco product or not. It is the process it goes through before becoming the final product. There are two ways to process bamboo to make the plant into a fabric: mechanically or chemically.

The mechanical way is by crushing the woody parts of the bamboo plant and then use natural enzymes to break the bamboo walls into a mushy mass so that the natural fibers can be mechanically combed out and spun into yarn. This is essentially the same eco-friendly manufacturing process used to produce linen fabric from flax or hemp. Bamboo fabric made from this process is sometimes called bamboo linen. Very little bamboo linen is manufactured for clothing because it is more labor intensive and costly.

Chemically manufactured bamboo fiber is a regenerated cellulose fiber similar to rayon or modal. Chemically manufactured bamboo is sometimes called bamboo rayon because of the many similarities in the way it is chemically manufactured and similarities in its feel and hand.

Most bamboo fabric that is the current eco-fashion rage is chemically manufactured by “cooking” the bamboo leaves and woody shoots in strong chemical solvents such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH – also known as caustic soda or lye) and carbon disulfide in a process also known as hydrolysis alkalization combined with multi-phase bleaching. Both sodium hydroxide and carbon disulfide have been linked to serious health problems. Breathing low levels of carbon disulfide can cause tiredness, headache and nerve damage. Carbon disulfide has been shown to cause neural disorders in workers at rayon manufacturers. Low levels of exposure to sodium hydroxide can cause irritation of the skin and eyes. Sodium hydroxide is a strong alkaline base also known as caustic soda or lye. In its dry crystalline form, caustic soda is one of the major ingredients of Drano. This is basically the same process used to make rayon from wood or cotton waste byproducts. Because of the potential health risks and damage to the environment surrounding the manufacturing facilities, textile manufacturing processes for bamboo or other regenerated fibers using hydrolysis alkalization with multi-phase bleaching are not considered sustainable or environmentally supportable.

What I learned today is bamboo alone is a renewable, sustainable, and abundant resource that grows organically in its natural habitat, but before you go and brag or even buy your bamboo clothes you need to ask the company what is their manufacturing process to make said bamboo fabric. Look for the Oeko-Tek certification. Oeko-Tek certification identifies textiles that are free of processing chemicals, although it does not ensure the environmental soundness of the entire manufacturing process. The same thing goes for your bamboo floors, bamboo cutting boards, your bamboo everything.

You’ve been schooled.

-Cara

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Reason 97 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

To produce foie gras, male ducks are force-fed a stomach-gorging cup of corn pellets three times a day with a 15-inch feeder tube. This torturous process goes on for 28 days until the ducks’ livers, from which the pâté is made, miasmatically bloat to 10 times normal size. Mortalities are high due to the disease, intense stress, and burst stomachs. For days prior to slaughter, each bird will pant for air. So cruel are these practices that foie gras production is now outlawed in at least a dozen countries.

Federal Contracts Ban

-Cara

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Reason 96 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

A 25-percent decline in heart disease in Poland in the early 1990s coincided with the country’s transformation to a market economy, which ended government subsidies to meat. A switch primarily to vegetable fats and the increased importation of fruit were also seen as factors in the decline, according to a report made by a team of multinational researchers. The authors of the report noted that the decline was “apparently without precedent in peacetime.”

Ever since I was a kid I’ve had people I looked up too, had crushes on, believed in, and thought were super cool, but I evolved and grew out of them. There has only been one person throughout my life I have always looked up too; one woman that my belief in the beauty of her soul, strength of her spirit, and greatness of her mind has never faltered. This woman is Alice Walker. I have a million reasons why and the words to tell you, but instead I will give you her name and a few of her words. I encourage you to find her for yourself, you will not regret it.

I believe peace is possible.

-Cara

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Reason 95 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Except for a single decade from time to time, the climate above America’s Ogalalla aquifer is bone-dry. Thanks to titanic amounts of water tapped from this ancient underground lake, however, for the last fifty years the land has been blanketed with thirsty feed grains. Farmers in some years have irrigated their land with more water than the annual flow of the Colorado River. Since this aquifer was originally the gift of a glacier in another age, today’s rainfall has essentially no recharging effect. Consequently, the experts give only fifty years before this phenomenal creation of the natural world is gone forever.

Today I feel stuck. I am not really inspired by anything and have no idea what to write about. I think I am just in a funky mood. I hate it when I don’t already have an idea of what I want to write. I guess maybe I’ll do a search online and put in ecology or green or I don’t know what…I’ll be back.

OK, I think I figured out what my problem is. I spend a lot of time writing blog entries on what we as humans are doing wrong and what we can and need to do to make the world a better place. I write everyday about it and I just need to lighten it up a bit now and again. I mean even the game this last Sunday was depressing. Today I am just going to go over some interesting and nerdy facts about this amazing planet we live on. I hope you enjoy.

Ten Earth Facts

• The Earth is about 4.54 Billion years old.
• Earth’s location in the Solar System is on the outer edge of the Milky Way, about 28,000 light years from the galactic center (Source: European Space Agency). It takes the solar system 225 million years to make one full trip around the Milky Way.

• Earth’s Sun is a medium sized, yellow star. Scientists call it a G2 star. It is the largest object in the solar system and contains 99.8 percent of the solar system’s mass. It is located in the center of the solar system (and it is super hot!).

• It takes Earth 365.2422 days to orbit the sun. This is the basis for the year.
• Rotational Speed is about 1,070 miles per hour at the equator (That is super fast!).
• It takes the Earth 23 hours, 56 minutes and four (4) seconds to make one complete 360° rotation (so what happens to those 3 minutes and 56 seconds everyday? How old am I really?).
• Earth’s Weight (Mass) is 5.972 sextillion (1,000 trillion) metric tons. That’s 5,972,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons! Actually, scientists prefer to refer to this measurement as the Earth’s mass instead of weight since weight is the result of Earth’s gravitational pull on another object. And the Earth cannot pull on itself! As the Earth orbits the Sun, it is weightless. If the Earth were placed on the Sun, it would weigh more than if it were placed on Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system but much smaller than the sun. Yet, Earth (or any other object for that matter) would have the same mass regardless of where it is located. (Earth is a fatty.) :]
• 70.8% of Earth is covered by water, and 29.2 % is covered by land. (The ocean really is Earth’s final frontier. There is miles of unexplored world underwater, including miles of caves and the like.)

• The highest point on Earth is 29,028 feet above sea level, Mount Everest, formed 60 million years ago, located on the border of Tibet and Nepal in the Central Himalayas in southeast Asia.
• The lowest point (on Land) 1,320 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea, located on the border between Israel and the West Bank to the west and Jordan to the east. It is so salty — the saltiest on Earth — that it is unable to support any type of life.

I feel better now. It is information that even if you already know it, maybe you haven’t thought about it lately and how amazing this super fresh planet really is, so let’s take care of her.

Earth is awesome.

-Cara

(Source:ecology.com)

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Reason 94 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

To a great extent, it’s the highenergy starch of corn feed that makes beef cattle grow to slaughter weight so quickly—14 to 16 months today, versus the traditional 4 to 5 years on grass (see #46). In terms of energy concentration, today’s feed has been compared to Snickers bars. As a consequence, feedlot manure is too nitrogen rich to be used as fertilizer. And it is so laced with hormones and other pharmaceuticals that fish downstream downstream can be found with strange sexual characteristics.

Today’s game, Darfur is Dying, is one that really affected me. Darfur is Dying is a viral video game for change that provides a window into the experience of the 2.5 million refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan. Players must keep their refugee camp functioning in the face of possible attack by Janjaweed militias. Players can also learn more about the genocide in Darfur that has taken the lives of 400,000 people, and find ways to get involved to help stop this human rights and humanitarian crisis.

It is hard emotionally to play, but gives you a better understanding of what is going on over there, which is extremely important.

Make a difference.

-Cara

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Reason 93 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

In nature, pigs avoid filth and will trek and root over 9 miles during a 24-hour period. Yet factory internment brings a breeding sow cold, strawless floors, noxious filth, deafening noise, and immobilizing space barely larger than her own body. This highly intelligent creature will be driven insane as she endures repeated pregnancies via artificial insemination. Her body will be pinned in place to expose her teats to her piglets. When her productive capacity wanes, she will be sent to slaughter.

This recipe my friend Lexi gave to me like a hundred years ago when we were just kids working at Whole Foods. This was before Whole Foods became a publicly traded company [I am a Whole Foods stockholder as when we worked there we were given stock and/or allowed to buy it cheaply. I just want to be honest and above board. ] and sold out. John Mackey, what a joke. I can say this as I experienced it firsthand. I never had such a great job before they went public. It was the best work environment and best people to work with. We all loved our jobs so much that it positively affected how we treated Whole Foods customers. It wasn’t a hassle or annoying, as we were respected and treated so well that we want to excel at our jobs and do what was right for the company. We were paid really well and had amazing benefits. It is the simple theory of treating your employees well and not only will they work hard, but you will make more money and a have a better life yourself. We were a true community and since that time I have never experienced that type of job.

The issue was to get the real big money they decided they needed to go public and it became no longer about us, it was about the stockholders and their happiness. Everyday, things changed more into a factory environment with dress codes, piercing policies, green aprons, whatever the stockholders wanted Mackey gave them. It became a place where if you did not agree with them they would fire you based on untruths. The place is not a good place to work anymore. I guess caring about what you do and how you do it doesn’t pay for a 720-acre ranch in Texas. Sorry, to get all up in it that way. January 1992 was just a sad time in history for all of us that worked there. If you don’t believe me here are some links I found from others like me who worked for this company and saw Whole foods devolve into what it is today.

Whole Foods Fight

Unconscionable Capitalism: How Whole Foods Values Policy Over Employees Well-Being

Good company to work for? (applying, business, change, part-time) [scroll down on this one to see some ex-employees of Whole Foods opinion.]

The Whole Foods Cure For Herpes

That’s enough for now, but if your not convinced do a search and you will find thousands of articles on what it is to work for a company with a nice exterior, but not so clean an interior.

To quote an ex-Whole Foods employee south2nd:

Ugh, stay away from Whole Foods. Before they became a publicly traded company, they were pretty great to work for. It has completely changed. They have eliminated most of the programs that made them different. The associates are not treated well, the pay is low, and the the atmosphere is very clique-ish and cutthroat. I would not recommend it unless you hate yourself.

01-19-2008, 08:57 AM

OK, I really got sidetracked from my recipe…sorry…bringing it back now. This recipe was originally Lexi’s but since then I have changed it a bit, it is now Lexi and Cara’s Special Organic Yam Yams or Sweet Potatoes recipe.

What You Need

as many organic sweet potatoes or yams you want to eat

as much organic unsalted butter you want per potato (I usually put like two tablespoons cut into squares and put along the potato)

as much organic brown sugar as you want per potato (I usually do about two tablespoons or less depending on the size of the potato)

as much organic honey as you like (I usually use a tablespoon)

a tablespoon of organic beer

What To Do

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees

Wash your yams/sweet potatoes

Cut them into quarters

Place them on a sheet big enough to wrap up said yams or potatoes

Add butter, brown sugar, honey, and a bit o’ beer.

Wrap them in their original shape with foil.

Put on a baking pan or may I suggest a dish with some depth as the juices will leak out of the aluminum sometimes and you don’t want to waste any of the good stuff.

Bake at 350 degrees for an hour or until they are nice and soft.

Put them and all the juices in a serving pan and enjoy.

I want some now!

-Cara

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Reason 92 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

It is estimated that 30 percent of the world’s fish catch is non-target species, or “bycatch.” Fishers–typically in the cruelest most expedient ways–separate out the discards, only to dump them overboard, dead and mutilated. Bycatch from driftnetting is estimated at 85 percent of catch; despite a U.N. moratorium, Italy, France, and Morocco continue the hugely destructive practice. Shrimp fishing alone is responsible for over 27 percent of the world’s bycatch, despite producing less than 2 percent of global seafood.

Lindsay Smith CEO and President Dan Joyce VP Sales and Marketing

The first thing we will talk about is not something you would necessarily buy for yourself, but more for a public space. It is rubber sidewalks.

Rubbersidewalks are high-density paving tiles made with recycled California tire crumbed rubber combined with polyurethane binder and colorant, then molded with heat under compression. This produces a strong and durable part that meets all requirements of sidewalk-worthiness, including stable grade, non-vibration in compliance with ADA requirements, and high coefficient of friction for non-skid both dry and wet. Rubbersidewalks are available in various sizes and colors, and are reversible. Known life per face is minimum eight years. Actual life per face is not known but is expected to exceed 12 years.

Here are some reasons to use then,

• Diverted over 1 million tires from landfills

• Saved over 2,000 trees in cities’ urban forests

• Removed 78,000 pounds of CO2 each year

• Captured over 4 million gallons of water each year

What a cool idea…

Next, yes it is another bag, but these two ladies have a slightly different spin. Here is what they have to say about themselve,

We are proud to say that BaggyShirts is a sustainable enterprise, in that we:

• Purchase recycled men’s shirts obtained from warehouses of surplus goods collected from charitable organizations - no petroleum-based materials.

• Use the entire shirt - absolutely no waste.

• Prevent clothing and tens of thousands of paper and plastic bags from going to the landfill each year.

• Employ local artisans to fabricate bags at home, slashing carbon emissions by 80% to 90%. No overseas manufacturing.

• Pay our fabricators a livable wage that is above average for the industry.

• Operate with the least possible amount of negative environmental impact – we ship Internet orders in recycled and recyclable materials.

• Donate a portion of our proceeds to organizations that work to stop global warming.

The cool thing is they were inspired to start this business after watching, An Inconvenient Truth! Sounds familar.

Last but not least, this is a shout out to Marine, as these recycled glasses are made from the bottom halves of Bordeaux bottles that were “rescued” on the way to the landfill. A beautifully etched branch design is accompanied by the phrase ‘Protect Our Earth’ in four languages: English, Spanish (Proteja Nuestra Tierra), Afrikaans/South African (Bewaar Ons A Arde) and French (Proteqez Notre Terre). They look beautiful.

Well, these were good ones. I hope you liked them as well.

Enjoy.

-Cara

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Reason 91 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

When food-safety inspectors in New York City make the rounds, they often come upon merchants selling just about anything: the meat of armadillos, iquanas, primates, turtles, frogs, and even rats. Some of the meat comes from endangered animals. Other cuts, if not intrinsically illegal, fail to derive from licensed inspected facilities and so put consumers at risk. The sellers of such contraband (most is imported) tend to be ignorant of U.S. laws, sometimes conveniently so. They don’t seem to comprehend the dangers to which they expose their customers and even the city as they raise the risk of outbreak. Over one recent 21-month period, a single inspector shuttered 138 city stores.

Last Saturday I went to ABC Carpet and Home on Broadway to watch the Pangea Day films. I think it is crazy in such a huge city we did not have a large public event like in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro, but was appreciative that ABC Carpet and Home hosted it, as they got nothing from it really. It may have been to their detriment, as people would come towards the showroom we were in and some left thinking they were interrupting something. Well maybe the people watching the film never came there before and now love it!!! Who knows? One thing they did gain was a fan, so if anyone from ABC Carpet and Home is reading this, thank you! Oh yeah, and we also ate in their restaurant, Pipa [nice place], so they did get some monetary value out of it!

For those that don’t know what Pangea Day is here is a link to an entry I did on it called, “What is Pangea Day?“. There were amazing films. It was a really great line-up. The only negative I will say was the three of the four hosts of Pangea Day were a bit annoying. I only really thought June Arunga cared about the event, the two men Max Lugavere and Jason Silva seemed very insecure and fake, so that kept distracting me and Lisa Ling was just on script. I could have also lived without all the actors reading their teleprompter, but I must admit when I told my mom Meg Ryan, Goldie Hawn and Cameron Diaz were a part of it, she got interested. Until then she was like, that sounds interesting dear…you know in THAT way…but later that same day she did email me and said she watched a whole hour. I guess it was a good idea to use popular Hollywood actors to pull in people like my mom, who are a little skeptical of us crazy do gooders, but trust that if Hollywood actors can support Pangea Day, it must not be too radical.

If you want to see some of these films go here. There was four hours of films [some ads, and songs, and such in between], I arrived about 45 minutes late, so only saw 3 hours and 15 minutes, but still they were so good time flew by. I think this was a great event, and in the words of the creator of Pangea Day, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, “Movies can’t change the world. But the people who watch them can.”, so please take some time to watch these films and see where they take you.

One last thing, I just want to say I think Jehane Noujaim is an amazing woman and a beautiful soul and am thankful she exists in this world.

-Cara

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Reason 90 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Even if meat eaters are spared the big killers that their lifestyle is associated with (heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer), their diet may still be robbing them of everyday good health. A meat diet is sure to lead to nagging conditions and ailments. A whole-foods, high-fiber vegan diet, full of grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, is just the ticket to reduce arthritis pain, ease irritable-bowel disorders, mitigate common back pain, relieve cold and allergy symptoms, and lower risk for gallstones, kidney stones, and heartburn. But perhaps best of all, the vegan life is one free of constipation!

Wednesday is hump day, the day that separates where your work week starts from when you work week ends. I thought what a perfect day to take a break and do something quick and easy that will make a positive difference. This day will be reserved for petitions and causes.

Our first lucky “Hump Day” winner is ONE. I first heard of these guys reading Ben and Jerry’s email newsletter. They have partnered with the organization to gain more exposer for their cause. What ONE does is raise public awareness about the issues of global poverty, hunger, disease and efforts to fight such problems in the world’s poorest countries.

In their own words, “ONE believes that allocating more of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world’s poorest countries.

ONE is nonpartisan; there’s only one side in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty. Working on the ground in communities, colleges and churches across the United States, ONE members both educate and ask America’s leaders to increase efforts to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty, from the U.S. budget and presidential elections to specific legislation on debt cancellation, increasing effective international assistance, making trade fair, and fighting corruption.“

They have a lot on their plate and much work to do, so what you can do to help is click on this link and sign the ONE Declaration and have you voice heard. It is super easy. If you want to do more you can visit ONE’s “Take Action” page and spread the word, volunteer, shop to support the cause, etc.

One person can make a difference, so do.

-Cara

Reason 89 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Handling livestock these days is risky business, not the least because humans are increasingly contracting diseases from the animals: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Nipah virus, bird flu, and SARS are a few examples. “Exotic,” and often endangered, animal cuisine provides the conduit for a global pandemic. In China, wet markets display caged and invariably sickly creatures, such as cobras, civet cats, and anteaters, for consumers who want that “taste of the wild.” In Africa, the bushmeat trade is blamed for the spread of Ebola and AIDS.