As I mentioned in a previous post, my major New Year’s goal is to limit some of the excess food packaging that comes into my house.

My foolproof super hopeful plan!

As noted, I’ve failed to reach my goal for four years or so. I’m pretty sure that I’ve been aiming too high, which is exactly the opposite of what I always tell other people to do. For example, I want to eliminate ALL unnecessary food packaging. Yet, obviously I’m not nearly reaching that goal. I always tell you, my readers, to take small steps towards a greener lifestyle, so this year, I’m taking my own advice.

In 2012, my household will be concentrating on some smaller, hopefully more achievable steps towards an overall less package-laden lifestyle. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

Baby steps for my goal this year!

Who will be involved:

Since I live with four other people for the time being, a true elimination of household packaging would require the entire household’s cooperation. That spells potential trouble and extra stress I don’t need. That said, I’m limiting my goal to what I can control – meaning packaging concerning my son Cedar and myself.

The basic plan:

1) I sat down and thought about all the foods we buy prepackaged.

2) First I eliminated impossible items from my list. For example, I’m not buying an organic cow, milking it and churning flipping butter and ice cream. I’m also not raising chickens. Meaning, we’ll keep buying items such as organic milk, eggs and butter prepackaged.

3) Then I thought about the stuff I could manage easily because I’ve already got the skills – i.e. I can bake cookies and muffins vs. buying packaging. I can also buy rice and beans in bulk and cook them vs. purchasing cans or boxes.

4) Then, because a goal should be at least a little bit challenging, I considered something harder. For us, the food items with the biggest package impact would likely be soup. We eat soup for most lunches and often for dinner too. We eat organic veggie, chicken noodle, veggie chili, tomato and more. I have almost zero soup making skills. I’ve tried to make soup before. At best I’ve had curious results and at worst really terrible results. If I can learn to make decent soup, it would be a BIG deal, save on lots of cans and a great accomplishment.

My chosen small steps:

• Quit buying rice and beans in cans, bags or boxes. Both are easy to get organic in bulk, but take more time to cook.

• Don’t buy potatoes or carrots in bags anymore. Can you believe I sometimes do this! Anyhow, I can cut up bulk carrots myself and lately I’ve located bulk organic potatoes not in bags.

• Bake cookies and muffins from scratch from now on, using bulk ingredients. Easy because I’m a good baker and since I work at home, baking is something I do have time for – i.e. it’s easy to walk away from the oven, so long as you set a timer.

• Learn to make soup. This will be the hardest part for me. One reader suggested a crock-pot, which I’ll be looking into, and I’m going to gather up some organic soup recipes.

How is 2012 going so far?

Well, not great, but luckily it’s only the 8th. I bought bulk carrots and potatoes this week, plus didn’t buy any muffin mixes or prepackaged cookies.

I’ve utterly failed to research soup making yet and I bought two boxes of rice and two cans of soup. Blah. So, it’s going about half good. Stay tuned, because hopefully I’ll manage to look up some soup recipes and share them here.

Image by Johnkarun via sxc.

Instead of general New Year’s goals, I’m concentrating on discussing the childhood obesity epidemic. That said I do still have two general goals for myself, or I should say my household. One of my goals is to get this household more active, since we’ve been slacking, but we’ll discuss that later. First, let’s look at my big goal of the year.

The ongoing food packaging goal

For over four years, my New Year’s goal has been to eliminate food packaging that comes into my house. I’ve done a horrid job too. Seriously, I’ve been terrible, not really limiting much food packaging at all. Each year I think, this is the year I do better and each year –  zero results.

For example, if you look in my cupboards and fridge, here are some typical items we buy that come in packages of some sort:  ketchup, crackers, soup, bread, frozen veggies, milk, refried beans, eggs, granola bars, butter, baking goods (I often, but don’t always buy bulk), sometimes cookies, tortillas, spaghetti sauce, cheese, bagels, rice and so on and so on. We do buy 90% of our food in organic form. However, for a green family, I feel like we have way too much overly packaged stuff.

What’s stupid, is that half this stuff I can make from scratch, using bulk goods brought home in reusable bulk bags or containers (which I already own). I’m a good bread and cookie baker. I can make crackers and granola. I’m decent at making sauces and there’s no question that I can get organic veggies fresh in reusable bags vs. frozen.

Why we fail year-after-year

Being that I make this flipping goal every year, I needed to figure out how come my household keeps failing to meet it.

We’re busy: I feel like we’re pressed for time constantly. We’ve got three kids with three different school and activity schedules. My boyfriend works an oddball shift full-time at his day job and performs frequently with his band (second job). I work full-time+ writing and I’m on the board at my son’s school. Like we’ve got time to bake and cook from scratch every night. It’s REALLY easy to open cans of soup.

I’m ill-equipped: I’m a decent cook, but not a genius cook. Stuff like homemade soup is a stretch for me. In fact, I’d say that soup is our biggest failure. We get canned soup often. Even though we buy organic, it’s still packaged and the cans are known to harbor BPA (lame).

My partner is ill-equipped: I’m not the only adult in the house with issues. My boyfriend doesn’t seem super keen to cook from scratch either and his cooking abilities are also limited.

Picky kids: My boyfriend’s kids want processed foods often (turkey dogs, bagels, mac n cheese, etc) and my son, Cedar, is so picky that once we find something he’ll eat, we tend to stick to it, rather than try anything new. For example, Cedar just recently decided mac n cheese is okay to eat, but says, “I like the Annie’s white shells and not other mac n cheese.” Thus, whipping together a homemade dish of mac n cheese could mean a picky kid food revolt.

Benefits of eliminating some packaging

If we manage this goal this year, there are some major benefit though. For example:

• Lower grocery costs. There was a time, years ago, when I used to buy more food in bulk and cook from scratch more often, and I did spend less on groceries. Packaging and convenience does cost you, especially if you buy mostly organic.

• We’ll learn some new skills, like how to make soup.

• We can teach one, two or maybe all three of the kids to cook too.

• We’ll avoid pesky BPA in cans.

• We’ll avoid cluttering up the landfills with trash – not all packaging is easily recycled. Plus, although we do recycle like champs, recycling takes energy, so why not avoid the packaging in the first place.

• We’ll be more self-sufficient and less dependent on food companies. For example, I get cranky when my favorite organic vegetable soup is out of stock. It would be better to learn to make it myself.

• We can feel better about our footprint. It’s not just all the packaging to recycle that bugs me. It takes energy and other resources to make food packaging. Plus, we’re not a family that buys a bunch of useless junk (most of us are not excess stuff fans) so the fact that we buy too much packaging just feels icky to me.

Since I haven’t reached this goal in previous years, I decided to lay out a much better plan this year. That plan is coming up soon. For now, tell me if you have any green New Year’s goals for 2012.

Image by raja4u via sxc.

Previously I wrote about how the winter holiday season has been over-saturated with stuff and overspending. I’ve been meaning to do a follow-up about how to combat a consumer holiday, but sorry, I got a little behind here. Life has been nuts lately. There’s still plenty of December left though and that means many chances to have a less consumer-based holiday season. Take a look at the tips below. Maybe they’ll help you have a nicer, less consumer, more family focused holiday season.

CONSUMER-FREE ESSENTIALS

Come up with a plan

The best way to combat holiday consumerism is to think things through before hand and to have a solid family focused plan in place. This is tough for a lot of us, myself included. Try discussing the issue with your family and friends early on. Talk about what sort of holiday you’d like to have, plus stuff you’ve liked or not liked about holidays past. If you need some good celebration ideas read I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas and Celebrate Green.

Start creating traditions when your kids are young

Getting older kids to convert from a stuff-based holiday to a more activity and family focused holiday is very hard. Kids raised to value stuff over people will obviously not value holiday celebrations. Encourage kids from an early age that holidays are about hanging out with family and giving over simply getting presents. It’s best to raise kids right from the start, rather than switch it up later. Keep in mind that discussing green holidays and family-based celebrations does not take away from the magic of the season.

• Kids can be savvy consumers

Convert older kids and others

If you’ve spent years celebrating gifts and stuff vs. family time, you’ll need to adjust everyone’s train of thought. Discuss how consumer-driven holidays don’t appeal anymore and discuss ways to make changes. This is one of those times that you’ll need to fess up to your child that you’ve been wrong, especially if you’ve been over-showering the holidays with gifts galore up to this point. Change can happen, but don’t expect it to happen overnight.

• Common behaviors of kids with overly consumer holiday values
• 10 best ways to raise greedy kid
• How parents and other adults can avoid commercialism

GO EXTREME

Celebrate a Buy Nothing Christmas this year.

Yup, it’s way outside the norm, but also an excellent challenge and will still be fun to boot. If this seems to extreme, at least take the 2011 Simplify the Holidays Challenge, which allows you to scale back, without scaling back entirely. Need help planning your Buy Nothing Christmas? See the following:

• Buy Nothing Christmas FREE information kit
• Buy nothing shopping catalog
• Ideas about gifts you don’t purchase

Here are some consumer holiday spending facts to ponder…

In 2010 consumers spent an estimated $648 million on Black Friday. This year, according to ComScore, consumers spent a whopping $816 million online alone, making Black Friday the heaviest spending day on the Internet so far in 2011. That’s a Black Friday sales increase of about 26% since last year.

However, all the shopping madness wasn’t over on Black Friday. Last year, Cyber Monday sales reached an all time high of $1.028 billion, and Forbes originally estimated that the current trend would hold, thus, this year’s sales would increase. Forbes was right on the money. MarketLive, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class eCommerce technology and services, just announced that 2011 Cyber Monday revenue increased 26 percent over last year. According to comScore, this year’s Cyber Monday was the biggest online spending day in history, with revenues of $1.25 billion in the United States.

On top of that… Consumer Reports notes that not only do shoppers spend more than they plan on these mega shopping days, but 45% of Americans who made a budget last year exceeded it and about 14.1 million adults are still carrying debt from the 2010 holiday season.

TOTAL INSANITY! 

The National Retail Federation forecasts that the average American will spend around $700+ on holiday shopping in 2011, and those figures are likely low, since every year many consumers go well over budget. In any case, this is completely unnecessary. Plus keep in mind that these statistics are regarding individuals, not families. Typically, in a family with two parents, research says they’ll BOTH spend that average $700+, so in reality many two-parent families are spending anywhere from $1,400 to $2,000 a year on Christmas. Worst of all, most of this money isn’t even going toward an eco-friendly holiday.

How much I spent in 2010

Last year, I tracked my spending carefully, and I spent about $250 on everything Christmas related, including gifts, food, decor and everything else. Keep in mind that except for one item (Legos), all the gifts I gave were eco-friendly too, so the whole idea of having to spend more for a green holiday is bunk. Had I gotten my act together and made some homemade gifts, I’d have spent even less. This year, my goal is to have a fun holiday while spending even less $.

This isn’t about hating on Christmas

This isn’t about being a Grinch and killing Christmas dreams. I like Christmas as much as anyone. However, I don’t like how it’s become so commercial, so stuff oriented and less about family celebrations.  I’m also not advocating a perfectly stuff-free Christmas. Gifts are nice, it’s all the excessive behavior that gets me. I think consumer holidays are especially detrimental to kids and I also think you can have both gifts and family time without all the super greedy consumerism issues.

* 50 ideas about how to have a nicer, less consumer, more family focused Christmas (coming soon)

Lead image via Flickr user jbhthescots

Consumer-driven holidays and kids who are more concerned with stuff than other people seem to have become more commonplace in recent years. Research shows that I’m not the only one bothered by such behavior either. Many surveys show that a large majority of people think that more kids in general, or their own kids in particular, act too spoiled and materialistic.

That said, I think consumerism + kids is an important issue to share facts about, especially for parents interested in raising kids who value more than  stuff. So, here are some facts about the growing problem of materialistic behavior in kids.

Photo © Flickr user James Ellsworth

Kids are getting more selfish and becoming compulsive consumers

You may not like it, or want to admit that materialistic, spoiled kids are a problem, but research shows that this is a very real and growing problem, both here in the U.S. and elsewhere.

• National surveys show most parents feel like they’re raising overly selfish kids. 80% of respondents in a recent AOL/Time Warner poll said kids in America are more spoiled than kids of ten or fifteen years ago, while 2/3 of all parents admitted that their kids are indeed too spoiled. 

• A study in the spring of 2007 reported an increase of narcissism (caring much more about oneself than others) of 30% over the past twenty years.

• According to a national survey commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream, American children aged 12 to 17 will ask their parents for products they have seen advertised an average of nine times until the parents finally give in, with 55% of kids saying their parents will eventually give in. Worse, among 12- to 13-year-olds, 62% say that buying certain products makes them feel better about themselves.

• University of Arizona marketing researcher Lan Nguyen Chaplin notes that adolescents today have been characterized as the most materialistic generation in history.

• When Dan Kindlon, author of Too Much of a Good Thing, interviewed more than 1,000 parents, and roughly 650 teenagers, he found that 60% of parents thought their kids were spoiled, and 15% of the teens themselves said they were spoiled.

• A survey by the Millward Brown global market research agency shows that 8- to 12-year-olds in America are more materialistic than anywhere else in the world. 75 % desire to be “rich,” and kids here in the U.S. are more likely to believe that their clothes and brands describe who they are and define their social status.

• Commercial Free Childhood notes that a national survey by Consumer Focus found that 63% of parents believed that their children define their self-worth in terms of what they own.

• Commercial Free Childhood also notes that over half of children surveyed say they would be happier if they had more money to buy more things for themselves. Nearly that many say the only kind of job they want when they grow up is one that pays a lot.

• Parents are more and more frequently basing their worth as parents on the stuff they can afford to buy vs.the lessons and time they impart. For example, a major UNICEF study shows that many parents have trapped themselves, and their children in a cycle of “compulsive consumerism.” As another, fairly horrifying example, here’s one mother’s account of how, although she earns fair wages and owns two homes, she’s super worried about being able to afford the luxury holiday her kids deserve. This mom goes on to wish that she could do things differently, and have a less-stuffed based holiday but worries that her kids can’t handle less gifts at Christmas and won’t like her anymore if she fails to buy plenty of gifts.

• Research shows that kids under 14 years of age spend about $40 billion annually on material goods, while teens spend about $159 billion a year – most of it, their parents money.

What’s wrong with kids who are materialistic?

It’s the American dream to want more right. If that’s true, then what’s so wrong with being materialistic and having lots of stuff? A lot as it turns out.

• Researchers on a major study about selfishness noted that narcissistic individuals are more likely to be overcontrolling and exhibit violent behaviors and dishonesty than less narcissistic folks. Research also shows that materialistic kids are less happy, more prone to depression, have lower self-esteem and report more symptoms of anxiety.

• Kids who are overly materialistic tend to engage in fewer positive environmental behaviors such as reusing paper, and using less water while showering.

• During one study, researchers presented kids with a pretend windfall of cash.  The more materialistic children exhibited less generosity and said they’d allocate less money to charity than kids less concerned with stuff.

• Lastly, plenty of research shows that selfish, consumer-driven kids cause family stress, sibling stress and parental stress.

Plus there’s behavioral issues

As George Cohen, MD, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on the psychosocial aspects of child and family health, points out, “What’s spoiled for one parent may not be for another.” However, there are clearly some recognizable poor behaviors associated with overly consumer-minded kids.

Below are some behaviors of materialistic kids that I’ve noticed, plus some selfishness traits that researchers and other parents on the web have pointed out…

• Making huge wish-lists of gifts for holiday events that aren’t negotiable.
• Buying stuff impulsively without giving purchases any thought.
• Placing value on what things cost, not the thought of the gift.
• Breaking or loosing stuff they own without regret.
• Zero expectations of having to help cover the costs of new items.
• Nagging parents over and over about specific products.
• Not willing to help out without being paid or bribed – say with chores.
• Stealing – studies show stealing is much more common among selfish kids than other kids.
• Not saying thank you when they receive a gift.
• Getting angry when things don’t go their way.
• Lack of respect for parents, family, friends and so on, unless they’re out to get something.
• Not getting others gifts of their own accord – having to be nagged to give.
• Often acts jealous of what others have.
• Acting entitled to everything they want and not acting gracious.
• Low self-esteem or placing worth on stuff they own.
• Saying stuff like, “Is that all I get?” or “How come so and so got more presents than I did?“
• Complaining about the gifts they get behind someone’s back or literally to their face.
• Making fun of people who get them, “shoddy gifts” or “cheap gifts.“
• Not spending time with others on holidays other than to collect gifts.
• Putting their own needs before others at most or all times.
• Disinterest in any holiday event than involves activity or family time.
• Having a disposable mentality – i.e. so what if stuff breaks, you can always get more.

This affects how kids are treated by others too

No one wants to be around a kid who acts this way. Behavior like this is especially frustrating around the holidays, but can be annoying year-round too. A poor outcome of allowing a kid to act like this is that their behaviors do keep others at a distance. Additonally, if a child is raised in such a way that consumerism and selfish behaviors are okay, they may believe these traits are perfectly fine for the rest of their life.

This is a huge disadvantage to your kids

Some parents think that they’re helping their kids by giving them a million gifts and fulfilling their every holiday or life whim. But these aren’t good parenting practices.

• How to raise a greedy child

Holidays are supposed to be magical and fun. When you allow holidays to become all about stuff and greed they’re no longer magical, surprising or fun for anyone.

Seriously, what’s the point of all this stuff? Excess stuff simply 100% hardens kids against any sort of real holiday or life meaning beyond having more, more, more. Kid who fail to see meaning in family or celebration beyond what they can get, will likely pass these traits on to their own future children, thus ensuring that a nice cycle of commercial, consumerism driven behavior will continue.

Coming up I’ll have some tips about how have a less consumer driven holiday (and life). For now, if you need tips about how to stop this sort of madness, read the following:

• Green Consumer Tips for Kids & Teens!
• Parents need to avoid commercialism along with kids
• Commercialism Makes Growing Green Kids Harder
• The Greedy Kid Cure
• Can you cure your kids’ ‘gimmes’?
• Teaching children to be grateful and generous
• Experts tell parents how to decode the spoiled child
• Making the Holidays Less Materialistic
• Selfishness in Children – plus a quiz to see how your child stacks up
• Attitude Makeover: Selfish

I’m working on an ongoing series here about how to save money by going green – “Live green and save $50,000 in five years“. The point of this series is to find out if the average family of four can save $50,000 in five years, simply by initiating green practices into their lifestyle.

However, it’s been tough going tracking these costs. So, I figured I’d do a little round-up post and keep it updated here. If you want to follow along, bookmark this post so you can return as the savings add up. Don’t forget, if you have more or less than four family members, savings will vary.

How to save $50,000 in five years by going green

• Save $835 per kid by using to reusable baby wipes
• Save $1,612 by using homemade green cleaners
• Save $2,960 by having a less consumer Christmas
• Save $1,000 by ditching paper towels
• Save $1,354 by using cloth napkins
• Save $6,000 by switching to reusable water bottles

TOTAL SAVINGS SO FAR: $13,761.00

$ left to save: $36,239

If you’ve got any questions or comments about this series, or if you have a green practice you’d like me to consider, leave a comment below.

I’ve been celebrating Buy Nothing Day for years. This year, I’m even more encouraged to celebrate, because Buy Nothing Day falls on November 25th, my birthday. Buy Nothing Day was originally launched by the folks at Adbusters, and it’s pretty simple to participate. Buy Nothing Day encourages people to skip the Black Friday madness and choose other, better alternative activities instead.

Below is the awesome Buy Nothing Day video – it was made back in 2005, but it’s still relevant. By the way, when it first appeared, many media networks like MTV and ABC banned this commercial, deeming it too hard-core for American consumers.  Lame.

Most people know about Black Friday. It happens every year, the Friday after Thanksgiving. Stores hold massive sales and people head out in droves to shop. There are some huge issues with a holiday that celebrates massive consumerism though, such as…

• Black Friday is a huge time waster. You could spend the day with your family instead of spending it in a stressful, crowded store check-out line. It’s a holiday weekend for pete’s sake, don’t you have better stuff to do?

• Black Friday encourages the gigantic “Buy more, buy bigger” mindset that’s already in place in this country.

• Black Friday is not eco-friendly, because it’s a day focused on buying as much stuff as possible – not healthy for people or the earth. Plus, most retailers who participate in the Black Friday shenanigans don’t carry safe, green, non-toxic products, and because it occurs all on one day, you don’t have time to research before you buy.

• Black Friday sets a terrible example for your kids. Kids are bombarded with consumer issues every single day. The last thing kids need is a holiday telling them how cool it is to buy, buy, buy.

• Black Friday doesn’t help you make smart consumer choices because it happens so quickly. There’s no time to think through purchases. You have to buy right now.

• Black Friday make people do incredibly greedy, money-minded and lame things. Seriously – read this.

• Black Friday is not peaceful. No argument on earth will convince me that consumerism, mixed with long lines, mixed with stress, mixed with fighting over products and other nonsense connected with Black Friday is a healthy way to live. A peaceful living mindset is tied intrinsically to eco-living. When you buy less, live healthier and make positive choices, a certain sense of calm begins to take over your life , which can lead to a greener lifestyle as well. Less clutter, less competition, more peace, and more green.

People who are healthy and happy, and not stressed over stuff can stay more balanced and have more time to figure out how to invest in a greener world. You don’t have to shop, shop, shop on November 25th. You could make a statement by not shopping at all.

• Stuff to do on Black Friday that in no way involves shopping.

Instead of shopping, use Black Friday as a day to go on a hike, play board games, hold a gathering for friends you missed over Thanksgiving, or whatever you like. If you REALLY must participate, consider a buy something responsible day instead.

Just a quick FYI to my PDX friends, the Portland Farmers Market will be celebrating it’s 20th birthday with a fun party. There will be festivities, such as crafts and farmer dunking (so I hear) and of course, plenty of fresh birthday treats served up by local chefs.

As an added bonus, this year’s reusable bag design contest winner will be announced. Also, Congressman Earl Blumenhauer, Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioner Nick Fish will speak. Farmers Market events are always fun. I’ve got to work, so I’m gonna miss the fun (sad) but hopefully you and your family can make it.

Where: Portland Farmers Market at Portland State University

When: Saturday, June 18th, 2011.

Time: I think the birthday fun kicks off at 11 am. As always, the actual market should be opening around 8:30 am.

Last week the Associated Press reported that the FDA finally admitted that some chicken meat on the market contains arsenic. Long story short, 3-Nitro, approved in 1944, has been given to chickens, turkeys and pigs that people eat for years. Sadly, 3-Nitro contains a dangerous, poisonous form of inorganic arsenic, a substance known to be carcinogenic (cancer causing).

The National Chicken Council went on the defense right away saying, “Chicken is safe to eat. When used, 3-Nitro is given according to label directions approved by FDA.” Actually that’s funny because if the drug was being use according to directions, it seems like people wouldn’t be ingesting this drug at all. The label for 3-Nitro states, “If swallowed, call a physician, poison control center, or hospital immediately. Induce vomiting by giving Ipecac syrup as directed.” Geez, someone should tell them that Ipecac syrup isn’t recommended anymore… but, I digress, the point is that you’re not supposed to eat this stuff.

The FDA agrees with the National Chicken Council and says that people should not stop eating chicken that may have been treated with the drug.

Now what’s up:

Although 3-Nitro has been used since 1944, it’s just now come into question. Not because the FDA has been running any sort of rigorous testing, but more likely because of public pressure and outcry. Pfizer, who makes the drug has just announced that they’ll be voluntarily withdrawing 3-Nitro starting in July. This was a Pfizer decision, by the way, not an FDA command.

So yeah, 3-Nitro is not going to be fed to chickens any longer, and thus, it will no longer be fed to people who choose to eat conventional, factory-farmed chickens. That said, I’m quite sure that factory farmers will simply look for another handy drug to feed to animals. Others agree, for example, NPR reports,

Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the advocacy group Food & Water Watch, said in a statement that the decision by Pfizer, maker of 3-Nitro, to voluntarily remove it from the market is “a good first step” but called for the FDA to ban arsenic-based drugs for animal feed altogether.

Go organic… go organic… go organic!

You know, the FDA, and other “give drugs to food sources” advocates keep pressing the fact that the arsenic is in such small amounts that no one should care, that it’s perfectly safe to keep eating. However, think about that for a minute. Is ANY amount of poison knowingly ingested a good idea? Is it?

• See organic foods your family should eat all the time.

If you gather up all those little bits of arsenic from all those chicken nuggets and chicken breasts and so on that you feed your family, and you put said arsenic in a glass and make your family drink it, the situation looks way more icky. Arsenic causes cancer and is a poison. Why on earth would you eat this on purpose?

Trust me, 3-Nitro is being pulled, but you can bet money that factory farmers will simply find and use a different poison. Seriously, remember last year’s strawberry cancer shenanigans? Manufacturers will put anything in food, because frankly, consumers will keep eating it. Don’t be that consumer if you can help it.

USDA Organic is far from perfect, but if you’re going to eat meat, you really, really need to consider only eating organic meat. Going organic is going to cut your chances of voluntarily eating poison by a decent percentage. Another option is to eat less meat, or no meat at all.

Learn more about safe, organic food:

• See Food, Inc.
• How to afford organic food
• See a recipe for homemade organic vegetarian pot pie.
• Unscrambling Organic Eggs: Separating Facts from Fiction

Do you buy conventional chicken, organic chicken, or no chicken at all. Let me know in the comments.

In a move based on customer feedback about Bisphenol A (BPA) safety concerns, Cincinnati-based Kroger announced this month that they’re going to make sure that all baby products sold in their store are BPA-free. Additionally, Kroger stores will also be eliminating BPA from Kroger store brand canned foods and purchasing BPA-free paper for store receipts.

No official timeline for the switch to BPA-free products has been noted, just that Kroger plans to be using all BPA-free register paper by the end of the year and to replace canned food lining asap.

Kind of like the Kroger bag banning shenanigans, they’re not doing this to be eco-friendly or healthy, they’re working the PR angle.

Kroger spokesman Keith Dailey told the The Columbus Dispatch:

“While there is no conclusive scientific evidence that minimal exposure to BPA in can linings poses any risks to consumers, Kroger has begun a process that we believe will result in the removal of BPA in the linings of canned goods in all of our corporate brand items. Customers are interested in the issue and what the company is doing on the issue.”

Kroger apparently, officially, feels that BPA is fine and dandy, but they’re trying to ease customer concerns. Do I care that Kroger is patronizing other consumers and myself? Not terribly. Fred Meyers is the closest grocery store to my home, so I tend to shop there. I’m down with any healthy decisions Kroger may make – I don’t much care why.

Additionally, the Kroger co. currently owns 2,458 grocery retail stores in 31 states, along with 786 convenience stores ad a bunch of jewelry stores, food processing and manufacturing facilities, supermarket fuel centers and pharmacies. They also employ about 334,000 individuals. There’s probably a Kroger something near you.

Any positive changes Kroger makes (no matter the reason) is sure to impact many people plus make other grocers stand up and take notice.

Now, if only Kroger would solve their factory farmed organic milk issues…

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