Everything a green yogi needs for his/her green earth-lovin’ practice.

Mats:

EM4 4 mm Yoga Mat: “Eco Yoga, a UK-based company, has created a natural mat that does not contain any PVC. The mat has a pure rubber underside that grips the floor and a jute fabric/rubber mix on top. The fabric gives a highly durable, tactile and pleasantly natural surface to work on. They are machine washable and biodegradable. And these mats are the new benchmark in performance. They are extremely grippy, non-skid mats, tested and recommended by the most discriminating users!”

Intent Vinyasa Yoga Rug: “Eco-sensitive yoga rugs made with certified, hand picked organic Egyptian cotton, known to be the softest and most durable cotton in the world. Traditional yoga rugs are made with conventionally grown cotton which consumes approximately 25% of the insecticides and more than 10% of the pesticides used in the world. Conventional farming devours a pound or more of pesticides and fertilizers to produce enough cotton for a single yoga rug.” They are also fairly traded.

Organic Yoga Towel: Helpful for keeping your mat from turning into a slip-n-slide.

Agoy Earth Yoga Mat: “The earth mat, made from a revolutionary synthetic form of rubber, is not only beautiful, it’s also free of PVC, Phthalates, toluene, heavy metals, latex and natural rubber. Plus it’s decomposable.”

Mat Cleaners:
Vermont Soap Organics Yoga & Exercise Mat Cleaner: “Crafted from certified organic vegetable oils and botanicals. Free of synthetic chemicals: artificial colors, fragrances, preservatives, alcohol and detergents. Cruelty and animal byproduct free. Not tested on animals. Safe for skin contact and sensitive individuals. Certified Organic and USDA Approved.”

Jo-Sha Wipes: “Our wipes are made of a high quality, soft, wood pulp based towelette that is biodegradable. The outer packaging is 100% recyclable….[and] contain no alcohol and no harsh chemicals. The pure essential oils we use are naturally anti-bacterial, naturally anti-septic, and naturally astringent.”

RAW yoga mat freshner: “RAW utilizes zero synthetic chemicals in its products. The ingredients are 100% natural and organic using only grade A essential oils and living herbs, fruits, spices, and plants when available.”

Props:
Blue Lotus Yoga Organic Bolster: “They are handmade and stuffed with cotton and kapok. No foam is used at all. It is a natural fiber bolster that provides a softer surface while maintaining support and comfort.”

Blue Lotus Yoga Organic Zafu

Barefoot Yoga Eco Friendly Foam Block: “The new eco-block is made from the highest quality, non-toxic material with no chemical odor. To make these blocks, no halocarbon gases (e.g. CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs) or volatile hydrocarbons (e.g. pentane, isobutane) at any stage in the production of any of its polyolefin foams are used. Eco blocks are manufactured using a high pressure nitrogen gas process which produces a pure, chemically and biologically inert material.”

If your compost pile is starting to stink or get flies in this hot weather you may need to add more grass clippings or leaves to it. Also, nightcrawlers help your compost breakdown faster. They should come on their own, but if they don’t you can buy them.

After almost 4 years of being married I finally brought my wedding dress in to get dry cleaned. I brought it to my local green dry cleaners, Hawthorne Cleaners in Glen Ellyn, IL.

I haven’t been a big fan of dry cleaning since I found out that they actually did dry clean your clothes (I know, I know…sometimes I am a little slow to catch on). It was all too suspicious. How could they clean your clothes without using soap and water?

The answer…..with chemicals. One particular chemical used is worse than the rest, perchloroethylene (aka: perc). Perc is a contributor to smog, contaminates groundwater (”[A] fact that has prompted state officials to provide bottled water to Chester County residents in two recent cases.”), and in high does is thought to be a carcinogen.

Yeah stinkin’ right, there is NO way I was going to put dry “cleaned” clothes on my fair skin. Others apparently felt the same way because over the past couple of years there has been a rise in “green” dry cleaning. Instead of using harsh chemicals,

[c]arbon dioxide, normally a gas at room temperature, is converted to a liquid at high pressure. It acts as a carrier for biodegradable soaps, much as water carries the soap in a regular washing machine. When the cycle stops, the pressure is relieved and the liquid turns back into a gas, most of which is later reused. The clothes dry instantly and emerge from the machine cool to the touch.

I have found that green dry cleaners aren’t always listed as such, so you may have to call around to a couple different dry cleaners to find one.

How can contentment help the planet? It’s simple. By learning to be content with where we are in the moment and what we have, we may naturally find that we become less hungry for material possessions.

The urge to buy a new pair of shoes, sheets, or whatever else it may be often arises in response to feelings of discontent. But when you let your unhappiness talk you into a quick-fix shopping spree for stuff you don’t acctually need, you are contributing to the degradation of the environment–depleting our natural resources while filling the air, water, and soil with life-threatening emissions and waste.

Pat Daniel, Ph.D.

Big houses are bought for their lure of storage space, not because of their ablity to house people. Our closets, attics, basements, garages, and storage units are filled to the max with junk that we haven’t seen in years. We don’t use or enjoy what we spend all our money on, and many go into debt for, and yet we continue to live this way. We are surrounded by those who are stressed by bills they can’t pay and spend their free time cleaning and organizing the clutter they have created for themselves. It doesn’t need to be this way.

I don’t conform to a minimalist lifestyle, but I do try to follow one that is simple. I made the decision to be a thoughtful consumer and to try come from a place of contentment. This means that I don’t shop very often, but when I do I buy higher quality goods that are made in an environmentally and socially conscious way. Even though these are typically a little more expensive, I am able to spend the extra money on a shirt because instead of owning 50 shirts, I own 10. “When you experience true contentment, even just a moment of connection with nature, you find yourself not needing “extras” to make up for life’s dissatisfactions.” (Pat Daniel, Ph.D.) It takes a lot of work and practice to come to this place of contentment, but it is worth it for so many reasons.

I mentioned in my post, The History of Organic Farming, that with the 21st century there came a surge in the popularity of organic products. The growing popularity of organics and hard work of those within the organic community has made organics a multi-billion dollar industry. Unfortunately, this has drawn those who want to reap the financial benefits but could care less about the integrity and ideology behind organic products.

This is becoming a huge problem because these same people, in the form of large corporations, are trying to lower organic standards. Now, does this make sense to anybody? Because it makes NO sense to me. I think it is totally ridiculous and illogical. A category of agriculture already exists that has lower standards, its called industrialized farming! Are they wanting to change the name “industrialized farming” to “organic farming”? We cannot let terms become so relative that we have no idea what we are talking about any more. I get that these corporations don’t care about the organic industry and see it as a good business opportunity where they can make a lot of money. This will go on until people finally catch on that what they have really done is just steal the term organic and use it to re-label industrialized agriculture.

It is important that we work to keep organic standards high. In fact, if anything, organic standards need to be raised. Those of us who believe in the ideology and importance of organic agriculture need to protect it and not let the USDA and members of Congress sell off the hard work of the Organic Movement.

To read more or take action visit Safeguard Organic Standards at Organic Consumers Association.

It has been on my list to write a post on gas powered lawnmowers. Idealbite just made it a lot easier by doing the work for me and sending it write to my inbox as today’s daily tip.

Here you go (You can view the tip in its original form on their site.):

The Benefits

* Save gas. Each weekend, 54 million Americans mow their lawns, using an estimated 800 million gallons of gas per year. More gas is spilled while refueling lawn equipment each year than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
* Save cash. Using an electric mower, you’ll pay about $5 per year for the electricity costs. Using a gas-powered mower, you’ll pay that much in just two mows.
* Cleaner air. According to the EPA, gas-powered lawnmowers account for up to 5% of US air pollution.
* Today’s reel mowers (vastly improved from your dad’s old reel mowers) are the best bet for the planet, but rechargeable electric mowers are increasingly Earth-friendly.
* Bothered by noise pollution? It’s not a problem with reel mowers and electric mowers which make just a tenth of the amount of noise as gas-powered ones.

Wanna Try?
Letting grass clippings decompose is a great natural fertilizer, and keeps you from having to bother bagging and shipping the stuff to the dump. Alternatively, check with your local waste management company to see whether they’ll compost your grass for you.

* Sunlawn/Brill Luxus 38 - efficient and light reel mower ($199).
* Scotts Classic - reel mower with an extra-wide cutting path ($130).
* Sunlawn EM-1 - Sunlawn’s option when you need some power behind your push ($380).
* Neuton Electric Mower - you can literally talk on the phone while this baby’s running ($399).
* EnvirOmower Eco 500 - recommended by Aussie/UK Biters (£229).

I both practice and teach yoga and I have been excited about the increasing awareness within the yoga community of our connection to this earth as it specifically relates to our need to take care of the environment. In the May 2006 issue of Yoga Journal, Magdalena Winter in talking with Laura Cornell, took a look at how “practicing ahimsa, or nonviolence, to the earth is central to the teachings of yoga”. Cornell founded Green Yoga Association (GYA)for the purpose of “foster[ing] ecological consciousness, reverence, and action in the yoga community”. Right now GYA is working on the Green Studios Pilot Program which “provides information on green methods of furnishing and marketing studios”. There has already been an influx of positive feedback for the program and a growing list of yogis that are interested in making these environmentally beneficial changes to their studios.

Visit the link above to find out more on how you can get your yoga studio involved in the Green Studios Pilot Program. Namaste fellow yogis.

image courtesy of http://www.yoga-info.com

Organic farming is not a mark of alternative culture that appeared in the 60’s with those granola-eating-hippies–you know the ones I’m talking about–only to “sell-out” when it recently came into style as the en vogue food of choice among the wealthy-upper-class-elites who can afford to shop at the high-end grocery stores.

I repeat, this is NOT organic farming.

In fact, organic farming is far from being a recent discovery since it happens to be the most ancient form of farming. In the past, all farms were smaller in scale and completely free of petroleum-based chemicals. Farmers used techniques such as crop rotation and biodiversity, and worked to maintain the soils integrity (i.e. keeping the soil nutrient-rich and free from erosion). It wasn’t really until the 20th century that we really began to see signicant shifts in the way farming was approached. There have always been changes within agriculture, but never before had there been such a pivot in the way food was grown. There was the introduction of mechanical farming tools such as the tractor, popularization of nitrogen fertilizer, and larger fields that focused on growing one or two crops versus a variety of crops. Food was no longer grown. Instead, it was manufactured.

Soon after industrialization put its stamp on farming, the Organic Movement slowly began to emerge in England. The movement was unofficially led by British botanist Sir Albert Howard, often refered to as “the father of modern organic agriculture”, who wrote the influential book, An Agricultural Testament. Before long he was joined by others who made great contributions of their own. With the rise of industrialized farming there was a need for a term that distinguished “holistic, ecologically balanced approach to farming” from mainstream agriculture. Lord Northbourne is said to be the first to make this distinction with the use of the term “organic farming” in his book, Look to the Land.

The great divide between organic farming and industrialized agriculture only continued to increase.

Technological advances during World War II spurred on post-war innovation in all aspects of agriculture, resulting in such advances as large-scale irrigation, fertilization, and the use of pesticides. Ammonium nitrate, used in munitions, became an abundantly cheap source of nitrogen. DDT, originally developed by the military to control disease-carrying insects among troops, was applied to crops, launching the era of widespread pesticide use.

It’s difficult to talk about the history of organic farming without refering to industrialized farming because that’s what where many of the changes were taking place. The changes that took place within the organic culture was how it was/is perceived by the public.

However, organic farming did begin to be documented more extensively. Scientific studies were being conducted, such as the one by Lady Eve Balfour in 1939, comparing organic farming and industrial farming. (Lady Eve Balfour, the first person to embark on such a scientific study, would later publish her findings from the Haughley Experiment in her book titled, The Living Soil.)

For the next couple of decades organic farming would fall into the background as it lacked influence and support.

In the 1960’s organic farming would reappear in the public sphere as the result of Rachel Carson. She was a marine biologist, zoologist, and naturalist and wrote the extremely influential book and reoccuring New York Times Best Seller, Silent Spring. In Silent Spring she discusses the effects of pesticides and “the theme of environmental connectedness”. The book made such a huge impact that it is said to have launched the worldwide environmental movement as well as having led the government to ban DDT in 1972. Woohoo!

The momentum and attention gained by Carson would continue. In the 70’s the organic movement focused on raising awareness on the importance of buying locally grown food. Followed in the 80’s by a struggle to bring about the government regulation of organically grown food. The 90’s brought about these much needed regulations in the form of legislation and certification standards.

That brings us to the 21st century and the growing popularity of organic products. Organic has become fashionable, leading more and more people to want a peace of the pie. This has already led to those who want more financial benefits to organics popularity to try to weaken the government regulations on certified organic farms. I will write more about government regulations for certified organic farms in an upcoming post.