Most banana plantations are an environmental nightmare. The trees are showered with chemicals for pest and weed control and they often grow in monocultures on land where biologically diverse rainforests once stood, mostly in Central and South America.

In Costa Rica, one university, the EARTH University, is taking a lead on earth-friendly banana research and production. Though not completely organic by U.S. standards, EARTH supplies exclusively to the Whole Foods Market chain in the U.S. and U.K. These "green" bananas make up a small percentage of the 2 million tons exported from the country each year, but the sales are hugely important to EARTH, providing 7 percent of its revenue, which pays the tuition of many students who simply can't afford to enroll without assistance.

Bananas aren't the only product leaving the university's plantation. More conventional banana plantations are using EARTH's sustainable practices. As many as 40 percent of production areas in Central and South America and even Asia have adopted techniques developed at the university.

Burger King first refused to pay tomato pickers in Florida an extra cent per pound last year. The battle over that penny continues.

We know it's not just a penny. That extra cent amounts to as much as $20 extra for farmworkers who currently only earn around $60 a day. Sure, for Burger King it amounts to $250,000 extra each year, but compare that to what it rakes in: $11 billion in sales and $2.2 billion in corporate earnings. (Notably, McDonald's agreed to increase these same farmworkers' wages in 2007.)

The fast food giant has even hired spies to infiltrate labor organizations.

Unfair farmworker wages is just one reason why some chains can charge a ridiculous 99 cents for a burger, yet another reminder to think about the faces behind the ingredients stacked on your restaurant sandwich, especially that tomato slice.

Source: NPR

Compost. The decomposition of food scraps only pigs would eat; of garden remnants in September; and of blushing-gone-brown foliage come October. Compost is microorganisms, twisting, eating, excreting, producing plant nutrients richer (and cheaper) than any Scotts product on TV.

Why celebrate compost? Well, not only is it International Compost Awareness Week, composting benefits your garden and the planet. Here are a few reasons to keep scraps, like coffee grinds and egg shells, separate from your garbage:

1) Why fill our landfills (which are brimming) with food and yard waste when it can be transformed into useful nutrients for your plants? About one-third of landfill waste is organic material from our kitchens and yards.

2) It's a cheap way to fertilize your garden. Compost can improve soil fertility by providing food for microorganisms, which in turn produce nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus necessary for maintaining healthy soil (making extra soil amendments unnecessary).

3) It's easy. If disposing of kitchen and yard waste is your goal, then passive composting is your answer. Collected organic waste (in a bin or freestanding pile) will eventually break down into nutrient-rich compost. Sure, it takes a couple years, but after that, even the simplest piles generate a few cubic feet of finished compost annually.

I know, I know, simpler said than done...

Milk is going for an even more wholesome image. The National Milk Producers Federation in the U.S. announced this week that they will produce a sustainability plan for the entire dairy industry. Not to be one-upped, the U.K. just released a “Milk Roadmap” for its dairy industry.

The industry is examining everything from the waxy boxes your milk comes in to cow releases of greenhouse gas emissions. Perhaps inspired by China’s cow energy program, the NMPF specifically addressed the potential for the dairy industry to capturing and sell methane from cow manure. Some California cows are already hooked into the energy grid.

“We want to be sure that our industry is well-positioned to take advantage of future opportunities – both in terms of credits for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as developing new products and markets for milk,” said National Milk Producers Federation CEO Jerry Kozak.

My great-grandfather owned a dairy farm in Chicago in the late 1800s, and it’s hard to say what he’d think about dairies today turning cow farts/poop into electricity. But capturing potent greenhouse gases from cows and doing something productive with them is a form of progress (albeit a strange one), and one that produces not only economic benefits, but social benefits for all through corporate environmental responsibility.

We’re hoping though, that the dairy industry does more than get their feet wet in the pool of ethics - could the “Milk Superhighway” stretch to include considerations not only for the benefit of our shared environment, but also for the benefit of the domestic beasts the industry relies on?

Via ClimateBiz

So it didn't faze you when Costco and Sam’s Club slapped a four-bag limit on 20-pound bags of rice last month.

But in Asia, where the majority of peoples’ diets consist of rice, and where over 1.7 billion people live on less than $2.00 a day, the rapid doubling in rice prices over the past six months has been devastating.

(A brief review of why food prices are rising: Increased demand for food from developing countries, droughts and floods in Australia and Asia, and conversion of agricultural land for biofuels – 25% of agricultural land was converted to biofuels last year in the U.S. alone.)

Fearing inability to feed their own citizens, many Asian countries, including India, have all but banned rice exports. In an attempt to regain control of rice supplies, some of the countries - namely Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar so far - are holding talks on how to start up a rice cartel.

The rice cartel idea was proposed by Dhanin Chearavanon - Chairman of CP, leading poultry producer in the region, and the 317th richest man in the world - to the Prime Minister of Thailand. (Hmm...he does need a lot of grain to feed those chickens and ducks.)

Officials from the OREC (yup, like OPEC, but with rice) countries have been careful to point out that the purpose of the organization would be to share marketing and production techniques to help ensure global food supplies, not limit them. 

Via The Nation (Bangkok)

Photo from Giles Orr

With rising fuel and food prices, buying local or regional food is an attractive option because of the shorter distances these goods travel. And, often times, produce sold at your nearby farmers' market was grown without oil- and natural gas-derived inputs, like pesticides and fertilizers.

But how do you gauge the "oil content" of your grocery-bought liter of orange juice?

If you live in the UK and shop at supermarket giant Tesco, just check the label. The grocery chain is beginning to label some of its brand-name products – from organic juice and potatoes to light bulbs and detergent – with their carbon footprints. The label reflects how much carbon is emitted over the life of the product, from production to distribution to disposal.

The labeling initiative is a response to consumers' demand that Tesco make an effort to challenge climate change. Tesco aims to become carbon neutral by reducing the cost of energy-efficient light bulbs, relying less on air freight, and installing more wind turbines on top of its stores.

Perhaps it's time we get on our stores' case here in the States, before we eat up our planet.

Source: The Cumberland News

Harmful bacteria in our meat. The unethical treatment of animals. Industrial manure killing cows. You've read it all here on Envirovore. How did we get into this mess and how in the world do we get out?

It's widely known that industrial animal agriculture – especially confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) – is bad for human health, our communities, and the environment. Now, two reports released this past week sum up the myriad reasons for why CAFOs stink by looking at the science and explaining everything you wanted (and didn't want) to know about industrial meat production.

CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations: The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) analyzed the policies that allowed for factory farms to take over agricultural landscapes and the hefty costs to our health and pocketbooks. UCS found that between 1997 and 2005 taxpayer-subsidized grain prices saved CAFOs nearly $35 billion in animal feed.

Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America: The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production examined current industrial systems for 2 ½ years, and looked at: air quality degradation in rural communities; waste and input runoff carrying antibiotics and hormones, pesticides, and heavy metals; and stress induced by confinement, leading to food safety concerns like infection. The Pew concluded that these operations pose "unacceptable risks" to public health, the environment, and the welfare of animals.

Don't worry, both reports provide positive alternatives to the dominant system, as well as policy recommendations. So, read up, pass along, and choose your animal protein wisely.

You wouldn't think it's difficult to get local food into schools, to replace food from across state borders with food from across the street -- but it is. Some legislators acknowledge the problem and are pushing bills that encourage schools to purchase food from local farmers, as seen most recently in Maryland and Washington.

In Maryland, Senate Bill 158 would establish "Maryland Homegrown" week in cafeterias, which introduces local food into school meals and encourages field trips to area farms. And Washington State's "Local Farms-Healthy Kids" legislation would provide $570,000 in school nutrition grants to use for purchasing state-grown produce, to help improve the nutrition of school meals and support state agriculture. Both bills create a farm-to-school program within the state Department of Agriculture.

Washington can look to a working model in Olympia, where the school district there has been buying local produce for school lunches since 2002. Its commitment to local food was spurred by parents' requests, and what began at one school soon expanded to all 18 Olympia schools.

To date, there are nearly 2,000 farm-to-school programs spanning 38 states.