December News Roundup & Blog Updates

The theme Times are Strange (7/16) continues with the weather very much in the news.

A Christmas week storm covered the state of California, blanketing the Sierras with record snowfall and the rest of the state with heavy rains (half the state’s annual rainfall in one week), prompting mudslides in the south where devastation from forest fires had left nothing to soak up the moisture. Gov. Schwarzenegger declared seven counties disaster areas. Good news? This year’s snowpack in the Sierras may ease the water shortage caused by years of drought. The storm then swept across the country, wreaking havoc with all forms of holiday transportation, ultimately leaving New York City unable to cope with its 20 inches of snow.

A second California storm arrived in the Mid West just in time for New Year’s Eve. A tornado associated with this weather event killed 3 and injured several more in Arkansas earlier today.

England was hit with a pre-holiday blizzard of its own. The heaviest December snowfall since 1981, coupled with heavy cold and compounded by a shortage of de-icer, closed Heathrow for nearly 4 days, stranding travelers on both sides of the Pond.

The wettest December in 150 years has led to widespread flooding in Australia.

Diseases in the News:

Some 130,000 people in Haiti have have been infected by cholera since the first case was confirmed on October 22. The death toll is currently over 2,700.

GLOBAL WARMING:

While it may be difficult to convince the unconvinced that the earth is warming with so much cold weather in the news, NOAA has released its statistics for November, including this statement: For the 2010 year to date (Jan.-Nov.), the combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.64°C (1.15°F) above the 20^th century average—the warmest such period since records began in 1880.

At the 2010 UN Convention on Climate Change held in Cancún, an accord was reached on December 11, which is far less than many had sought, bur far greater than many had deemed possible. Bolivia stood alone in opposing the agreement. The nations will convene on the same topic in S. Africa from November 28-December 9, 2011.

On December 28 the EPA issued a press release outlining in general terms its plan for enforcing in 2011 the greenhouse gas pollution standards called for under the Clean Air Act, first passed in 1970 and revised in 1990. Many anticipate that the agency will have to tread lightly since there is much opposition to the implementation of this legislation.

POLITICAL NEWS:

The results of November’s election are by now well-known. While the full ramifications of how we voted are not yet clear, one thing is certain. Change is on the horizon. The election for governor in my state of Connecticut was a real cliff-hanger. Dan Malloy, former mayor of big-city Stamford, will be the first Democratic governor in two decades. CT Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will become junior senator, replacing long-serving and hardworking Christopher Dodd.

In California, former Gov. Jerry Brown will once again be sworn in as Gov. Jerry Brown on January 3. California voters rejected both Proposition 19 (which would have legalized and taxed marijuana) and Proposition 23 (which would have repealed the Global Warming Solutions Act enacted by the state in 2007). California municipalities continue to ban plastic shopping bags: San Jose banned the hand-out of single use bags of any kind. Progress continues towards meeting the state’s goal of one million solar roofs by 2018. 

Census results were released this week. Why is this filed under my political news? Where people live has a direct impact on the number of Congressional Representatives allotted to each state. A number of states in the Northeast and in the Rust Belt will lose a representative in 2012. New York and Ohio will each lose 2. The winners were a number of states in the Sun Belt. Florida will gain 2, and Texas is the big winner with a gain of 4! Representatives in states about to be redistricted are scrambling for options. It is speculated that  Dennis Kucinich’s Cleveland seat is a possible target for elimination. Those in power at the state level redraw the political maps. Kucinich is out there on the left in a state the Republicans rule.

Among the significant pieces of legislation passed in the lame-duck Congress were the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act, which improves the quality of meals served in schools; and the Food Safety Modernization Act, which aims to enhance the safety of food produced in the US and imported, and to prevent food-borne illness.

NEW HAVEN NEWS:

Elm City Market Co-Op, scheduled to open in Spring, 2011, has more than reached its goal of 300 “founding members.” Over 400 people have joined the Co-Op. The Co-Op held its first elections. Stephen Fries (professor of hospitality management at Gateway Community College, food columnist, and producer of the New Haven Iron Chef Competition) was chosen to replace outgoing Meghan Knight.

New Haven appeared in the national media for a number of good reasons at year’s end. Yale’s Whiffenpoofs appeared on Sing-Off. Yale student Sam Spaulding ’13 placed second in the 2010 College Championship edition of Jeopardy! Finally, our mailman’s daughter-in-law Brenda DePonte and her mother Carol Vollono, owners of the Sugar Bakery in East Haven, were the winners of the first Cupcake Wars of the new season! The $10,000 prize is pretty sweet… Congratulations to them all. 

BLOG NEWS:

Check out this link to one of my holiday shopping posts at NPR. My blog’s page views have gone from 3339 on 9/27 to 7000+ today, 12/31! FYI my own personal page views are not counted. Thanks everyone. Please keep reading in 2011 and tweet, buzz, or tell your friends.

Happy New Year!

Meatless Monday: Vegetarians Beware

Those of you not snowbound may find yourselves off to the movies this post-holiday Monday. And while you are there, you just may find yourself indulging in refreshments, a box of candy, perhaps. 


A recent email from a college classmate prompted me to look into candy coatings and to  share the information with my vegetarian and vegan friends, as well as with readers who are neither but wish to adhere to a strict observance of Meatless Monday. 

My classmate wrote that as a vegetarian she always checks the ingredients lists on candy packages to make sure there is no “confectioner's glaze.” Confectioner’s glaze, also know as “resinous glaze,” is defined as the “food grade” version of shellac (used as a wood finish), a product harvested from the secretions of Laccifer lacca, a plant-sucking insect known as the “shellac” scale. While lac (the secretion) is clearly a problem for a vegan, I wonder if some vegetarians might still be OK with this as the Glee gum site claims. Is ingesting lac somewhat akin to eating dairy? I welcome comments on this one.

There is another “hidden” ingredient which I am sure vegans and vegetarians alike would choose to eschew — carmine, often used to impart a red color to a food, beverage, or lipstick. Carmine is manufactured by crushing the bodies of the cochineal insect, also in the scale family. Carmine is still listed as an ingredient in some yogurts and other foods and beverages, but beet juice is a viable substitute. Stonyfield uses beet and red cabbage juice to achieve that pretty pink color in its strawberry flavor. You can use this handy site to check out the ingredients on a number of products.

The message of this relatively short post? Read your labels, and look up any term you don’t understand. Something as pleasant sounding as “confectioner’s glaze” or “carmine” might actually translate to “insect juice.”

The aforementioned classmate is May Berenbaum, editor of Honey, I’m Homemade. Those of you interested in either bees or cooking with honey should really check out May’s book. Proceeds benefit the University of Illinois Pollinatarium—the first freestanding science outreach center in the nation devoted to flowering plants and their pollinators.

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

10 Things Thursday: 10 Worthy Causes

The Story Behind 10 Things Thursdays

For most of us there was some level of gift shopping to do over the course of this holiday season. On each of the 10 Thursdays from October 21, up until today, the day before Christmas Eve, it was my goal to present 10 ideas (at least), in 10 different themes, for eco-friendly gifting. Many suggestions were from places I know or products I'd purchased or received. I managed to meet my goal and find myself (a little later in the day than usual) at my final post of this series — List 10. This list is not about things to buy, but rather about places to make a donation, perhaps in the name of a person for whom you have not shopped and for whom it is too late to send a gift in time for Christmas. (Or maybe just a gift for yourself.) These groups are all working to change the world, and they could all use a little extra help as they feel the pinch of the recent economic downturn. I have tried to include an idea for everyone. BTW, I had this list in the works well before Google Chrome announced “Chrome for a Cause.” There is some overlap, but you know what they say about great minds… Here is my List 10.

10 Worthy Causes

1. Water. It’s a simple fact that water is essential to human life. According to the website for the film Flow, “of the 6 billion people on earth, 1.1 billion do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.” Two groups for your consideration are charity:water and Water.org.
2. Medical Relief. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent, international medical humanitarian organization which goes where others dare not go, providing relief in places ravaged by natural disaster, threatened by epidemics, or torn apart by armed conflict. Created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971, the group received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
3. Disaster Relief. Oxfam International is often the first responder after a natural disaster. Formed in 1995 by a group of independent non-governmental organizations, Oxfam’s aim is to “work together for greater impact on the international stage to reduce poverty and injustice.”
4. Conservation of ecologically important lands and waters. A number of groups are working in this area, including: The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, and local land trusts. 
5. Wildlife Conservation. Greenpeace (for its work with whales and dolphins) and the World Wildlife Fund are two of the most well-known organizations with this focus. The work of the WWF is particularly accessible to children.
6. Ending Hunger. Feeding America and a national network of local food banks, including Connecticut Food Bank, secure surplus food and get it to those who most need it. The network members of Feeding America supply food to more than 37 million Americans each year. 
7. Literacy. As a person who loves the written word, it is difficult to imagine just how closed the world would be to me if I did not have this skill. Many in the world, however, have not received this gift. Room to Read works in developing countries with a focus on literacy and ending gender inequality in education. Motheread works in the US, combining the teaching of literacy skills with child development and family empowerment issues. Through Motheread parents and children learn to use the power of language to discover more about themselves, their families, and their communities. 
8. Advocacy. Although I live on the East Coast, I am a member of Environment California, a group in working on “protecting California’s air, water and open spaces.” With an economy ranked in the world’s top ten, California is often the testing ground for new ideas. Their successes and failures provide the lesson plans for the rest of the country. Or, if you prefer, pick an advocacy group closer to your own home or in an area of special interest to you. There are so many. Let me name just a few from whom I have drawn material for this blog: Food Democracy Now!, Slow Food International, Environmental Working Group…
9. Shelter. Everyone has heard of Habitat for Humanity which helps build homes for first-time homeowners. Lesser known is NeighborWorks America, of which Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven is a member. During the course of its 30-year history, NHS has fully renovated and sold nearly 300 houses to low- and moderate-income families. Through the New Haven HomeOwnership Center, NHS puts approximately 500 families a year on the path to homeownership through its homebuyer education classes. They have a wealth of information for homeowners on all the latest energy-saving products.
10. Creating an East Coast Greenway. There is a dream that one day it will be possible to cycle 3,000 miles from Maine to the tip of Florida by connecting existing and planned shared-use trails. A donation to The East Coast Greenway is a perfect donation in honor of any bicycle enthusiast.

There you have it, List 10. Pick a cause, any cause… 

Thanks for reading. Happy Holidays to you all.