food Category
July 11th, 2008 by ecojoe in food, green business, inventions, plastic, save money
Good ol’ Wal-Mart and Costco have started using a new design for their milk jugs, and I think they’ve come up with a real winner. The new design has a whole mess of environmental and cost advantages compared to the milk jug design that you’re probably used to, but there are some people that jes’ plain don’t care for it. Here’s a brief summary of its pros and cons.
New Milk Jug Design Pros
- Less shipping materials - The old jugs had to be packaged with heavy shipping crates. The new ones can be stacked with just a layer of cardboard between them.
- More efficient transport - Less shipping materials means more milk jugs can be transported in each truck, so companies save money on gas and cut down on air pollution.
- Shipping labor cut in half
- Water usage cut by 60-70% - The old shipping crates had to be sprayed off after each run, since milk would spill on them and birds would roost in them
- Lower milk cost! - “Sam’s Club said [there] was a savings of 10 to 20 cents a gallon compared with old jugs.“
- The new milk jugs fit better in your fridge.
The Bad Side of New Milk Jug Design
Amy Wise, a homemaker in Ohio, said the new-fangled gallon jug spilled milk everywhere. Judging from the picture, I’d say her main problem is that she’s trying to pour the milk into an imaginary cup in her left hand. No wonder she looks frustrated.
Many people say the new milk jugs are harder to pour. But I think with more practice, people will get used to them quickly. With all the benefits (less pollution, cheaper milk, easier transportation, and more efficient use o’ materials), methinks that the new milk jug may be here to stay.
* The bodacious picture of Amy Wise was taken by David Maxwell of The New York Times.
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June 16th, 2008 by ecojoe in food, free, organic
If you care about the environment, and you care about free mess, AND you care about coffee, then this bad boy is for you. All’s you have to do is follow these simple instructions to get a free sample of some organic coffee.
- Go to Isla Earth
- Sign up for the E-Digest on the left side o’ the screen
- Fill in the required parts of the form. Where it says I want the sample of free organic coffee, just put “Yes” or “Heck yeah” or something to that effect.
- Wait by the mailbox.
That’s it. Hopefully this free organic coffee sample comes through. I am wondering how different organic coffee will taste. Since it’s free, I got a feeling it’ll taste superb.
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May 30th, 2008 by ecojoe in food, green business
Now, you’ve probably all heard the big hullaballoo about the food crisis, what with food price inflation in recent months. It’s not that there isn’t enough food, it’s just that a lot of food ends up wasted (or diverted to biofuel, I know). In fact, according to a government study, the U.S. wastes a whopping 27 percent of food available for consumption!!
That’s a huge amount. Dang, just staggering. To put this number in Joe terms, it’s like if for every four apples you buy at the store, you have to throw one of them in the trash. It’s a waste o’ time, money, and natural resources. Of course, a large amount of the wasted food is not wasted by consumers, but by the food industry (mainly restaurants).
Most of that food, when thrown away, just ends up taking up space in landfills. Fortunately, good ol’ North Carolina is stepping up to the plate and leading the Southeast in “food waste source reduction and recycling, which includes composting”, according to Mary Beth Van Pelt, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientist based in Atlanta. N.C.’s eventual goal is to ban food waste from landfills, just like they banned yard waste from landfills in 1993.
Many restaurants are taking their own steps to reduce food waste, both by improving efficiency and by composting their old food. Watch, if you please, this video on a restaurant in Portland that’s doing its own commercial composting:
If the world (not just the U.S.) can improve how efficiently it uses its food, prices would drop, everyone would have enough to eat, and we’d be filling up landfills more slowly. So por favor, the next time you’re about to buy some food, make sure that you end up eating it (or donating it to me).If you somehow still want to read even more about food waste (and what is being done to lessen it), lo recomiendo este sitio.
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May 6th, 2008 by ecojoe in food, green business, organic
Back in December, I wrote that Design A Tea was offering free samples o’ their organic tea. I had long since given up on getting some free tea… BUT, Brian, the owner of that company, recently wrote and told me that they’d had over 10,000 requests for free tea in two days! Since they pack all their orders by hand, it’s going to take awhile for them to fulfill all those requests.
Anyhoo, Brian was nice enough to send me a lot of free samples of their tea; many different flavors and combinations, and I gots to say, I recommend it.
The good thing about their company is that it lets you combine different teas with different flavors. So far I’ve tried green tea with vanilla, and black tea with pecans. Both were too good.
So if you requested a sample from them, it is coming, fret not. One more good thing: their tea is organic and Fair Trade Certified. So give them a looksie, won’t you?
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April 21st, 2008 by ecojoe in food, green living, health, organic, projects, save money
There you stand, in the grocery store, wishing that you had enough money to get you some of those crazy expensive protein bars. Sadly, you turn away, lamenting your puny muscles, wishing that there was some way to get protein bars without all the extra packaging and high prices. Well pay attention, for here is how to…
Make Your Own Protein Bars
Thanks to Krista’s protein bar recipe, I was able to make some protein bars of my own. Follow along with this picture essay, and you will learn the secrets of how to make some cheap, homemade protein bars.Here are the ingredients. If you want to use some eco-friendly protein powder, or organic bananas, or what have you, then by all means do. I opted for the cheapest ingredients for this demonstration.
- Banana
- Whey protein
- Oats
- Peanut butter
- Raw Peanuts (optional)
Read the rest of this entry »
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April 18th, 2008 by ecojoe in food, free, organic
This site is now officially the
FREE TEA SAMPLE
site. You want some free organic tea, I will find some.
Anyhoo, Yogi Tea is giving away a free sample of their delicioso tea. I’ve actually tried it before, and it is some dang good tea.
All you have to do is CLICK HERE, choose one of three flavors of organic tea, and they will send it to you in several weeks. Join me in awaiting a free sample of good ol’ Yogi tea.
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April 17th, 2008 by ecojoe in food, free
I’ma keep this short and simple. Click on THIS LINK to go get some free tea, and remember — it’s not only tea, it’s Laci Le Beau Super Dieter’s Tea (whatever that is).
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Good ol’ Wal-Mart and Costco have started using a new design for their milk jugs, and I think they’ve come up with a real winner. The new design has a whole mess of environmental and cost advantages compared to the milk jug design that you’re probably used to, but there are some people that jes’ plain don’t care for it. Here’s a brief summary of its pros and cons.
