Hippyshopper

Agree or Disagree: 'Buying organic can harm the planet'

Most people I speak to are divided one way or the other about buying organic. There're those who think it's a no-brainer: cutting down on chemicals we don't necessarily know enough about can only be a good thing, both for the environment and our bodies. And then there are those who argue that the chemicals have been in the food chain for long enough without doing any serious damage and don't want to pay extra for what they see as needless caution.

Finally, there's the smaller group that takes a slightly more paranoid attitude, fearing scams and highlighting the relative ease of passing off non-organic food as organic and charging the earth for it (ocasionally with reason). But could the trend towards organics actually be harming the planet? That was a new one on me until I read the Times article today that claims locally grown, organic food may not be as environmentally kosher as it claims to be. (read on after the jump for a synopsis)

The claims have provoked an angry reaction from the Soil Association, and will no doubt re-open the debate once again. So how seriously do you take findings of this sort? Whose authority on organics do you feel you can trust?

The article cites figures taken from recent  DEFRA research. Its claims include:

• C02 emissions produced by chicken production per kg are greater when organic methods are used. Non-organic comes out at 4,570g compared with 6,680g for organic.
• The amount of energy used to produce the same chicken is also greater in organic: 12mj non-organic vs 16mj organic
• The negative impact of road freight as a means of transporting food is questioned, although the report agrees that air freighting is uneconomical.
• Overall, so little is known about the overall environmental impact of any single food produce that it is impossible to say which is the most environmentally friendly.

Yay or Nay Wednesday: Brown and cerise bag from Love Eco

We seem to be featuring bags almost daily just now, and having spotted some of the fashionistas queueing up for Christopher Kane's catwalk show with their 'eco bags' yesterday, I think this may be the start of something big...

So today we bring you this stylish clutch bag, courtesy of Love Eco. It's made using leather remnants from the furniture industry, which would otherwise go to waste. There's no doubt in my mind that it's a fab design, and I particularly like the cerise lining and oversized vintage buckle. But how do you guys feel about leather accessories? To those of you who don't wear leather as a rule, do you feel differently about items like this?

Yay or Nay: Fines for ciggy litter?

E Magazine reports that indoor smoking bans have unexpected negative environmental consequences.  Smokers are sent out without any new provision for what they're going to do with their litter, and smokers (as someone who's chewed a pack or two in her time, I admit, I'm no better) tend to be flick-happy with their butts in the first place.  Result, according to anecdote (which I've also observed myself) is a lot more litter which takes between one and ten years to biodegrade.  Worsted Witch notes a disturbing statistic indicating this is no small amount of trash: it is estimated that cigarette butts account for 50 percent of all litter in the world.  Also, animals eat the butts and suffer various ill effects, from indigestion to suffocation.  The Witch proposes a heavy fine for those who toss their butts in the street.  Yay, Nay or other?  [GT]

COMMENTARY: Indoor Smoking Bans [via Indoor Smoking Ban: Smoke’s on the Environment? at Worsted Witch]

More Yay or Nay

 

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Yay or Nay: Driverless Electric Bus

Exhibiting at the London Science Museum right now is a driverless hybrid bus that you hail with your mobile.  It seats up to 24 people and follows its route based on magnets embedded in the pathway.  It uses considerably less energy than normal cars and buses, and costs half as much as a normal bus does to operate, since it has no driver - making it theoretically possible to double the number of buses available, especially in remote areas.  However, since it has no driver, there have been glitches: an unmanned bus in France ran over a sleeping dog and killed it.  Commenters have also expressed concern about vandalism, thuggery and other unsavory behaviour taking over the buses.  Can these logistical problems be solved easily enough to reap the benefits of expanded public transport at reduced environmental impact?  Vote yay or nay!  [GT]

The driverless bus you hail with your mobile [via BornRich]

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Yay or Nay: Engineered chickens make cancer drugs

Science has given us the ultimate argument in favour of genetic modification: chicken eggs containing skin-cancer-fighting antibodies. Altering the hens to lay eggs containing the antibody means it can be produced en masse and far more cheaply than through conventional methods. (Simply eating the egg doesn't get you a straight dose of the drug: it gets you the drug in egg form, from which it should be extracted to work properly.) This is the first time an animal has been successfully genetically modified to produce raw prescription medication, and could lead to inexpensive drug distribution in areas where factories are less feasible than chickens. However, what happens if these modified animals get loose in the traditional breeding bloodlines? What do you think, Hippyshoppers? Yay or Nay? [GT]

Skin cancer breakthrough in an egg

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Yay or Nay: Would you eat this potato?

Scientists found that the carcinogen acrylamide forms in deep fried foods, particularly chips.  Another problem with potatoes is that the longer they're stored, the more they break down, becoming mushy and unpalatable.  Simplot in Idaho hopes to change that, with their GM potato that 'rebuffs' acrylamide when fried, and stays firm and fresh longer in storage.  Would you eat this superior-tasting, less-carcinogenic, but genetically-modified, potato?  Post yay or nay in comments.  [GT]

Genetically modified spud healthier, creators say

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Yay or Nay: Should Al Gore give it away?

Michael Eakes is a geek who knows his stuff, so it's not surprising he hit on a good way to get more people to see An Inconvenient Truth: he wrote a letter asking Al Gore to give the movie away free via BitTorrent.  "The film should be free (as in beer)," he wrote.  "Any fee is an economic inconvenience that guarantees a limited distribution.  You must reach everyone, in a way only “free” can.  I humbly urge you to give it away."  What do you think, Hippyshoppers?  Yay or Nay?  [GT]

An Inconvenient Distribution: A Web 2.0 Geek’s Letter to Al Gore

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Yay or Nay: Naturally Decaf Coffee Plants

While the techniques described probably go beyond home application, the latest issue of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols includes techniques for the creation of transgenic plants, which includes rice spliced to yield extra vitamin A, coffee plants designed to be naturally decaf, and cotton that resists being eaten by pests.  Obviously seeds like this would obviate the need for pesticides and enable us to hustle over to much cleaner growing methods tout suite, but what are the long term implications?  Would you drink black tea spliced with cinnamon to be a natural chai?  Post yay or nay in comments.  [GT]

Decaffeinated Coffee Plants? New Methods Permit Functional Gene Studies In Plants [via Futurismic]

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Yay or Nay: Is nuclear power not so bad?

[A] risk/benefit analysis of nuclear power indicates that it is a safer choice than the fossil options that now dominate electricity generation.

In a nutshell, the proposition is that given no large-scale alternatives to current fossil fuel energy generation, the long-term risks posed by nuclear waste are not as serious as the present damage being done.  If fossil fuels burned today result in global climate change in 50 or 100 years, there will be no way to reverse these effects.   So should we switch over to nuclear power today, positing that it will fix today's problems, and stave off tomorrow's to a point where we can figure out what to do about them?  Is that a step toward responsible behaviour, or continuation of a trend of robbing Peter to pay Paul?  Read Nuclear Waste and the Distant Future and also how the IEA Energy agency backs nuclear power and post your responses.  [GT]

Nuclear Waste and the Distant Future | Energy agency backs nuclear power

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Yay or Nay: Boycott Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

It's impossible not to have seen the tidal wave of pink gear that's part of breast cancer fundraising, especially with October, Breast Cancer Awareness month, having just passed.  However, The Assertive Cancer Patient, a breast cancer survivor, says she simply feels exploited and many other breast cancer survivors feel the same way.  She says often only a small percentage of the pink product cash goes to the cancer fighting efforts, so it's really just a way for companies to sell more stuff.  We need health care, she argues, not junk with a feel-good pink paint job.

The thing I've always wondered about the whole pink campaign is, why do feminists tolerate it?  There are hundreds of kinds of cancer, yet the one that gets the most airtime is breast cancer.  How is that not objectification of women?  The implication has always been to me that our breasts are the most important part of us, therefore let's not bother to address brain cancer, heart disease, AIDS, etc.  How can splintering types of cancer research, and forcing breast cancer to compete for public attention (therefore, funds) against other kinds of cancer, be desirable?  Why doesn't October apply to all kinds of cancer - at the very least?

I realize people like the whole pink thing because they've had some female friend die of breast cancer and it lets them memorialize.  There are a lot of sharp responses I can give to that kind of muddy thinking, but it boils down to that living people are more important than dead ones, nearly every time.  Charity fundraising has splintered in the most alarming way over the past 20 years; it seems everybody has a bracelet, chocolate bar or random bit of foil-covered plastic we're supposed to purchase so that some cut of the take goes to send albinos to band camp or fight Tourette's Syndrome in carpet layers.  Any businessman alive will tell you you don't split your R&D budget into blue widgets, green widgets and red widgets; you have a widget budget and design them so they can be painted afterward.  (And then you add in a pink widget so you can say you're interested in women.  I bet you are.) 

Post Yay or Nay on Boycotting Breast Cancer Month.  [GT]

The Assertive Cancer Patient

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Yay or Nay: Inchworm extendable shoes

Billed as INCHworm shoes, the shoe that grows, these are shoes that, with the push of a button, can be extended up to one full size larger.  Made for kids aged 3-9 (before they're old enough to need the support that a near-adult does) the idea is to give parents an option beyond either buying shoes that are too big and making the kid grow into them, or having to throw them out.  That said, will the tyke wear them?  Kids are notoriously picky when it comes to wearing anything that deviates too far from their perceived norm.  Also, at the price (only £10 per pair) it's hard to feel certain about the quality (yes, I am indeed complaining that something reusable might be too cheap!).  Are the green children out there sophisticated enough to accept arguments about waste as a good reason to be different?  Post Yay or Nay in comments!  [GT]

INCHworm shoes, the shoe that grows [via UberReview]

 

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Yay or Nay: Olympus 3D wooden camera

Unlike most digital cameras, the prototype Olympus 3D Wooden Camera has a wooden body (which is the 3D part, since most digital cameras are also flat).  The camera is made of a single piece of molded Japanese cypress, the wood used to build Shinto temples.  Does this broaden awareness of the need for disposable gadgets to be made of renewable resources, or does it show disrespect for a precious material by making it into something for which there is no realistic reuse once it becomes obsolete?  When are we going to see a merger of Moore's Law with green thinking?  Post yay or nay in comments.

Olympus 3D Wooden Camera [via Luxist]

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Yay or Nay: a black Kate Moss for the Africa issue

The good: The Independent did an "Africa" issue on 21 September where half the revenues were donated to fight AIDS in Africa.  The curious: they put a blackened Kate Moss on the cover and included a free black Kate Moss poster.  This is a thornier moral question than last week's about Ashton Kutcher.  Is The Independent right to use Kate Moss in order to sell more issues, to generate more revenue, resulting in more money to fight AIDS - even though they've used her in a very peculiar fashion, instead of using either an African model (or perhaps even someone who was not a model in the first place) or a cover celebrity who is, er, genuinely dark skinned?  Crass for cash (for a good cause) or just plain wrong?   Or is there a deep artistic statement here that I, despite spending a lifetime in art criticism, just ain't getting?  Post your Yay or Nay in comments.  [GT]

Sign up for the (Red) campaign and save lives at The Independent [via Sepia Mutiny]

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Yay or Nay: Ashton Kutcher donates $50k to Habitat for Humanity if he gets 50,000 friends

As part of promotion for his new movie, The Guardian, Ashton Kutcher has promised he'll donate $1 USD to Habitat for Humanity for every MySpace user that becomes a friend of his, up to 50,000 friends.  It's hardly a pledge drive; Kutcher clearly has the celebrity necessary to get 50,000 people (or that many fake accounts) to sign up.  And $50,000 isn't a whole lot of money to somebody in his position.  On the other hand, Habitat for Humanity is an international organization, supremely neutral, and this move draws positive attention to them (as well as positive attention to the value of a $1 donation if there are enough of them).  Is Kutcher doing enough to justify his showboating?  Post your comments: yay or nay.    [GT]

BE A FRIEND [of Ashton Kutcher] NOW AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

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Yay or Nay: Ban underweight fashion models?

The Association of Fashion Designers of Spain said it wanted to project "an image of beauty and health" for the Madrid show - so they banned overly thin models.  The World Health Organization recommends a BMI between 18.5 and 25, so the Association had medics on hand and rejected all would-be models who fell under 18 (which would, for instance, ban the depicted Kate Moss). Does this change your interest in Spanish fashion?  Do the designers have the right to depict their creations exactly as they wish, or should they have to do so within socially constructive parameters?  Should the ultra-thin models be allowed on the Madrid runway?  Post your Yay or Nay in comments.  [GT]

Spanish fashion show bans underweight models

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Yay or Nay: Would you eat a grey squirrel?

Would you eat a grey squirrel in order to save the red squirrel?  Back in March, Lord Inglewood, patron of North West Red Alert, suggested that very thing to prevent red squirrels from being as subject to squirrel pox (carried mostly by greys) and to give the red a greater foothold on the landscape.  "What I would like to do is to invite each and everyone of the frontbench Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Department team to the hotel in the Lake District where I am a director ... to dine on grey squirrels to launch an eat a grey and save a red campaign."  Presently, the Mammals Trust UK is advocating a more conservative solution (which is funny since they're not even politicians like Inglewood) involving altering tree cover and age composition.  Please drop on by the MTUK site and answer their poll on what endangered Scottish animal needs the most protection: the red squirrel, wildcat, water vole or European beaver.

So, would you eat one?  Post yay or nay!  [GT]

Save Scottish Species - but which one? | Grey squirrel curry anyone? | Jamie 'must back squirrel-eating' (video)

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Yay or Nay: Is there a spy bin in your neighborhood?

Pocket-lint reports that councils across the UK have put out 500,000 spy rubbish bins across England to monitor trash dumping habits with RFIDs.  The RFIDs cost £2 each (so a million pounds right there) plus outfitting the trucks with RFID readers costs £15,000 per truck, equipped to an unspecified number of trucks.  The idea is to figure out who is dumping excess non-recyclable rubbish and eventually to charge those who toss too much.  Is this an appropriate expenditure, or are there more efficient places to put a few million quid in order to increase recycling?  Post Yay or Nay in comments!  [GT]

Wheelie bin gets high tech makeover

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Organic lipstick: Yay or Nay?

A few months ago, Consumer Reports had a brief but interesting page on what products are worth buying organic and which are not.  Not?  All cosmetics.  Most cosmetics contain a mix of ingredients, and USDA regulations allow shampoos and body lotions to carry an organic label even when water is the primary ingredient....  Not only this, but Only 11 percent of ingredients found in personal-care products, organic or not, have ever been screened for safety.  Naturally, this pertains to American products.  Organic lipstick also seems like a special case in that you actually swallow quite a bit of it.  Do you Hippygals wear organic lipstick?  If so, what do you recommend?  Please post comments!  [GT]

Organic lipstick

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Organic, humanely grown veal: Yay or Nay?

(It's still Wednesday here, so play along!)  Can veal be ethical?  What if the veal is raised to be six months old, nursed on milk, given organic meadows to graze in during the balmy summer, and housed in toasty, 'state of the art' facilities during the winter?  All veal from Helen Browning's Totally Organic is raised under such circumstances.  Can that cancel out the vile circumstances under which non-organic veal lives so miserably?  Is all veal tarred with the same brush - or is Helen Browning's product something you would eat with the same blitheness you give to lamb or quail?  Post your vote! [GT]

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Helen Browning's Totally Organic veal

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