Joe Joe's Update!

In regards to the post bellow, Homework #5, I have finally received a reply to my email sent to trader joes... and wow.

Here is my original email:

Hello! My name is Cailtin Arend and I am doing a homework assignment for my environmental science class at Riverside Community College. We were to pick a food that we like to eat and analyze the ingredients, figure out where they were grown and if they were grown sustainably. I would really appriciate if you would share this information with me :) particularly your flour, vanilla beans, and what exactly "natural flavors" means for this product.
Thank you!

Your loyal customer,
Caitlin Arend

And here is their very helpful and informative reply:

Caitlin,

We appreciate your inquiry.  We are a privately held business and we do not disclose any business practices or information.  We are sorry that we will be unable to assist.  We appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,
Amy
Trader Joe's
Customer Relations
I mean really? This is a company that claims to be all about the best products, all natural, organic etc. Now if the products really are so good, then why would they hide this simple information? It's all just very strange and all I can conclude from it is that there is something about the individual products they use that would hurt the company if the information was released.

Homework #5

This weeks homework assignment was to pick a food that you like, or that is interesting and do research about it. What exactly are the ingredients, who grew them/where'd they come from, is it environmentally friendly, what are the health impacts, etc.

I chose something that I love to snack on, and have so far convinced myself is a healthier version then what you would find at a big name food store chain... Is it really? We will find out! I chose, drum roll please, Trader Joe's "Joe-Joe's"!

For those of you who have never had them before, they are Trader Joe's version of Oreo's made with "No hydrogenated oils" and "All natural flavors". The ingredients are as follows:
Dried Cane Syrup (sugar)
Enriched Wheat Flour
     Flour
     Niacin (B3 an essential human nutrient)
     Reduced Iron
     Thiamine Mononitrate (B1 an essential human nutrient)
     Riboflavin (B2 an essential human nutrient)
     Folic Acid
Palm oil
Expeller Pressed Soybean Oil
Cocoa Processed with Alkali
Tapioca Starch
Natural Vanilla Flavor
Natural Flavors
Cane Syrup
Baking Soda
Salt
Soy Lecithin
Vanilla Been Seeds

A word real quick about the enriched flour, from what I canfind the reason that the flour is enriched with different vitamin B's, is because it is required here in the United States and that is because the flour looses a lot of its natural nutrients during processing. As for "natural flavors" this could mean anything, seriously! According to an article on http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/4676616/ns/today-food/t/food-qa-just-what-natural-flavoring/#.UHXnJpG9KSM
              The definition of natural flavor under the Code of Federal Regulations is: “the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional” (21CFR101.22).
Basically I would need to get the information straight from the source, I have sent an e-mail to Trader Joe's and hope to hear back soon on just what the natural flavor in these cookies are. 

The one thing that does make me happy is Trader Joe's promises on their website that all foods sold there have:
No genetically modified ingredients
No artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives 
No MSG (which is an addictive flavor enhancer)
No added trans fat

Unfortunately for right now I have not heard back from Trader Joe's and have not found any information on where and how the ingredients for this food was/is grown. 
As for Heath impact, now it may seem as though they're are a lot of ingredients to these cookies and you may be thinking, wow these aren't heathy for me at all!  But let's try comparing them to their rivals the Oreo shall we?
Sugar
Enriched Flour (same as above)
High Oleic canola oil and/or palm oil and/or canola oil and/or soybean oil
Cocoa (also processed with alkali)
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Cornstarch 
Leavening (baking soda and/or calcium phosphate)
Salt
Soy Lecithin (emulsifier)
Vanillin (an artificial flavor)
Chocolate

Based on this information, you can see that Joe Joe's have more natural ingredients than Oreo's and their ingridient list is much more straighter forward, not all of these and/or's like they can't make up their mind on what's in their product (which seems fishy to me). Anyway because of this I would venture to say that while any processed cookies or snacks are probably not very healthy for you, Joe Joe's are a much better alternative to Oreo's when you just need cream-filled cookie!

So for now, until I hear back from Trader Joe's, that is all the info I have collected on Joe Joe's. 

Habitat for Humanity ReStore

Just about everyone knows what Habitat for Humanity is, but in case you don't it's an organization that relies on volunteers to build houses for low-income families around the world. However most of you probably don't know about their ReStore project.

 Habitat for Humanity ReStore takes "gently-used building materials and household goods." (http://www.habitat.org/restores/default.aspx) and sells them back to the public at fractions of the original cost! Now please do not make assumptions that I'm posting this because I support a certain religious group, my religion and/or lack there of has nothing to do with why I like this organization. I am posting about the ReStore project because I think its not only economical for low income families who struggle to buy furniture and other things, but because this is also environmentally friendly! This allows people to find good quality house items, pre-used, at extreamly low prices AND helps us to avoid buying new furniture that takes up resources to build, which we don't have.
 My mom just recently bought a new house and we live on a very limited budget, but the house just doesn't have enough storage, or any for that matter. We needed a big cabinet that we could use in or kitchen for dishes, glasses, pots, pans, ect. And found this:

It only cost my mom $50!!!!!!!!!! Thats an amazing deal!

Homework #4

How green is our campus??

Well unfortunately I have to say that RCC is really not the best campus when is comes to being sustainable/environmentally friendly. Most (not all) of our plants on campus are not native and require a lot more watering because of this. Also our campus does not recycle, I know this may comes as a shock to most people in this day in age where recycling is extremely popular but there you have it. All of the campus recycling (with the exception of paper from the offices and some teachers) is actually done by the Student Sustainability Collective,

http://rccsustainability.com/author/rccsustainability/

this also means that any recycling bins you may find on campus were put there because of this club as well.  And until very recently RCC did not offer any rewards to those students who wanted to use there own mugs, reusable water bottles, etc. Even though they now do offer a slight discount if you use your own mug for coffee or tea, there is a lot more they could do.
In terms of what other campuses have done we are far behind! Cal State Channel Islands (http://www.csuci.edu/sustainability/ )for example has a great recycling program! Plus because they are so close to local farms most of their produce, coffee, and tea is locally grown. They have days where you can get free food if you ride your bike to school, and they have just a generally just more favorable outlook as a whole on sustainability. They also have a sustainability club that helps to further help the campus become even more environmentally friendly, and they like our club at RCC, are also trying to create a community garden.
I think the biggest factor that I have mentioned for RCC is the recycling problem. While I enjoying helping to do the recycling on campus, I have to admit that the few people who regularly show up are just not enough. A handful of people can not recycle an entire campus on their own! The hope has always been that RCC officials would see how profitable it is for our club and then realize how important it is for the campus, so far that has not happened. In order for this to happen RCC needs to install permanent recycle cans, ideally one for every trash can that way people always have the option. Then they should make it a part of someones job, maybe the custodians, to go through and collect the recycles when the cans are full. The campus could easily makes hundreds every week just by collecting and turning in all the bottles, cans, and miscellaneous recycles. They could also make a campaign to promote recycling on campus to make students aware.
I hope one day we will see this actually happen! Till then, get your gloves on and meet us by the cafeteria and get ready to sort some recyclables!

Homework #2: go outside and reflect

Let me start by saying I LOVED this assignment! I found it very relaxing to just sit outside and not worry about anything for twenty minutes, almost like meditation with a purpose. The assignment, for all those not in the class, was to find somewhere outside and sit for twenty minutes and just observe nature around you. Then we were to compile notes of what we saw, how we felt, relationships between the different plants and animals, etc. I went and hiked up Mt. Rubidoux in Riverside and sat on a large rock for my twenty minutes.
At first what I saw was lots of rocks, dirt, sparse plants, and then of course the sky above, which today was gray and cloudy. The plants that I saw all sort of looked the same to me, weed like flowering plants, so I was surprised to find that when I went on the Mt. Rubidoux website (http://www.mt-rubidoux.org/vegetation.htm) and found that there are tons of different plant species on Mt. Rubidoux! The one the stuck out to me eventually is called Honey Gum and it stood out to me because this was where I was finding a lot of animal plant interaction. Bees are attracted to the flowering part of the Honey Gum and it is what's called a mutualism relationship.

http://www.floridatupelohoney.com/tupelo_gum_tree.cfmThat is where "an interaction benefits both species by providing each with food, shelter, or some other resource. In this case the bee was getting pollen which I would then turn into food, and the flower was get a way to get its pollen spread ensuring its survival. 
After I sat for a while other animals started to come out of hiding. First I saw a lizard, this is usualy a normal occurrence in riverside, we live in a desert area and lizards are native here. However this lizard looked a little different then the ones I'm used to seeing in my back yard. It had a kind of speckled tail and was blue/purple in color around its tail.

http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/images/ustansburianain508.jpgI came home and looked up native lizards to southern California and found that this particular lizard is called the common side-blotched lizard. It didn't eat anything that I saw but you could give it and the rock a relationship because lizards need heat and the rock warms from the sun and provides the lizard with that warmth, as well as a place to sun baith. This relationship would be considered commensalism because it is really only helping out the lizard, the rock doesn't get anything from the lizard.
The next animal I saw was a wild rabbit! I love wild rabbits because they are so small and let's face it, cute!

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/rabbits/tips/solving_problems_rabbits.htmlPlus i find it fascinating that their fur allows them to blend in with the brown rocks and dirt around them. It came out of hiding only for a few minutes to look around and search for food, but a passerby with a dog scared it off quickly after. Still I enjoyed seeing it without it being afraid of me.
I also had a good time just watching the clouds above me. They were storm clouds, light gray, and they moved enough to be noticeable if you watched. I sort of hoped it would rain but unfortunately that didn't happen.
All in all I really enjoyed this assignment, it was fun learning some new species! And it gave me a renewed want to start doing my meditation and yoga again, sometimes I forget how cleansing it is to just sit and and not think to much. Just enjoy what's around you.

King Barrel

Currently my mom and I are trying to figure out what we are going to do about our backyard because it is nothing but compacted dirt! We've decided that we want a big section of it to be a garden area in planter boxes. But we didn't want just plain old planter boxes so my mom went online and started searching for alternatives, and she found King Barrel!

http://www.kingbarrel.com/Outdoor%20Living/outdoorlivinghom.htmlThis is a company that re-purposes wine barrels by turning them into planter boxes, pet beds, fountains, etc.

It's a great idea because not only do the wine barrels look nice in your garden, but it is taking something that normally would've been torn apart and thrown away and giving it a new functional life. If this ends up being our final pick for our backyard I will make another blog with pictures of the finished product and all the ways we used our wine barrels :) either way I think this is an amazing idea.

Your face needs Vitamin C!

So I have struggled with "adult" minor acne for YEARS! I never had breakouts in high school but as soon as i started college acne started popping up around my mouth and forehead :/ I tried everything and every brand from Neutrogena to Proactive with little to no results, in fact proactive made it WORSE! Then I became much more focused on using natural and organic products and tried everything from Burt's Bee's to Say Yes To and still no results. I was starting to think I would never find something natural that would work on my skin. Then last semester I had a Heath Science class and my teacher said something that made me stop and think, he said that back in Africa (where he's from) they instinctively rub orange peels on their face. The vitamin C in the orange peel is naturally good for your skin! I then thought to myself, maybe if I can find a natural/organic face wash whose main ingredient is vitamin C I could then finally get my acne under control. So I went out looking and found this:

 www.avalonorganics.com Avalon Organics! I started using their hydrating cleansing milk (not the gel) and daily moisturizer and two weeks into using it my acne was GONE!! I'm not kidding it was completely gone! I use the cleanser twice a day (morning and night) and the moisturizer in the morning because it has SPF 15 in it. It smells like orange oil and feels great, all you need is ONE pump! It will even take off your makeup! It is a little pricy at around $10-12 depending where you buy it, but one bottle will last you at least two months, mine lasts longer usually around 3-4. Plus you can buy this everywhere! Ok maybe not everywhere but I've found it at target and my local health food stores. It a wonderful product and I recommend it to everyone I talk to about acne. In fact I shared it with my Health Science class a few weeks after I started using it and a couple weeks later I had multiple people thank me and say it was the best face wash they've ever used! It's soap free and completely organic, seriously try it out it's fantastic :) 

Go Green School Supplies!!

So because this blog was made as a class project, though I intend to keep it going even after I have finished the class, I thought a perfect first non-homework post would be about different green school supplies that I use and highly recommend :)
First is a company called Greenroom Eco!

www.greenroomeco.com/
 This company was started by a husband and wife team in Santa Monica, California, and is still based there today. They create sustainable and recycled notebooks, binders, planners, pencils, and more! Plus they have fun designs ;P Currently their products are only available at Target.
Second is the Pilot B2P, Earth Friendly Writing!

www.pilot.us/Bottle2Pen.aspx
 This is a pen made from recycled water bottles!!! They come in a variety of colors and I LOVE them! Each pen is made from AT LEAST 86% post consumer recycled content, and they are refillable. Did you know that "Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour!" and "Less than 1 in 3 of those are recycled. " This is the Worlds first pen to use recycled water bottles and the company sponsor's Keep America Beautiful; "A nationwide nonprofit, combining education with hands-on stewardship to make Americas communities clearner, greener, and more livable. " (www.kab.org/)

My Global Footprint

For a class project i was asked to go to www.footprintnetwork.org/calculator and find out my global footprint. Basically it shows you how many Earths we would need to sustain us if everyone on Earth lived like you, not fun but very informative. I think of myself as environmentally friendly but after taking the quiz my results came back as it would take 4.2 Earths!!!! Along with 18.8 acres of the Earths productive area to sustain my lifestyle. A break down showed; services as 47%, food 18%, goods 17%, shelter 15%, and mobility 4%.

I would highly encourage all of you to go and take this test also, not because i want you to feel ashamed or guilty but because of what it provides you after you're done with the quiz. Once you have your results it will give you the option to see what you can do to help reduce your footprint. They are easy suggestions and if taken can reduce your foot print by at least one Earth!

My suggestions, that i plan to take very seriously and will archive here on my blog, is:

1. Reduce animal product intake by at least half (down to 4 Earths)
2. Purchase more environmentally friend packaged products (down to 3.7 Earths)
3. Install solar panels, expensive but maybe my mom and I could find a way? If not when I get my own house that is a must! (down to 3.3 Earths!)

Just those few suggestions reduce my footprint by one Earth, and there are so many other things we can do to reduce our footprints! Throughout my blog I will try to keep this in mind when I talk about products. I will also try to keep track of how I am doing in reducing my footprint, and would love if you share your results and how you are reducing your footprint!

'Till then, have a great environmentally friendly day!

P.S. I put a link to the quiz under my Fav. Enviro Friendly Sites link to the side --->
:)