conservation – California Dream 2000s

Sustainable foods restaurant with a twist

San Francisco restaurant Weird Fish is a sustainable foods eatery with a twist.

First, their overall mission:

Home of the Suspicious Fish Dish, We serve locally grown vegetables, & prepare fish that is primarily farmed and sustainable. We are making conscious efforts to embody a green business practice at Weird Fish. All of our fish is farmed sustainably. Thank you for supporting us. Together we can make a difference.

And the twist?

In our effort to become a more sustainable business we have discontinued our TO-GO service. Please feel free to bring your own container if you want food to go.

That’s right, you can bring your own container and they will fill it up with food you can take to go! A great and green idea! I’m going to check it out; a friend who’s been there says the food is very good.

Mass Transit: Stimulus Roadblock?

NOW on PBS looks at mass transit projects and how the stimulus funding may be used, or abused, for such projects. This is a sensible look at what mass transit can offer around the country in terms of neighborhood revitalization, travel ease, reducing driving, lowering fuel consumption, building more sustainable communities and even increasing social interactions. But will the stimulus money actually be used sensibly?

From NOW on PBS:

President Obama’s stimulus money is nearly out the door and on its way to the states, but will it be spent in the way it is intended?

One alarming example: Mass transit. Cities and states, strapped for money, are cutting back on mass transit even as it becomes more popular with Americans. Meanwhile, President Obama is calling for increased mass transit as a necessary step toward energy independence. Will the government’s investment dramatically revitalize our national travel infrastructure, or will states spend the money according to ‘business as usual’?

This week NOW travels to North Carolina to see what the future holds for mass transit in these troubling financial times. Our investigation is part of a PBS-wide series on the country’s infrastructure called “Blueprint America.”

NOW on PBS “Stimulus Roadblock?”
NOW on PBS
Blueprint America on PBS

Early February 2009 environmental roundup

I have some time free this morning, so I’m reading, reading, reading on the Interwebs (and listening to music and cleaning and making some lunch and enjoying the cozy heat coming off my steam radiator and doing laundry and getting ready to go out this evening)… It’s nice to have some time to do things at home after a busy week.

As I’m going through my reading backlog, I’m catching up on environmental news and finding some items worth sharing.

So here we go, this whole batch of articles comes from TreeHugger:

I think recycling is especially important; the E-Waste article led me to this article on PlanetGreen:

Encourage E-waste Recycling in Your Workplace

I believe it’s important to consider the environmental aspects of everything we do and constantly add small conservation steps to our lives, which will make a big difference over time. I’d love to hear comments or ideas.

Sustainable Table

Sometimes I find out about interesting web sites from unexpected places. This morning I was at the UCSF Cafeteria, eating a bagel, and started reading some signs on the bulletin board. There was a flier announcing that the cafeteria has increased its recycling efforts (good work UCSF!). Next to that was a poster for a web site called “Sustainable Table” (I was tired and since the URL was printed sideways it took me awhile to figure out — sustainable able, sustainable what, oh, table!)

So I emailed myself a note to check it out. I’m glad I did!

For feature articles and news on sustainable farming, cooking, and more ““ look no further! Every month we feature an article focusing on sustainable food ““ growing it, cooking it, eating it, and more. Learn more about seasonal ingredients and how to cook them. Or browse our Features Archives to learn more about your favorite foods (think ice cream and hot dogs!) and how to choose sustainably.

This special features section also highlights breaking news, information on special events, collaborations with other groups, and other special projects of Sustainable Table.

The site looks great and has interesting articles. Ever wondered what eggnog actually is, not to mention how to find sustainable/organic eggnog? Or wanted to know all about American apple cider? There’s lot of good information; the site includes a blog, features and stories.

Sustainable Table

SF to convert guckiest cooking grease to fuel

From the SF Chronicle (oh, local newspaper, I love you so…):

San Francisco will become the first city in the country to convert large batches of “brown grease” – the smelly, mucky mess left over from foods cooked in oil – into biodiesel and other fuels under a program set to start by the end of the year.

The $1.2 million pilot program, which is being funded by state and federal grants, will go toward building a grease recycling plant near the city’s Oceanside treatment plant. The program will allow the city to collect about 10,000 gallons a week of dirty grease, which can be converted into roughly 500 gallons of fuel.

“At home, when you’re making eggs and it burns and you get that brown stuff and you scrape it off, that’s what brown grease in essence is,” Mayor Gavin Newsom said at a news conference Wednesday. “But it also becomes commercial-grade biodiesel. This is the good stuff, environmentally speaking.

Renewed interest in victory gardens

From the LA Times:

Decades ago, the victory gardens planted at the behest of the federal government helped the United States cope with food shortages during World War II. (In World War I, they were liberty gardens.) By 1943, Americans planted more than 20 million victory gardens — at homes and schools and in parks — that were reported to produce 8 million tons of food that one old film called “America’s hidden weapon.”

Now, in community gardens and backyards, and of course on the Internet, a new victory garden movement has captured the attention of people who want to lessen their reliance on mass-produced or imported food, reduce their carbon footprint, foster a sense of community or save on their grocery bills in a fractured economic climate.

Victory gardens sprout up again

Grease drive: SF turns cooking oil into fuel

From the Chronicle:

The cooks of San Francisco, where sauteing is a sacred rite for some, now have a place to send their used cooking oil without turning the city’s sewer system into a choked maze of congealed grease.

On Saturday, the city kicked off a four-day cooking oil recycling drive, during which residents can drop off their discarded olive oil, canola oil and other kitchen grease for eventual use in the city’s fleet of biofuel vehicles. At the last grease recycling drive, over Thanksgiving weekend, San Franciscans unloaded more than 2 tons of cooking oil.

More: Grease drive: SF turns cooking oil into fuel

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