The Green Room

Heidi from Ottawa, ON writes:

I was reading your newsletter and am interested in the Boreal Forest Friendly Coffee, however the company featured in the newsletter is an American company. Is there a Canadian company to deal with? I think that for this type of initiative most Canadians would prefer to deal with a Canadian company. Here in Ottawa, we have a company called Bridgehead Coffee. How do they stack up in the eco-friendly coffee department?

Gail from the Green Room replies:

We provided a link to the Boreal Forest Friendly Coffee to support the Boreal Songbird Initiative. There are, as you say, Canadian coffee companies providing bird-friendly product. I looked up Bridgehead Coffee and, according to their website , their products are "Fairly-traded, organic and shade-grown" - so they score the triple crown! Good choice.

A reader from Prince Edward Island writes:

We have five beautiful apple trees and this year hundreds of pounds of apples fell from the tree with an infestation of “apple scab," I believe. I looked at the markings and compared them to a book on gardening that identified it to be “apple scab” – the result of a small fly that lays eggs in the tree in the fall that gradually make their way to the apples in the spring. A beautiful crop of juicy red apples – wasted!

Please help us save the tree, the apples, and if it’s OK, to waste some apple flies. I would like to know how to keep these pests away before next spring. I do have some insecticide but want to stay away from that sort of thing.

David Suzuki’s gardening expert Lisa Atkins consulted with Martin Harcourt of Mainland Landscaping who writes:

Apple scab is a fungus that survives over winter in leaf litter and on the branches and fruit left on the ground, so sanitation is very important.  All leaves should be taken away and incinerated, or taken far enough away down wind to compost.

Lesions on the tree limbs should be pruned out aseptically – that is, the pruning equipment is dipped into a weak hypochlorite solution or vinegar and water (about a cup to a five gallon pail) in between cuts. Prune off a lesion and dip the pruner, saw off a branch and dip the saw. After the pruning and sanitation the tree should be sprayed with dormant oil lime sulphur – usually three applications, three days apart.

One of the David Suzuki Digs My Garden photo contest winners , Barbara Kimball from Oshawa, ON, writes:

You may be interested to know that I did a project with grade 8 students in 2007 on the flora and fauna of our Second Marsh. This was an ArtsSmarts, art-infused education project, which involved an educational tour and photography of the Marsh, and design of an environmental dinner service. The project traveled to the National Conference of ArtsSmarts in PEI. Last year’s "Clay Musical Instruments" can be seen on YouTube under Station Gallery Mud People. This year’s project will get started after Christmas and will involve planning a garden from seeds to cooking with herbs. We will do some photography and the students will create a fountain piece in clay depicting their ideal quiet place – all taking place in a very needy school.

Diana Cassa from Beeton, ON writes:

I’m trying to find information on reusing plastics numbered 2, 4 and 5 and hope you can help direct me. I freeze foods in them like homemade spaghetti sauce in yogurt containers.

Is it OK to freeze these plastics or should this be avoided? Is it OK to place them in the dishwasher? I’ve seen reports that say you should not freeze water bottles, although there are just as many that say this isn’t true. I don’t freeze water bottles — in fact, I don’t buy them at all — but I am wondering if the plastics I do freeze pose problems.

Lindsay writes:

You are not the first to ask about which plastics to use, reuse and recycle. We have tackled such an issue in our summer "Finding Solutions " edition of David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge newsletter . The nuts and bolts of it can be described as "2, 4, 5 keep yourself alive"! Those numbers are the safest to reuse, so check your containers.

From what I’ve researched, freezing is generally okay (I’d still stick with 2, 4, and 5 plastic types) but do not microwave plastics and do not put them in the dishwasher. For some plastic types, like #1, more chemicals are released when they are washed and reused. The good thing is that #1 is highly recyclable.

Lynn Keating from Calgary, AB writes:

For several years now, we have filled up our hybrid vehicles with fuel that contains ethanol, thinking this was the environmentally correct action.  However, lately I have been reading articles indicating this may not be so. What is your position on this controversial topic?

Ryan Kadowaki, Climate Change Administrator for the David Suzuki Foundation responds:

While our organization has not been directly involved with the biofuels issue, I would say that we foresee a niche market for these fuels. The large-scale use of biofuels, though, is problematic.

Biofuels are not capable of replacing oil entirely, and there is the very real concern about using farmland to supply fuel for vehicles rather than growing food for human consumption. For biodiesel, we absolutely support its production when the fuel source is recycled cooking fat (i.e. deep fryer grease), as this constitutes reusing a "waste" product (though of course there would be other potential uses for it).

For ethanol, we do favour lignocellulosic ethanol (made from straw, corn husks, forest residue, etc.) because it does not require arable land to produce and it also has a much higher net energy (although this may have negative consequences for soil nutrient levels). In terms of the net-carbon benefits of using corn-based ethanol, there is still considerable debate on this issue, but as of yet, the modest to non-existent greenhouse gas benefits do not appear to outweigh the issue of arable land use.

Additional insight on this issue can be found in a Science Matters article by Dr. Suzuki on September 14, 2007, "Biofuels not necessarily all that green" .

Jim from South Vernon, BC writes:

This is a silly but honest question. If I had a home on a hillside and wanted to have a gravity irrigation system, in what order would I have my vegetables to benefit most from the water system?

Got extra food you can’t use? There are lots of agencies across Canada who will give it to people who can, including Toronto’s Second Harvest , The Vancouver Fruit Tree Project , North Vancouver’s Edible Garden Project and the Lower Mainland’s Quest Food Exchange . Readers - who in your neck-of-the woods provides this service? Let’s all do what we an to share the bounty and avoid food and water waste.

Karen Pugh from Brantford, Ontario writes:

Every time I pack yet another school lunch bag (ugh!), I debate the merits of the "litterless lunch" vs. filling up my dishwasher with yet another pile of plastic re-usable containers. While I understand the need to reduce garbage, I can’t imagine that using more energy to heat the dishwasher water and using all that soap is any better for our environment. I know I could handwash those dishes, but in reality, "it ain’t gonna happen." Any thoughts?

Green Room host Gail writes:

Actually, there is some evidence that a dishwasher is more energy efficient than hand washing, especially if you have a dishwasher that’s energy-efficient.

The three R’s of eco-friendliness fall into a kind of hierarchy. It’s best to Reduce as much as possible first. So, you are correct in choosing a "litterless lunch" because it will keep stuff out of the landfills. And Reusing is more important than Recycling, because recycling uses energy and it’s always better to do the best you can to reuse things (such as your food containers) rather than purchasing new things, even when they can be recycled.

Whatever you practice in preparing school lunches, the kids that are eating them are becoming encultured to it - they’ll do what you did when they make there own lunches or (in future) make lunches for others. Thanks for helping to protect nature!

Eating low on the food chain is better for your health and the planet’s. We invited readers tell us about their favourite veggie restaurants and we post them on our website here:

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/NatureChallenge/What_is_it/Food/Veg_restaurants.asp

but we didn’t have room for more info - until now! Readers, write in with your veggie faves, whether they provide organic selections, support local growers, etc.

Here are a few from Louis Desgrosseilliers of Waterloo Ontario:

"The chain first started off as Juice for Life , but then expanded its menu to become what is now the Fresh restaurant chain in Toronto. Their locations are at Spadina, Bloor, and Crawford in the Toronto core. They welcome reusable bags and takeout containers. Their menu is mostly vegan.
Check out www.juiceforlife.com .

In Waterloo there is also Lotus Tea House (on Regina St N) and Chill and Grill (which serves really great veggie burgers and soy chicken burgers/wraps as alternatives to their regular menu items, in the University Plaza at University Ave W and Philip St).

Vegetarian Fast Food is also in the University Plaza (in fact next door to Chill and Grill) and have tons of vegan hot dishes and really great lunch specials. They are also friendly to those who bring in tupperware for takeout rather than resorting to the usual, wasteful styrofoam dishes."

The children of Paul and Lucy Morel of Deep River, Ontario, sent this loving tribute to their Dad:

Our father was always conscious of the world around him and its limited resources and he attempted to instill this in his four children. Here are the top ten things which seemed quite odd (and embarrassing, if truth be told) to us as children and teenagers in the 70s and 80s, but which we now realize were wise and conscious choices. Many of these carry memories which now bring us to tears of laughter.

1. We had a well-used wood stove in our basement to cut down on furnace use

2. The heat was turned down to about 55° Fahrenheit at night in the winter - we loaded on blankets and wore warm pajamas (we swear we could at times see our breath in the mornings)

3. Our laundry was dried on a clothes line and the dryer used only in limited circumstances (frozen stiff jeans were quite normal in our house)

4. We have always had a "compost heap" in our back yard which nourished our vegetable garden (our early chore as children was to carry the potato peelings and vegetable scraps to the compost each night)

5. Reduce/reuse/recycle was second nature to our dad - he recycled when recycling wasn’t cool (a milk jug would be refashioned into a scoop for the water barrel which in turn was fashioned out of an old garbage can)

6. We naturally had no air conditioning in the summer - windows were opened at night, and closed with drapes pulled in the mid-morning to capture and maintain the cool air of the nights
7. Our father never used Kleenex - he has always had handkerchiefs (and still does to this day!)

8. Our dad was the first person we knew who replaced all lightbulbs in his house with compact fluorescent

9. We actually always shared bath water to limit electricity and water use!

10. Our washing machine had a "suds saver" such that on laundry day multiple loads of laundry were washed in the same water

We will always recall as teenagers our Dad’s observation on the changing world when he would shake his head and say "We are becoming a throw-away society". But our Dad certainly did his part and now we find ourselves following his example as best we can: using our own clotheslines instead of our dryers, using our own water barrels to water our gardens, getting our own composters, installing programmable thermostats to ensure our air-conditioning and heating is used at its minimal – and of course reminding our own children to turn off the lights when they leave the room!. We are grateful to our wonderful father for his example.

In honour of his eightieth birthday, we have made a donation to the David Suzuki Foundation. Here is our Dad’s mantra from our childhood- words to live by:

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT.

Margot Morel (Guelph, Ontario)
Mark Morel (Ajax, Ontario)
Catherine Morel-Lopez (Toronto, Ontario)
Lisa Morel-Misener (Ottawa, Ontario)

Lots of green living ideas are recycled! Maybe that’s why what seems ‘new’ to a lot of people is second nature to others. Readers - what green wisdom was passed down to you from parents and grandparents?