Earth Day 40th Anniversary Celebration GIVEAWAY – 40 Winners – Ends 4/22/10

April 22, 2010 marks the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day and we are excited to have you join Organic Bug for an on-going contest that starts Tuesday, April 13 and ends on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22.

So, here’s the scoop! We are giving away 40 prizes in honor of the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day. Yep, 40 nifty prizes made from recycled materials: 38 Reusable Canvas Tote Bags, 1 (set of 4) Earth Goblets + 1 (set of 4) Earth Tumblers.

Read more about these clever products and the resourceful and creative folks behind them by clicking on the links below!

Organic Bug Reusable Canvas Tote Bag made from a blend of recycled cotton and recycled soda bottles by Enviro-Tote ($10 value)

Evergreen Earth Goblets made from recycled wine bottles by The Green Glass Company ($65 value)

Evergreen Earth Tumblers from recycled wine bottles by The Green Glass Company ($40 value)

You can enter as many ways and as many times as you like! Be sure to enter between Tuesday, April 13 and 4 PM EST, Thursday, April 22, 2010.

***MAIN ENTRY***

Whether you enter once OR once a day, EVERYONE must complete a MAIN ENTRY:

1. Visit Organic Bug and pick ANY eco-friendly product
2. COPY the URL of the eco-friendly product page and paste it into the COMMENT box of this GIVEAWAY blog post
3. To access the COMMENT box, simply click Leave a Comment at the top of this GIVEAWAY blog post
4. On the form fill in your Name and Email Address*
5. PASTE the URL you copied from the Organic Bug product page into the COMMENT box
6. ALSO in the COMMENT box tell us the WHAT MAKES THE PRODUCT YOU PICK ECO-FRIENDLY

So, your COMMENT might look something like this:

http://www.organicbug.com/Public/BRANDS/MapleLandmark/index.cfm?productID=3673

This Classic Tic Tac Toy Truck is eco-friendly because it is made with wood that is responsibly harvested from sustainable forests and made in the USA, using fewer resources to distribute the toy in the US!

******************

Thanks for entering! Now that you have completed your MAIN ENTRY, you are entered to WIN one of the 40 prizes we are giving away on Earth Day~38 Reusable Canvas Tote Bags, 1 set of 4 Earth Goblets + 1 set of 4 Earth Tumblers!

Additional Entries (must do MAIN ENTRY first)

For more chances to win one of our 40 FUNtastic prizes:

• Subscribe to Organic Bug Email Updates (1 entry)
• Subscribe to Feed Your Eco Blog Updates~enter your email address under UPDATES on the right OR click the orange RSS NEWS FEED button at the top of the page (1 entry)
• Fan Organic Bug on Facebook AND post a comment on OUR Facebook Fan page (so we can track your entry). Post a comment AND a link to the same or another eco-friendly product you liked when you visited Organic Bug for your MAIN ENTRY, telling us WHAT MAKES IT ECO-FRIENDLY (1 entry)
• Follow me on Twitter AND Tweet about the GIVEAWAY. Include #EarthDayGIVEAWAY as a hashtag AND include the GIVEAWAY URL http://organicbugblog.com/category/organic-bug-spotlight-giveaways/ Don’t forget to @reply OrganicBug so we can track your entry! (TWEET DAILY for 1 entry EACH day)
• Post a comment and link to the GIVEAWAY on your blog or website (5 entries)

*Organic Bug respects your privacy! We NEVER sell or share your email address, period. Nor will we add it to any of our email subscriptions. If you are interested in signing up for Organic Bug Email Updates OR Feed Your Eco Blog Post Updates, you must do that separately.

The 40^th Anniversary Earth Day GIVEAWAY ends on Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 4 PM Eastern Time. This Giveaway is open to residents 18 and older of the US (including Alaska, Hawaii, US Territories, APO/FPO) and Canada. All 40 winners will be selected at random following the close of the Giveaway at 4 PM on Thursday, April 22, 2010.

Winners will be notified by the email address you provide in your MAIN ENTRY. Winners will have 48 hours to respond to notification to claim your prize and provide shipping information~otherwise another winner will be chosen.

No purchase is necessary. This Giveaway is void where prohibited by law. Products are sponsored and provided by Organic Bug.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Organic Bug Artist Spotlight~Tammy Roy

In the small town of Stratford, Wisconsin, media artist Tammy Roy grew up working in the many family businesses that her parents owned over the years~a car wash, gas station and school bus repair shop~to name a few.

Tammy began her adult career in graphic design but her real career started as a child when she learned the art of dumpster diving from her mother who used scrap materials in her own artwork before recycling was even cool!

When Tammy decided to turn her love of treasure hunting into an art form, she took some welding lessons from her dad and began making bowls and lots of other impressive pieces of FUNctional sculpture.

Tammy happily spends hours climbing the mountains of twisted and mangled steel in local scrap yards collecting bits & pieces that inspire her! “I never know what I’m going to come across, and as a result, I never know what it will ultimately transform into. But the process is completely intoxicating and I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

We love Tammy’s artwork and are sure you will enjoy seeing her collection of designs on Organic Bug! We can’t wait to see what she comes up with next…

Leonardo DeCaprio’s “The 11th Hour” Documentary

Spreading the word about hope and viable solutions for a sustainable future is right up my alley so when I saw Leonardo DeCarpio’s documentary, The 11th Hour, is now out on DVD I had to tell the world! Check out the trailer below then go to Netflix and order it up today!

 

Featuring over fifty of the world’s most prominent thinkers and activists including physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai and reformer Mikhail Gorbachev, this captivating film documents the severity of a planet in crisis. Deforestation, global warming, mass species extinction, depletion of oceanic habitats~all signs that point to a not-so-rosy future for humanity (aka: you, your kids and grandkids)!

The 11th Hour is dramatic in its forecasting of what the onset of global warming and other catastrophic environmental events mean to us as citizens of the planet. It calls for restorative action through a reshaping of human activity, reminding us that we already possess some of the most important tools to effect real change~our right to vote and our purchasing power. The opportunity to make ecology a top priority is right at our fingertips!

You will experience the  enthusiasm of prominent scientists and environmental advocates as they paint a portrait of a radically new and exciting future in which humanity seeks to mimic nature and coexist in a healthy and sustainable environment.

Directed by sisters Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, the film was made as a call to action. And they didn’t stop there! The duo established a website called 11th Hour Action, where you can interact with other members and learn what people are doing to reshape the future.

Organic Bug Joins Bloggers Unite To Support Global Causes

Part of my reasoning for developing the Feed Your Eco blog is to stay true to the philosophy of Organic Bug- which is to promote a better world by supporting causes that are important to us such as social justice, personal development and sustainable living. This blog is an opportunity for us to help us share our ideals and connect with others who have similar goals.

I was thrilled to find, Bloggers Unite, a community that connects bloggers who want to use their voices to bring awareness on important global issues such as poverty, education, health, human rights and the environment. The community allows us to join or create an event that we are passionate about and gives us a vehicle to spread the word by encouraging other bloggers to add a badge promoting the cause to their blog and help spread the word. On the day of the event, bloggers write a blog post about the cause to spread awareness to others.

The idea came from Antony Berkman; CEO of BlogCatalog.com, a social network and blog directory. Here is a brief (and clever) animated clip that demonstrates the thought and reasoning behind developing this organization.

Be on the lookout for future posts that are inspired from these causes so we can use this blog as a platform to promote positive change in our world. Please get in touch with me via Facebook or Twitter to share your feedback!

TOMS Shoes Add Pizazz to the Vegan Lifestyle While Helping Others

Check out these Vegan Wrap Boots! Well, I mean, you don’t HAVE to be vegan…but it’s just so painful to try to find really stylish vegan shoes so I am completely psyched. I ordered a pair today!

I cannot WAIT to wear them…well, I’ll most likely wait for a break in the 95 degree Florida heat OR take a trip to a COOL spot where everyone isn’t wearing bathing suits and flip flops like they do here until mid-November.

Anyway, TOMS Shoes does more than just make shoes! That’s what’s so great about this whole thing…with every pair you purchase TOMS Shoes will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what TOMS  Shoes is all about. They plan to give away over 300,000 pairs of shoes in 2009. Isn’t that nifty?

And, TOMS recently teamed up with Dave Matthews, yes, THAT Dave Matthews. Now, you can have your very own pair of Dave Matthews designed TOMS and do good, too, because of the One on One program. WOW! But, Dave designed shoes are a limited edition so you had better get moving on this today!

Now, if I could just persuade TOMS to use organic cotton canvas and recycled rubber soles…

Simple Summer Vegan Dinner Party

I had some friends in town this past weekend. On Saturday we tooled around the Farmer’s Market and visited a couple of local shops and art galleries. The afternoon was spent cooling off in my pool; later enjoying the early evening breeze and manatee-watching off my dock on the Indian River.

We had picked up some veggies at the Farmer’s Market that morning so as night fell we broke open a bottle of wine and the four of us quickly put together a yummy light summer meal before we settled in to watch a soppy chick flick & eat watermelon, the end to a perfect day! All ingredients are ORGANIC, of course!

Veggie Salad with Peanut Sauce

1 bunch broccoli, chopped
2 ears corn on the cob, corn cut off the cob
1 red bell pepper, chopped
DRESSING
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
Salt & red pepper flakes to taste

Place the broccoli, corn & bell pepper in a mixing bowl. Put the remaining ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Mix thoroughly with the vegetables. Serves 4.

Sweet & Sour Vegetable Stir Fry with Almonds
     (adapted from The Complete Vegetarian Cuisine by Rose Elliot-1988)

1/2 cup sesame oil
1 cup slivered almonds
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1 large yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 pound shitake mushrooms, chopped
SAUCE
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
2 tablespoons agave nectar

This savory mixture of sweet & sour flavors cooks fast so if you plan to serve it over brown rice (which is oh-so-yummy), be sure to start the rice early enough to be ready when you are! This dish is also good served cold.

Put the ingredients for the sweet & sour sauce in a blender and blend until smooth. Heat the sesame oil on medium in a deep fry pan or wok. Add the almonds & stir fry for 2 minutes. Turn the heat to high and add the vegetables. Stir fry for 5 minutes until the vegetables begin to soften. Turn the heat off, stir in the sauce and cover the pan for 2 minutes to heat through. Serves 4.

Obama Administration Using Harlem Children’s Zone Project As Program Model

I accompanied my daughter, Jacquelyn, to New York City in May for her medical school interview at TouroCOM, which is located on West 125th Street in Harlem. Subsequently, she was accepted for admission and begins her studies this week!

Back to Harlem~I spent four or five hours the day of Jacquelyn’s interview attempting to read  and do some computer work at the Starbucks across the street from the college. And I wholeheartedly agree with a line on the Starbucks website that states, “There’s a lot going on inside at Starbucks.”

This particular day I ordered my Tall Capuccino and settled in at a table in the corner looking out the big picture window onto the street. People briskly walked by briefcase in hand obviously on the way to work or some important meeting. A couple of colorfully dressed characters spent the day with boom boxes perched on their shoulders weaving in and out of traffic dancing to the music. The police were called in, twice, to the Starbucks to evict drug addicts from the restroom.

I have to say with all that went on in those hours I felt like I had been transported to a movie set~it was all surreal to ME but normal in the lives of the people whose domain I had invaded. As I prepared to leave to meet Jacquelyn following her interview so we could be on our way to the airport, I felt so saddened. I felt like such a failure, I cried.

We use our business model at Organic Bug to promote positive change and we work really hard to help~help fight climate change, help people in developing countries, help to empower others through education and awareness. But, on this day, I did not feel empowered. It was a stark reminder of how much work there is to do in our own country, for our own people.

Then, this past weekend I read an uplifting article in the Washington Post by Staff Writer Robin Shulman. Geoffrey Canada knows first hand the vicious cycle of poverty that ensues when one is born into an underpriviledged set of circumstances in America and deprived of what the rest of us take for granted. He is from a poor, sometimes violent, neighborhood in the South Bronx.

Vowing to lift himself out of his presumed destiny, Geoffrey excelled academically, eventually earning a master’s degree in education from the Harvard School of Education. As an advocate for children and families in some of America’s most devastated communities, he has become nationally recognized through his work with Harlem Children’s Zone, an ambitious project targeting a specific geographic area in Central Harlem. The project starts at birth and follows children to college, combining educational, social and medical services, creating a safety net that is nearly impossible for children to slip through.

The Obama Administration is using this successful program model to launch its Promise Neighborhoods program in 20 cities across America and has set aside $10 million in the 2010 budget for planning. Read the full article…

What Do You Sacrifice To Afford Health Care in America?

Sara Robinson has the distinction of being one of the few trained social futurists in North America and is currently a Fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future. Among other interesting projects, Sara is a founding member of Group News Blog and lives with her family in beautiful Vancouver, BC.

I ran across a recent article on AlterNet Sara wrote asking some thought provoking questions regarding what ALL Americans sacrifice to afford health care as we know it. Her extremely insightful approach is based on her experience living in both the American and Canadian cultures.

Providing a litany of quality-of-life comparisons to our northern neighbors, you may experience an intense sadness like I did OR you may simply be outraged. Whatever the emotion that erupts from within, any thought of politics and partisanship will melt away leaving you wanting more than just business as usual in our great country.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Read on…

We’ve Been Trapped Inside a Bad Health Care System So Long, We Don’t Even Know How Much We’re Missing

VEGETABLE THAI CURRY

With the advent of the holidaze and cooler weather setting in I’m happy just thinking about soups & stews! Uncomplicated, nurturing, cozy, simple. This is one recipe that will make even the most hard core meat eaters ask for more! Fix it to have on hand during the week when you’re too tired to care or you need to take a dish to the office Christmas party!

I know, more than 5 ingredients scares me, too, but GO for it! You’ll be so glad you did! I had it as a main dish for my Shuttle Launch Party and it was almost as big a hit as the stunning sight of the Endeavor successfully soaring across the moonlit sky with the shimmering Indian River Lagoon and Mangrove silhouettes as a backdrop.

Kurma Dasa is one of my favorite Vegetarian chefs! I am inspired by his culinary creativity when it comes to international cuisine from regions of India, France, Italy, Mexico, China and many other places around the world. He takes vegetarian cooking to new heights! This recipe is my dumb-downed version of his Mixed Vegetable Curry with Coconut Milk from Cooking With Kurma: More Great Vegetarian Dishes.

Feel free to use other combination’s of vegetables. Try brussel sprouts, peas, pumpkin, broccoli, yum! Adjust the heat with more or less chilies and s-t-r-e-t-c-h it to feed more for less by adding more coconut milk/water then serve it over rice. The recipe can easily be doubled for a crowd! Add a fresh green salad, sit back, relax and enjoy the season!

Vegetable Thai Curry

45 minutes to prepare/serves 6

3 tablespoons Cocopura Coconut Oil
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger (or 1 Teaspoon dried)
2-3 hot green chiles, seeded & chopped
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon curry
½ teaspoon yellow asafoetida powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon coriander
1 teaspoons Original Himalayan Salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 ½ cups green beans, broken into ½-inch pieces
1 ½ cups sweet potato (or any kind), cut into ½-inch cubes
1 ½ cups yellow squash, cut into ½-inch cubes
1 ½ cups zucchini, cut into ½-inch cubes
1 ½ cups cauliflower, cut into ½-inch chunks
1 ½ cups carrot, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
½ cup water

Melt the coconut oil in your favorite soup pot over low heat. Add the ginger & chiles, sauté for 1 minute. Add the cinnamon, curry, asafoetida powder, turmeric, coriander, salt & sugar. Stir in all the vegetables until coated with the spice mixture. Pour in the coconut milk & water. Stir as you bring almost to a boil; reduce heat & simmer, covered, for 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are tender.