MOM’s is a founding member of The Clean Energy Partnership, and we just had one of our quarterly meetings last week in Bethesda.

For those of you that do not know what CEP is, it is a group of local businesses that care about the environment, and have decided to purchase wind power to offset their carbon footprint.

There are a varied group of members, from 94.7 The Globe to Congressional Bank, to American Plant Food to Blacks Bar and Grill. There are no membership dues, just the desire to lead the way environmentally.

Doug Duncan was there, the former Montgomery County Executive who is now the VP of Administrative Affairs at the University of Maryland. Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland was there, and spoke about some upcoming bills that need our support. Cerphe, a distinguished and well respected DJ on 94.7 was there with his wife, Susan. Both Cerphe and his wife have long been committed to the environment.

His wife, Susan, is the president of My Green Cottage which is a company specializing in building homes that look normal, but hiding within are energy efficient processes that save money while saving our planet.

The reason each member joins is because of a desire to help the world, but the not so obvious benefit is that we all help each other with referrals. By sending our clients to another CEP member, we can feel good by knowing that we are promoting responsible business and supporting other companies that share an interest in renewable energy.

If you belong to or own any business interested in becoming a partner of the CEP, please feel free to write me for any information at gregk@myorganicmarket.com

I had the pleasure of going on air on Tuesday with Mike Tidwell, the host of Earthbeat.

The show airs locally on WPFW, and reaches twenty stations across the U.S.

Yesterday, the topic was Feast or Famine and it was about how Global Warming affects our food and vice versa, and the benefits of eating local.

If you would like to hear a copy of the show, or any of the archived shows, please visit http://www.earthbeatradio.org  The actual mp3 is at http://www.earthbeatradio.org/media/111307.mp3

Also on the show with me was Bernadine Prince, who is the co-director of Freshfarm Markets.  She is a very nice person, not to mention very knowledgeable and sincere in her efforts to better our food.

Lastly, I just want to thank Mike Tidwell as well as Aries Keck for inviting us on.  For those of you that don’t know, Mike Tidwell is also the founder of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.   

Please see first comment for the listings for this week.  As always, please feel free to list your green event if you like.

Please click on comments to see post and to respond…

No, we’re not talking about Willie Nelson here, but a tale of 4 people and the random things they found on a mile stretch of road they were cleaning up. Now, I’ve gotta tell you, I’ve cleaned up countless roads in my time, but you can never really predict the random things you can find out there. Sure, you have the classic 7-11 chilli dog boxes, or perhaps an empty 40oz beer bottle in a bag, tire shrapnel, articles of clothing, or even the mysterious lone shoe. But, nothing can ever prepare you for the forgotten and tossed Environmental Stewardship textbook! (Of all books to find out there.) or the complete 12 pack of beer, still intact. (No, we didn’t drink it. We recycled the cans.) How about the wrestling trading card that explains “nothing can stop ‘the animal’…”? (a classic)

Normally when we set out on this stretch of road (Rhode Island Ave. between Edgewood and Greenbelt Rds.) we are prepared to see the nasty, the smelly, the random and ridiculous….and a lot of it. We were lucky in a few different ways today. 1) the weather was a bit cooler with a slight breeze. 2) the road wasn’t too nasty or smelly, which could be an indication that we are doing an amazing job OR people who like to throw trash out their windows are on vacation. and finally 3) we found a lot of random and ridiculous surprises, which definitely keeps things interesting.

I highly recommend that if you ever get a chance to participate in a clean-up, jump at the opportunity. Not only are you helping the environment, but chances are that you will come across some random objects that will keep you guessing and talking.

This last Thursday marked the 2nd annual Potomac Watershed Trash Summit. The summit brought together well over 400 people from around the area to have an open discussion and learn about our local waterways and what we can do to help make our watershed trash free. It was a venue for elected officials, concerned citizens, members of local businesses and organizations to get together and strategize to help in the Alice Ferguson Foundation’s goal of a Trash Free Potomac by 2013.

As someone who attended the event, it was good to see such an age range of participants, from high school on up, from every different sector. The goal of a Trash Free Potomac by 2013 will be a huge project, and will certainly not be successful without the interest and participation from every single citizen, organization, business and government agency of the area.

We heard from a lot of different people and talked in round table style about where we begin to make this watershed trash free. Does it start with river, creek, street and neighborhood clean-ups? Does it start with regulations and mandates on product manufacturers? Does it begin with solid recycling and reuse programs? Does it start with education on our impact that we can have on the environment?

Solution: we all have different things to contribute to making this project a success. My question to you is: no matter if you live in the Potomac Watershed, the Chesapeake or even the Columbia Watershed on the West Coast, what can you do to help make our waterways trash free?

… of garbage, twice the size of Texas, floating in the Pacific Ocean somewhere between the Hawaiian Islands and Northern California. Hard to imagine? Not really. The island of trash is being held together by a slowly rotating system of currents and mats of floating seaweed and kelp. Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in CA, estimates that there is about 3 million tons of plastic floating in this mass, not to mention the millions of tons of other debris. The plastic will eventually sink, where it will then become part of the 46,000 pieces of garbage estimated for every square mile of ocean.

According to statistics, well over 80% of the trash in the oceans is brought there from our storm drains and run-off from our polluted streets, streams and rivers. You carelessly throw a gum wrapper, baby diaper, plastic bottle or even oil on the ground and where does it go? It gets into our water ways via storm drains, down to creeks, into the rivers and finally spilling into our oceans. People are so quick to point fingers, but who is really to blame?

What can you do? Stay educated about the environment and your effect on it. Get involved with clean-ups or do one of your own in your own neighborhood. Know what watershed you’re in and the health of that area. Recycle and use designated trash cans, and encourage that behavior in your day to day life.

Watch out Frederick, there’s a new market in town. MOMs will be opening it’s fifth store this Spring on Buckeystown Pike. Energy conservation is important to MOMs, which is why we chose to have 20 huge skylights installed throughout the store to lower our energy consumption, reduce our carbon footprint and filter in as much of the nutrient giving natural light that we could. (Not to mention all of the energy efficient equipment that we’re having installed.)

Each skylight, measuring 5′ x 6′, captures sunlight in the dome mounted on the roof, and reflects the light through a series of mirrors down a shaft and into the store’s aisle ways and back offices. The best part about it is that the skylight has been created in such a way that as long as there is day light, no matter the angle in the sky, the skylights can still capture that light and reflect it down. (Of course, the light will be the most “intense” at noon when it is straight overhead.) Do you want to learn more? Visit www.huvco.com for more information.

In the news today it was announced that California power companies will be banned from purchasing electricity from high polluting resources, such as from coal-fired power plants. The announcement came after the Public Utilities Commission voted to pass the ban at 4-0, with hopes to lower the release of green house gases linked to global warming.

The new ban and standards set to kick into affect February 1st is aimed at encouraging power companies to invest in cleaner energy resources, ie wind and solar, and discouraging the use of the more polluting resources such as coal. While coal is the one of the least expensive and abundant resources, it is also one of the highest polluting.

California is doing a great thing here, and as one of the largest states, is going to make a huge difference. I can only hope that with more time and recognition of the issue of global warming, more and more counties and states will draw similar bans and regulations and kick their old polluting habits.

In the past few weeks I’ve been sitting with disappointment over a movie I saw over Thanksgiving weekend. Normally, I wouldn’t use this space to post movie reviews, however, after seeing Happy Feet, I feel like I have to say something, as it sends out the wrong message about how the environment works. Spoilers ahead!

Happy Feet is about a penguin who is born different and his struggle with that, along with the penguin colony’s struggle with lack of fish. He is ultimately kicked out of the penguin colony for his differences. He then decides that he’ll take it upon himself to go find out who’s taking all the fish and let them know what it’s doing to the penguins. In his mission he discovers humans are overfishing the Antarctic. Yes, it is true, we are everywhere. He manages to spread his plea to humans through dancing.

The erroneous message that was made clear in the movie, though, is that eating fish, no matter what kind it is or origin, is killing the penguins. The movie wraps up with scenes of kids across the globe watching news reports about the plight of the penguins and eventually shows all of humanity vowing never to take another bite of any seafood.

I would like to end this review with a list that I came upon yesterday, which is a list of good fish to eat and a list of bad fish to eat. The list places fish that are low in mercury and PCBs and those that preserve oceanic diversity high in priority. While it is good to know our place in the food web, the better action is to make more educated choices.

Regional pocket seafood guides - choose fish that are eco-friendly!