Green Gifts For Foodies

In case you're not sure what to give the food-lovers in your life for Chrismukkah, I've come up with a list of some great environmentally-friendly and socially-conscious gift ideas. These are just a jumping off point but hopefully they'll help you get started. Feel free to add your gift ideas via comments.

KITCHEN GOODS

A canvas tote bag to help your favorite foodie carry his or her haul home in eco-friendly style. These are getting quite trendy so you have your pick of some cheekier options (including a "F*@k Plastic" tote) as well as the simpler ones you can buy at any Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, as well as at many more conventional chain supermarkets. Using these sturdy, reusable bags will help cut down on consumption of trees and petroleum and reduce landfill waste. It's nice to have a bunch of these totes for bigger shopping trips.

• Rejavanate makes great bags out of recycled burlap coffee sacks - these bags cut down on landfill waste, petroleum consumption, and also provide jobs to people in need: http://rejavanate.com/
• The Vancouver based company, Bring Your Own Bag offers some "cheekier" options:
  http://www.bringyourownbag.ca/BYOBonlinestore.html

A stainless steel food container with several stackable compartments is the perfect thing to bring to a restaurant (I got the idea from my wonderful tree-hugger sister-in-law who brings hers whenever we go out to eat) or carry your lunch in to work or on a picnic.
You can order them online from one of the following places:

• ReusableBags.com http://www.reusablebags.com/store/togo-ware%C2%AE-2tier-stainless-steel-food-carrier-p-669.html
• ToGoWare.com (I think they may actually be the manufacturer): http://www.to-goware.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=13

Or if you're here in the Bay Area and want to skip the shipping materials and expense, you can find them at the Ecology Center (though they were out when I was there recently...): http://www.ecologycenter.org/

A plastic bag dryer to make it easier to re-use plastic bags for produce, etc. Just wash the used bags and hang them on the dryer then store. http://www.reusablebags.com/store/plastic-bottle-dryer-p-187.html

An organic cotton or hemp apron (again no chemical fertilizers or pesticides). Here are a few options.

• Kushtush: http://www.kushtush.com/homaprons.htm
• Rawganique: http://www.rawganique.com/kitchenaprons.htm
• Kasper Organics: http://kasperorganics.net/

Organic dish towels made from cotton or hemp grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

• These hand embroidered towels are very cute! http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8190680
• Here are some more standard options: http://www.rawganique.com/kitchenaccessories.htm

Bamboo cutting boards. These are a beautiful, durable, environmentally-friendly alternative to wood or plastic cutting boards. Bamboo does not require fertilizer or use much water and it grows amazingly quickly, making it an easily renewable resource. Bamboo cutting boards are widely available at most major home stores and even in many supermarkets.

If you want to look for a specific brand, try to find Bambu, a company that uses organic bamboo for their products: http://www.bambuhome.com/html/prod_cuttingboards_01.html

Antique plates, dishes, bowls, linens, serving ware, etc. You can find a cool, one of a kind gift at a flea market or antiques shop and recycle and reuse at the same time.

A stainless steel water bottle. These bottles are catching on quickly as word spreads that the plastic bottles (even the heavy duty Nalgene ones) leech cancer-causing chemicals. Why wait? I recommend switching right now! Kleen Kanteen is one of the main suppliers of the stainless steel bottles - they come in three different sizes with a variety of tops, including a sippy top for babies. http://www.kleankanteen.com/


FOOD & DRINK

Buy a gift membership in an organic CSA (community supported agriculture). If you want to support local farmers directly, joining a CSA is the single best way to do it. Buying in to a local farm helps the farmers weather a drought or tough season and withstand the economic pressures of rising land prices, fluctuations in market prices, etc. It also provides you with healthy, fresh produce every week (or other week) and gives you a direct connection to the people who are growing your food. These farms tend to welcome visitors and often will host regular events at the farm to give its members a chance to roll up their sleeves and experience farm life. The more organized ones also offer a weekly newsletter which features wonderful recipes for the food you receive in your produce box that week. All in all, I think this may be my best gift idea!

• If you live in the Bay area, EatWell Farm is a wonderful option - Nigel Walker and the other folks do an amazing job -- the food is good and the newsletter is so fricking adorable it's almost worth joining just to receive it every week. http://www.eatwell.com/
• Full Belly Farm also has a CSA - I know from the farmers market that they have great produce. http://www.fullbellyfarm.com/csa.html
• Those of you who are further a field can do a search for CSAs in your area at the Local Harvest web site: http://www.localharvest.org/

Organic wine. You can buy a few choice bottles or go all out by signing up your favorite oenephile for the San Francisco-based Organic Wine Company's wine of the month club. I have some friends who got this as a wedding gift and love it.

• Organic Wine of the Month Club:
  http://www.theorganicwinecompany.com/wine_club.php

Organic, fair trade chocolate. You can't beat chocolate… Look for a fair trade, organic brand which will ensure that your gift was produced in a more environmentally-friendly manner and that the cacao farmer(s) received a fair price for the beans.

• Divine Chocolate, a company that is 1/3 owned by the Ghanaian farmers cooperative that produces the beans: http://www.agreatergift.org/Gourmet/ChocolateFood/Divine.aspx
• Global Exchange http://store.gxonlinestore.org/gxchocolate.html
• Equal Exchange: http://eeretail.stores.yahoo.net/

Organic, fair trade coffee. Because the vast majority of coffee and cacao beans are grown in the developing world, it's even more important to buy a brand that is certified organic and fair trade by TransFair or Equal Exchange.

• Deans Beans - a Massachusetts based organic, fair trade coffee company: http://www.deansbeans.com/
• Caffe Ibis Coffee Roasting Co offers triple certified beans - organic, fair trade, and shade grown!: http://caffeibis.com/
• Global Exchange's online store: http://store.gxonlinestore.org/coffee.html

BOOKS & MOVIES

King Corn DVDs. From now until Christmas, one dollar of each King Corn DVD purchase will be donated to the Practical Farmers of Iowa’s Next Generation Program, which provides training and mentoring to aspiring young farmers. More than half of U.S. farmland is owned by people of retirement age, while the number of entry-level farmers has fallen by 30 percent in the last decades, making encouragement of young farmers a timely and urgent issue.
DVDs of the critically-acclaimed King Corn are now available for sale online at http://www.kingcorn.net/.

Conscious cookbooks:

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
 

Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone by Deborah Madison (my review is at: http://gardenofeatingblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/vegetarian-cooking-for-everyone.html)

From the Cook's Garden by Ellen Ecker Ogden - delicious recipes, gorgeous woodblock prints

You can also find even more of these conscious cookbooks at Sustainable Table: http://www.sustainabletable.org/kitchen/cookbooks/index.html

More intellectual food for thought:

Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Our Food Comes From & Why We Need to Get It Back by Ann Vileisis

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan or any of the other excellent books by Michael Pollan

GRUB: Ideas for an Urban, Organic Kitchen by Anna Lappe & Bryant Terry
Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe & Anna Lappe

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

MEMBERSHIPS & GIFT CERTIFICATES

If you feel like the food-lover in your life does not need any more "stuff", you can always go this route as there are lots of great gifts that will not clutter anyone's house.

A gift certificate to a restaurant that uses locally-grown, organic food. If nothing comes to mind, try doing a search for a good restaurant at the Eat Well Guide's web site: http://www.eatwellguide.org/advsearch.cfm

Cooking classes! You can browse through Sustainable Table's listing of conscious cooking schools here: http://www.sustainabletable.org/kitchen/schools/

Make a donation to a charity working on organic or sustainable agriculture, land reclamation, fair trade, etc. You may want to look for a local nonprofit but here are a few ideas.

The Ecology Center - the awesome organization that runs Berkeley's Farmers markets, biodiesel collective, and our curbside recycling program!

The Organic Consumers Association - a nonprofit that promotes the views and interests of the nation's organic and socially responsible consumers. they campaign on food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability and other key topics.

Oxfam America - a wonderful international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. They also do a ton of work to help farmers here in the US and around the world (think Farm Bill and way beyond) and were one of the main pioneers behind the fair trade movement. They offer some great, clever gifts through their "Unwrapped" holiday gift program (at http://www.oxfamamericaunwrapped.com/) - your donation will buy seeds, trees, sheep, chickens, goats, donkeys, etc., to help families and communities become self-sufficient.

Heifer International - a large international nonprofit that lets you give the gift of lifestock (goats, cows (hence the name, heifer), honeybees, even a water buffalo) and training in sustainable agriculture to a family in need, so they can feed themselves, earn an income and lift themselves out of poverty. (Oxfam and Heifer have similar missions - I think one of the main differences is that Oxfam also does advocacy work to try to affect the policies that create poverty, hunger and injustice.)

Oceana - an awesome international oceans conservation group (I used to work there so I can vouch for them) is running a holiday adopt a sea creature campaign right now at: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/209/t/3790/shop/shop.jsp?storefront_KEY=330 .If you make a donation to adopt a dolphin, sea turtle, penguin, seal, whale, etc., and help protect the animals and their habitats. As a token of thanks, gift recipients will receive their choice of sea creature cookie cutters (like the turtle one at right), an acknowledgment of their adoption, facts on ocean creatures, and a sugar cookie recipe from Warren Brown, FoodNetwork star and owner of CakeLove (one of Washington, DC's favorite bakery/pastry shops.) For a donation of $100 or more, you also get an exclusive Oceana oven mitt.