Green Daily

Recently, I've been looking into this thing called WWOOF, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It's a way for people like you and I to learn about how to run an organic farm, or just simply grow an organic garden from the people who do it for a living. But it's much more than just a course or a class, it becomes your life for however long you decide to do the program.

Here's how it works: the WWOOF organization has a booklet they send out to you when you pay a small membership fee ($20 single membership in the US, $30 for a couple). In this booklet is a list of host farms who are looking for volunteers. You contact the host of your choice and work out your volunteer details with them from there. You then live on that farm for your volunteer time (most require a minimum of 2 weeks, but times vary), working with the land, animals and anything else that is required of you. Most don't pay, but some do for general expenses. You stay at the host's home and get free home-cooked meals for the duration of your stay.

I signed up for this a few months ago and received the booklet. I'm very excited about the possibility of trying this one day! Anyone want to watch my cats while I'm gone?

Every week we pick a theme to explore in more depth, and this week that theme is eco-friendly pets. To read all our posts related to this theme, click here.

If you have a cat or a dog, chances are you've fought the Battle of the Flea once or twice. Maybe you've used chemical foggers, collars, carpet sprays and powders... but the fleas keep coming back. Well there are a few basic things you need to learn about fleas in general, and just how possible it is to control them with natural alternatives.

The fact is, even if your animal never goes outside, there's always that chance that fleas will come back if not treated regularly. A single flea can lay as many as 60 eggs per day, and the lifespan of a flea is about 90 days. So eliminating and preventing them should be an ongoing project, like feeding them or grooming them.

Many politicians are touting for a gas tax holiday lately, where we as consumers would reap the luxurious benefits of saving money at the pump by the hands of our incredibly generous government. Just imagine what we could spend that money on. Why, we could afford to drive more if the gas was cheaper, am I right?

For some reason, this gas tax holiday is a "solution" that many politicians are pushing for, including John McCain and Hilary Clinton. Wave a few dollars in the tax-paying-public's eyes, and they'll love you forever (or at least until you get enough votes to win the election). But as any economist or environmentalist could tell you, this will only make our gas crisis worse, which will in-turn harm our environment even more through pollution, drilling, etc. By decreasing the price paid for fuel (especially following an extended period of high prices), gas usage will go up dramatically, driving down supply. This only increases the vicious cycle that got us into this addiction to oil in the first place.

On one hand, when I read a news story about an entire village in South Korea drawing 100% of its power from the sun, I get excited and optimistic, but on the other hand, it only makes me sad to think we don't have something like this going in the United States.

Sure, there are plenty of solar-powered homes in the US, and there are plenty of entire cities that are extending into a more off-grid power structure, but the kicker of this story is the fact that the South Korean government covered 70% of the installation fees for this project! Government-funded alternative energy projects in action, what a novel idea! Not only that, they announced a plan to raise Jeju-du Island's wind power generation capacity to 500 megawatts by 2020. I'd hate to think about how many solar panels a Blackhawk helicopter could buy.

The traditional method of communicating over long distances using paper, stamps and envelopes is in serious need of an overhaul. The two biggest reasons for this are paper waste and the amazingly high cost of postage that seems to change weekly. So what can you do?

There are many options, but email and the internet are probably your best bet. The problem with email in the minds of most people who didn't grow up with it, is the fact that it just doesn't seem as personal. One solution to this is scanning. You can find a scanner for next to nothing these days, and their capture quality is top-notch. You can then email photos, artwork, or anything else that would ordinarily fit in a small envelope.

Often times, I find myself being lazy about living a greener life. I think we've all been there. Maybe you just go ahead and bag all of your groceries in plastic bags. Maybe you throw that newspaper in the trash because you don't want to carry it all the way back home to throw into the recycling bin. Maybe if you're trying to go vegetarian, you just have that chicken sandwich one day. The fact is, none of us are perfect and any little thing we can do -- even if it's not every little thing -- helps in the long run.

But what can we do to motivate ourselves to stay green-minded?

The most effective answer to this question is to simply surround yourself with "green". No, that doesn't mean paint your bedroom walls olive drab, it means that you need to do something to get the flow of your life into that certain mindset. Whether it's joining an eco-friendly social group, or simply subscribing to multiple RSS feeds on green news, the constant flow will keep you motivated and help you realize how effective you can really be when you choose to live more for our planet. It may be hard now, especially if you're the only person in your social circle who thinks this way, but eventually you'll develop a habit and the environment (and our future generations) will thank you for it!

Austin Williams, the author of the new book "The Enemies of Progress" is convinced that our current global push for sustainability is a deterrent for creativity. He thinks that sustainability, being fundamentally against human activity and progression, makes it actually stunt the growth of innovation. I tend to strongly disagree.

To me, the exact opposite is true. When you don't have much to work with -- which is becoming the case in this decaying economy of ours -- you have no choice but to make due with what you have. As the saying goes: Necessity is the mother of invention. Our necessities include, most importantly, food and shelter. When the cost and availability of these staples extend beyond the grasp of the common working family, they are forced to turn to alternatives. These alternatives include growing their own food and building their own homes, independent of utilities in some cases. Sorry Mr. Williams, but this is the definition of sustainability.

This marks the final installment of The Suburban Farmer's chicken series, but don't fret! The Suburban Farmer will be back with many more topics to come in the near future.

So for this last piece, I'm going to talk a bit about what other animals can get along with chickens, typically. Now remember, as with any animal, they all have their own personalities and traits. Cats and dogs are said to traditionally not get along, yet many pet owners know this isn't the case.

The most obvious companion choice for chickens is other chickens. Even though they may peck at each other sometimes, they're a social animal who thrives in numbers. Also, there's rabbits. Technically, rabbits are considered poultry, so it only makes sense. Rabbits are sometimes messy eaters, getting their feed all over the ground, and the chickens are more-than-happy to come along and finish up the crumbs!

Last year, the US Congress signed a bill preventing federal agencies from investing money into alternative fuel projects that produce more polluting effects than oil and gas. This was certainly a step in the right direction, but could it possibly be true that Congress is considering a repeal of that bill, in order to explore investments in Canada's tar sands and oil shale projects? Yes, it is true, but environmental groups across North America are fighting to do something about it by petitioning the government through their senators.

In case you're wondering what tar sand is, it's basically a heavy crude oil mixed with sand, clay and rock. The process of extracting and refining it into a usable crude for vehicle and industrial consumption is not only much more expensive to process, but its effect on our environment is much larger than convention oil well drilling. Tar sand extracting does currently occur in North America, and the US does currently invest in it, but with last year's Section 526 bill, we had hoped this practice would have slowed to a halt.

Have you ever heard stories from your parents or grandparents about how they'd take a dip in a local pond, or grab an inner tube and float down the river for hours without a care in the world? That's almost unheard of these days. Sure, you could still do it, but you had better make sure you've had all your shots.

To showcase the improving state of natural waterways in the UK, photographer and travel writer Daniel Start recently released a new photo-guide book entitled "Wild Swimming: 150 Hidden Dips in the Rivers, Lakes and Waterfalls of Britain". In this book he explores the freshest of the freshwater "wild swimming" spots across the country. In a time when we hear more and more about the contamination of our water, it's nice to hear some good news for once.

One of my biggest interests, and one of the biggest topics I bring to the table at GreenDaily is a way to live a more sustainable life through raising your own food free of hormones and chemicals. This includes vegetables and animals, but mainly chickens. This series is an on-going introduction to the wonderful world of raising chickens in a non-rural environment.

Something you may not think of when planning your new suburban chicken farm is what to do with all those eggs! With me, it was a problem I postponed contemplating because I just wanted to raise some chickens, but it can become a serious problem unless you have a plan.

Since all eggs (free-range or cage-raised) have the same amount of cholesterol (around 70% of your daily recommended allowance for each egg!), it's safe to say you won't be eating dozens of eggs every day. But luckily, the demand for free-range organic naturally-raised eggs is growing every day.

IBM has some bragging rights in the climate-friendly front today after a recent report by ClimateCounts gave the computer manufacturer top honors. The company scored 77 out of 100 possible points on the ranked list, which beat out such electronics powerhouses as Canon, Toshiba, Sony and most notably, Apple. Even Microsoft, with a lower-than-average 38 points had more than three times that of Apple's meager 11 points.

So how much of an impact does this report actually have, and how were these companies ranked? Well, according to their scorecard, they scored companies based on their climate footprint, how effectively they've reduced their climate impact, whether they've supported or blocked progressive climate policy initiatives and if they've made their climate protection efforts public or not.

Check out the complete report and see what you think. You may be surprised.

One of my biggest interests, and one of the biggest topics I bring to the table at GreenDaily is a way to live a more sustainable life through raising your own food free of hormones and chemicals. This includes vegetables and animals, but mainly chickens. This series is an on-going introduction to the wonderful world of raising chickens in a non-rural environment.

The behavior of chickens is a fascinating and peculiar thing. They're unlike dogs or cats or your "normal" household pet, but they also share many of the same behaviors of these animals. Chickens are trainable to a certain extent, and of course their personalities are primarily dictated by their upbringing and surroundings.

I covered the most common behavioral "issue" with hens in yesterday's article about brooding, so in this article I will cover a few more common behaviors you may discover with your chickens.

Yes I went there. While the thought of using your own (or your family's) fecal matter in the compost pile might make you throw up a little in your mouth, it's becoming a popular topic among the self-sustainable community. It's certainly nothing new -- smaller countries have been doing it for generations -- but would it ever be something considered in the "civilized" western world?

The concept is fairly simple. Instead of using several gallons of water and an expensive sewage system to dispose of our feces, we go in a bucket and cover it with saw dust to eliminate odor. When the bucket is full, it goes into the compost pile right along with the yard clippings and food scraps. You'd be surprised at the ingenuity some people have come up with regarding these humanure systems. Of course, I don't think I need to tell you of the potential disease risks involved with handling raw feces, but once composted, it is harmless fertilizer for your garden.

One of my biggest interests, and one of the biggest topics I bring to the table at GreenDaily is a way to live a more sustainable life through raising your own food free of hormones and chemicals. This includes vegetables and animals, but mainly chickens. This series is an on-going introduction to the wonderful world of raising chickens in a non-rural environment.

While it may be fun to hunt Easter Eggs once a year, doing it several times a day can be daunting. As with any animal, you can train your chicken to perform a certain behavior just the way you'd like. In this case though, it's not fetching your slippers or going in a litter box, it's laying their eggs in their nests.

Let's first get one thing straight. Hens don't need roosters to create and lay eggs. Many people don't realize this, but there's a simple distinction. If you want fertilized eggs and to continue the generations of backyard chickens, the roosters will be needed, but to just simply lay unfertilized eggs, a rooster is not needed. In fact, according to most suburban or city codes, roosters are actually illegal to own because of the constant noise they make. No, they don't just crow at dawn.