Greeniacs Sustainable Living Articles

Our world’s current food system unfortunately provides many ways for produce to become contaminated. This contamination can be the result of our food being grown

My first introduction to chia was not as a food but as key component to the strangely popular Chia Pet. Introduced in the 1970s, Chia

Is peanut butter safe to eat? Nut and legume allergies aside, there is probably none so prevalent a food in the American child’s diet as

Butter and margarine are America’s favorite fats! Renowned French chef Jacques Pépin has said, “If you have extraordinary bread and extraordinary butter, it’s hard to

Every week a new buzzword seems to be added to the conversation around food and healthy living. However, many of these new health trends are

It turns out that the infamous spice that gives curry its yellow coloring has many more benefits than simply making food taste better. In Sanskrit,

Growing up, my mother always gave me ginger ale when I had a stomachache. However, as a young child, I was never quite sure why

In the United States, mislabeled seafood is a prevalent problem. Consumers are faced with a myriad of labels and numerical ratings created by individual food

Most of us probably think of hemp being used as an eco-friendly material in our clothing or most likely our rugs! Maybe we think of

Can’t get enough of butter? Ghee, a clarified butter, may peak your interest. Used traditionally in South Asian cuisine, ghee is known not only for

Have you ever heard of a seed bank? Well they are extremely important—so important that there is a world seed bank you would think belongs

Ever look to buy organic cranberries? Well, you should not expect to find them easily. When Jared Oakes and Jessika Tantisook of Starvation Alley decided

Embrace your raw desires—the truth about a raw diet. I started my raw journey as merely a naïve, uneducated, loving cat owner.  I never grew

Could insects be the next protein source? With all of the environmental issues that have been caused by  growing at a rapid rate, people are looking

I first heard of the paleo diet about four years from a coworker who was following it at the time. When he explained the diet

 grew up in the age of the United States Food and Drug Administration’s “Food Guide Pyramid.” The Food Pyramid was supposed to solve chronic American

A slew of oils have recently emerged onto the health food scene and I found myself wondering, what are the best uses for each of

Recently, I delved into the precarious fate of  . The wild Coffea Arabica species of coffee, which is native to Ethiopia, is very sensitive to changes in temperature

s coffee the latest species to be added to the changing climate? Well you probably guessed it—yes, researchers are quite worried about the future of the

In our over-scheduled lives, caffeine keeps many of us from collapsing from exhaustion. And in our over-scheduled lives, convenience is king. Cue Keurig, the coffee

The “fast” life undoubtedly evokes in our society a sense of anxiety and unrest. Relentlessly ingrained in us is the mindset that a “fast” life

You may not have heard of atrazine, but chances are it has been used as an herbicide—weed-killer—to help grow the food you eat. Atrazine is

Out with green juice and in with bone broth. Lately, the benefits of drinking bone broth have been popping up all over the Internet, leading

The raw food diet has emerged in recent years as one of the newest trends in culinary wellness and health. The sudden popularity peaked my

Salt has become a delicacy, gracing the shelves of many specialty markets with different flavors and grains. It is one more item that can be

In a supermarket full of treats made with white sugar and white flour, it’s hard to stick to your guns and pick the nutrient-rich vegetables

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), bananas top the list for the most commonly consumed fresh fruit in America. In 2010, the

As we discussed in our Truth About Vitamins  article, the best way to ultimately receive the vitamins and minerals you need is to eat foods that maximize

It is all too easy to forget major food and beverage categories while in the midst of attempting to eat . Some of these products even

Colony Collapse Disorder has been a mysterious threat to honeybee populations throughout North America for several years now. Its devastating impact has been swift, leaving

The word “juice” always used to remind me of my childhood, when my classmates and I would get hyped up on sugar via juice boxes

Over the past few months, we have profiled several foods that are frequent victims of “food fraud,” such as coffee  and orange juice. iCoffeeIn August 2011, a

If you plan on buying chicken at a grocery store you will find a myriad of terms jump out at you while perusing the poultry

The 1920s marked the start of a regional planning movement in the United States during which many leaders attempted to transform conventional industrialized food systems

With global population levels soaring to more than 7 billion,1 it is often taken for granted how the world has been able to sustain such a large

Talk of fish is everywhere these days, from discussions about , and if you recall, this past November, the state of California had on its ballot

As time passes by, there are more and more mouths to feed  across the globe. The demand for crops during their offseason or in locations they are

The story starts with a tomato – the Flavr Savr by Calgene.1 This was the first commercial use of genetically modified organisms, aka GMOs, and was

Drought brings cornucopia of problems for the United States’ corn industry… It’s hard to miss the effects of the summer of 2012’s prolonged drought when

Americans drink about 13.8 billion gallons of sugar-sweetened beverages every year—we’re talking about sports drinks and soda here, just to name a couple of the

Climate Change Impacts Cassava CropsAccording to the Huffington Post, cassava is still a “neglected root” in most developed countries.1 I thought I had never tried

Soy is a plant native to Southeast Asia and, perhaps surprisingly, is a member of the pea family, Fabaceae. The soy plant can grow from one

They’re yellow, sweet, seedless, always about the same shape and size. We love them in our breakfast cereals, our yogurts, our breads, and just on

Chocolate is indulgence, youth, love, and happiness—except when it contributes to deforestation and child labor! Make a change and this Valentine’s Day, get your sweetheart a chocolate treat that

Caffeine is the world’s most popular psychoactive drug.1 Scientists even speculate that plants use caffeine to paralyze pests.2 Nonetheless, every person in the world drinks an average of

Are you familiar with the new food lingo? There’s organic and slow food, pastured and GMO-free. There are locavores and omnivores, CSA members and foodies.

Who wants some eggs?! The answer is: a lot of us…on average, each American eats about 250 eggs a year.1 There are around 340 million egg-laying

LEED Certified Winery Set to Open at U.C. Davis… One of the best Viticulture and Enology programs in the country lies on the University of California

Vegetarianism Goes Mainstream! The vegetarian diet has been around for thousands of years and consumed across many different cultures. Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma

For all of us residing between ten degrees North and Alaska, August marks the opening of the floodgates for farmers large and small.1 Festoons of tomatoes, basil,

How do we decide what food to eat? From PROCESSED FOOD, food made cheaper with PESTICIDES and ANTIBIOTICS, to LOCAL, ORGANIC and higher quality food, Americans choose how they eat based

The rundown on antibiotics and livestock… If you have ever seen a doctor for a cold or any other bacterial infection, it is almost certain

Farming grows up… The sky is the limit, especially when it comes to the future of farming. In fact, vertical farming was recently named the

A PETA Kind of Pork It all began with Dolly the lamb. Now scientists have taken cloning to a whole new level: meat production. That’s

As a child growing up in the Midwest, I was able to enjoy the luxuries of our seasonal vegetable garden and other fresh produce from

For the greater half of my life, my daily diet has been vegetarian. My middle school years turned me onto the animal rights movement, causing

Free-range meats and eggs are exploding in popularity around the world. In the United Kingdom, free-range eggs have actually outsold those from traditional farms, and

In Hollywood the hottest new celebrity diet, major eco-food trend and secret is about to emerge as the next major national sensation! Did you know

Biodynamic agriculture is one of the most sustainable methods of agriculture.1 It does so by incorporating organic farming techniques, composting, crop rotation, and attempts to integrate

People always seem to be talking about organic-this and organic-that, and all it really seems like people know about the word “organic” is that it