Renewable energy always seems to capture the spotlight and garner media attention.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that government financing of “green energy” has become such a hot topic in Congress, especially over the last twelve months. From the fall of the solar manufacturer Solyndra in 2011 to the recent collapse of Amonix, government-backed renewable energy programs receive “all the buzz” on Capitol Hill.

Yet as these fiery debates rage on, politicians and energy wonks tend to ignore another issue that remains just as integral to the sustainable movement—energy efficiency.

While lawmakers argue about renewable energy, utility companies have been actively offering incentives to encourage energy savings (check out this example in Michigan). These efforts have actually done more to reduce fossil fuel consumption and nuclear
waste than renewable investment.

The European Union has long pushed renewable energy development, but even European countries have started to encounter economic obstacles to their efforts. The main issue with renewable development is that new technology requires huge capital investments, and the payoff often doesn’t come for a while.

Germany has been stealing most of the limelight today with its promise to go “nuclear-free” by 2022 and become fully “renewable” by 2050. Twenty percent of Germany’s electricity comes from renewable sources, and three percent alone comes from solar. These numbers are impressive and show extraordinary potential for the future. Unfortunately, the government is starting to realize that it bit off more than it could chew.

Officials recently announced that the government would only be able to cover half of the program’s $420 billion price tag, and reports say bankers are unlikely to front the rest. Germany emerged as an economic leader in the European Union economic crisis, but its policymakers are panicking as they discover that large-scale renewable investment is a bit
over their budget.

Currently, the average German family of four pays $14 a month in subsidies for renewable energy programs, while the average household pays 36 cents per kilowatt-hour on average; Americans, in contrast, pay around 9.8 cents.

Spain, the first country to make “solar” cool, essentially withdrew from the green race a couple years ago in an effort to save its economy, and it continues to struggle with debt problems. Renewable programs have stagnated overall, and the future remains uncertain. Italy, on the other hand, has a more practical reason to become more self-sufficient. Most of the country’s electricity comes from nuclear plants in France, and this imported power is very expensive. Solar programs have gained some momentum, justified by the country’s ideal climate. But economic setbacks, combined with the Mafia’s corrupt absorption of subsidies, have increasingly shifted the government’s focus to offshore drilling.

Last week, the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti announced that the country would be reopening its coastlines to drilling in an effort to stimulate its lagging economy. In other words, renewable programs have been placed on the backburner until further notice.

At the same time, China is taking advantage of renewable subsidy programs throughout the world, including those of the U.S.A. Several countries buy their solar panels from China, placing it as a renewable industry leader.

In summary, renewable energy has been struggling throughout Europe, while China has made a pretty penny from its renewable-related exports.

As for the United States, renewable energy sources comprise 14.3 percent of our total domestic electricity production, leaving the remainder open to fossil fuels and nuclear power.

If we truly want to limit our dependence on oil and cut back nuclear waste immediately and avoid the economic pitfalls of our neighbors, we have to attack the problem at its source before we fully venture into renewables.

We need to become more energy-efficient.

The Congressional Budget Office reports that about ten percent of our federal government’s energy-related tax subsidies go to energy efficiency, while almost 70 percent goes to renewable energy. Ironically, energy efficiency continues to stimulate
the economy on a large scale as it cuts utility costs and makes businesses cheaper to run, while government subsidized renewable programs have only made a small dent in our fossil fuel and nuclear consumption.

Moreover, some businesses that waste electricity are rewarded with deductions on their tax returns, while those who opt to be energy efficient receive no benefit.

According to Energy Department figures, the amount of energy necessary to support just one office worker for a day produces twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as that person’s drive to work. Simple improvements in lighting, heating, cooling and windows
could do a great deal to limit our wasteful energy practices, but the incentives for these areas are hard to come by.

Should we lose hope in green power and slash all renewable subsidies? No. We simply need to reprioritize.

Renewable energy is still “all the rage” in the “sustainable” world, and renewable programs will continue to gain ground as technological advancement lowers the cost of investment. They are a step in the right direction and worthy of government support.

But the source of our energy consumption is clearly the more pressing issue at hand. We can’t overlook the potential of energy-efficiency as we strive for a more sustainable world.

Midway through this season, we lost our harvest of blueberries.

They fell off the bush, green and ripe berries, by the handfuls until there was nothing left, nothing for the market, nothing to eat. Even the birds got cheated.

We were short on water, and the plants couldn’t hold their fruit. The loss has been devastating.

We worked so hard all year—weeding, trimming, pruning and feeding—for this moment when these plants put on a display of berry production that boggles the mind but ordinarily lasts only eight to 10 weeks. The southern highbush varieties we grow are top performers not only in yield but in sweet juicy, flavor-rich berries.

Word spread quickly. Early May, our berries were among the first locally grown and the highest quality to hit area markets. Customers were raving about them.

“These are really delicious,” they exclaimed, “when can we get some more?”

After delivering to restaurants and markets, we brought some home. We made pies, smoothies, ate them like popcorn, put them on salads and desserts. They were fantastic berries, better than last year’s but we were having a hard time keeping up with the demand.

The season got off to a slow start. We’d harvest one day and then wait three or more days before there would be enough ripe berries to pick again. It wasn’t until the second or third week that we were able to harvest more than two days in a row.

Last season, we hit the ground running. We could have harvested every day had we been better prepared with more markets. We were oversupplied from the start.

This year, based on our experience, we were better prepared and lined up buyers from restaurants and local grocery stores. They were eager, especially after sampling, to purchase our fresh-picked fare. And it appeared that any day we’d be filling our haul.

Huge fat green clumps of berries seemingly popped out of nowhere, hanging like grapes in the lush green foliage that provides the berries with food, waiting for the magic moment when they would start to turn crimson, then darken to purple-blue. When the berry turns fully and evenly purple, it’s time to pick.

I began to notice, however, that green berries were falling off the bush in large quantities before they even had a chance to ripen. I noticed other problems too that indicated stress in the plants.

The earliest tell-tale sign of stress that I noticed was fruit cracking, which occurs when plants become dehydrated; the ripening fruit stops growing, the skin cracks, and develops a greyish-brown scar in the center of the berry. It’s not an attractive or marketable berry. Plus, it points to the more important matter of getting adequate water to the plants and protecting them from dehydration and fruit loss.

The summer heat hit us early, and the plants’ water needs were increasing and becoming critical.

“With the harvest coming on line,” I wrote in my field log on April 29, “we can’t afford to risk the [plants from] drying out in the hot sun. The plants definitely won’t fare well in this heat, not without water.”

Before noon that day, the temperature had reached 90 degrees and I saw obvious signs of stress in the plants—wilting, browning on the edges of some leaves, and more viable berries dropping to the ground.

All of my reading on blueberry plants suggests that the key to maintaining healthy plants and ensuring a plentiful harvest is to keep them moist. So long as we have adequate water, even with the plants in containers and exposed to the sun, it’s relatively easy to keep them happy and producing.

Without adequate water, however, it becomes nearly impossible to maintain healthy fruit, let alone healthy plants.

We’ve been allotted water three days a week from our provider, which has been fine during the winter months when there’s little demand for it from non-producing plants. But now, when temperatures get into the 80s and 90s, we need water two to three times a day.

We pleaded with our provider to increase our water allotment to more three days a week as early summer temperatures hit the 80s and 90s. I explained that in those temperatures, our containers, and the tender root systems inside, would cook without water to cool them.

He said he couldn’t help me because he had his own water issues. “I’ve got avocados falling off my trees,” he said. “What am I supposed to do?” When he told me this, I noticed that, not 20 feet from where we were standing, there was plenty of water flowing in the creek that passes his orchards and turns at the south end of our field.

“I’ll come out and water at midnight if I must,” I pleaded, “just work with me here. I’ve got viable, marketable fruit that’s falling off the bush.”

He suggested we get a water tank and stuck to the three-day water allotment. By then it was clear that we would not be getting any more water, that something had gone wrong in our attempt to work out an agreement, and that we needed to remove ourselves from our current location and find a new home.

A water tank is out of the question now but will be included in the plans for our next location.

By late June, all the fruit was gone. It fell and disappeared for lack of adequate water. We’ve gone into a triage approach, trimming the fat, lessening moisture demands as much as possible, leaving enough leaf mass to protect the containers from the direct sun, and doing our best to keep the plants alive and healthy through the summer, or until we can find a new home. §

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Stacey Warde writes from his home in Cayucos, Calif., where he tends a two-acre container farm of blueberries not far from scenic coastal Highway 1. He has received numerous awards for his writing and is a former publisher of the literary magazine, The Rogue Voice. He can be reached at roguewarde@gmail.com.

Honeybees and sustainability: not necessarily two words you may have expected to see in the same sentence, but they do actually belong!

This fascinating insect known as the honeybee is the tool by which we harvest and ultimately consume the sweet product known as honey. And harvesting honeybees and their sweet honey is no small task and no small business.

According to PBS.org, there are many tens of millions of honeybees in the U.S. alone, parts of colonies that consumers rely on for their honey, wax and more.

Honeybees play a huge role in our commerce and agriculture. According to PBS’s “Nature,” honeybees “pollinate about one-third of crop species in the U.S. Honeybees pollinate about 100 flowering food crops including apples, nuts, broccoli, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, celery, squash and cucumbers, citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, melons, as well as animal-feed crops, such as the clover that’s fed to dairy cows. Essentially all flowering plants need bees to survive.”

Another key to what makes it so very important to understand honeybees is that honeybees in the U.S. have also been ravaged by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). While it is still unclear precisely what has caused so many colonies to incur bee losses, part of the problem may be attributed to parasites and pesticide usage and a lack of proper education as to ecological implications of beekeeping and how to best integrate bees into their local surroundings.

With an eye toward the future and an understanding of the significance of the honeybee, numerous sustainable beekeeping practices and programs have been started to help beekeepers to keep their colonies healthy and to become better-versed in how to take care of their colonies. Some individuals suggest the answer lies in breeding and raising honeybees that are “[r]esistant to diseases and parasitic mites to reduce the amount of antibiotics and pesticides used in bee colonies and to ensure that our breeding methods and stock are accessible to beekeepers everywhere” and thus lead to a reduction in pesticide use.

One program is a pilot program at the University of Georgia, called the Honey Bee Program, the goal of which is to “emphasize sustainable bee health management as well as more basic questions on bee pollination and foraging ecology. In all its initiatives, the UGA Honey Bee Program aims to develop research, teaching and extension initiatives that are locally responsive while globally relevant.”

Another interesting program is Sustainablebees.org, the purpose of which is to “establish an integrated program of scientific development, education and community support directed toward reestablishing, strengthening, growing and sustaining regional honeybee colonies that are a critical component in the pollination of local food production and overall health and biodiversity of our plant environment.”

There are many interesting ideas on how best to keep our honeybees, a vital agricultural resource, safe and to do so in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way, through reduction in pesticide use, local growing, breeding and more. Stay tuned and learn more about what methods are most effective!

Ingenious app developers are at it again with some new and updated tools to revolutionize the way we go green. While my last “app update” spotlighted a wide range of “green apps,” I decided to focus this piece on a topic that was applicable to everyone—food.

The world of environmentally-conscious food can be convoluted and deceiving to the average person.  How can consumers possibly know the environmental impact of every single food item? How do we know when to buy organic? And finally, how do we know the seasonal foods in any given area? Well, with the power of smartphones, these answers and more are now at your fingertips:

1) Fishing for Sustainable Seafood

If gazing at a seafood menu leaves you swimming in sustainable concerns, Seafood Watch, a free app sponsored by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, employs GPS technology to suggest the best seafood to eat by region and offers a list of restaurants and seafood markets that offer greener options. Seafood Watch is available on iOS and Android.

As for sushi lovers, a new app called Green Sushi Selector has pre-researched everything on the menu. Search any fish name (in Japanese or English), and this convenient tool will tell you whether the fish is endangered or caught in an environmentally insensitive manner, and how often you should be eating the fish to sustain a healthy diet. At 99 cents, the app costs less than a California roll and works on iOS and Android.

2) Organic Shopping: Behind the Labels

As organic foods become increasingly popular in stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, it has actually become harder to know when to buy organic. That’s where Soleil Organics, a new iOS/Android app, comes in. Simply look up the item by category on your smartphone, and the app will tell you whether you really need to buy food with an organic label.

While many non-organic foods use pesticides, others (like asparagus) don’t attract pests, meaning you don’t have to worry about the label. We all know how shockingly expensive organic foods can be, and this app has the potential to save organic shoppers a lot of money.

As Green Living Press has already mentioned in a previous article, various fruits and vegetables fall under the Dirty Dozen label, meaning they are the most likely to be touched by pesticides. To view which produce items you should be concerned about, check out the Dirty Dozen app, put out by The Environmental Working Group. This handy app lists 15 fruits and vegetables that don’t need the magic label to be considered organic.

The Organic Trade Association, in alliance with Earth Day Network and Music Matters, has also released a free iPhone app that is bound to save you some spending money. “Go Organic” offers free e-coupon books for organic products to empower you in your crusade against pesticide use.

If you’re not a coupon queen (or king) after downloading that app, the addition of CouponSherpa’s free Apple/Android app will at least guarantee you the status of “eco-conscious miser.” This app gives offers an extensive list of mobile coupons to make sure your wallet isn’t taking any abuse for your environmental consciousness.

3) From the Farm to Your Fridge 

Farmers’ markers are the place to be when you want to get your produce straight from the farmer’s hand, but even farmers’ markets can be deceptive as you pick out your seasonal produce.

To simplify the confusion, Locavore has come out with an iOS/Android app that highlights in-season foods based on location and even offers great recipe suggestions from Epicurious to expand your culinary wisdom. Locavore combines GPS technology with the “almighty” power of Wikipedia to save you time and make sure you are eating the freshest foods.

If you find yourself lost in the urban jungle, you can use 3^rd Whale to find the closest greenest businesses to help you do your grocery shopping in the most eco-conscious way. While the app goes beyond grocery stores and food sources, it nonetheless remains a valuable resource in the hunt for sustainable foods.

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Having a green diet is not only better for Mama Earth; it’s better for your overall health. While all the little details seem a bit overwhelming, your eco-sensitivity is bound to become a lot simpler and lighter on your pocketbook.

Let’s face it: pets are part of the family. So it only makes sense that they should do their part to stay green like the rest of your household. (Did they really think they’d get off that easy?) Follow these suggestions, and your furry little companion may just become as green as Ed Begley, Jr., minus the bicycle.

1. Get Creative, and Save Some Money Too:

Pets, regardless of how beloved they are to us, can be a major burden to our wallets, especially during these trying times. This means that we simply need to get creative and opt for sustainable solutions. Why go out and buy everything for your pet when you can find basically everything lying around the house?

Quite often, pet food is made with processed junk that would never be suitable for human consumption. So, to protect your pet’s health and to save a little green, consider making your own pet food. PetSide.com has some good eco-friendly recipes. If your cooking skills are so bad that you don’t even cook for yourself, you can always settle for natural and organic alternatives. They may be a bit more expensive, but they will likely increase your pet’s longevity.

As for shampoo, even the most pampered pups can deal with a homemade formula. Trying an all-natural dish soap instead of shampoo can eliminate the pesky issue of fleas. Add some grapefruit extract, and you can say goodbye to ticks and mites. If your dog hates bath-time, this oatmeal-based, dry shampoo formula from TLC will definitely make you happy. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that you can stop bathing Fido completely.

What about all of those pet toys that we can’t resist buying at the supermarket or pet store? Well, believe it or not, you can make your own pet toys with everyday objects. Get crafty with old tennis balls, rope, and socks, and your dog or cat will have a blast.

2. Dealing with Doodoo:

It may be convenient to simply grab a sandwich bag on the way out the door, but think twice before you preserve your doggie’s “creations” for eons and eons. At the same time, you don’t want the poop getting washed away into the sewer, where it can find itself in beaches and rivers. Biodegradable poop bags are the most sensible solution. Some of the better brands, such as Oops I Pooped, are actually resistant to both heat and moisture.

Or, if you really want to be crazy, you can actually compost it along with other types of pet waste in a pet waste composter. Note, however, that this type of compost is not meant for edible plants, as there is always the risk of E. coli contamination. Doggie septic systems likewise break down your dog’s “presents” into an absorbable liquid for your lawn.

As for your kitty, try shopping for a more sustainable cat litter. Not only is clay litter strip-mined (which is bad for Mama Earth), the clay contains carcinogenic silica dust that can end up in your cat’s lungs. Likewise, the clumping agent (sodium bentonite) can clog up your cat’s system, as it expands even once it is ingested. Swheat Scoop, a natural wheat litter, is not only completely biodegradable; it doesn’t generate dust. Other sustainable litters are made of corn, recycled newspapers or wood chips.

If either decide to “let loose” on your beloved carpet, use diluted vinegar instead of bleach. Try to absorb as much as you can with a towel before applying this mixture. Bac-Out, an enzymatic stain and odor eliminator, is another eco-friendly alternative. This product functions as a sanitizer as well.

3. Other Ways to Go Green:

Even the slightest efforts can make a difference. As much as you may like how cute your pet looks when you dry it with a blow dryer, towel or air dry it instead. When it comes time to take your dog for a walks, don’t drive to the dog park—walk there instead (if possible).

Adopting your new best friend from a shelter is highly encouraged, but if you’ve already found him, you can still help the cause. Consider donating your old newspapers to the Humane Society, ASPCA and other animal rescue groups. They line their cages with these, and could always use more of them. They also gladly accept any resources that you can offer them. Call your local shelter for more information.

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It’s about time Rover and Felix did their part, and that you started to get them on the right path. Going green is not only good for the environment; it’s good for your pet. And, if nothing else, all the money you save in pet food and accessories will put you in a more “playful” mood.

Some kinds of oak flooring have a low impact on the environment, others are much worse. Make sure you know what you’re buying when you make your choice.

Oak flooring is extremely popular for several reasons. One of the chief ones is that it looks outstanding: warm, honey-coloured floors that can form the basis of any number of different styles of decoration. But flooring comes in many different forms – solid oak, engineered oak, laminate, parquet… and each of these has a different impact on the environment.

Solid oak flooring
The simplest and arguably the most popular option is solid oak flooring. This is exactly what it sounds like: planks of oak and nothing more. They will have been sawn from trees perhaps 200 or 300 years old, generally sourced from the UK and Europe (if you are based in the UK). It looks great and is regarded as ‘the real thing’. It also happens to have pretty good insulating properties, cutting down your energy bill in the winter and keeping the house cooler in the summer.

There are caveats, but if you do a little research you can make sure that the company has a good ethical approach. This will involve sourcing their wood from managed woodland, so that the trees are replaced and the overall ecosystem protected and maintained. Many companies will make sure they plant more trees than they fell; this is in their own interests, since it helps ensure the long-term viability of their business. There are also questions about when the logs are moved (winter is often a bad time) and the drying and curing process, which may be more or less energy intensive. Assuming they meet a few basic guidelines, though, solid oak flooring can be an extremely environmentally friendly option.

Engineered oak and other products
There are many other forms of oak flooring available, and some of these do have certain advantages over solid oak. Engineered oak is very popular at the moment. This consists of a layer of oak (typically 5 or 6 mm) bonded to a thicker layer of plywood. This uses around a quarter of the oak, but it looks much the same. It also has different physical properties. It is more stable, and tends to react less to changes in heat or humidity. It is generally the preferred option if the house has underfloor heating for this reason, or if it is in an area which experiences extremes of damp and dryness.

However, these advantages have to be balanced against other concerns. Despite its stability, engineered oak is considered inferior to the ‘real thing’, and this may be reflected in the value of the home if you sell. It is also more expensive to buy. Plus, the more processing a product requires, the worse it is for the environment. Plywood involves various chemicals and processes to produce. This problem gets worse when you start to look at more complex forms of laminate flooring.

Conclusion
The choice of whether to go for solid oak flooring or a variation on the theme will depend on a number of factors – cost, conditions in your home and the environment being some. Each have advantages and disadvantages. The main thing is to make sure the company is open and honest about their approach. In the 21^st century, being ill-informed is no defence: if they aren’t up-front about their environmental policy, chances are it’s because they consider it too much trouble to think about.

This article was supplied by English oak flooring suppliers, Sutton Timber. Sutton Timber source hardwoods from privately owned woodlands and government forests across the UK and Europe.

Some of the greenest dairy farms exist in California. Could this be why our cows are so happy? Perhaps.

But throughout the nation, dairy is one of the greenest sectors of the agricultural industry.

While farmers will likely “milk” this out for all it’s worth in our “sustainable age,” the facts simply don’t lie.

According to the Innovation Center for US Dairy, “greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the dairy industry make up only about 2 percent of total US emissions,” and the industry has reduced its carbon footprint by more than 63 percent since 1944.

Farms tend to be handed down from generation to generation within the family and thus sustainability is an integral component of how they do business.

1) Reducing Emissions ‘Til the Cows Come Home
The California dairy industry has reduced its air emissions by about 28 percent over the past six years, and part of this has emerged from a greater attention to VOCs. Volatile organic compounds (or VOCs for short) are an issue that affects just about every industry when it comes to sustainability.

According to James Garner of Dairy Cares, a statewide coalition of dairy farmers working on sustainability issues, fermentation of silage is the largest source of VOCs on dairy farms. Farmers have recognized this environmental issue, and have limited emissions through several common sense techniques. These include keeping a smooth face on the silage pile, as well as keeping the silage in feed bags.

2) Letting “It” Flow: The Importance of Water Management
Dairy farmers not only “cry over spilled milk”; they are very sensitive about water. As Dante Migliazzo, a dairy farmer from Atwater, CA notes, “We recycle everything from our water to our dirt. Everything is done in proper balance.”

Clean water is used to cool the milk and wash the cows. However, water is constantly recycled around the farm in a way that is both sustainable and scientific.

When cows do their “business” in their respective stalls, their manure is flushed from the barn floors with recycled water and collected in a pond. This “nutrient water” is then used to irrigate crops. As such, dairy farmers are able to avoid the use of synthetic and chemical fertilizers.

The process is actually a bit more complex and scientific than it sounds. Farms in the California Central Valley abide by a “nutrient management plan” which determines the ideal combination of manure and water for the soil. At the same time, they keep an eye out for groundwater resources.

Ray Gene Veldhuis, owner of RV Dairy in Cressey, CA, has been (literally) digging beneath the surface to discover the mysteries of efficient nutrient use. After taking several samples, he has come to realize that commercial fertilizers were virtually unnecessary “when nutrient water was applied agronomically.”

3) Producing More Than Just Milk
It may be one of its stinkier elements, but cow manure has the potential to revolutionize the dairy industry. Manure releases harmful methane gas into the atmosphere. Thanks to the innovation of methane digesters, dairy scientists have seen the light…even if they’ve had to squint a bit in the process.

The process is simple: cow manure is placed into a containment lagoon where a natural microbial process converts the “stuff” into methane. The methane gas is then treated and used to fuel a generator. Jon and Tami Tollenaar’s dairy farm in Elk Grove has actually been able to produce 1.5 million kilowatt-hours annually as a result of their methane digester system. That’s enough to power approximately 180 homes.

Unfortunately, this form of technology requires a heavy capital investment, and thus its popularity hasn’t quite “taken off.” Likewise, they use natural gas engines, which still generate NOx emissions. Research efforts are as aggressive as ever and are happening right on the farms.

RV Dairy has been a leader in researching other methods of deriving energy from manure. As he comments, “Current methane digesters are doing the right thing, but I’m looking for something better.” The goal of his work is to convert the manure into a sludge form that could subsequently be converted into an energy source (either biodiesel or natural gas). As Veldhuis explains, this could potentially develop into a whole new industry.

Several dairies throughout the state and nation have likewise decided to generate their own power and have installed solar panels throughout their farms. The results have been phenomenal. Garner says that these panels often power “around 85-90% of their needs.”

*   *   *

As dairy farmers throughout California and the nation become more and more familiar with developing technology, they will continue to set the bar for the entire agricultural industry.

It’s bound to be “udderly” marvelous.

Pesticides: we’ve all probably heard the term before, but what exactly does it mean?

According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences – National Institutes of Health, “A pesticide is any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plant or animal life that are considered to be pests. Pesticides include herbicides for destroying weeds and other unwanted vegetation, insecticides for controlling a wide variety of insects, fungicides used to prevent the growth of molds and mildew, disinfectants for preventing the spread of bacteria, and compounds used to control mice and rats. Because of the widespread use of agricultural chemicals in food production, people are exposed to low levels of pesticide residues through their diets.”

Much of the information that we have on pesticide concentration in fruits and vegetables comes from pesticide testing data collected by the US Department of Agriculture, which  has completed pesticide testing in 11 states on more than 95 commodities, including fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy products, poultry, beef and more. The USDA’s Pesticide Data Program has also tested for more than 450 different pesticides.

The NIEHS notes that scientists do not fully understand exactly how pesticides affect humans.

This may mean that pesticides can be more innocuous than some people believe, or more harmful in the long term. The answer for some has been to attempt to avoid pesticides entirely, in favor of fruit and vegetables grown “organically” (which simply refers to agricultural growth without using pesticides).

But how exactly do consumers determine which conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are possibly ‘dirtier’ than thought and should be swapped for their organic cousins?

The Dirty Dozen
To answer that question, the Environmental Working Group assembled a list of the “Dirty Dozen” fruits and vegetables to avoid (due to high concentrations of pesticides) and the “Clean 15,” a list of organically grown fruits and vegetables considered “cleaner” alternatives. According to the Executive Summary of the EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, “The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticide in Produce will help you determine which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues and are the most important to buy organic.”

The EWG’s Dirty Dozen list includes the following commonly consumed fruits and vegetables:

• apples
• celery
• strawberries
• peaches
• spinach
• imported nectarines
• imported grapes
• sweet bell peppers
• potatoes
• domestic blueberries
• lettuce
• kale/collard greens

The EWG recommends buying organic alternatives to the aforementioned foods, particularly the top three (apples, celery and strawberries). According to the EWG, “98 percent of conventional apples had pesticides.” Celery fared no better, as it was noted that “Highly contaminated, celery tested positive for 57 different pesticides.” It was also noted that “some strawberries had as many as 13 different pesticides.”

The Clean 15
The “Clean 15” list offers hope, however, for those consciously seeking out foodstuffs with low to no levels of pesticide residues. The clean list includes the following:

• onions
• sweet corn
• pineapples
• avocado
• asparagus
• sweet peas
• mangoes
• eggplant
• domestic cantaloupe
• kiwi
• cabbage
• watermelon
• sweet potatoes
• grapefruit
• mushrooms

The ‘cleanest’ of the clean included onions (ranked #1), sweet corn (ranked #2) and pineapples (ranked #3). Conventional onions, the EWG notes, are a “a clean crop. Less than 1 percent of samples had any pesticides.” Sweet corn provides a sweet and clean source of energy as well, as “98 percent of all frozen and sweet corn samples had no detectable pesticide residues.”

Those individuals interested in finding out the typical pesticide concentration in some of their other favorite fruits and vegetables can also consult the full list of 53 fruits and vegetables, ranked from highest to lowest concentrations of pesticides, gleaned from testing data from the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration.

Bozo leans in close to show his affection and earn pat on the head. He nudges me with his muzzle. An enormously engorged tick, grey and egg-like with creepy little legs waving, and full of bozo’s blood, falls off and onto the table beside me.

Upside down, and weighted by its fluid cargo, the prehistoric creature’s tiny little legs scratch helplessly at the air.

“Jeez, Bozo, you’re swell company,”  I say, picking up the little blood-engorged egg with legs, tossing it into a thick stand of thistle just outside the fence line. “Every time I pet you, a tick falls off.”

It’s tick season, the worst I’ve seen in years.

Bozo belongs to farmhands who live a quarter-mile up the creek from our blueberry patch; he visits me every day and he comes loaded with ticks.

I started once to remove them and realized he had more ticks than I had time for. I just remove the obvious ones now—or they simply fall off.

He owns the fields out here—sort of. He’s a powerfully built pit bull and the sweetest dog I’ve ever met and he likes to run free at the farm, barking at cows and strange cars rumbling down the dirt road, and picking up ticks.

Mostly, when I’m in the field taking care of the blueberries, he stays with me. He follows me down the rows of plants, sniffs at gopher holes, or wanders away to another part of the farm, only to return to hang out in the shade or lay in the grass.

“Oh, he loves you,” more than one visitor has observed.

When I cross the bridge to the farm each day, he sprints ahead of my truck, charging full speed to the gate where he waits excitedly until I jump out and say hello and open the gate to let him inside.

I think he would come home with me if he could. One late afternoon he followed me more than a mile down the road as I drove away to go home. He just kept coming and coming and wouldn’t turn back. Finally, he tuckered out and stopped and stood still in the middle of the road until I passed out of view.

Occasionally, when cows graze nearby, lingering outside the fence, he bolts from the enclosure to chase them down. He charges up one side of the fence line and down the other. Little calves skitter nervously up the hill, as the mature cows, unfettered by Bozo’s charging presence, continue to chew grass.

One cow turns to face him as Bozo zeroes in. Bozo stops in his tracks, turns tail and comes running back. He’s not a fighter, nor is he much of a hunter, but he’s sweetheart.

He tries hunting gophers and field mice but isn’t very good at it. I’ve watched him stare curiously—ears perked and head tilted—at a gopher hole as the gopher pops its head up and quickly ducks back safely into its hole.

He creeps up to the hole close enough to kiss the gopher but never seems to catch one.

“i wish you were a better hunter, Bozo,” I say.

He’s not like Zsu Zsi’s dog, “Sniffer,” who once nabbed three gophers inside of five minutes of his arrival, but not without tearing savage holes into the lines that irrigate our plants.

“It’s great to have him out here and catch those guys,” I say to Zsu Zsi, “but someone’s gotta stay with him to make sure he doesn’t break into our water lines.”

She decided it was too much trouble, and put her dog into the back of the truck. Sniffer doesn’t come out much any more.

Bozo digs for gophers too but not as fiercely or with as much drive as Sniffer. He gives up quickly, which is fine with me because it means fewer repairs.

While packing up for the day recently, I heard Bozo crunching on something hard with his powerful jaws and worried that he was chewing on a rock or bone or something.

“Whaddaya got there, Bozo?”

He looked content and the crunching continued. I stepped closer to see what he had in his mouth. He let it drop and out came the mangled corpse of a gopher, the one he’d been staring down, the one he could have kissed.

“Nice, Bozo. good job.”

It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him catch one and now I have a better idea why his breath sometimes reeks.

I’ve found ticks on me nearly every day for the last week. I’m guessing that most of them found their way via Bozo the carrier.

It pays to be vigilant. Fortunately, I get the creepy crawlies easily. The slightest twist of a hair out of place sends my hand scratching. Sure enough, I’ve found ants, beetles, dirt and ticks.

Lately, I’ve gotten into the habit of frequently peeking inside my shirt and scratching behind my neck.

Ben, our new hire with plenty of field experience and a hard worker, has been laughing at me. “Are you feeling ticks everywhere?”

“Yeah, every little thing, every little speck of dirt, gets under my skin right now,” I say, scratching and brushing off.

Bozo plops himself down on the grass beside us as we work on the plants. “Plus,” I add, pointing at Bozo, “this guy is full of them. i think he comes over here just to share them with us.” §