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GreenerPenny.com | small change for a cool planet


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Your Go-to Guide for Healthy Green Living:

Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices by GreenerPenny's Mindy Pennybacker! As recommended on The Martha Stewart Show and by Meryl Streep.

“Such a pleasure to read! Mindy’s solid research informs your healthy living choices."
-from the foreword by Meryl Streep

As Julie Scelfo wrote in The New York Times, Do One Green Thing is “A handy guide to making more environmentally sound decisions,” with “well-organized chapters and easy-to-use tips.”

Buy from your local bookseller, or online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and others listed at St.Martins.com/DoOneGreenThing.

No Farms, No Food: Eat Local

Farms are under constant pressure from developers.

From orange groves and wildlife corridors to housing projects and malls, the Green Man has seen development swallow much of Southern California, but here’s one local eatery that’s survived, thanks to consumers who care.

Support your regional farm economies and preserve open space by buying local at a farmers’ market near you: Find one on USDA’s search page. Find a nearby farm where you can Pick Your Own. And grow your own! In the photo, mangoes from our front yard tree.

Food Safety Tips: Avoiding Pesticides and Pathogens

Rinsing produce in tap water for 30 seconds removes most surface pesticide residues, but not systemic pesticides like toxic chlorpyrifos that plants absorb. Organic produce, grown without synthetic pesticides, is more affordable in season. If you can’t buy everything organic, then choose it in favorite foods you eat a lot, or those which have higher pesticide residues when not organically grown.

Summer favorites such as strawberries, peaches, spinach, and sweet peppers have highest pesticide residues, according to EWG’s 2011 produce list. Top least toxic: onions, corn, pineapples, avocadoes, asparagus, eggplant.

In light of recent e.Coli, staph and salmonella outbreaks, here’s how to avoid contaminated meat and vegetables when grilling


	Green Living Tips



GreenerPenny Blog My One Green Thing Today		Green Man’s Daily Ramble

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Summertime, and the green living is easy!

GreenerPenny’s Top Green Sunscreens for 2011:

Enjoy the outdoors, but protect your skin and eyes! The sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays are a potent cause of skin cancer. As a surfer, I try to stay out of the sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., the peak sunburn hours – but UVA rays can cause damage any time of day.

To protect your skin from both UVB and UVA rays, without exposing yourself to toxic synthetic chemicals, choose a sunscreen from my tried-and-true list of mineral-based blocks.

To protect your eyes, choose sunglasses bearing a UV protection sticker. A greener pick, Dragon Calacas have frames made of plant-derived plastic and Forest Stewardship Council certified packaging.

For more seasonal product and health tips, please subscribe to our free monthly e-newsletter by emailing greenerpenny@gmail.com with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line.


			Hydrate safely with BPA-free reusable bottles on our mobile-friendly shopping list. Epoxy linings in some aluminum bottles leach BPA, per a new study. Tip: Choose bottles with white, not orange, linings.

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Just Ask Mindy

I love answering your questions, so ask me! Also, check out my Econundrums Q &A column at WholeLiving.com, where I am a regular blogger.

Organic Pest Control in the Garden

Here’s my Whole Living blog on nontoxic weed control. Also, see these comprehensive pest control tips from GreenerPenny’s organic gardener Lindsay Kurz!

Insect Repellents

’re gardening or out and about, keep mosquitoes and ticks away with least-toxic insect repellents that use lemon grass, citronella and other plant oils instead of synthetic DEET and pyrethroids. Also, check out Whole Living’s tips.

Green Shampoo and Bodywash to Buy or D.I.Y.

A reader recently asked if I knew of a make-your-own eco shampoo base. Yes, it's easy, and here's the recipe!

And here’s a list of top store-bought green shampoos and bodywashes, plus runners-up, and ingredients to avoid. Worst shampoo culprits include phthalates in synthetic fragrance, as The Green Man explains, and ethoxylated chemicals such as sodium laureth sulfate, which can release carcinogenic 1, 4 dioxane.

Natural skin care and cosmetics

After ocean, swimming pool and sun, summer skin needs soothing products with certified organic plant oils, free of the Top Ten Worst Personal Care Ingredients. Among my current faves for the face: Jasmine Green Tea Moisturizer from 100% Pure by Organic Apothecary. For the body, I slather on their toasted coconut cream, which prompted a friend to exclaim, “You smell so good!”

Another friend sent me a bar of a new plant-based soap by Dr. Wu. Gentle and free of toxic ingredients, it makes my skin feel soft and fresh. Dr. Wu, I love you!

For more personal care products without toxic phthalates, parabens and other ingredients of concern, see my cosmetics blog and list. Readers are contributing great comments!

More Do One Green Thing in the News

See Mindy's Econundrums column in Whole Living Magazine in print and online.

Time for Green Spring Cleaning! See Mindy’s 12 d.i.y. natural cleaning recipes in the April Natural Home Magazine.

Join the conversation at Huffington Post, where Mindy blogs about green living and food.

For more book reviews and media appearances see:


	Links We Like

Media/Blogs		Green Nonprofits

Whole Living The Daily Green Dot Earth E. Magazine Environmental News Network The Green Life Good Grist Harper's Huffington Post Miller-McCune Mother Earth News Mothering The Nation Natural Home OnEarth Rodale SHFT Treehugger Yale Environment 360 Yes!		350 Blue Frontier Campaign Center for Children's Health and the Environment Earth Institute at Columbia University Earthjustice Earth911 Eat Well Guide Environmental Defense Fund Environmental Working Group Fair Trade Certified Food and Water Watch Green America Greenpeace Kanu Hawaii Kokua Hawaii Foundation Local Harvest Oceana Pesticide Action Network Rainforest Alliance Riverkeeper Stanford University Woods Institute for the Environment Surfrider Foundation Trust for Public Land Union of Concerned Scientists Women's Voices for the Earth