Month: June 2009

Tips to Live Healthier for Cheap

- Adam Clare

There’s some good ideas in this collection of tips about how to live healthier and not spend much money. It’s a good list, but I think it could do without the premise that one must buy things in the first place. That being said, if you buy exercise DVDs or gadgets this article would be a money saving read.

Skip eating out
Cooking a meal at home that serves four to six people will cost as little as $7 to prepare, compared with the average restaurant meal, which is $40.78 per person in New York City. That’s if you’re a smart shopper and buy a month’s worth of groceries at a time, says Nanci Slagle, author of The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet. For meal-plan ideas, visit 30DayGourmet.com.

Waste not
Embarrassed by how much past-its-prime food you toss each week? That waste can add up to hundreds of dollars a year! Cut your losses by using the Reynolds Handi-Vac Vacuum Sealer ($9.99 for starter kit; retailers nationwide), which preps meats, fruits, and vegetables for long-term freezer storage. Simply defrost the frozen ingredients when you’re ready to use them. Or stock up on EvriFresh sachet disks ($3.99): They neutralize the food-spoiling ethylene gas that produce releases in the fridge as it ripens.

When to buy big
If you have a freezer buy good-for-you grass-fed meat straight from the farm; use a site like EatWild.com to find local farms.

“You can buy a quarter, half, or even a whole cow for an average of $5 to $6 per pound—far less than what you would pay for naturally-raised meat at the grocery store,” nutritionist Amanda Louden says.

Six Britons can Change the World

- Adam Clare

They have already influenced the world and now they have a chance to change the law in the UK, thus making our planet a better place. In 2007 six Greenpeace activists climbed a coal tower to protest the use of finite fossil fuels and were subsequently arrested. Their court case has attraced scientists worldwide to voice their support and the charges were dropped against the six – making this a case that shocked the British legal system.

The Guardian has an article on the case and how a movie is being released that celebrates the six activists.

When a demonstration at the Kingsnorth power station in north-east Kent in late 2007 led to the arrest of six climate change activists, what had until then seemed a rather dry local planning issue exploded into a story of national and international concern. The verdict at their trial turned out to have far-reaching implications for activism, the future of coal, even the planet.

Now a 20-minute film, A Time Comes, by the much-admired documentary-maker Nick Broomfield, cuts police and Greenpeace footage of the occupation together with news clips and interviews with the activists. What emerges is how ordinary the Kingsnorth Six are – they could be the bloke next door or the woman across the office – but also how brave and tenacious. The film is released just as the government’s review of its coal policy is expected and campaigners hope and expect the review will define a seismic shift in official attitudes to carbon emissions.

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