New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart

Clare O'Connor, Forbes Staff

The consumer economy: retail, and the people reinventing it.

5/14/2013

 

You can scan the barcode on any product and the free app will trace its ownership all the way to its top corporate parent company, including conglomerates like Koch Industries.

Once you’ve scanned an item, Buycott will show you its corporate family tree on your phone screen. Scan a box of Splenda sweetener, for instance, and you’ll see its parent, McNeil Nutritionals, is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

Even more impressively, you can join user-created campaigns to boycott business practices that violate your principles rather than single companies. One of these campaigns, Demand GMO Labeling, will scan your box of cereal and tell you if it was made by one of the 36 corporations that donated more than $150,000 to oppose the mandatory labeling of genetically modified food.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2013/05/14/new-app-lets-you-boycott-koch-brothers-monsanto-and-more-by-scanning-your-shopping-cart/

How to Make a Better Strawberry Pallet Planter

Lovely Greens
Monday, 6 May 2013

 

Dandelions : Edible and Medicinal Uses

3 skinny smoothie recipes

May 1, 2013

By Vivian Gomez

Smoothies can be a refreshing alternative to heavier meals in the scorching summer months.

Banana-oatmeal breakfast smoothie

Recipe via Chiquita Banana

Ingredients

• 2 whole bananas, preferably with brown flecks on peel
• 2 cups ice
• 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt (Greek yogurt with honey)
• 1/2 cup cooked oatmeal
• 1/3 cup almonds (optional)

 Place all the ingredients in a blender, leaving the ice for last. Blend on high for at least 30 seconds or until thick.


Papaya smoothie

Ingredients

• 2 cups papaya, peeled, seeded and cubed
• 2 cups fat-free milk
• 1 cup plain low-fat yogurt (Greek yogurt with honey)
• 2 cups ice

 Place all the ingredients in a blender, leaving the ice for last. Blend on high for at least 30 seconds or until smooth.


Avocado pear smoothie

Recipe via Martha Stewart

Ingredients

• 1 ripe avocado (about 7 ounces)
• 1/2 cup silken tofu drained
• 1 cup pear juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups ice

Quarter, pit, and peel avocado. Place avocado, tofu, juice, honey and vanilla in a blender, leaving the ice for last. Blend until smooth.

Eco-friendly answer to Roundup

Got Weeds? Use Vinegar, Not Roundup
http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2011/06/got-weeds-use-vinegar-not-roundup/

NEED PROOF THAT VINEGAR IS A WEED-TERMINATOR? Just look at the weeds growing along a pea-stone path in my Herb Garden. These were photographed yesterday afternoon, just moments before I sprayed them with cheap, undiluted, store-brand white vinegar. Here’s what all that greenery looked like this morning:

I’d say those weeds are deader than dead. And that’s why I use vinegar on the gravel paths, brick walk-ways, and blue-stone patio here at A Garden for the House. For me it has proven an effective, eco-friendly answer to Roundup.

And speaking of Roundup, this year Monsanto, the product’s evil manufacturer, agreed with the New York Attorney General’s office to discontinue their use of the terms “biodegradable” and “environmentally friendly” in ads promoting Roundup. Why? Because these terms were bald-faced lies. Roundup is neither biodegradable nor environmentally friendly.

The next time you want to murder your weeds, why douse them with something that will remain in the soil for who knows how long? Maybe you should reach for vinegar instead. Vinegar is cheap. It’s easy to use. I keep gallons of it in my garden shed.

How to Apply: You can use a watering can, a spray bottle or a pump-sprayer to apply vinegar. I use a pump-sprayer, because it is more efficient. Be sure to rinse your sprayer after use, or metal parts (if any) can corrode.

Make your application on a warm, sunny, calm (not windy) day. Vinegar is not selective; it can potentially harm plants you wish to keep, should you accidentally spray them. As I said earlier, I use vinegar on walkways, where grass and ornamental plants are not an issue.

Will vinegar kill every weed in every garden? That I can not say. I only know that it has kept my pathways free of unwanted growth.

Update: Many of you have asked if I dilute the vinegar with water. No, I do not. I pour it directly from jug to pump-sprayer.

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Sleeping without Ambien

Working on sleeping without Ambien...it's been difficult. I started taking natural sleeping aid (serotonin w/ melatonin, and magnesium) that I found at the local health store and it helps get me sleepy. Plus I'm using the tapping technique to work on my anxienty. Last night I fell asleep in under an hour and stayed asleep! Yay!!

This is the tapping technique video that is helping me with my anxiety: