Well, one way we have gone green is to get our own chickens, but they aren't old enough to lay eggs yet.
And about egg color: That is determined only by the breed of chicken. Chickens like Leghorns (which a lot of commercial layers are) lay white eggs, while chickens like Rhode Island Reds lay brown eggs. And there are the Araucana and Americauna that lay green eggs It all depends on the breed. Though organic is good, and we tend to get free-range.
(Our chickens consist of one Rhode Island Red, one New Hampshire Red, and two Buff Orpingtons. They all will lay brown eggs, though of various shades.)

Ithilwen, have you looked into the possibility of container gardening? You wouldn't be able to have a huge garden, but it's an appealing idea to someone like me who feels like a larger garden would end up being overwhelming... I'm very lazy and just thinking about weeding a long row on a hot day makes me want to sit down with a cold drink.

On the other hand, on a nicer day, I find that there is something so very satisfying about removing weeds from a plot of ground.

I bought about three of those reusable bags, and then the stores recalled them all.

They had you bring back your reusable bags? Are those the ones made with the stiff, dimpled, slightly-flimsy feeling fabric? The biggest problem we've ever had with ours is that the stitching quality/thread quality can be pretty awful. The thread broke and the handles came off a couple of ours, so I've had to sew them back on. That's not worth recalling it over, though it would certainly be a reason to complain. (Not loudly, though, since ours were free. We picked them up at the state fair because certain vendors and companies were handing them out as advertising.)

We've been using cloth bags while grocery shopping for years, starting with canvas totes we picked up at thrift stores and garage sales.

Thanks, fk and Lady Haleth, for the clarification on chicken egg color. It's nice to know I wasn't spreading mis-information.

Great topic!

My personal opinion is that recycling just makes sense. Being good stewards of God's green earth means taking care of the planet and if we can reuse something, why wouldn't we? On the other hand, it can be difficult in areas that don't make recycling easy. The city we lived in when I was a kid picked up the recyclable items the same day as the trash as long as they were in separate bins. The city we live in now doesn't have that. But the community college has large bins for paper, cardboard, plastic, and cans so we take our stuff over there. Some of the teachers at the college are such huge supporters of recycling that they don't give students a paper syllabus. Instead, they put it online so the students can see it whenever they want and so the paper copy doesn't wind up in a trash can somewhere ten minutes after the first class.

Mom bought several of those reusable bags when they first came out, but the handles fell off all of them in a matter of weeks so she went back to paper and plastic. We use the plastic bags for our recyclable items and we use the paper bags when we make cookies so we don't waste them.

Organic foods...they're a good idea, but not economically feasible unfortunately. I am all for eating as healthy as possible, but breaking the bank to do it just doesn't work. We've tried growing our own tomatoes and basil but there's too much sun and not enough water in this corner of the Southwest for that to work. Although that might have something to do with none of us having green thumbs. Seriously, if a plant is in our house it's almost doomed to die or something. We've had only two plants survive: a scrawny palm tree, and an aloe plant.

When we lived in the Midwest though, our basil plants thrived. We also often went to local farms and picked fresh fruit. Apples, peaches, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries...yum. We'd also buy freshly-picked corn and apple cider while we were there. Mom used to can the peaches. I remember many winters of being of sent to the pantry to fetch a jar of peaches from one of the shelves. Those were the days.

I do agree that "going green" and "all organic" are now overused catchphrases. As an advertising student, I sort of understand why they're used so much, but it still bugs me. A lot of milk jugs in the store now say things like "no artificial grow hormones!" And then there's a little blurb on the back that says that the FDA has found no significant difference between the milk produced by cows fed artificial growth hormones and the milk produced by cows that aren't fed those hormones.

Cleaning supplies though, that I get opinionated about. I'm mildly allergic to almost every traditional cleaner I have ever used. I was very happy when Mom found a recipe for a drain cleaner that used just vinegar, baking soda, and water. Much better than that other stuff.

Perhaps those eggs were the kind Dr. Seuss had in mind when he wrote Green Eggs and Ham?

You beat me to it.

I think using public transport is far more common in the UK, you can get away with not having a car just about anywhere, and in cities it's more sensible not to have one.

Mass transit in my area of the U.S. stinks.

Common problem in the US. In Los Angeles, for example, a personal vehicle is almost a requirement to hold any type of job.

... I agree with those who've mentioned that the earth is a beautiful, wonderful piece of creation that deserves care and the wise stewardship God has entrusted to us.

Ditto.

Yay! LED bulbs ... I'm glad to see a lot of other people mention on here how they are gardening or if they can't garden, they support their local farmer's markets

I am a firm believer gardening is a lost skill. It needs to be cultivated in the younger generations.

Green? Eco Friendly? Organic? Carbon footprint? Words bandied about with a less than clear meaning.

Out of all the choices we have, using a little less of everything is a good place to start. An incandescent bulb and an LED use the same amount of electricity when turned off in an unused room. Pure genius, eh?

Whereas, natural foods would be things that are... well... natural. Unaltered by man.

Sorry, I knew I should have been more specific with my question. I mean like, are you talking about the non-organic produce in the produce section? Or boxed dinners? Or what? I was just curious.

All of the above, I suppose. Just anything that's not in its natural God-designed form.

Human-designed, actually. Almost every single fruit and vegetable found in your local grocery is the end result of centuries of cultivation. Most people would be surprised to learn that even something as simple and common as an orange, strawberry, or banana is actually a genetic hybrid that barely resembles its original form.

All of the above, I suppose. Just anything that's not in its natural God-designed form.

Human-designed, actually. Almost every single fruit and vegetable found in your local grocery is the end result of centuries of cultivation. Most people would be surprised to learn that even something as simple and common as an orange, strawberry, or banana is actually a genetic hybrid that barely resembles its original form.

Exactly. That's what I was saying. Which is why I prefer buying organic things which is still in the original form God made it in.

~Riella

Actually, Berserker is referring to your 'organic' things Ithilwen. Fruits, vegetables, all have been tweaked by man to produce more prolifically, to resist disease and insects, to look better. They can still be referred to as 'organic' because they don't contain anything unnatural, but they're certainly not the original form.

A good comparison example would be dog breeds. Almost all dog breeds in the world can be traced back to a country and time when people would pick out favorite features in the dogs of those days and then breed said animals with those features and so on and so forth until they what they were looking for. Hence the huge variety of our furry friends now.

The exact same thing is true for plants. Take tomatoes as an example (my favorite!!). You can flip through any plant catalog and there are literally hundreds of varieties that people have developed throughout history. Beefsteaks, sauce tomatoes, cherries, grapes.... What was the original tomato that God created? Absolutely no idea. I doubt it still exists.

Actually, Berserker is referring to your 'organic' things Ithilwen. Fruits, vegetables, all have been tweaked by man to produce more prolifically, to resist disease and insects, to look better. They can still be referred to as 'organic' because they don't contain anything unnatural, but they're certainly not the original form. The exact same thing is true for plants. Take tomatoes as an example (my favorite!!). You can flip through any plant catalog and there are literally hundreds of varieties that people have developed throughout history. Beefsteaks, sauce tomatoes, cherries, grapes.... What was the original tomato that God created? Absolutely no idea. I doubt it still exists.

Hmm... I have trouble believing all the fruits and vegetables we know are man-made. Especially when there are things like bananas growing naturally in tropical jungles, which has not been altered by man. And wild fruit trees bearing apples and oranges that grow naturally, on their own, in undeveloped places of our own country. And they look and taste pretty much the same as the stuff we're used to...

~Riella

Man-made is absolutely not the word I would use because there is nothing that we've created that doesn't have its roots in what God created.

But very few things that we buy in our grocery stores today are un-tweaked.

Especially when there are things like bananas growing naturally in tropical jungles, which has not been altered by man.

I found a picture of a wild banana....

While the exterior is certainly recognizable as a banana, it sure doesn't look like what I buy in the store.

And wild fruit trees bearing apples and oranges that grow naturally, on their own, in undeveloped places of our own country.

Do you know why? Because they are the prodigy of apples and oranges that we brought to this country. (Planted most likely by birds and woodland creatures who ate a fruit and then deposited the seeds elsewhere. ) Doing some quick google searches, the only apple tree native to North America is the Crab Apple. Oranges are not native to this country at all.

Ithilwen, I think you'd be very interested to read up on Plant breeding (Wikipedia article link) and the controversies that are involved. I'm not going to go into them here because they're typically very political, but they're still well worth researching.

An incandescent bulb and an LED use the same amount of electricity when turned off in an unused room. Pure genius, eh?

Amen to that cep!!

@EJ what they are talking about is selective breeding, which is when man specifically breeds for certain traits to show in a relatively natural way by choosing what plants you are breeding that have traits you are looking for. Like crossing a long life/ large seeded banana with a short life/ small seeded banana in hopes of producing a long life/ small seeded banana. Outside of choosing the parents there isn't much other influence.

Organic however I believe refers to quite a few things. For one thing the lack of pesticides which are used on most non organic plants and can get built up in your body. Second would be gene splicing, artificial growth hormones, and other such means. Gene splicing often means taking genes from another species of plant altogether and incorporating it into the target plant. Like taking a gene from an orange and putting that in the banana. Two different species that could never cross in the wild. This involves a lot of tools, chemicals, and often viruses/bacteria. Growth hormones are also often taken from a separate species or else made in a lab, and are injected into the plant to make it bigger and longer living, but many people claim there hasn't been enough research into how this affects human health or the environment. And chances are unless its organic or otherwise says so... the stuff you get at the grocery store has been injected with hormones and sprayed with pesticides.

Personally I don't mind selective breeding.... but everything else disgusts me.

Here's a link that can help you identify whether your produce has been
"tweaked"....aka Frankenfood

How to Know if Your Produce is Conventional/Organic/Genetically Modified
http://www.plantea.com/genetically-modified-foods.htm

Article on GMO food:
Genetically Modified Food (GMO-genetically modified organism)
http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php

FK, that wild banana looks epic! It looks like a mix between a melon and a pomegranate. It's odd though... I see bananas growing wildly in jungles on nature specials, and they look just like the ones we're used to... Unless they were Plantains... Hmm...

It's odd that I've never heard this before. I'll have to check out the links you guys posted (thanks to everyone who posted them, by the way. ).

I mean, I knew there were different kinds of tomatoes and everything, and I knew some of them were genetically produced. But I certainly didn't think all of them were. I thought maybe God had just designed different kinds, just like there are different kinds of flowers (I know. The flowers we're used to today are probably genetically produced too. ). Or that they had just changed naturally to adjust to different climates. But maybe that's a factor people use in genetic alteration?

~Riella

I actually watched an episode of Penn & Teller's show where they debunk a lot of the myths about organic farming. They show that no organic farms are completely pesticide-free; instead of using synthetic pesticides, they use natural ones, which are actually more toxic and more dangerous for people to consume. It is not more beneficial to the environment, as more land is needed to sustain organic farming to feed larger populations, which would lead to deforestation, and ultimately still leaves a good portion of the populace to starve. And in a (rather unscientific) demonstration, they invited people to sample an organic and a non-organic piece of fruit without knowing which was which, and all said that the non-organic fruit tasted better, and automatically believed it to be the organic one. And in a similar demonstration, they did label one half of a banana as organic and another as non-organic, and asked which one tasted better. Everyone said the organic banana did, but what they did not tell anyone was that it was in fact two halves of the same banana.

Most organic fruit really does taste better, in my opinion. Except for pomegranates. Those taste better non-organic.

And it wasn't psychological with me. Before I had tried organic, I had always assumed it would taste worse than non-organic.

~Riella

Lol I always assummed the same EJ...

Not to change the subject but I've been pondering. Would steam powered vehicles or things that produce water as a waste product really help solve our global warming problem? Because water is a green house gas, and I believe a pretty potent one too. If you believe that there is such a thing as human influenced climate change (and I do) that is... One of the problems with climate change is that as the earth warms up the ocean water evaporates and the steam just adds to the problem. So essentially as it warms it starts warming faster. (and then the ice caps melt and besides causing flooding they change the salinity of the ocean, effecting the currents, and sending us all into an ice age... but that's a different problem.) I mean I guess we don't have to worry about acid raid but since steam is a greenhouse gas... should we use it to replace oil and gas or would it not help at all?