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Project LeafDrop resumes!  Join the effort to keep autumn leaves out of landfills by bringing them to a compost site near you. Rake your leaves and collect them in clear or paper bags (no branches or trash). Find a garden or other site that is accepting leaves in November and early December on the Project LeafDrop 2012 Map . Each group has its own, unique Project LeafDrop dates and times when they’ll be accepting leaves for composting. Don’t have leaves to contribute?  Volunteer with your local garden on drop-off days.  It’s a great way to meet your neighbors, too. Spread the word at your local library, school, church, arts collective, CSA or BID. For flyer ideas, check out the Printable Flyers and Facebook page .

This chart, published by Cornucopia Institute, contains interesting information.  One can quickly recognize the logos of familiar companies which supported or fought Proposition 37, a California proposition to label GMO-containing foods.  This proposition was voted down in the recent election. We may choose to buy foods from companies who support truth in labeling about GMOs in foods and to make note of which companies were in favor of hiding GMO ingredients. The Coop has been encouraging us to recognize GMO-containing foods for some time now. To view the larger version of this chart, click on the image above or download the PDF . For information on the PSFC GMO Shelf Labeling Committee, please scroll down to Other PSFC Committees on the right and click on their committee name, or click here:  GMO Shelf Labeling.

If you're looking to do some hurrican repairs or more general building/remodeling, consider Build It Green as a source of materials. Build It Green! NYC, is New York City's only non-profit retail outlet for salvaged and surplus building materials. Their warehouse has everything from panel doors to high end refrigerators and shutters to movie props. Their mission is to keep these materials out of the landfill, while offering deep discounts on their resale. The have over 75 tons of materials on sale at half or below their new prices such as doors, flooring, sinks, bathtubs and toilets, lighting, windows, trim, moulding,cabinets, furniture and much, much more... Gowanus Center Temporarily CLOSED due to storm damage You can volunteer at BIG!NYC-Gowanus for Hurricane Sandy Clean-Up, This Thursday & Saturday from 10am to 5pm! 69 9th St. Brooklyn, NY 718-725-8925 gowanus@bignyc.org Astoria Center OPEN 3-17 26th Ave. Queens, NY 718-777-0132 astoria@bignyc.org Open Every Day: ...

When people think about the environment, attention may first turn to such topics as endangered wolves, declining forest acreage, or climate change.  Plastic may not even make the list.  Yet the Environmental Committee has found that our overuse of disposable plastics constitutes one of the most harmful actions humans take against the environment. Our awareness of the massive ill effects of plastic use, gained over years and with much research, coupled with discovering how relatively easy it is to change our plastic behavior, drives the Environmental Committee's proposal that the coop stop providing plastic bags on the shopping floor. Below  is a statement of why we, as a cooperative, should stop supplying ourselves with plastic bags for food.  The reasons come under four headings:  health, environment, social justice, and financial. The health implications of combining food and plastic result from the leaching of estrogenic chemicals, the most common endocrine ...

We’re always curious about how other food coops work. One of our committee members recently visited the People’s Food Coop in Ann Arbor, Michigan and took some photos. Established in 1971, the People’s Food Coop (PFC) is almost as old as our own PSFC. The idea for the co-op actually began as a graduate student project. Two students started a buying club as a way for low-income people to get fresh, healthy food. They brought food from the Eastern Market in Detroit and divided it into bags costing $5/week. In 1975 a second PFC location opened, followed by the opening of Wildflour Baking Collective, People’s Produce Co-op, and the Ann Arbor Tofu Collective in 1976, and the People’s Herb and Spice Co-op in summer of 1978, all on the same block. Later these various factions consolidated and grew to an over 6,500 member co-op. We were especially interested in how the PFC handled bulk items, as that is the most ecological and economical way to sell food. The PFC has a system which allows me...

Earth911.com explains how you can reduce your use of aluminum foil and plastic wrap with replaceable options. For instance, did you know you could use a reusable parchment baking mat to bake cookies? Or a reusable mesh crisper for to cook on your oven rack? Or a thermal food wrap to keep cooked food warm and cover? These and other ideas are detailed in their great feature . Why reduce your use of foil and plastic wrap in the first place? In short, because we use a whole lot if it, and it's often difficult to recycle. More than 1.3 billion pounds of aluminum foil is produced in the U.S annually. If that doesn't make your head spin, we also use enough plastic wrap every year to shrink-wrap the entire state of Texas. Aluminum foil is technically 100 percent recyclable. The trouble is that once it's used, your foil is often too soiled with food residue to be recycled without compromising quality - making cutting back on foil when possible even more important. Like foil, ...

Nicholas Kristof's column in the 10/7/12 New York Times talked about The Cancer Lobby . He asks us to: Just consider formaldehyde, which is found in everything from nail polish to kitchen countertops, fabric softeners to carpets. Largely because of its use in building materials, we breathe formaldehyde fumes when we’re inside our homes. Just one other fact you should know: According to government scientists, it causes cancer. and then goes on to say: The [chemical] industry’s strategy is to lobby Congress to cut off money for the Report on Carcinogens, a 500-page consensus document published every two years by the National Institutes of Health, containing the best information about what agents cause cancer. If that sounds like shooting the messenger, well, it is. The article is well worth reading in it's entirety, but at this point we'll pause to look at which products do contain formaldehyde.,br. The Environmental Working Group provides a list of household cleaning p...