Organizations to help you stay sustainable
By Laurie Posted on May 16th, 2009 in Living Green, Must Reads
We often write about how much we love various companies in our reviews, or deliver you ways to stay green at home, in the grocery store, or even on vacation. But behind all of these, there are hundreds of significant organizations and resources that help provide you with help to make smart, sustainable choices. Here are some of our favourites.
Local Harvest
localharvest.org
LocalHarvest is dedicated to delivering Americans a nationwide directory of organic and local food. It lists farms, markets, and other food sources, with helpful search engines providing ease for the hunt for sustainable food choices. They also include an online store for farmers to develop markets for products sellable beyond their local area.
Farmers Markets Canada
farmersmarketscanada.ca
Farmers Markets Canada connects Canada’s provincial and territorial farmers’ market organizations to help develop and build information, networking, standards, regulations and more. The website provides information on locations near you, as well as interesting reports and resources. It’s run by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Eat Well Guide®
eatwellguide.org
Eat Well Guide® is an online directory featuring farmers markets, CSA programs, organizations, restaurants, and other locally-based food items grown in the United States and Canada. Its search tool is easy to use to find sources near you. You can also download customized guides to discover hidden gems in your area. Their Eat Well Everywhere tool lets you write in your starting and ending address, then gives you a detailed outline of your choices for your whole trip. The guide is also home to The Green Fork Blog, highlighting various topics, from the latest news to gardening tips. You can join in by contacting them: blog@eatwellguide.org.
Organic Consumers Association
OrganicConsumers.org
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is a grassroots non-profit organization spreading the word about health, justice, and sustainability. Their reports discuss issues such as food safety, agriculture, genetically modified foods and engineering, disease and health, Fair Trade, and other similar matters. To get involved, they offer volunteering and internship opportunities.
Kitchen Gardeners International
KitchenGardeners.org
Kitchen Gardeners International is a nonprofit organization hailing from Maine, with a mission to help communities and individuals increase their backyard gardening knowledge. It’s an online community where gardeners can discuss and share their passion for food, cooking, and gardening, while learning new skills and helping others. In addition, with their plentiful information, their database provides essential knowledge to help others achieve higher levels of food self-reliance. Their e-store also provides an amazon.com directed link to give you the best gardening, cooking, and food book recommendations.
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms
wwoofinternational.org
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is a world wide network of organizations designed to help volunteers live and learn on organic properties. WWOOF brings together these volunteers with hosts, through an exchange program that helps promote cultural understanding and making the world a better place. Through WWOOF, you not only learn essential organic farming skills, but also important life skills, confidence, and self-worth. And the places you’ll visit and people you’ll meet? Undoubtedly life-changing. The ultimate in “Green” traveling.
EcoTrotters
ecotrotters.com
EcoTrotters is an online eco-travel community born with the goal to help travelers decide where to stay. Their database holds user- and travel-submitted sites with reliable eco-hotel recommendations. Alongside their rating system, they comment on the hotel’s planet-friendly procedures, given that it initially complies with a certain number of guidelines. They rate the accommodations based on the hotel’s environmental impact, conservation activities, free-trade in the local community, promoting sustainability, and other similar aspects.
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There are hundreds of other online resources that make our sustainable goals a lot more achievable. Check out our Travel section for more ideas about making your next trip. Add your favourites below, and we’ll highlight them in a future article.
Image: rhubarb stalks, courtesy of kitchengardeners.org
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