ColumnSnobs, Europhiles and Organivores: You know who they are. Here’s how to cope.

When your friends start texting you photos of what they made for dinner and include only a list of ingredients, you know you have a food problem: You’ve turned into that person. If you’re lucky, things will hold at that manageable minimum, but inch one crumb further, and you might soon be labeled a Food Snob, or worse, the in-house Europhile. Because for every style of food under the sun, there’s a food personality to go with it. We’ve put together a guide to help you that’s just perfect for navigating, and sometimes placating, the wide world of foodies.

1. I Made it Myself!

Taking a cue from Martha Stewart, this is the friend who effortlessly whips together coq au vin at the drop of the hat, any hat. Is there anything they can’t do? Yes: Admit that cooking takes time. Although you are used to them effusively detailing their latest creation – “Who knew fennel would be so good with figs?” – the truth is they’re completely frazzled when they find they have over-committed themselves once again and now are up to their elbows in half made canapés. Unfortunately, Trader Joe’s mini quiches are not an acceptable substitute, so the only answer is an overdose on homemade espresso shots. Hors d’ oeuvres and the jitters, every time. Rx: a large glass of rosé.

2. The Organivore

“It’s finally farmer’s market season again! I just don’t know how I’ve managed all winter without kale.” Beyond filling their basket with root vegetables and cold pressed olive oil from the next valley over at the weekly market, the Organivore is also known to always opt for the kind of authentic eateries that serve wine in Mason jars unironically. Nevermind if it’s organic falafel; the Organivore will inquire as to whether the yogurt in the house-made tzatsiki is goat’s milk or cow’s milk and which local farm, exactly, it has come from. Rx: Focus the conversation on the polenta.

3. The Europhile

“I was eating Nutella before you could even buy it in the States,” they say, pronouncing the word “Nutella” in the European accent of their choice. This is the friend you’re happy to take along to the French bistro because they’ll know exactly how to order, but you’ll cringe when you realize they plan on studiously avoiding English throughout the entire meal. Rx: Never bring them a bottle of wine as a gift.

4. The One Upper

“You like this calamari? Do you? Yeah? It has nothing on the raw octopus I ate on my last trip to Southeast Asia. I said to myself, ‘if you can get past the squirming tentacles, this will probably be the best thing you have ever eaten.’ I was totally right.” If you find yourself forced to spend time with this person, give wide berth to any exotic or international cuisine as you will only set yourself up for a shame session. Try a good café for lunch and get sandwiches. This way, you’ll only have to hear about the excellent baguette with real Brie that your globetrotting friend once consumed on the banks of the Seine itself. Rx: This foodie is your Wikipedia of food. Keep her busy recounting categories, techniques and definitions.

5. The Snob

“The pork. belly. last. night. was. horrendous.” Soup is returned because it’s not the right temperature, wine pairings lacking “nuance” are rife, and if the meal does not begin with two pounds of freshly steamed mussels, you’re in for disaster. Since the Snob has not used his own kitchen, keep your mouth shut and enjoy the fact that when the food apocalypse comes and his favorite restaurant can’t import raw Danish butter or the Barolo anymore, he’ll be asking you how to make eggs for breakfast. Rx: Let him pick up the tab.

6. The Anti-Snob

“Foodie culture has totally taken over this city. At least there are still food carts keeping it real,” says the anti-snob while ordering a wood-fired pizza smothered in truffled gorgonzola, figs and prosciutto. Anything that’s served in a cart, from a trike or out of a small window – preferably in a back alley – is acceptable. Dating tip: You’ll be hard-pressed to get the anti-snob to treat you to a three course dinner, but on the bright side, she’ll fill you up with more food cart crème brulee than you could ever dream of. Rx: Let her pick up the tab.

7. The Avoider

“No thanks: I’m off gluten right now. Also, could you put the cream sauce on the side? I’m avoiding dairy. There aren’t any traces of nightshades in this, are there?” Be it dairy, gluten, corn, soy, meat, wheat or anything with a high glycemic index, the Avoider strictly follows the advice of the latest health book they have tracked down, much to the chagrin of those with actual food allergies. Rx: Give them a gluten-free vegan cupcake with sprinkles and they’ll be thrilled.

8. The Blogging Food Pornographer

“Let me get just one more shot. Wait, can you move the fork just a little to the right? Can we change the lighting at all?” Although they run a traffic-laden culinary corner of the internet, your blogging food porn addict just can’t give it up. Ever. Food apps, a huge Instagram following, two lenses for the DSLR at every meal…the list goes on. Rx: Ask them to explain Tumblr.

9. The Bacon Lover

“I don’t eat meat. Except for bacon.” Just like the internet, the Bacon Lover is crazily obsessed with anything that smells of fried pig fat. If you’re invited over for brunch, prepare yourself, as their kitchen is sure to have a lingering bacon smell that you’ll never get out, no matter how hard you scrub. Rx: Be sure to bring a change of clothes with you.

10. The DIYer

“Try some of this homemade kombucha! I don’t even go near that high priced stuff at the co-op anymore.” Not to be mistaken for I Made it Myself, the DIYer is a little more low key with their cuisine. Think sprouting greens on the windowsill, homemade pesto and ricotta salata. All labeled. Rx: Give the gift of a new Sharpie.

Are you one of these 10? Consider yourself and your foodie reputation warned.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: KaiChanVong, Anna Brones, Bolshakov, striatic, lisaclarke

ColumnForget countryside wine tours, the latest in vino is what’s being made right down the block.

Living in Portland, Oregon, local food is a must and not necessarily because it’s greener or healthier, but simply because being smack dab in the middle of the Willamette Valley, not eating local is practically a sin. And even though I spend a significant amount of time perusing artisan goat cheeses at farmers market – pretentious foodie level totally acknowledged – I had no idea that what I was missing in my foodie repertoire was an urban winery.

In fact, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t even aware that urban wineries existed. Foodie fail. Fortunately I have friends that, when it comes to wine, are much more well versed than I, so when I got invited to Enso Urban Winery for the first time, I quickly accepted.

If you can fall in love with a warehouse space turned into neighborhood bar this was love at first sight. Maybe it’s just because I’m a sucker for any place that invites taco trikes (yeah, trikes, not trucks) to serve food to the clientele on Friday afternoons, but anyplace that’s making and bottling wine in their back room gets five stars in my book.

And that’s exactly what Enso is: a chill urban space that’s less about pretentious wine sales and more about being a gathering spot for the neighborhood. The mood is low key and yet the wine is exceptional, making you immediately want to take a few bottles home simply so you can open one up the next time your friends are over and say, “you know, this was made down the street.”

I could also be a sucker for anything that’s produced locally, but after a glass of the Resonate Red #2 – Enso wines are seasonal, so don’t expect to be able to get the same one if you visit – I was walking home with two bottles wrapped in brown paper bags.

A collaboration between Ryan Sharp and Chris Wishart, who originally met when they were working at Arcane Cellars, Enso began in Wishart’s garage, but as of earlier this spring, they’ve been operating both the winery and tasting lounge out of a larger space in Southeast Portland. On the same block as local favorite Meat Cheese Bread, you can pair your glass of urban wine with a sandwich stacked tall with local ingredients and made on housemade bread. A locavore’s dream.

Beyond being a comfortable space that draws a diverse neighborly crowd, Enso embodies the spirit of local, artisan goods. I caught up with Sharp to learn more about the winery, the ethos behind it and what it means for craft wines on a larger scale.

What inspired the launch of Enso?

Chris and I had been working at a winery in the Valley and decided it was time to cut the commute and try a different approach to winemaking. I had seen some smaller wineries on a trip through the Loire Valley and remembered them being sort of “village-supported.” Thought we would give that a go here in Portland. We made our first vintage in his bonded garage and then moved to our current location on Stark.

When most of us think of a winery, we think of expansive vineyards and sipping wine in a large garden. The words “urban winery” conjure up different images. What are the similarities between you and a regular winery? What are the differences?

You’re right. Most folks put vineyards and wineries together in their mind. And we love walking the vines and seeing the seasons change in the vineyard. But you can’t really grow grapes commercially in Portland and that’s where we want to be: In Town. It’s actually not terribly unusual to produce wines from grapes grown elsewhere. Lots of wineries do it, even ones with vineyards of their own.

Anyway, other than not growing our own grapes and being out in the country, we’re just a winery, same as anywhere. But our major difference is probably our Tasting Lounge. Instead of an awkward tasting room, we opted for something cozy and informal. More like a casual wine bar where you can meet friends and have a glass or three. Some folks come in and never even realize that we make our wine on-site, simply taking us for another bar.

Who is buying urban wine?

We’ve been truly amazed by how much the Buckman neighborhood has supported us. More than half our wine club members are from the surrounding 10 blocks! All ages, but generally the 25- to 40-something crowd. Still, people come from all around town and the surrounding area. And we get lots of out-of-state visitors, too.

Where do you get your grapes from? Is buying local important for you?

But of course. We get most of grapes from two vineyards within three hours of here: One in Horse Heaven Hills, where we get our big red grapes, and one in the Willamette Valley, where we get our white grapes.

Do you think there is a general movement that puts a value on smaller operations like yours? Why or why not?

I’d like to think that’s true. A good many of us are cynical about larger operations, I guess you could assume. But that doesn’t mean that we can make crap wine and get away with it by throwing “small-lot” or “boutique” on the label. We have to prove that we can make even higher-quality wines and help folks understand why Two Buck Chuck isn’t really wine.

What’s your favorite thing about making wine?

I love the whole process of watching it come to life, especially the first month or so where we get the grapes and begin to ferment them. We’re just about to start that for 2011. So excited! But truly, I love holding the finished bottle in my hand and pouring it for people. That’s where it all really connects.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Anna Brones

ColumnFoodspotting’s top pick for a locavore in Brooklyn.

We launched our Locavore Guide to Brooklyn on Foodspotting this week. It’s full of all the local foodie hits in one of our favorite boroughs. Not following us on Foodspotting? You’re missing out on plenty of goodness.

Foodspotting sent us their own Brooklyn locavore find, from popular hotspot, Seersucker:

Carrot Soup, Purple Potatoes & Local Yogurt @ Seersucker Restaurant

In a borough known for its hip, locally-minded restaurants, foodspotter Ben H. recommends Seersucker’s simple carrot soup. Combining vegetable ingredients with a yogurt base, this soup is not only healthful, but makes for a filling, satisfying dish, too. -Amy Cao

Spotted by Ben H.

Check out the full guide and enjoy!

In Foodspotting Friday we highlight one of Foodspotting’s top picks from our Foodspotting guides. Be sure to check them out and tip us off to your own favorites in our Readers’ Picks guide. Want to start spotting food on your own? Join Foodspotting and take part in the food spotting revolution. It’s visual, it’s positive, it’s global and we are in love with it.

Images: David Berkowitz, Foodspotting

The Third Wave Green concept we’ve introduced at EcoSalon means taking a hard look at the environmental movement’s sacred truths and considering whether or not they exclude diversity of thought and, most important, hold up to scrutiny. Not always an easy or comfortable task.

Deconstruction – or probing an argument’s veracity by exposing even its most counterintuitive contradictions – allows ideas to evolve and survive over time. This approach is invaluable to creating a “sustainable” Green movement – one that can withstand the most savage attacks by short-term-focused corporate interests (and their legislative, cultural and media puppets), as well as the defeating apathy of a green-weary populace. We’re starting with 10 common green assumptions many of us subscribe to, and asking: should we?

1. Assumption: Vegetarianism and veganism are pro-planet

Reality? There’s a monocrop where that rainforest used to be

It’s true that consuming less meat is a sound way to help lessen your carbon footprint; but like most assumptions, the underlying truth is more complex. A hamburger may be worse than a Hummer (or so the oft-repeated refrain goes), but the mock-meat-processed-from-a-monocrop-in-Myanmar style of vegetarianism is no golden nugget of eco goodness. Better to eat ethically-produced meat on rare occasions as flexitarians do than abstain from the steak but make heavily processed (and unhealthy) faux meats a cornerstone of your diet. Further complicating things, there are numerous studies showing that what’s really sustainable is efficiency, and in some cases, that means meat production over other types of product manufacture – even vegetables. And then of course, there’s the fact that even a truck driving, Big Mac chomping “Average Joe” has a lighter carbon footprint, on balance, than a green-leaning parent raising American offspring.

2. Assumption: Vegan fashion is good; fur is murder

Reality? Dressing up the truth and let’s talk leather

A world without fur makes sense to many. But is wearing leather any different? How many advocates for banning fur eat meat or don leather shoes or coats? Is killing an animal for its hide ever okay? If so, when? Can someone who does still be Green? Fur is viscerally offensive to many – but by that same token, shouldn’t we recoil at all the boots made for walking? Further, how exactly did vegan get lumped in with green fashion when many vegan products are made of toxic synthetics derived from fossil fuels? If a plastic (vegan) jacket is really better for the planet than a wool one, let’s ask if it’s because it is truly more sustainable in terms of the resources required to make it. Or is it just more efficient today, in our current context of an ultimately unsustainable, but temporarily efficient and cheap, system?

3. Assumption: Environmental protection is the key to our survival

Reality? Go GINK (Green Inclinations, No Kids) or go home

Or: It’s not the hamburgers and Hummers, stupid, it’s the kids. While the Green movement focuses on wildlife habitats, pollution and greenhouse gas reductions, and other ways to save the planet, are its efforts moot if it fails on the population challenge? It’s easy to create a epic battle in our minds that pits us against our helpless environment. But might the real battle not involve the environment at all? Perhaps George Carlin was right when he said that if we get to be too irritating, “the planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas.” Might our existence be merely a tick on the planet’s back and if we don’t tread a lot more lightly – i.e., multiply ourselves in a sustainable way – we don’t stand a chance with our to-date agreeable host, environmentalism or no environmentalism.

4. Assumption: Globalization hurts the little guy

Reality? Globalization helps the little guy

Those bandanna-masked guys on the street breaking the windows of Starbucks and Nike shops got their stories straight, right? If they’re anti-The Man, they must be green. Consider for moment what proponents of free trade and globalization are saying: global economic growth, job creation, lowers prices for consumers, capital and technology infusion into poor countries, giving them development opportunity. How about a more transparent global business infrastructure that could promote human rights? Sound like some pretty green motivations? Maybe throwing stones first and asking questions later isn’t such a great idea.

5. Assumption: Locavore, Locavore, Locavore

Reality? Eat global.

Green food comes from where it comes from. If a “place” is highly specialized to make a food in an efficient, healthy and earth-friendly way, might it be better to buy from that source rather than buying the local resource-intensive butter from down the street? We tend to assume that environmentally friendly is somehow akin to being homespun or even quaint, but might our journey here be contingent on creating our own efficiencies, using our ubiquitousness to lessen the load on Spaceship Earth?

6. Assumption: Recycling. Of course.

Reality? Follow the money – and the resource suck

Companies profiting from the practice won’t tell you, and few will acknowledge that recycling is expensive, generates pollutants and is in itself a resource drain. Are there better ways to think about what we do with our used goods and trash – like worrying less about what we do with what we consume and more about simply consuming less? After all, there’s an answer to the taking out the trash problem: Stop making so much trash. This possible truth says forget the red herring cry of “recycle” and tell all who would listen: reduce!

7. Assumption: Organic. Always. Period.

Reality? Caution: Mad Men at work

In some grocery store aisles it’s common now see more “official” organic foods than the evil and bad “non-organics” that we’ve consumed since the invention of, well, the invention. As one stands gazing at organic pop tarts, one might well ask two simple questions: First, what does organic mean? Second, even if I do get a functional answer to question 1, can I believe what I’m reading on the box? Then, as one leaves the store with a couple hundred dollars’ worth of organic stuff, a really big question should loom large: Has this facet of the Green movement been hopelessly co-opted by broad definitions, false advertising and “greenwashing.” Also part of this Organic deconstruction: What about the war on pesticides? How well does that fit in with global health and nutrition efforts? Would the elimination of such chemicals, called for some organic adherents, make us healthier – or cause global famine?

8. Assumption: The green stuff is the good stuff!

Reality? All stuff is stuff

From high-tech to the gadgets designed to make you life more ecologically friendly, we’re bombarded with claims – many truthful – that the stuff we buy, from mining to manufacturing to fulfillment processes, is Green as grass. But what does that mean? More stuff is just that, and even the “greenest” of it requires raw materials, transportation and other resources dedicated to get that product into your hands – before it’s dumped when you’re done with it. Does buying Green help as much as not buying at all?

Of course, others have taken on some of environmentalism’s ”sacred cows,” as Wired magazine did when it took a look a issues specific to global warming, including:

9. Assumption: No nukes is good nukes

Reality? An inevitable option

A surprising number of the ecologically friendly are advocating what they say is clean, green, safe and inevitable. Is the Green tent big enough for these folks who say this fossil fuel alternative is the right way to go?

10: Assumption: Made in China, made by the devil

Reality? A big green ally

The Russians were coming. So were the Japanese. And now, enter the Chinese bogeyman. The fact is there are green-reputable manufacturers in China, and many expect the massive global player to be a leader in green tech and practices going forward. Could the new evil empire be a source of progress rather than just soot?

Some controversy for your environmentally focused brain? This is good. We pose such “alternate realities” not to come down on one side or another of any of these important issues, but rather to point to the eyes-wide-open self examination that must be absorbed into the movement at large if it is to escape the margins and permeate our thinking on a truly meaningful level.

Third Wave Green means not being afraid to question the norms and approach environmentalism from a variety of viewpoints. What are yours?

Special thanks to Sara Ost for contributing to this article.

Images: squacco, gfpeck, Tomorrow Never Knows

As you’re planning your foodie calendar for 2011, you might want to take a moment and pencil in Cochon 555. We all know that pork is often the favored meat of underground foodies (think about how many things wrapped in bacon you’ve been offered over the last couple of months), so it’s no big surprise that the meat would get its own national tour.

A cooking competition that celebrates all things pork related, Cochon 555 is “5 chefs, 5 pigs and 5 wineries in a friendly competition for a cause.” They’re focused on family farms, connecting niche farmers with social media tools that help them connect with like-minded farmers, chefs, and of course, media. It’s not just about pork, it’s about promoting the conscious part of an entire industry.

Next year’s tour, which will be the third annual, will hit 10 different cities, including some of the foodie metropolises like San Francisco, New York City and Chicago.

But you won’t find foodie hotspot Portland on the list; Cochon 555 co-founder Eric Bechard got arrested after a supposedly alcohol induced brawl outside of a Portland strip club. Reason? Bechard was apparently upset over the fact that non-local pigs were allowed into the competition.

That’s what you call a committed locavore.

Learn more about Cochon 555 and the 2011 tour on their website.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Image: Cochon 555

This post was written by Rob Reed. He is the founder of MomentFeed, a location-based marketing, strategy, and technology firm.

Location technologies are transforming how we experience, navigate, and ultimately better our world. From the global to the local, here are #10Ways geolocation is a positive force for good.

Social media has changed the world. It has revolutionized communications on a global scale, and the transformation continues with every status update, blog post, and video stream. The global citizenry has become a global network.

Since becoming widely adopted just a couple years ago, social media has supercharged social action, cause marketing, and social entrepreneurship. Indeed, the true value hasn’t been the technology itself but how we’ve used it. Today, a second wave of innovation is defining a new era and setting the stage for change over the coming decade.

Mobile technologies will extend the global online network to anyone with a mobile device while enabling countless local networks to form in the real world. We’ve decentralized media production and distribution. We’re doing the same for energy. And we’ll continue this trend for social networking, social action, and commerce.

The combined forces of smartphones, mobile broadband, and location-aware applications will connect us in more meaningful ways to the people, organizations, events, information, and companies that matter most to us—namely, those within a physical proximity of where we live and where we are. Can location-based services (LBS) change the world? Here are #10Ways:

1. Checking in for Good: If Gowalla and Foursquare have taught us anything, it’s that people respond to simple incentives. By offering badges, mayorships, and other intangible rewards, millions of people are checking in to the places they go. Apps like Whrrl take this a step further and enable like-minded “societies” to form on a local basis. The next step is for these apps to add greater purpose by encouraging more meaningful checkins and offering corresponding badges and stamps, thus mapping the cause universe. Or for a dedicated app to be developed that rewards conscious consumption, social responsibility, and civic engagement. Yes, the CauseWorld app features a cause element, but it’s not about cause-worthy places.

2. Eating Locally: Sustainability demands that we source our food as close to its point of production as possible. Many so-called locavores subscribe to the 100-mile diet, which requires that one “eat nothing – or almost nothing – but sustenance drawn from within 100 miles of their home.” Given the difficulty of accessing and verifying this information in order to live by this standard, there’s a geo-powered Locavore app. It gives you info on in-season foods, those coming in-season, farmer’s markets, and links to recipes. This rather simple app is clearly just the start. In time, location-aware apps will guide us not only to the grocery store or farmer’s market but through them. All the while identifying foods based on our particular diet or sensibility.

3. Political Organizing: In the next presidential election, politics will not only be local but location-enabled. We saw the power of social media in Obama’s 2008 landslide victory. In 2012, location-based apps and technologies will play a central role in how campaigns are organized, managed, and ultimately won. Much of this will be visible through mobile apps and location-aware browsers. Activists and volunteers will be more empowered. Voters will be more engaged in the moment, right down to casting their votes. Behind the scenes, though, we’ll see massive new sets of data available to campaigns for targeting, empowerment, and optimization. The party, candidate, and/or cause that has the best handle on geolocation will have a measurable advantage. (The Elections app will soon be updated for 2010.)

4. Finding Green Businesses: The web has effectively replaced the paper Yellow Pages as a way to find local businesses and services. However, this “stationary web” experience is quickly being supplanted by the mobile web and mobile applications, which give us access to this information when we most need it. The Yelp and Around Me apps are popular ways to find restaurants, coffee shops, or hotels wherever you are, but what about green-rated businesses? Greenopia has transformed its printed, local guides into a dynamic, nationwide mobile application that lets you find local, green-rated businesses in any category. No more paper and a much better experience. The Green Map app is another that facilitates discovery and connects us to local green environments.

5. Traveling More Efficiently: We’ve had access to GPS navigation systems and static traffic information for some time, but only now are we seeing the full potential of these technologies. With access to more detailed traffic information that is specific to your route and updated in real time, we can minimize congestion and maximize traffic flow (as much as physically possible). The new turn-by-turn MapQuest 4 Mobile app is a good start, as you can get traffic alerts specific to the route you program. However, user-generated information from apps like Trapster and Waze can crowdsource more specific details, such as whether to avoid an intersection due to a toxic chemical spill. Or, if you want to avoid automobiles altogether, Google Maps makes it easy to use public transportation and take a bike.

6. Scanning for Ethical Products: With online shopping, we’ve become accustomed to reading reviews and making comparisons before we buy. This can now be done in the physical world through games like MyTown and services like Stikybits. By scanning a product barcode using a smartphone camera, you can unlock a treasure of additional information (not to mention deals) that can help with your purchase. This might include where it was produced, how far it traveled, the reputation of the manufacturer, chemical contents, carbon footprint, or the full lifecycle analysis. Location-aware applications can also transform commerce itself by giving us better access to local inventories and locally-produced goods. Whether it’s fruits and vegetables or books and electronics, if something can be found within blocks of your current location, it makes no sense to ship it from afar.

7. Networking Neighborhoods: One of the hottest categories in geolocation is neighborhood networking. The vision for many of these apps is to strengthen the very fabric of our communities. With DeHood, you can keep track of what’s happening in your neighborhood, share your favorite places, and grease the wheels for actually meeting people. After all, if you’ve made contact through the app, it’s a lot easier to say “Hello” in the real world. Blasterous is another that lets you share information locally, whereas BlockChalk does this on an anonymous basis. Finally, NeighborGoods uses your street address to facilitate one-to-one borrowing and trading of useful stuff. In the end, making connections with your neighbors can lead to safer, more productive, and more sustainable communities.

8. Tracking Environmental Disasters: The size and scope of environmental disasters appears to be growing. In 2008, we had the Tennessee coal ash spill, which was billed as “the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States.” And that was before we realized it was three times bigger than originally estimated. More recently, the BP oil spill set daily records for “largest environmental disaster in the U.S. ever.” In each case, geolocation technologies can be used by engaged citizens to monitor and track the effects. They can be used by response teams to coordinate containment and cleanup efforts. Ultimately, these technologies can be used to accurately measure the size and impact of a disaster in order to better understand its damages and costs.

9. Viewing the World Through an Eco Lens: Augmented reality (AR) follows geolocation as one of the hot trends in mobile technology. It enables you to view the world through a smartphone camera (or similar device) and see layers of geo-specific content or information. One of the most popular apps is Layar, an augmented reality browser/platform that lets you choose specific data layers or experiences. The potential for green- and cause-related content is tremendous. You might view green-rated businesses, LEED-certified buildings, or virtual GHG emissions as they enter the atmosphere. Combined with smart meter technology, you could see the most efficient and inefficient homes around you in real time. And for the cynics among us, you could view our mountains, forests, rivers, and oceans as they once were…before the effects of climate change and so many environmental disasters.

10. Capturing the Moment: Better access to information about what’s happening around us—right now—can dramatically improve quality of life. This sense of “geospatial awareness” is possible through today’s smartphones, whereby a piece of content or information a moment is captured and preserved based on the unique time and place in which it occurred. It is essentially to document spacetime. Protests, natural disasters, sporting events, parties, political crises – real-time information about anything happening anywhere at any time, as well as the history of what happened. This will take several years and a number of different applications to realize. In the end, though, it will revolutionize how we access and consume content. It will complete the democratization and decentralization of news and information – based on time and location.

Cautionary note: Privacy is the single biggest issue in the LBS industry. It’s important to understand what information you are sharing with regard to your location and with whom.

Author’s note: We’ll be hosting geolocation events for Social Media Week in Los Angeles this September. This is the third in Max Gladwell‘s #10Ways series of distributed blog posts. It was published simultaneously on as many as 300 blogs.

As healthy food and eating locally have gained more traction, pickling is no longer an old-fashioned past-time of our grandmothers. Eco-friendly folks are aiming to re-gain control of the food supply, and many of us are looking at ways to preserve local, organic food while it’s in season. What better method than pickling?

Brooklyn is particularly known for embracing the locavore movement, which I read in a NY Times article over a year ago. Case in point, when I last visited, I checked out a flea market in Fort Greene, and was amazed at the number of people selling their home-pickled wares. I was notably impressed with the number of pickled beets on the scene. I’ve since learned that you can pickle just about anything!

Not surprising then, to discover a plethora of pickling activity in San Francisco. For example, I found the Happy Girl Kitchen Co. at the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market a couple weekends ago. The Happy Girl Kitchen Co., based in Oakland and certified organic, is known for its highly refined preserving techniques and sells pickled beets, carrots and dill pickles, as well as sauerkraut and kombucha. (And fruit preserves. And canned tomatoes. And, and.)

I’ve been meaning to try pickling myself after tasting a friend’s pickled beans that were inspiring. But where to start? Happy Girl Kitchen Co. offers a variety of workshops. Classes are a bit pricey, but then again, you’re paying for a lifetime of knowledge. I also heard from a friend that the Joy of Cooking has a great recipe, and I noticed that Alice Waters included a recipe in her most recent book, In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn By Heart. With all the Persian pickles and tiny, fresh carrots at the farmers’ markets right now, I’d say it’s high time to start pickling!

Image: rachel is coconut lime

Could it be that astronauts of the future will be able to eat fresh and green while on the moon?

Sounds improbable, but US scientists involved in creating the first moon “greenhouse” think it”Ëœs possible. Paragon, an Arizona-based company, has been working with NASA and Odyssey Moon Ltd (the first contender in the Google Lunar X Prize) to create the “lunar oasis” – a miniature greenhouse for the moon.

This sealed bell jar-shaped greenhouse, encased in a 1.5 foot tall triangular aluminum frame, has been designed to land safely and remain intact on the lunar surface.

Plans are afoot to have the “lunar oasis” launched into space by Odyssey Moon, thus allowing for plant growth experiments to be conducted. Growing plants from seeds on the moon is a significant step forward in looking at life beyond planet earth.

Images: joiseyshowaa, onorbit

Call me a cynic, but I’m always skeptical when a powerful, multinational corporation announces any sweeping green initiative. I can’t help but pull back the shiny press release and look behind it. In the case of Carl’s Jr.’s recent unveiling of a flagship green restaurant in Carpentaria, Calif. there was one glaring omission – the food.

This list of goodies from Carl’s Jr. will get a green building expert all hot and bothered:

- ENERGY STAR rated appliances
- Solar reflective roofing material to reduce cooling needs
- Rainwater collection system
- Smart irrigation and energy management systems
- LED parking lot lights
- Construction with low-emitting material
- A catalyst that converts charbroiler particulate into carbon dioxide and water

But without addressing the food system’s impact on the environment (especially the fast food system) this initiative leaves a food activist like me cold.

According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 31% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture.

Livestock production accounts 18% of all emissions worldwide (more than transportation). Deforestation to make more room for agriculture and meat production also causes huge emissions.

Food waste is another big one. There have been some interesting studies in the UK.

Nitrogen fertilizers used in large-scale conventional agriculture are other big contributors.

And for all you locavores out there, I hate to tell you that transportation is a smaller part of the picture than people often assume (though there are plenty of other great reasons to eat locally). Production and processing are bigger contributors.

Obviously we have to eat, so we’ll never do away with food’s impact entirely. But there are some things we can do to lessen our own impact. The biggest change you can make is to eat less beef and cheese (or none at all). Oops, that eliminates most of the fast food menu, doesn’t it?

Eat less processed food. Eat organically grown foods that weren’t fertilized with conventional fertilizers. Don’t waste food. If you take all of these steps, it’s hard to see how you could eat in a fast food restaurant with any regularity at all – however green that restaurant might be.

Further reading:

Circle of Responsibility

The Media and Food’s Contribution to Climate Change

Image: Patrick Kitely