Mary Cordaro, The Healthy Home Guru

Mary Cordaro, The Healthy Home Guru

Mary Cordaro is a healthy home guru and can cure “sick building syndrome” or “sick home”.
She focuses on creating a healthy, green workplace and home using the fields of Bau-Biologie (Bau-Biologie translates as “building biology”, a discipline from Germany dedicated to improving how our homes impact our lives and the living environment) and Building [...]

Basic Low-Fat Coleslaw

Basic Low-Fat Coleslaw

There’s been a surprising development in the V family kitchen. My daughter E has actually been asking for coleslaw, a food she used to have to be bribed to eat. This phenomenon began after I stopped buying bagged coleslaw and starting using fresh heads of cabbage. I could say that E likes [...]

California Man Raises Awareness About Plight Of Farm Animals

California Man Raises Awareness About Plight Of Farm Animals

With his second annual Stand Up for Farm Animals fundraiser, local farm animal advocate John Merryfield is rewriting the standard rules of activism. Instead of hitting the streets, Merryfield is hitting the lake, completing a stand-up paddle around the circumference of Lake Tahoe to bring awareness to the plight of our nation’s farm animals and [...]

What Is Your Veg Elevator Pitch?

What Is Your Veg Elevator Pitch?

To sell a product, service or idea, you need an elevator pitch – a persuasive, understandable version of your story that you can tell during an elevator ride. If you can’t explain what you’re peddling in 30 seconds or less, you’re not ready to sell.
We vegetarians and vegans are all in PR to some degree. [...]

Gracious Gourmand, Launch

Gracious Gourmand, Launch

The Launch of Gracious Gourmand on Friday August 28th was a huge success! Tucked in the cozy, candle-lit Second Stop Cafe, 30 foodies gathered to dine on the meticulous, visually stunning and delicious creations of Chef Lagusta Yearwood, featuring produce from Taliaferro Farms and Second Wind CSA . Our sponsor was Kanon Organic Vodka, and [...]

Island Style Sweet And Spicy Cabbage

Island Style Sweet And Spicy Cabbage

More than 20 years ago, I lived in an odd little shared house in Oakland, and one of the other renters was a guy named John, from one of the Caribbean islands. Sad to say, I can’t recall which island (possibly Barbados?), but I do remember that he moonlighted in a steel drum band, and [...]

Does Helping Animals Lead To Emmy Gold?

Does Helping Animals Lead To Emmy Gold?

Congrats to PETA pals Kyra Sedgwick, Jane Lynch, and Edie Falco for their well-deserved Emmy wins last night. Another big winner was HBO’s Temple Grandin, a film about the life of an extraordinary person who has helped reduce the suffering of millions of animals and advocated for autism education. Helping animals is its own reward, [...]

“Strut Your Mutt”

“Strut Your Mutt”

Strut Your Mutt is an event organized by Best Friends Animal Society, in which thousands of people gather together with their favorite four-footed best friend (the dog variety) and, well, take a walk together. As you can imagine, the cute-overload factor alone has the potential to draw attention to this event, which is part of [...]

20 Ways To Detox Your Home

20 Ways To Detox Your Home

Many of us have done a detox to eliminate internal toxins from our body, but how many of us do anything about the toxins in our own homes? Common household and body care products are increasingly being found to have negative health effects on the nervous and immune systems, on our reproductive systems, and on [...]

Wanna See A Vegan Panel At SXSW Next Year? Go Vote Now!

Wanna See A Vegan Panel At SXSW Next Year? Go Vote Now!

Remember when you learned about new music through those little booklets called “zines”? You read a short paragraph review of a record, took a gamble on it by sending your well-concealed cash to the distro, and a few weeks later the United States Postal Service delivered the record to your door? Well, South By Southwest [...]