St. Petersburg Times
Nightstand

What’s Linda Taylor reading?

Piper Castillo, Times Staff Writer

In Print: Sunday, May 17, 2009

Linda Taylor is the author of Great Women Exploring Nature: How Wild Florida Influenced Their Lives, a women’s history book of sorts including icons Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Rachel Carson, as well as lesser-known women like Myrtle Scharrer Betz, who lived on Caladesi Island in the 1800s.

What is on your nightstand?

33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women’s History, edited by Tonya Bolden. And I finished up Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

That combination shows your endeavor to link women closer to the earth. What would you recommend for a man’s nightstand?

I would suggest A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson for a guy’s connection to nature.

Why do you think Bryson appeals to men?

I found men accompanying us on my women-friendly nature trips longed for detail and information and were not quite satisfied with what comes from just taking it all in with our senses. Bryson’s writing provides that addition — detail, information, humor and a connection to the natural world.

A recent article on Alternet.org written by Dara Colwell suggests so.   Industrial hemp has 25,000 known applications. From paper (our Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written on hemp paper ) to clothing

(your hemp pants will last forever ) – to food products (the Wall Street Journal had an article in January stating that hemp is the fastest growing new food category in North America).  Add in construction and automotive materials and you have a very sustainable green economy start-up.

But as most of you know, growing hemp in the United States is still illegal.  The Drug Enforcement Administration has grouped this low-THC plant with its relative, marijuana.

We are the only industrialized country on earth to prohibit hemp production.  Canada legalized growing hemp in 1997.

An exception to cultivating industrial hemp came during World War II, when the armed forces experienced a fiber shortage and the government encouraged all farmers to grow hemp.  But after the war and with the introduction of nylon, hemp production disappeared.  The history of hemp is fueled with propaganda and corporate greed. If a farmer in North Dakota chose to grow this incredible crop, they would be guilty of trafficking and would face a fine of up to 4 million dollars and a prison sentence of 5 – 40 years.

Hemp has enormous benefits as a crop.  It is environmentally friendly, requiring no pesticides or herbicides, it is the perfect rotation or rest crop because it detoxifies and regenerates the soil and it grows quickly.

More and more health advocates are realizing that as a food hemp is rich in essential omega-3 fatty acids.  The hemp plant’s cellulose level is about three times that of wood and is the ideal raw material for plant-based plastics. Henry Ford himself manufactured a car from hemp-based plastic in 1941 and ran it on clean-burning hemp-based ethanol fuel.

28 states have introduced hemp legislation.  Isn’t it time that we seriously look at something that will solve so many of today’s problems?

Theresa Blackwell, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, December 9, 2008
View Original publication

DUNEDIN — On Wednesdays through Saturdays, many North Pinellas towns have farmers markets. They all make for great strolling in Florida’s best weather, but each one is unique.

The Dunedin Green Market in Pioneer Park emphasizes organic.

In the sunshine there Friday, T-shirts were warm enough. The crowd roved from booth to booth while recorded voices sang, “Everywhere around the world, there’ll be dancin’. They’re dancin’ in the street.”

Gregory Jones of St. Petersburg, in a crocheted cap, was juicing and mixing organic smoothies. In business for nearly 20 years, he has set up his booth in 35 states.

“Could I have a carrot-apple-ginger?” said Donna Hey of Dunedin.

She took a sip and declared: “Boy, it’s delicious.”

Next booth over, Debra Chatfield of Lutz was selling products from her business, Lutz Nutz Co. She and her husband rent a Riverview restaurant on Sundays, so they can dry roast the nuts.

Grilled franks and fresh seafood, including humongous shrimp, were nearby. There was coffee grown with a conscience: by adults paid a living wage.

British meat and savory pies beckoned near a booth filled with baked dog treats.

Michael’s Extraordinary Desserts had a Christmas stollen, a sweet yeast bread containing fruit and nuts, made in the German tradition and wrapped in red cellophane. It’s 3 1/2 pounds of pastry filled with marzipan and candied fruit soaked for at least four months in rum.

“It gets better as it gets older,” said Michael Ostrander.

Multicolored bougainvillea flowers bloomed along Douglas Street at Mitch Armstrong Nursery. Other plants had an array of leaf colors and shapes from jagged to ruffled, hairy to smooth, broad to slim.

Linda Taylor’s It’s Our Nature organic cotton products features “healthy wear for people who care.” She sells T-shirts, hats, socks and hemp bags, as well as buttons like one quoting Mahatma Gandhi: “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

The market features two busy produce vendors.

Joe’s Market has some little-seen vegetables like a small round zucchini, white asparagus and baby eggplant. Shopper Evie Dann of Dunedin suggested roasting the baby eggplant whole.

“You don’t even have to peel them,” she said.

The Federal Trade Commission has charged a number of bamboo clothing manufacturers with making false claims about the environmental attributes of their product.  The FTC’s case is a part of a growing fight against “greenwashing” – making an environmental claim about a product or service without adequate scientific evidence.

In the National Textile Association’s 8/12/09 News Blog

http://nationaltextile.blogspot.com/2009/08/ftc-charges-bamboo-based-textiles.html, they state that the FTC has charged four sellers with deceptively labeling and advertising garments made of bamboo fiber, when they are actually made of rayon.  The complaints also charge the companies with making false and unsubstantiated “green” claims that their clothing and textile products are manufactured using an environmentally friendly process that  retains the natural antimicrobial properties of the bamboo plant and that they are biodegradable.

Bamboo is a natural candidate for greenwashed claims, according to Chris Pastore, a professor of textile engineering at Philadelphia University.  “It bears a physical resemblance to flax, the plant used to make linen through a simple process that leaves its natural fibers largely intact.  Flax looks like a reed and bamboo looks like a giant reed.  People imagine it’s the same process.  But to make rayon, bamboo or any cellulose source it is typically ground up, dissolved and processed into a viscous liquid with chemicals such as the highly toxic carbon disulfide.  It is much more energy intensive and much more polluting.” Pastore states.

Three of the companies have settled the FTC’s complaints, agreeing to stop making false claims and to abide by the Commission’s Textile Fiber Products Identification Act (Textile Act) and Rules.  Litigation continues against The M Group, Inc. d/b/a Bamboosa, and its principals.

David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection states “With the tremendous expansion of green claims in today’s marketplace, it is particularly important for the FTC to address deceptive environmental claims, so that consumers can trust that the products they buy have the environmentally friendly attributes they want.  When companies sell products woven from man-made fibers, such as rayon, it is important that they accurately label and advertise those products- both with respect to the fibers they use and to the qualities those fibers possess.”

As the Commission charges even if the rayon used in the companies’ clothing and textile products is manufactured using bamboo as the cellulose source, rayon does not retain any natural antimicrobial properties of the bamboo plant.  The rayon manufacturing process which involves dissolving the plant source in harsh chemicals eliminates any such natural properties of the bamboo plant.  Similarly, the Commission charges that the companies’ clothing and textiles are not made using an environmentally friendly process.

The rayon manufacturing process uses toxic chemicals and results in the emission of hazardous air pollutants.  The Commission has a new alert entitled “Have You Been Bamboozled by Bamboo Fabrics?” that provides useful information for consumers. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt160.shtm.