trader.joys

So the boy and I went to our favorite new grocery store Trader Joe's last night. I'm sure most of you are familiar with it, but in case you haven't had your own personal TJM (Trader Joe's Moment), allow me to give you the lowdown.

Trader Joe's offers the widest variety of organic, natural and non-processed foods and produce for the absolute lowest prices around. Sure there's Whole Foods and a litany of other local health food shops but they are generally overpriced, even in comparison to your average run-of-the-mill grocery store.

Anyhoo.. in our plight to be conscious consumers and shop at places and for products that are not only good for us but also for the environment, we decided to bring along a couple of our sustainable and reusable recycled plastic totes to carry our groceries home with! Upon seeing our highly eco-LOGICAL effort in bringing our own bags, the uber-friendly staff at the checkout counter entered us in a raffle to win LOADS of free goodies from the store!!

The raffle will be decided on later in the week, but the moral of the story here is that being kind to your environment often has its own secret hidden benefits! Even if your local supermarket doesn't honor you with raffle prizes, try to bring your own bags with you instead of wasting paper and plastic (it takes the Earth 10,000 years to break down a plastic bag, people!!)

If you can get to a Trader Joe's, they do sell their tote bags in-store. You can also get some nifty canvas bags here or plastic bags here.

Added bonus: FREE BAG!

animal.writes

Good morning! Today I am introducing a new and recurring section dedicated to my favorite cause of them all: Animals. The goal here will be to frequently post important information, news related to animal rights, ways to help support their best interests, etc. You know - animal writes.

Following the same idea used in the blog about seafood, I'm going to start with a PETA-certified list of companies that STILL do testing on animals. According to resources, an estimated 50 to 100 MILLION vertebrate animals are used annually in testing and killed either during or after the experiments!! ** Animals bred for research then killed as surplus, or used for breeding purposes, are not included in the figures**

Before going on to the list, let me include some information about what we're really concerned with here.

There are dozens of categories of experimentation involved, including:

• Basic Research (behavior, development, functioning)
  
• Applied Research (related to the treatment or cure for disease in humans and animals)
• Xenotransplantation (transplanting living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another)
• Toxicology Testing (safety testing of products such as medicines, pesticides, food additives, household chemicals, etc.)
• Cosmetics Testing (duh.)
• Drug Testing (see above)
• Defense Research (animals bred by the military to develop weapons, vaccines, battlefield surgical techniques, and defensive clothing)

I plan to expand on these issues more in the future, as I'm quite certain that few of us really grasp what is involved with much of today's animal testing. But for now, onto the list!

Most of you are probably thinking "Wow, that's sad, but what can I really do about it.." Here's what you can do! Be a conscious consumer. Know your products, where they came from, and how they got you in the first place. Feel good in purchasing products manufactured by people who have NOT maimed, tortured and killed precious animal life to give you a better scented candle or shampoo or bleach or vitamin.

Here's a sampling of some well-known companies that have made it their mission to eliminate animal testing!!

• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Aubrey Organics (not well-known, but woo hoo!!)
• Aveda
• Avon
• Basis
• Bath & Body Works
• The Body Shop
• Bonne Bell
• Burt's Bees
• Clinique
• Conair
• Donna Karan Beauty
• Estee Lauder
• Hard Candy
• Liz Claiborne
• M.A.C. Cosmetics
• Method (my personal favorite!!)
• Pathmark (home brand products - I wonder if that includes their vodka?)
• Tom's of Maine
• Trader Joe's
• Victoria's Secret
• Wet 'n Wild

For a fully comprehensive list of companies that do NOT test on animals, go here!

Now as for the bad guys... the following companies, unfortunately, continue to manufacture products that ARE tested on animals. Please review this list and keep these companies in mind when you're out doing your shopping!!

• Arm & Hammer
• Chesebrough-Ponds (Vaseline, Ponds)
• Church & Dwight (Aim, Arrid, Brillo, Close-up, Lady’s Choice, Mentadent, Nair, Orange Glo International, Pearl Drops)
• Clairol (Aussie, Daily Defense, Infusium 23, Procter & Gamble)
• Clorox (ArmorAll, Formula 409, Fresh Step, Glad, Liquid Plumber, Pine-Sol, Soft Scrub, S.O.S., Tilex)
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (Hills Pet Nutrition, Mennen, Palmolive, SoftSoap, Speed Stick)
• Cover Girl
• Dial Corporation (Dry Idea, Purex, Renuzit, Right Guard, Soft & Dri)
• Helene Curtis Industries (Salon Selectives, Thermasilk, Unilever)
• Johnson & Johnson (Aveeno, Clean & Clear, Listerine, Lubriderm, Neutrogena, Rembrandt, ROC)
• L’Oréal U.S.A. (Biotherm, Cacharel, Garnier, Giorgio Armani, Helena Rubinstein, Lancôme, Matrix Essentials, Maybelline, Ralph Lauren Fragrances, Redken, Soft Sheen, Vichy)
• Max Factor
• Mead
• Mennen Co. (careful to not get their jingle stuck in your head!!)
• Olay Co./Oil of Olay
• Oral-B
• Pantene
• Pfizer (BenGay, Desitin, Listerine, Lubriderm, Plax, Visine)
• Playtex Products (Banana Boat)
• Procter & Gamble Co. (Clairol, Cover Girl, Crest, Gillette, Giorgio, Iams, Max Factor, Physique, Tide)
• Reckitt Benckiser (Easy Off, Lysol, Mop & Glo, Old English, Resolve, Spray ’N Wash, Veet, Woolite)
• Sally Hansen
• Schering-Plough (Bain de Soleil, Coppertone, Dr. Scholl’s)
• S.C. Johnson (Drano, Edge, Fantastik, Glade, OFF!, Oust, Pledge, Scrubbing Bubbles, Shout, Skintimate, Windex, Ziploc)
• SoftSoap Enterprises
• Suave
• Unilever (Axe, Dove, Lever Bros.,)

For a fully comprehensive list of companies that DO test on animals, go here!

Happy shopping!!