Sustainable seafood - download this helplful guide

Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood WATCH

I know... it's tough to remember which fish are OK to eat but luckily the Monterey Bay Aquarium helps us by providing the Seafood WATCH guide which you can download from their web site.

Print out this small pocket guide and keep in your wallet so next time you're out shopping for seafood or ordering at a restaurant you'll have at your fingertips a guide to help you make the right decisions.

There are actually several different guides so you can choose the one most appropriate for your region and also a sushi guide. If you have an iPhone there is a free app you can download. Actually the guides are available at my husband's company's cafeteria - I grabbed a few and distributed them to my friends to help spread the awareness on how to consume seafood that helps protect are waters and environment.

To learn about the issues about our ocean and the wildlife the Seafood WATCH Ocean Issues page is a great place to start getting educated. Here's the overview from the web page:

There's a Limit to the Fish in the Sea

Ocean fish are wildlife—the last such creatures that we hunt on a large scale. And while the sheer size of the oceans is awesome, there are many signs that we have found their limits. Despite our best efforts, the global catch of wild fish leveled off over 20 years ago and 70 percent of the world's fisheries are being harvested at capacity or are in decline.

Yet there are fisheries being run in a sustainable way. We now need to improve the practices of the remaining fisheries and solve the most pressing issues, including overfishing, illegal and unregulated fishing, habitat damage, bycatch (accidentally catching unwanted species) and poor management.

Monterey Bay Aquarium has done a fabulous job on their Seafood WATCH web pages.There's a plethora of great information to educate us not just about sustainable seafood but also which are healthy for you as well.

TJ's organic tomatoes

TJ's organic tomatoes
Originally uploaded by love_yellow

Product of Mexico... who monitors and certifies organic produce in Mexico? Can we trust that it's really organic? It's not "certified" but I do see the USDA Organic label on it - how do they "certify it"?

I know that the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) organization certifies much of the organic produce I've purchased and apparently they use the USDA seal. But how do they monitor farming practices in Mexico?

To quote one of my friends... "I think it's a free-for-all down there." Unfortunately Mexico does have a bit of bad rep and even I usually stay away from Mexican grown produce. But that's mainly because I'm lucky enough live in a rich agricultural area (San Francisco Bay Area) so I'm in a position to buy locally grown produce - which means I also buy fruits and vegetables that are in season.

And while I do my best to keep my carbon footprint down to a minimum, in this case, the only organic option was these Mexican grown tomatoes. So it was quite a dilemma to choose between local chemically fertilized and not very ripe tomatoes vs. red organic ones grown in Mexico. ¡Ay yay yay!

Well, I'm hoping for the best and hoping that the extra money I'm paying for organic produce really is buying me organically grown vegetables and fruit. I want to be healthy and not put chemical fertilizers in my body, but I also want to support organic and sustainable farming methods that's good for the earth.

My body can only be as healthy if the environment in which it lives is also healthy.