Signed Copies of Gilbert Green NOW AVAILABLE at The Little Seed!

Get your signed copy of Gilbert Green online at the little seed or better yet, go visit them on N. Larchmont Blvd in Los Angeles!!! Tree hugging with style and worth your time I promise, this earth-friendly baby store has been our favorite spot to shop for a few years! Check out their Feature Friday Blog too! Thanks Little Seed!

On Earth Day's 40th Anniversary, I had the pleasure of sitting in the BIG RED CHAIR and reading Gilbert Green to a very special audience. The Madison Square Boys & Girls Club's Big Red Chair Goes Green campaign was even highlighted on Channel 6 the local evening news. I feel very fortunate to have been able to be a part of their Earth Day 2010! The Kids got a kick out of Gilbert Green and asked a lot of questions and confirmed that they do indeed want to be truly GREEN! Their spirits are inspiring and their knowledge encouraging, they want to help clean up our Earth and they have already started the process by recycling in their world just like Gilbert Green! The Brooklyn Boys & Girls challenge YOU to do the same!

Order your signed copy of Gilbert Green through Google Checkout today and help spread the g love!

Gilbert Green is nyc bound for Earth Day New York 2010!

I'm going to sit in the BIG RED CHAIR (which is going green for EDNY week) and read Gilbert Green to a very special audience, the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club. What an honor this will be!

be the E "...be the change you want to see in the world." -Mahatma Gandhi

Order your signed copy of Gilbert Green through Google checkout to help celebrate Earth Day's 40th Anniversary on April 22, 2010. To insure delivery before April 22nd, please order by April 15th!!! Uncle Sam WANTS YOU to!

Please write a review of Gilbert Green on your fave online retailer!

The 40th Anniversary of Earth Day is coming... Thursday, April 22nd... and Gilbert would really appreciate it if you would be kind enough to take a minute and write a quick review on your favorite online retailer so his green spirit can be shared with more!
Please help spread the "g love"!!!

Meat Free Mondays!

I am not a vegetarian, but when I heard about “Meat Free Monday,” I was intrigued. I hadn't thought about the environmental impact of raising livestock. Below are the facts presented by Paul McCartney.

It will be Chinese take-out for the Gilberts this Monday, fried rice is about the only thing I can stomach at the moment anyway! Sure wish we lived near Mr. Chow or wish I had the energy to cook their Vegetarian Fried Rice, maybe in my second trimester! (See below for recipe.) Cheers, NMG

Ok, here’s the story on Meat Free Monday. In 2006, the United Nations issued a report which stated that the livestock industry as a whole was responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the whole of the transport sector put together.

I found this interesting particularly because people at the UN are not a vegetarian society and therefore, could not be accused of bias. They pointed out the following facts:

* The Livestock industry produces gases that are extremely dangerous for the future of our environment.
* The two main gases, methane and nitrous oxide, are considered to be more harmful than CO2 (methane is 21 times more powerful than CO2 and nitrous oxide is 310 times more powerful than CO2) so the data suggests that this is causing a highly dangerous situation for ourselves and, more importantly, for future generations.
* Methane also remains in the atmosphere for 9 to 15 years; nitrous oxide remains in the atmosphere for 114 years, on average, and is 296 times more potent than CO2 - the gases released today will continue to be active in degrading the climate decades from now.
* Livestock production is land intensive: a recent report by Greenpeace on land use in the largest meat producing state in Brazil found that livestock (cattle) production was responsible for vastly more deforestation than soya.
* A third of all cereal crops, and well over 90% of soya, goes into animal feed, not food for humans. Eating less meat will free up a lot of agricultural land which can revert to growing trees and other vegetation, which, in turn, will absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
* Livestock production is water intensive: it accounts for around 8% of global human water use. The estimated 634 gallons of fresh water required to produce one 5.2 ounce (150g) beef burger would be enough for a four-hour shower. For comparison, the same quantity of tofu requires 143 gallons of water to produce.
* Livestock production is the largest source of water pollutants, principally animal wastes, antibiotics, hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and pesticides used for feed crops, and sediments from eroded pastures.
* The meat industry is set to double its production by 2050 so even if they manage to lower emissions by 50%, as they have promised to, we will still be in the same position.

With this in mind, my family and I launched Meat Free Monday in the UK, an idea which has been gaining support from people like Tom Parker-Bowles who, after a lifetime of denigrating vegetarians, recently wrote in his Daily Mail column, “I wince at the memory of my boorish antics” and who pronounced himself “intrigued” by MFM: “There’s no doubting the plain common sense of the message…Meat Free Monday is something to really savour”. Another supporter is Al Gore who stated that initiatives like Meat Free Monday “represent a responsible and welcome component of a comprehensive strategy for reducing global warming pollution and simultaneously improving human health."

Even a number of schools have already done this in the UK with great success. The town of Ghent in Belgium has a meat free day and, amazingly, Sao Paulo has one even though Brazil is a large exporter of meat. In Sweden, the government is now labeling food to give the consumer the opportunity to understand the dangers of indiscriminate food consumption and there are many more examples appearing online.

The point is that so many people these days are looking for ways to “do their bit” for the environment. We recycle - something we never would have dreamt of doing in the past. Many people now drive hybrid cars but most people understand that we cannot leave this important issue to the politicians of the world. Recently, at the Copenhagen Conference for Climate Change, this issue was not even on the agenda and so I believe it is once again left to us, the people, to do it ourselves.

It’s amazingly easy to take one day in your week, Monday or any other day, and not eat meat. When you think about it, there are so many great alternatives, for instance, in Italian cooking, so many of the dishes are vegetarian already and Thai and Chinese cuisine are the same. All it means is that you have to think a bit about what you’ll eat that day but, in actual fact, far from being a chore, it’s a fun challenge.

Having been a vegetarian for over 30 years, I find it very simple and in fact, tasty and most enjoyable.

So there it is! Next Monday - don’t eat meat and do your bit to save this beautiful planet of ours. For more information, ideas and lots of meat free recipes, go to the official Meat Free Monday website.

Rock on ya’ll!

Paul


Vegetarian Fried Rice

Serves 4 - 6

* 4 - 6 asparagus stems
* 450 grams steamed or boiled rice
* 2 egg whites beaten (optional)
* 2 spring onions chopped
* 4 tbsp vegetable oil
* ½ tsp salt

Break off tough stems of the asparagus and chop into 2 cm pieces, rinse. Stir fry in 1 tbsp oil for 1 – 2 minutes, remove from the wok. Add more oil to the wok if necessary and, when hot add the beaten egg whites to form a thin pancake. As soon as the egg is cooked remove from the pan and chop.

Heat 2 – 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok, when hot stir-fry the white part of the spring onion, add the cooked rice and stir over a low heat until the rice is uniformly heated through. Add the asparagus, egg whites and salt and stir and mix all the ingredients together until piping hot.

Compliments of Mr. Chow in London...Enjoy!

Green Goals for 2010!

If you enjoyed your copy as much as Georgie did, PLEASE write a review of Gilbert Green by Nikki Murphy Gilbert illustrated by Joe Lee (Paperback - Nov 2, 2009) on your favorite online retailer. Thank you kindly!

NO Pressure, BUT try cooking GREEN in 2010!

One way to cook green... use a pressure cooker! They are designed to save energy and time, not to mention they lock in vitamins and minerals. Cook Green and stay lean! Consumer Reports names BEST pressure cookers, overall, budget and electric. If you were wondering what to spend your Christmas cash on, now you know! Happy New Year!