DEAR EARTHTALK: I want to give my baby fresh, organic food but I don't have the time to make her special meals. What options are out there?
- Marie L., via e-mail

Babies deserve the best possible start in life, so giving them nutritious food is a must, not only for good health but also to establish positive eating habits as early as possible.

According to Consumers Union (CU), publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, commercial baby foods, many of which are made up of condensed fruits and vegetables, can contain high concentrations of pesticide residues. "A lot of these pesticides are toxic to the brain," says Philip Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics and preventative medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Citing studies that have linked smaller head circumference and reduced intelligence in babies to in utero exposure to pesticides consumed by their mothers, Landrigan says it is best not to gamble when it comes to baby food.

If you're not already serving organic baby food, CU urges making the switch as soon as possible. A 2005 study ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency measured pesticide levels in the urine of 23 children in Washington State before and after a switch to an organic diet. After five straight days on the diet, pesticide measures fell to undetectable levels and remained so until the conventional diets resumed. The study concluded: "An organic diet provides a dramatic and immediate protective effect" against pesticide exposure.

Fortunately for concerned parents the organic food industry is growing rapidly, and one result is the availability of a wide selection of organic baby foods in both natural food stores and mainstream supermarkets. Some leading jar- and box-based choices come from Gerber, Earth's Best, Homemade Baby and others. And frozen meals from the likes of Happy Baby, Plum Organics, Bobo Baby and other relative upstarts mix good flavor and fresh healthy ingredients with convenience. Using the power of cold temperatures to keep their foods fresh allows these companies to avoid the use of traditional preservatives.

Happy Baby's frozen meals come in individual cubes in flavors like "Baby Dahl and Mama Grain," an organic mixture of bananas, black beans and quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah). Quinoa is a high-protein whole grain that is considered a complete protein because it contains all eight essential amino acids.

Plum Organics offers flash-frozen, nutrient-rich organic meals that come in reusable four-ounce cups in varieties like "Super Greens" (peas, spinach and green beans) and "Red Lentil Veggie" (potatoes, carrots, corn and red lentils). Bobo Baby specializes in organic, kosher and allergen-free flash-frozen baby meals.

For parents inclined toward cooking instead of opening jars or microwaving, making baby food out of fresh organic ingredients does not have to be complicated or time-consuming. Fresh Baby sells cooking kits, cookbooks and food trays to help parents concoct and serve the freshest and healthiest baby food possible right from their own kitchens.

CONTACTS: Earth Best; Homemade Baby; Happy Baby; Bobo Baby; Plum Organics; Fresh Baby

DEAR EARTHTALK: I was surprised to learn recently that some cities, including New York, have outlawed kitchen-sink garbage disposals, at least in homes. I would have thought these machines were Earth-friendly. What's the deal?
- Maggie Mangan, St. Louis, MO

Kitchen sink garbage disposals are not necessarily Earth-friendly in and of themselves, but they do play a valuable role in grinding up food scraps into small enough bits for local sewer or on-site septic systems to handle. In the U.S. overall, about half of all homes have a garbage disposal in the kitchen. New York did outlaw the devices for many years, thinking a ban would alleviate the strain on the city's aging sewer system. But a study later conducted in the mid-1990s found benefits to lifting the ban, including a likely reduction in rat and cockroach problems and a reduced flow of solid waste to landfills already bursting at the seams. So in 1997 the Big Apple began allowing the devices again.

But garbage disposals are not the greenest way to dispose of food waste. According to Mark Jeantheau of the popular eco-website Grinning Planet, conscientious consumers interested in returning food-based nutrients back to the Earth should bypass the garbage disposal in favor of composting.

"The ground-up waste [in a garbage disposal] does not go back to nature's water supply to be gobbled up by fish and other life forms," he says. Sewage-treatment and septic systems remove "any food value the waste might have had." Indeed, most modern-day sewer filtration systems utilize chemicals to rid the outflow of any life forms, beneficial or otherwise. Plus, grinding food in a garbage disposal uses a lot of freshwater, which is becoming a more and more precious commodity.

Those on their own septic systems also might want to minimize their use of the garbage disposal. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), regular use of garbage disposals leads to a "more rapid buildup of scum and sludge layers in the septic tank and increased risk of clogging in the soil adsorption field due to higher concentrations of suspended solids in the effluent." Jeantheau adds that even if a given septic system is designed to handle heavier, food-based loads, it still might not be worth the risk: "There are few homeowner nightmares worse than having your septic system go belly up."

While composting may sound like a messy proposition, it doesn't have to be. For starters, those doing the dishes should make sure to dump any and all food waste items into a kitchen-based composting bin with a lid that seals tight. Many municipalities now make such bins available to interested residents. A mesh strainer in the hole in the sink can catch smaller food scraps and be dumped into the composting bin when the dishes are done.

When the kitchen-based compost bin fills up, it can be dumped into a larger composting bin outside. After four to six months, you should have some nice compost to add to your garden and jumpstart the health of your soil. Companies such as The Compost Bin and Clean Air Gardening offer online sales of a wide variety of quality compost bins of different shapes and sizes, and provide a wealth of comparative information for the interested consumer.

CONTACTS: Grinning Planet; The Compost Bin; Clean Air Gardening

DEAR EARTHTALK: Is removing the salt from ocean water (desalination) a feasible fix for the world’s shortage of fresh water?
- Nora Jones, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Fresh water scarcity is already posing major problems for more than a billion people around the world, mostly in arid developing countries. The World Health Organization predicts that by mid-century, four billion of us - nearly two-thirds of the world's present population - will face severe fresh water shortages.

With human population expected to balloon another 50 percent by 2050, resource managers are increasingly looking to alternative scenarios for quenching the world's growing thirst. Desalination - a process whereby highly pressurized ocean water is pushed through tiny membrane filters and distilled into drinking water - is being held forth by some as one of the most promising solutions to the problem. But critics point out it doesn't come without its economic and environmental costs.

According to the non-profit Food & Water Watch, desalinated ocean water is the most expensive form of fresh water out there, given the infrastructure costs of collecting, distilling and distributing it. The group reports that, in the U.S., desalinated water costs at least five times as much to harvest as other sources of fresh water. Similar high costs are a big hurdle to desalination efforts in poor countries as well, where limited funds are already stretched too thin.

On the environmental front, widespread desalination could take a heavy toll on ocean biodiversity. "Ocean water is filled with living creatures, and most of them are lost in the process of desalination," says Sylvia Earle, one of the world's foremost marine biologists and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. "Most are microbial, but intake pipes to desalination plants also take up the larvae of a cross section of life in the sea, as well as some fairly large organisms... part of the hidden cost of doing business," she says.

Earle also points out that the very salty residue left over from desalination must be disposed of properly, not just dumped back into the sea. Food & Water Watch concurs, warning that coastal areas already battered by urban and agricultural run-off can ill afford to absorb tons of concentrated saltwater sludge.

Food & Water Watch advocates instead for better fresh water management practices. "Ocean desalination hides the growing water supply problem instead of focusing on water management and lowering water usage," the group reports, citing a recent study which found that California can meet its water needs for the next 30 years by implementing cost-effective urban water conservation. Desalination is "an expensive, speculative supply option that will drain resources away from more practical solutions," the group says.

Despite such arguments, the practice is becoming more common. Ted Levin of the Natural Resources Defense Council says that more than 12,000 desalination plants already supply fresh water in 120 nations, mostly in the Middle East and Caribbean. And analysts expect the worldwide market for desalinated water to grow significantly over the coming decades. Environmental advocates may just have to settle for pushing to "green" the practice as much as possible in lieu of eliminating it altogether.

CONTACTS: Food & Water Watch; Natural Resources Defense Council, "Turning Oceans into Tapwater"

© the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine, 2007

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Now in its 18th year, E/The Environmental Magazine is a bimonthly “clearinghouse” of information, news and resources for people concerned about the environment who want to know “What can I do?” to make a difference. A 13-time Independent Press Awards winner and nominee, E is chock full of everything environmental - from recycling to rainforests, and from the global village to our own backyards.

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