According to a recent post in the Agriculture Information online community, the nation’s first certified-organic bar has just opened in New York City’s Greenwich Village: 

The bar, GustOrganic, is located inside the popular New York City organic restaurant of the same name. 

Now with both a certified organic restaurant and bar in the same building, dedicated organic food eaters and beverage drinkers won’t have to step outside of their organic lifestyles at GustOrganic in order to have a before, during and after dinner cocktail with their 100% organic meals.  

While this is certainly a great step for the organic movement, it’ll be interesting to see whether this starts a trend in restaurants and bars seeking organic certification. While consumers have certainly become aware of organics in relationship to the food and beverages they consume, alcoholic beverages are still a relative newcomer to the organic market - and beer and liquor are a space that tends to be wrapped up in brand loyalty. Will consumers who love their Bacardi or Tangueray be willing to make the switch to an organic brand? Will the Bacardis and Tanguerays of the world start working towards organic versions of their brands? We’ll see.

I was just pointed to this blog post by Martin Bishop of Landor Associates announcing Amazon’s recent decision to work with its manufacturers to eliminate the demonic plastic clamshell and annoying wire ties package so many of the products that we buy consistently. Sony, Microsoft, and Best Buy are also in on the effort.

There’s apparently a term for this - “Wrap Rage.” You’ve likely experienced it - I know I have. It’s the visceral anger that comes from getting a product home from a retailer and attempting to open it; usually with a variety of tools, and quite often with casualties involved. In fact, according to a New York Times article referenced in Bishop’s post, 6,000 people each year have to go to the emergency room because of cuts received from trying to open clamshell packaging. 

To me, aside from the personal injury aspect of the clamshell, there’s a fundamental waste issue. If you look at a clamshell, it’s almost like a plastic sculpture - huge amounts of plastic are wasted for something as small as a SIM Card or USB Key, and on top of that you have the cardboard used to create the marketing piece associated with the packaging - not to mention the extra cardboard and paper used to hide things like A/C adapters and user instructions. How can manufacturers reconcile their increasing desire to be viewed as “green” companies when they’re putting this much material into packaging small objects?

Just in time for the holidays, it’s the zen kitchen’s first annual Holiday Survival Kit! This handy-dandy PDF is full of worksheets and tools - some practical and some downright silly - that’ll help you get through some of the most common family holiday dilemmas, including:

• Planning and cooking the usual many-course meal;
• Navigating the many (many) stops you’ll need to make to family during the holiday;
• Trying to remember who that random uncle is who remembers you when you were “this high;”
• Dealing with those *ahem* uncomfortable questions that are bound to pop up.

You can download the full PDF here, and print out only the pages you really need to make your holidays work. Happy holidays!