Urban Blog

 
Women unite! We are facing a global chocolate shortage. Climate change has hurt the reliability of cocoa crops so farmers are switching to more stable ones. Demand for luxury food is also going up as the rest of the world catches up to the West. Colin Payne has more details at Inhabitat. In the meantime, let’s think about a few chocolatey problems Colin didn’t touch on.
 
Notice that I just called chocolate a luxury food. Are we really treating it like one?
 
When we load chocolate with unpronounceable ingredients so that the actual cocoa content is less than half, can we even taste the stuff?

When we pay discount prices for cocoa products, do we care whether the farmers are paid for their work? Most chocolate producers do not pay cocoa farmers adequately for their work. Some farmers give up on cocoa not because of farming problems but because buyers are willing to pay better for other cash crops.
 
If cocoa is a luxury food, why are we eating it constantly and paying low prices?
 
To live a simple, conscientious life, sometimes you have to go back to treating luxuries like luxuries. It might mean eating less chocolate or being willing to pay what it’s really worth. Simple living isn’t about paying as little as possible for everything. It’s about dedicating your resources where they matter. If you’ve simplified your budget in other ways like hanging laundry to save electricity, you may have freed up enough money to pay what food is really worth. Buying Fair Trade is one way to pay for chocolate.
 
Inhabitat has loads of articles on cocoa.
 
Resized image is CC 2.0 by Irene Scott/AusAID
 

 
If you’re in your twenties it’s not too early to be conscientious in the way you live your life. The Art of Simple reader Rebecca is about to graduate, and has asked Tsh what she wishes she would have done when she was younger. It’s a personal answer with room for comments.
 
A click for all ages
 

 
The last article I referenced was about slowing down and considering why you have chosen your life so you can stay motivated. It makes sense that the following article is about keeping a journal. Journalling forces you to find signifance in events that you overlook the importance of because they may be important only to you. That’s not a bad thing, you know.
 
The art of journalling is at The Art of Simple
 

 
When it comes to housekeeping and building a family up, it’s almost everybody’s first time. It’s no surprise that Kresha Faber’s tips at Keeper of the Home are so popular. She writes on five ways to step back and look at why you’re living your life the way you are. Hopefully she can help you not only to remember to take regular breaks, but to get motivated again.
 
Take the time.
 

 
For many of you it’s shoveling season already. Thankfully, Jillee is staying on top of this fall and has already released a formula for hand warming salve. Her sister Rebecca at Camp Wander discovered that black pepper essential oil gave a warming effect to a yet unpurposed salve like her Naked Salve. Now you shovelers can have faster recovery times.
 
Visit Jillee
 

 
When you see and smell the coffee grounds left in your coffee maker after a good brew, you know there is still something good left inside them. Diane Hoffmaster has ten ways to reuse coffee grounds around the house, from cleaning aids to health to crafts.
 
Visit Turning the Clock Back.
 

 
Derek Markham put his heart into this article. In it he cites several news sources about plastic pollution in our water. Many of the particles are microscopic or nearly so. But did you realize that using synthetic fabrics in the household contributes to plastic pollution every time you do laundry? Derek doesn’t preach at you to get rid of all your synthetics right now, as he knows that would be impractical and create waste. Visit him at TreeHugger to read the whole post.
 
Remember, we drink this stuff.
 

 
If you’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, won’t it be great for the cooking and entertaining to go smoothly? You can’t control everything that happens on a busy holiday, but you can control whether you remember all your dinner ingredients so you won’t have to get anything last-minute. Heather Solos explains a spreadsheet system that is the perfect way to organize a Thanksgiving shopping list including several recipes.
 
See Home Ec 101
 

Lagos, Nigeria, has a waste management problem. Municipal services are only collecting 40% of the city’s garbage and only manages to separate 13% of the recyclable garbage from that. Imagine piles of garbage lining the streets of your neighborhood. It’s stressful just to walk by. It clogs gutters and sewers, making floods more common, and dirty water with garbage floating in it runs right into people’s front doors. Yet local recycling facilities are only running at half capacity.
 
Wecyclers is a new company that is giving communities a chance to take waste into their own hands. Wecyclers collects recyclable waste and reimburses families and communities. Staff use the green power of tricycles with carts to transport the waste.
 
No wonder they won the 2014 Sustania Award.
 
Thanks to Derek Markham for letting us know on TreeHugger.
 

 
Homemade cleaning spray that kills bacteria is simple enough to make: just take vinegar and dilute it a little. But if you can cover the vinegar smell with something beautiful, it is much better. Grab the new recipe at Wellness Mama for a safe lemon basil cleaning spray recipe with essential oils.
 
Smells clean