Ella's Kitchen

Ella's Kitchen is the coolest brand for kids right now. It was invented by a dad who wanted to provide his kids with nothing but the best; organic food with a great taste. In addition to being organic, their products contain no sugar, salt or nuts and of course there are no E-numbers or GM products.

There are a lot of different types of food to choose from, from fruits to full meals to desserts and snacks. The meals come adjusted for certain ages and also special diets like lactose or vegetarian.

And the containers are just the cutest! No glass that can break, they are completely chemical-free and can easily be re-sealed and finished later. If you stock up, they can even be put in the freezer. Perfect when you're on the run since they are so easy to bring and the kids can eat straight from the container. Good news for all parents I think.

Another great thing is that you can easily bring the products on the plane when travelling. British Airways has actually included Ella's Kitchens fruit-smoothies in their child breakfast meals. How cool is that?

Ella's won the Grocery brand of the year award in 2011 in Sweden and they have recieved several other awards for their products.

When the containers are empty, you can recycle and reuse them with TerraCycle. So far only in the U.K, Ireland and Sweden.

Strawberries

In Sweden strawberries are the biggest sign that summer has finally arrived. Ask any Swede and he/she will tell you that there is absolutely no strawberries anywhere in the world as good as the Swedish ones. We eat them for breakfast, lunch and dessert and we put them in salads for dinner together with grilled meat. We eat them as snacks, as appetizers together with feta-cheese, or in smoothies. The best thing ever is to go to your local farmer and pick them yourself. You spend hours in the fields eating as many as you're picking and leave sunburnt with red fingertips and many, many liters of bright red berries. Those get in the freezer to enjoy wintertime or they are turned into jam or cordials.

Pesticides used when growing strawberries in Sweden are Betanal SC/Kemifam SC. The company that sells these products in Sweden (Bayer CropScience) writes on their own website that whatever is left of the pesticide after spraying the fields shall be kept away from children and animals and separated from food. I really don't see how that goes together since we serve those sprayed strawberries to our children later....

In a test carried out in 2009, 94% of the conventionally grown strawberries (Swedish and others) contained traces of pesticides. Several of the pesticides discovered are suspected to cause cancer.

The good news is that the industry is working to find solutions that allow less harmful farming, so I hope it will soon be easier to find organic ones. Strawberries grown organically will meet challenges like weed, fungus and different pests, so you need to grow tough species and to put in more work to keep your plants free. It's definitely worth doing so though since studies have shown that organic strawberries can actually prevent cancer. Makes the choice quite easy... You can read more about this at krav.se. 

According to a recent study made at Lunds University in Sweden, bees really like organic strawberries. They pollinated 45% of the strawberry-flowers on the organic farms and only 17% on the conventional farms. So you can basically turn one wrong into two rights and have bee-hives next to your strawberry-farm.

Eat!

Eat! Ekostore is a fantastic little store in the centre of Stockholm that has everything you need, just as your regular supermarket. You can find milk, meat, juice, vegetables and grains. They have a selection of schampoos, detergents, baby-products and sunscreens as well as chocolate, candies, nuts and much much more. So there is nothing you can't find in here. It feels good to know that you don't have to check for the organic labels, instead you just buy what you need and you'll know it's not harmful in any way. They are open 7 days a week with really generous opening hours, so there's no reason to shop anywhere else. It's also nice to support the local community and to make sure we keep wonderful places like this one open.

If you're a company they're able to deliver fruit to the office; a nice and easy way to care about your employees. They will even bring coffee, milk or other products if you want to. Of course your shopping will be delivered in a car that runs on biogas.

As an ECOmmunity member you'll get special deals and invitations to events, and if you're on Twitter or Facebook you'll get all the latest news and offers. Also, check out their website were you can read their blog and find some delicious dinner inspiration in the recipes section.

Earth from Above

The French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand takes truly amazing pictures of our earth.

What's important to this photographer is to show the impact humans have on the planet, and his book Earth from Above has sold millions of copies all over the world. I have a version of that book called Earth from above - 365 days. It's a fantastic book with amazing photos and next to each picture he talks about the beauty of that particular place but also what difficulites they face and what steps needs to be taken to take care of the planet, the people and the animals that lives here.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is also the creator of Goodplanet Foundation that aims to raise awareness on environmental issues. They have several interesting projects including "7 billion Others". In this project they have interviewed 6000 people in 84 counties about their daily life and their hopes and dreams for the future. It's meant to show what unites us, to make us reach out to each other and to realize that we're all in this together.

Check out his website and browse through many spectacular pictures. The book Earth from Above is a perfect gift to friends and family.

Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood has always had a strong sense of social and environmental responsibility, and in her collection Red Label Summer 2012 she introduced a cooperation with Cool Earth. This organization is protecting our rainforests, and their main goal is to save those parts of the forests that are in immediate danger of being destroyed. They are working together with local communities to provide a sustainable future for the people of the rainforest.

Scary fact - The Amazon rainforest provides 20% of the world’s fresh water and a fifth of the world’s oxygen.
Still 400 000kvm (100 acres) of rainforest is being cleared every minute! Cool Earth caluculated it like this - In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO₂ into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. That really puts it into perspective, doesn't it?

Vivienne Westwood is also involved in another important project. For the winter 2012/2013 she has designed a collection of handbags made from recycled materials and handmade in Kenya. This project is carried out with support from the U.N. Ethical Fashion Program designed to empower women in some of the poorest communities in the world.

Check-out and shop Viviennes cool outfits and accessories on her homepage.