ASK has its yearly membership renewal drive in August, just before our new season of activities starts in September. Since one bulk mailing is so much cheaper than mailing individual first class notices each month, all members except those who…

ASK has been slowly but surely moving into the electronic communications world. But don’t worry, we won’t do away with the hard copy of the newsletter. So where have we been and where are we going? Our first attempt at…

A water footprint is the total volume of fresh water used to produce a certain good. Many people live in dry regions that cannot support the production of goods requiring a lot of water, so they effectively consume water in…

By Bridget Stutchbury Though a consumer may not be able to tell the difference, a tomato from Florida is often not the same as one grown in Mexico. The imported fruits and vegetables found in our shopping carts in winter…

Natural Resources Defense Council: A Shopper’s Guide to Home Tissue Products Canada’s boreal forest is one of the largest unspoiled forests left on earth. It provides breeding grounds for up to three billion birds each spring, and nearly half of…

By Russ Schipper As far as coffee refreshments go at ASK meetings, an apt description could be wrapped in a single word, “decaf,” and our wise and responsible Hospitality Committee reliably has good decaf coffee available. Now that coffee has…

By Russ Schipper This information is from Tom Dietsch. Tom was one of the graduate students whose research in Central American coffee plantations was supported by ASK several years ago. He is still very much involved in the shade coffee…