Guest Blogger
Leslie Garrett
Leslie Garrett is an award-winning journalist, author and mother of three children who frequently send her to the mall in search of snow boots, underwear or whatever else they’ve outgrown.
Tired of coming home with stress headaches, she began researching how to shop with a social and environmental conscience.
Convinced she wasn’t alone in her desire to make smarter, more earth-friendly purchases, she developed The Virtuous Consumer, a syndicated column about socially and environmentally responsible choices, that appears regularly in newspapers throughout North America. Her book, The Virtuous Consumer: Your Essential Shopping Guide for a Better, Kinder, Healthier World (and one our kids will thank us for!) was released in July 2007.
Leslie has been the "green" correspondent for the A Channel's Morning Show, CFRB’s Garden Show with Mark Cullen and award-winning co-host of CHRW radio's GreenWorld.
Her articles on green living frequently appear in national magazines and she's a regular blogger for gaiam.com, petergreenberg.com and her own site, virtuousconsumer.com.
She speaks frequently to groups ranging from consumer shows to not-for-profits.
Mother’s Manifesto for a Healthy Baby
I hesitate to tackle the topic of pregnancy and babies. For one thing, I run the risk of getting myself so delighted at the thought that I decide to go for Baby #4. On the other hand, I run the risk of exacerbating my own guilt at what I did/didn’t do when my three were [...]
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In Praise of the Family Dinner
My mother, no doubt, feels vindicated. She always insisted on “family time” as she called it. Our entire family was required to sit down at the dinner table together – no TV, no phone calls. To reconnect. Of course, my brother and I resisted just to drive our mom crazy… We complained, we whined, we [...]
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There’s a new Toxin in Toyland
The Christmas of 2007 might go down as the year that parents were paralyzed by toy recalls, with more than 25 million taken off the shelves. In August 2008, U.S. congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a bill that bans lead and several phthalates from children’s products, including toys.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…Regift?
A few years ago I was given a food processor. It was a nice enough food processor but there was something huh? about this gift. I hadn’t asked for one. Indeed, I already possessed a food processor.
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Exorcising Ghosts of Christmas Past
My mother loved the holidays. While she feigned poverty the other 364 days of the year, (“If you need new sneakers, you’ll just have to wait until Christmas.”), she pulled out all the stops on December 25. Christmas was when we got soda pop – two bright red cases of Pop Shoppe, filled with Cream [...]
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