Mama talks with Adria Vasil, Author of Ecoholic

I few weeks ago, I received a copy of Ecoholic by Adria Vasil. I loved the book so much that I asked her for an interview! The nitty gritty of our interview is listed below.

Mama: Ecoholic is loaded with tons of valuable information. How long did it take you to conduct research for the book? Was it difficult to convince companies to disclose the ingredients in their products?

Adria Vasil: Ecoholic is definitely a research-intense book – luckily I’m completely addicted to digging for dirt! I’ve been researching these topics non-stop for, oh, over 5 years, ever since I started the weekly Ecoholic Q&A column in 2004, which was the foundation for this book. My job’s a little easier now that more and more companies are finally fessing up to what ingredients are in their products – if they don’t, you have to wonder what they’re hiding.

Mama: Your book “names names” and gives the dirt on what not to buy and why. Why did you decide to give names?

Adria Vasil: It would easy for me to be really vague and say “stay away from products with bad chemicals in them and reach for cleaner ingredients,” but that doesn’t really help people make decisions when they’re shopping if they don’t know what to look for and which chemicals are really bad. I like to take the guesswork out for people and make it as easy for them to make the greenest choices. That’s why I not only tell you who to avoid but also give you websites for the good guys so you can track them down with one click.

Mama: How do you respond to individuals who do not believe global warming is an important issue?

Adria Vasil: You know, climate change can seem like such an abstract issue it can be hard for people to really grasp why it’s important to deal with today. But already today, right now, people are being evacuated from low-lying Pacific islands because melting-glaciers are raising sea levels -and every time we pump out dirty emissions here in North America, we’re partly responsible for that (the US produces 25% of the world’s climate-cooking carbon dioxide!). Plus if you are a mom, you’ve got to wonder what the world will be like when your kids and grandkids grow up – if we don’t change things quickly, those kids are going to be dealing with more severe drought, more intense hurricanes, coastal flooding, the list goes on. No mom out there would knowingly help that happen, so we just need to start helping peole connect the dots more.

Mama: It seems like you wrote this book because you got fed up with people “not knowing what to do”. Is this true?

Adria Vasil: You’re right! I really felt people needed to know more all the tiny little ways we could make a difference. I had actually started off as regular news journalist covering environmental and social issues and the more I wrote negative news about what was happening to the planet, the more important starting the Ecoholic column became to me. I wanted a space where readers could write in looking for answers and solutions to everyday green questions. And writing the Ecoholic book was just a really great way of getting these kinds of solutions out to even more people across the continent.

Mama: I love the picture on the front cover. Whose idea was that?

Adria Vasil: My friend Dustin and I jammed on that! Dustin Rabin is an amazing photographer who usually takes photos for rock bands and celebrities and he came to me and said, “hey, what if we took a crack at shooting your new book cover?” We shot a bunch of different versions in my backyard that didn’t make it to the front cover but my favourite is the back cover shot of the top of my head looking up at an energy-efficient lightbulb!

Mama: Many people are not familiar with the term “Greenwash”, can you explain what it means?

Adria Vasil: Greenwashing is basically when a company paints a big green stripe down its back and tries to make itself or its products look more environmentally friendly than it is. It’s a massive problem now with everyone trying to cash in on the green trend. A product might put the word “organic” or “natural” in its name, but you flip it over and find out it only has maybe 2 organic ingredients and the rest are dodgy chemicals. Or the product says it’s recycled, but it’s actually bleached with harmful chemicals, that kind of thing. I try to warn readers about this every chance I get!

Mama: What advice would you give to consumers who want to live a more eco-friendly, sustainable life but cannot afford to buy organic food, or trade in their car for a more energy efficient one?

Adria Vasil: Honestly, going green doesn’t have to cost you anything – in fact it can save you cash. Just look at our grandparents – they were environmentalists without even knowing it whenever they turned off the lights, reused their aluminum foil, kept the house cooler in winter, canned their own local produce in season – all in the name of saving money! Even if you can’t afford to buy organic, it won’t cost you more to look for fruits and veggies grown close to home (plus you can score serious deals on farm-direct organic produce when you go through CSAs,Community Supported Agriculture). And even if you can’t afford to buy a hybrid, you can drive less aggressively to save 40% more fuel than when you race between stop signs, and you can look into setting up a carpooling listserv at work or with your kids little league to see if there are other moms driving from your direction. I made sure to load up Ecoholic with tons of tips like that on greening your life that actually keep more cash in your pocket than not.

Mama: In this book, you talk about everything from beauty and baby products to traveling and reusing sports equipment. Did you have to leave anything out?

Adria Vasil: Even though this book is rammed with 360 pages covering nearly every topic under the sun (from greener schools to a greener sex life!), I was still way over word count when I originally wrote Ecoholic. Unfortunately we couldn’t fit it all in, but that just means I’ll have to include those bits in future books!

Mama: What are your next project(s)?

Adria Vasil: Ecoholic Home edition is finished and coming to the Canadian market later this fall – hopefully it will be coming to the US soon too!