MSNBC Contributor Preaches on Eco-evils of Halloween

Photo of Ken Shepherd.
  • Bookmark and Share

Forget zombies, vampires, ghosts and goblins. TodayShow.com contributor Marisa Belger is spooked by how eco-unfriendly Halloween is (via Daily Gut):

Halloween can be an especially eco-unfriendly holiday. There’s the single-use plastic of red devil costumes, countless candy wrappers (not to mention the refined sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and artificial color of the candies themselves) and disposable decorations. According to the National Retail Federation’s Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, Americans will spend more than $5 million on Halloween paraphernalia this year. That’s more than $5 million worth of stuff that ultimately ends up impacting the earth.

Fortunately for us, Belger has some handy tips, such as "organic treats." But before you egg her house, kids, she insists she doesn't mean fruit is the only alternative to candy:

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

I am not of the Halloween school of thought that believes it is at all acceptable to substitute sweet treats for, say, an apple (potential hidden razor blades aside) or a box of raisins. But I do think it’s important to give little trick-or-treaters goodies that are made from all-natural, organic ingredients.

This year, kids who knock on our door will be receiving Endangered Species Chocolates organic dark chocolate Bug Bites. Each .35 ounce square of delectable organic chocolate comes with one of 32 insect trading cards. Endangered Species also gives 10 percent of its net profits to help support species, habitat and humanity. Creepy, cool and conscious — just the way I like it.

Another twist on the Halloween treat is individual bags of organic cookies. I’m a big fan of Immaculate Baking Co.’s Pumpkin Gingerlies (pumpkin ginger goodness) and Sweet Georgia Brownies (chocolate on chocolate) — both available in 1.25 oz bags. Immaculate’s cookies are made with organic ingredients and the company has also created a “Soul-Food fund” that supports folk artists of every age and ability.

Something tells me neither the Today show nor MSNBC would not be keen on say an evangelical Christian's tips on how to use trick-or-treating as an opportunity to proselytize. But when it comes to the secular religion of environmentalism, no holiday is a day of rest from ecovangelism.

—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

The religion of

The religion of environmentalism is everywhere.  And they want to make sure the indoctrination is done at the youngest possible age.  I have a feeling the kids who get the organic goodies will trade them away or throw them away. 

When I was a kid, my best friend's dad was a dentist and he used to give out little toothbrushes and tiny tubes of toothpaste to trick or treaters.  Of course they didn't give out many as the kids usually skipped that house once they became known in the neighborhood for those non-traditional goodies.

indoctrination, indeed

I was shocked at the overt brainwashing that was embedded in the movie Wall-E, a movie meant for kids. We have literally let Hollywood shape the way we think, dress, live and love. And they'll even stoop as low as to target kids. And what parent would say to their kid, "No, you're not going to see Wall-E?"

Totally. Out. Of. Control.

Guess kids can't just have fun

They have to learn 24/7 that they are killing the planet. I'm glad i'm not a kid nowadays. I remember having fun during halloween

I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it - Voltaire

I think your Voltaire

I think your Voltaire quote particularly applies to items like this one. 

McNotObama '08

Voltaire didn't forsee our side being incompetent

with bad leadership

I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it - Voltaire

(rolling eyes)

Liberals never cease to amaze me when it comes to bi*ching about, well, whatever. I think they sit around and just *think* of things to get offended about.

You know what makes liberals mad? The fact that conservatives might be having a good time. They can literally take the innocence and fun out of absolutely everything.

 

I can just see the kids

I can just see the kids leaving her house.  "What is this crap?"  asks Jimmy.

"Dunno, looks like treebark and rabbit droppings.  Taste like it too!" Johnny replied.

"Johnny, let's TP this house, for sure."

"Yeah, okay.  I'll go home and get some earth friendly toilet paper."

"Great!" Jimmy replied, "Don't forget the organic eggs." 

“But maybe you obviously have a better memory about that."- Wolf Blitzer

recycle

make sure to recycle doggie deposits, too!

LOL!

nice one! :-)

 I'll summerize the kids collective response to getting this "eco-friendly" candy:

"What the hell is this crap?" (casually tosses eco-crap out of bag onto the road where it's run over repeatedly all night into a brown smudge seen for days)

Ben, Lion, Jnoble, OK, I

Ben, Lion, Jnoble,

OK, I literally got choked by laughing so hard that my daughter came down to see if I was ok.   No kid wants this stuff.  Please let our kids have one day, ONE DAY, where they can go out and have spooky fun and eat this wonderful yummy candy.  (We promise to make them brush their teeth before they go to bed and have an extra serving of veggies the next day.)

 

Ms. Belger, give me a friggin' break!

We generally

We generally stayed away from the pennies and apples that some folks passed out. Candy and popcorn balls were kings.

Organic cookies?

The moonbats & a$$hats could take the fun out of a funeral.

I'm going straight chocolate all the way, as I always do.  The kids jump up and down and the moms & dads roll their eyes skyward....I've done my job.

 

In his own words (19 seconds):  This man is qualified to be VP?

Me too, B....what is the

Me too, B....

I've got my stash all ready to go....M&M's, Hersheys, Butterfingers, Reese's, Snickers, you name it!

what is the point of going door to door if you're going home with granola bars and soy beans?

I will admit that other than for trick or treat, I am NOT a fan of Halloween!  I think there is way too much effort and money spent on a holiday that for adults centers around blood, violence and gore.

But believe me, "the environment" does NOT enter into it.

BTW I think I'll start using quotes around "the environment" all the time!

when I was a kid

the best candy to get was a full size Hershey bar or a large Reeses Peanutbutter Cup

 The worst was candy-corn (it's like eating wax), pennys, or a little pamplet telling me how much Jesus loves me. No offense to Jesus, but he doesn't have a sweet marshmellow or coconut center. :-)

mb....GMTA

You have hit all of the chocolate on my list!  What's the point if you don't give the kids the good stuff?  When I first moved into my neighborhood, there were no little kids at all.  Now it's great, I have to buy bags & bags of candy to make sure I don't run out, and the costumes are great!

I like Halloween because I like carving the pumkins!  I have a big fat one just waiting for me & the knives, LOL.

 

In his own words (19 seconds):  This man is qualified to be VP?

To me, if it ain't

To me, if it ain't chocolate, it ain't candy!!!

Precisely!

Post of the day!

 

In his own words (19 seconds):  This man is qualified to be VP?

MB

Damn straight!  Except for skittles, smarties and mary janes  (and I don't mean weed!) 

NOPE!!!!

No quarter!

I stand by my statement!!  

 

Sorry Mb...Obama's Health Care = No Candy!!!!

Sorry...

That would add to Government Health care costs.

New Government approved list:

Tofu

Twigs

Leaves

Arugula

Add to anything I missed.

Ster.

coconut cream pie?  Oh

coconut cream pie?  Oh no... that would just be for the "leaders" not the common folk.

Single-Use Wrappers

And how many millions do we waste each year on single-use condoms? Huh? Huh?

HAHAHAHAHA!!! That is NOT

HAHAHAHAHA!!! That is NOT something I would want to use again!

»→ Yuck

Sometimes planned obsolescence is a good thing.

Underdog & Pitbull 08

If my kid comes home with

If my kid comes home with some arugula in his bag, someones going to pay!

Pay a lot for, too. Isn't

Pay a lot for, too. Isn't arugula the vegetable who's price at Whole Foods Our Dear Leader Obama was complaining about?

McNotObama '08

I demand an answer this time!

  What the hell is wrong with these people?

   Everything is recyclable. Putting something in a garbage dump is saving it for some future race that happens upon it 2 million years from now. Or 100 years from now when it is more expensive to pump up a little oil than it is to dig up a garbage pit.

  The only things that are not recyclable are the satellites we sent beyond the solar system, the rovers on mars, and that american flag on the moon! No one is complaining about those things are they?

  What is this insane crap about impacting the earth? Everything is made from the elements found on the earth. We rub them together, heat them up, pour a little bleach, BAM, new molecule. We put it in a pit with other garbage, it ages out and breaks down to the orginal elements. SOMEBODY MY GOD PUT A STOP TO THIS!

  What exactly do you think happens to those organic chocolates. They disappear down your rotten kids pieholes and explain to me how THAT is not a one time use. Do you collect their poop and use it to paint the basement?  That, now that is recycling organic chocolate my friend.

And that 5 million dollars, it did not just disappear, it moved to other hands to be spent on something else. God, you people are brainless stupid stupid...ow where is the motrin?

Sincerely,

a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.

I especially love the

I especially love the "organic fertilizer" crowd.

Chemical fertilizers are made up basically of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which the plants use for growth.

Organic fertilizers are manure and compost etc. which get put in the soil.  But plants can't use manure and garbage to fuel their growth, so those things have to be broken down into.....wait for it.....nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

So what's the difference?

OH, and PS...they never consider the increased risk of E-coli contamination from using waste products and garbage on our vegetable patches.

 

Thanks motherbelt

  I think I have reached my William F. Buckley moment.

  Except, instead of standing athwart history and yelling stop, I am standing in front of these idiots and yelling shut your friggin piehole you friggin motherhumper.

  Ok, I will work it out in the editing room.

Sincerely,

a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.

Yep, mb

Better living through chemicals, I always say!

I like "Milorganite"....but it smells like shiite (wonder why) and you can't use it on edible plants....go figure.

I do alot of gardening (I have orchids too)....and my one favorite thing is "Oganacide"....not sure what it's made of, but it kills the pesky varmits.  Oh, and I picked up some bugspray that is made out of marigolds that is organic, and totally kills roaches, ants, etc.  Other than those two products, I use what works (and they don't sell alot of my old favorites any longer, more the sadder).

 

In his own words (19 seconds):  This man is qualified to be VP?

It has become some kind of freakin' religion. I swear.

There is some real technology that can improve the recyclablility of waste but for gosh sakes all this "green" "eco"-BS is getting extremely tiresome and tedious and it is EVERYWHERE and is driving me nuts. I am sure that in a few million years we will be a 1 inch layer in the earth's crust.

"...no civilization, no matter how rich, no matter how refined, can long survive once it loses the power to meet force with equal or superior force." - Bernard Knox

If Marisa Belger wants

If Marisa Belger wants to be an obnoxious witch, it's her right.  It's just too bad that somebody actually pays her to spread this wealth of bile around.

I'm sure some birkenstock wearing parent somewhere would really appreciate the dark chocolate with insect trading cards, but if you really want to please a kid, well, the double pack Reeses Peanut Butter cup will do just fine especially if you live in my neighborhood. I'm the 6 foot guy in the pirate costume!

Christmas is #1 in spending; Halloween is #2

5 Dazes after halloween, this year we shall hear this:

President-elect 0bama.

halloween in 2009 will be #1..

I'm too far in the sticks for any trick AND treaters!

When i was a kid me and my friend would walk for miles and collect a shopping bag full...

Today the kids are driven around, and are never out of sight of the drivers.

CLIMATE CRISIS

0bama will stab Israel in the back, to sit down with his protege, Ackdinnerjacket, yea he can talk with this guy..sample below.

IranianUranium

upc

Same here upc...as kids we walked for miles too and had grocery bag (paper) or pillow case full....

I am in the same pickle as you are...I love Halloween, I used to decorate the yard, spook, goblin music, lanterns and candles all up the walk..

I loved teasing the kids too...you used to be able make them perform a trick if possible for the treat, as in sing a jingle or so such...it was great fun......

Now I love too far in the woods for the kids, their parents all drive them to towns...

Waah!

Now I have to eat my own trick or treats...dang it all...(actually my husband does, I don't have a sweet tooth much)

Before you know if the leftists have their way, they will abolish Halloween.

Trick or meat

This makes me want to hang some antlers on the door and hand out large frozen t-bones. A line really should be drawn (by law if necessary) when it comes to children. They don’t have the experience to measure against the irrational politics of liberals which is why they go after the kids in the first place.

Not_Lima

Where do you live?  Do you give t-bones to adult trick-or-treaters?  I mean trick-or-meaters?  Do you cook these t-bones?  If so, I'd like mine medium rare, please.

 

In his own words (19 seconds):  This man is qualified to be VP?

lol Blonde

I live in Baltimore so you really just have to grab it and run. Seriously, last year I didn’t have a single visitor. It really sucks.

Wow, that's rough

Baltimore is a bit far to travel for a steak, but I'll keep it in mind.

Wangle an invite to a neighborhood with lots of kids....it's such a hoot seeing how inventive some of the costumes are!

If not, have a party and trick or drink...that always works, too.

 

In his own words (19 seconds):  This man is qualified to be VP?

Blonde??? What should 40 somethings do for Halloween??

I got 6th Street here in Austin...which is a Big Deal...but a Friggin' ZOO!!!

If any of you ever want to see a FREAK SHOW...come to Austin...at your own PERREL !!

We are talking 100,000 freaks.  You gotta keep moving in a clockwise direction...no hanging around...no parking for blocks.  Google it if you are curious.

Ster.

»→ Well, Ster

Me & the Missus is gonna dress up and play Escaped Convict and the Warden's Wife.

Underdog & Pitbull 08

Cool...Are you sure??

That can be taken in Sooooo many ways....

Hehehehe

Ster.

Ster....you want to see a freak show?

Try Key West for Fantasy Fest some year.

I haven't been for years and years....but my SIL used to live on Duval Street (the main drag) in the old "cat house" (if you ever go, take the Conch Train...they'll point out the house, it has "hearts & bottles for gingerbread railings on the balcony).

Oh, the stories I could tell.

 

In his own words (19 seconds):  This man is qualified to be VP?

Blonde, UCW...6th Street is 10 minutes away...

And yet not far enough away from me!!!  Yeah we got South by SouthWest Music and Film Festival in August...but it turns PRIMEVIL the weekend of Halloween!!!

We got FREAKS from 100 miles away coming here!!!

I went ONCE dressed as Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War.  I was going "LOOK!! I ESCAPED!!! BUY ME A DRINK!!!"  All the LIBERAL Saddam lovers bought me drinks to "STICK IT TO USA IMPERALISM"...I'm NOT kidding!!

Needless to say, I didn't spend a dime on booze the entire night.

Ster.

TheSter, we have the

mandi gras of the pacific

So glad it's 40 miles from my home..

A small boat harbor is in Lahaina The  Annual Halloween  fishing turnment is based out of there.Nothing like hanging in the harbor, while the town is stark raving MAD.

 

COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT

IranianUranium

Candy!

Although we can't afford to do the chocolate thing, we go for quantity - handfuls of Willy Wonka and Tootsie Rolls - always favorites. I personally like banana Laffy Taffy and Tootsie Rolls. Most candy bars are milk chocolate - yuck! 70% dark chocolate for me please.

BTW, the razorblade in the apply story is a myth. I think it happened one time. Who wants apples in their bag anyway? Popcorn balls sure were good though. No one makes them anymore :(

Far too many helicopter parents these days take their kid to the mall instead of letting them Trick-or-Treat in the neighborhood. Other lame parents DRIVE their kids house to house. Then we have the local fundamentalist church that thinks that Halloween is a devil-worshiping holiday (do they not even know the history of Christianity?) and have a house of horror that includes botched abortions and kids dead from drugs. I bet that's a barrel of fun!

A big part of the fun is running around the streets at night.

 

Yeah, Lorraine

I have my 85 year old mom with me.....we were reminiscing about my costume when I was maybe 4 (I still remember it)....little princess, red velvet cloak trimmed with ermine (cotton balls).  We surely had no problem finding our way home...follow the cotton trail!

It seems to me that many have returned to the roots of the fun, though, I have a great time in my neighborhood, all of the parents (some of them even dress) walk with their kids and it is all very cool.  I'm looking forward to it...may have to go get another couple of pumpkins, LOL!

 

In his own words (19 seconds):  This man is qualified to be VP?

Rambles on Oct 31

Once I was Bugs Bunny.  Then I upgraded...to Spider-Man.  :-)

Is there NOTHING Leftists want to screw up?  Will they not be content until fun is totally outlawed and we are all totally miserable?

Um, DON'T answer that.  I think I know the answer.

(If we got apples as kids that would be a sure way to make damn sure we never went to THAT house ever again, razor blades or not.  And yeah, I suspect that whole razor-blade thing is urban folklore. My sisters and I would go to all-out war over Hershey's Special DarkOh, and I would count up the take and try as best I could to pawn off stuff I didn't want on other neighborhood kids and friends of mine at school.  Good times.  Halloween WAS fun once, and then I became a freakin' adult...)

Whoever casts a vote for Obama-Biden is nothing more than a common thief.  Whoever fails to vote against them is nothing more than a moral coward.

Whine on, Uns!

Kidding.

Have a party, dress up, go out!  Or volunteer to take the neices/nephews Trick or Treating....dress up and pretend to be a teenager....you'll get candy....then beat the kids up for the good stuff!

 

In his own words (19 seconds):  This man is qualified to be VP?

Some comedian (who is still

Some comedian (who is still funny) once said that the later it gets, the bigger the trick or treaters get. By the time 9:00 PM rolls around, they're six feet tall and have voices deeper than ours. That's about the same time you run out of candy and start desperately looking through your cabinets for anything to hand out that won't get you or your house hurt... 

McNotObama '08

After the kids went to bed

In my old neighborhood, back in the 80's, the adults used to go trick or treating to one another's houses. You had to bring your own glass, though :-)

Chai

“The beauty of our system isn’t that we have the right to vote. No, the nice thing is that people who are too dumb or lazy or uninformed to bother casting a ballot aren’t compelled to vote.” —Burt Prelutsky

Maybe that's who this

Maybe that's who this comedian was referring to - she thought they were really big kids. :) 

NB - Part of the New American Underground

Thank you Meowmeow!

I thought I was the only one ticked off by "Wall-E".

They had a big push for

They had a big push for that here, called it HallowGREEN.  Supposedly you were supposed to use green ribbons to mark that you were eco-friendly.  

When one of the presenters for the HallowGREEN mentioned the green ribbon part I said rather loudly, "At least they're making it easy to see which houses to skip."  It got a few laughs from the people listening but a nasty stare from the presenter.

Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying. - Ronald Reagan

I recycle all my ungiven

I recycle all my ungiven candy - and my waist line proves it. 

McNotObama '08

Yuuk

I wonder how much Belger's getting paid for the product placements in her column???? Maybe she gets free samples for plugging them. She can have them all.

Personally, I'd pass out the mini version of 3 Musketeers new mint flavor bars, but I live in a Seniors community and the kids don't come here.

Oh, well, I guess I'll just do my share to stimulate the economy by buying a couple of bags of them, anyway [they're sooo good when they're cold].

Chai

“The beauty of our system isn’t that we have the right to vote. No, the nice thing is that people who are too dumb or lazy or uninformed to bother casting a ballot aren’t compelled to vote.” —Burt Prelutsky

Libs and Halloween.

Let's face it, most libs (not all) are dour and wretchedly miserable people. They cannot stand even the thought of anyone having any fun at all.

When I was a kid, if anyone ever gave us anything that wasn't for-real candy of some kind (and this included apples) we and my fellow com padres made sure to go back later and unfurl a couple of twelve-roll packs of toilet paper in their front yards.

LOL-We always had plenty of that on hand.

As for being environmentally conscious, we had never even heard the term. Most Halloweens, I had no less than three costumes, and three large plastic bags ready. I would go around at least three times, each time in a different costume.

LOL-I still had Halloween candy left well into January.

-Dave

We exist in inverted and bass-ackward times.

"When I was a kid", my

"When I was a kid", my fanny. This was last year and you know it. :) 

McNotObama '08

LOL, Chris.

And even if it was, you don't think I would ever admit such, do you?  :-)

-Dave

We exist in inverted and bass-ackward times.

No I don't - not even in

No I don't - not even in the interrogation room down at the station, still waiting for your parents to come and get you. :)

McNotObama '08

Organic Kraze

What is it with the eco-nuts and the "organic" label? Why do they believe that "organic" fertilizers are better for the environment? Don't they know what an "organic" fertilizer is made from?

"Organic" fertilizers are actually far more harmful to the environment than the standard mass-produced fertilizer as organic fertilizers contains much higher levels of volatile organic compounds like methane and sulfur compounds (can you say Global Warming?) and heavy metals like chromium and mercury (can you say environmentally-persistent poisons?). Keep using those "organic" products, you idiots, and you'll ruin the environment for centuries. That's NOT what I would call Eco-Friendly.

Obama: My job is above my pay grade

Speaking of costumes, check

Speaking of costumes, check out this ignorance...

http://corner.nation...

Greg, its San Francisco.

I'm just surprised the city government out there hasn't hosed the poor tax-payers in that once great city into building a house of worship for the guy. 

-Dave

We exist in inverted and bass-ackward times.

Eco-friendly Halloween advice

I hear that arugula is the new popcorn ball.

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.

Thanksgiving is Next!

Dwayne  P.  Theriot

I think the MSM could ruin a wet dream.  The next hoilday to be targeted is Thanksgiving.  They will try to convince us that turkeys  are an endangered species.

I do everything I can

to mess with these people's mind, what little they have. All day today I have been eating chocolate, Reese's peanut butter cups and running with scissors. Tomorrow Im going to dig out my old Red Rider BB gun and see if I can't put something's or somebody's eye out.

Even toilet paper, if it

Even toilet paper, if it makes it into a landfill, will be unchanged for many years.  The whole point of the landfills we currently use is to STOP ALL natural degradation by sealing it.  So it doesn't make a **** bit of difference what you send to the landfill, plastic, paper, banana peels...they'll all still be around in 100 or 1000 years.

Lee T. 

what are you.. where in... huh?

  Sir,

  They are not thermos'es. They are not vacuum sealing machines. They do not encase them in lead. They are not Chernobyl.

  The only sealing they do is the bottom, with clay to prevent the leaching of heavy metals into ground water.

  Biodegradebles most certainly do biodegrade in landfills. That is why a lot of them trap the methane from the biodegrading process and sell it off or use it themselves.

   Where did you get this Mr. Inthomp? You need to go back to whatever liberal told you this a call him a liar. Someone is selling you propaganda and you need to learn for what purpose.

Sincerely,

a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.

The following is quoted

The following is quoted from a Michigan State University web page:

"Food and yard waste in easily identifiable form
were found in the landfills even after being buried for
years. Some decomposition of organics seems to have
occurred, but substantial quantities of all kinds of
paper also were found. Project Garbage found no major
changes in the percentage of paper found in garbage dug
up in the later 1970s and that from the mid 1980s, which
means paper was not decomposing rapidly. When Project
Garbage dug up refuse deposited between 1970 and 1974,
they found paper fractions still readable, and grass
clippings, a 1972 T-bone steak, and five hot dogs still
preserved.

Conditions are not ideal in landfills for
biodegradation. Some food does degrade, but at a very
slow rate or about 50 percent every 20 years, according
to the Garbage Project. The remainder of the refuse in
landfills seems to have retained its original weight
volume, and form even after 25 years. "

Lee T.