1. Call It Quits is for smokers wishing to quit and quitters who could use some added support.  It provides cessation tips, motivations and coaching access to helpline pros. It also enables you, using your phone contacts, to build a trusted support group and then keep that support group with you in the palm of your hand. This ought to be basic software on all smartphones sold in tobacco-loving Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. (Free.)
2. Locavore uses your phone’s GPS to make searching for in-season, local foods a breeze.  It pinpoints the nearest farms and farmer’s markets.  Use it to find that specific local fruit you’ve been craving, or to check out what’s in-season.
3. BirdsEye guides you to your best birding opportunities by sharing the collective wisdom of thousands of birding experts who contribute to eBird,  the enormous, real-time bird observation system run by the bird brains at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Take this when hiking any of Jordan’s six nature reserves. ($19.99)
4. Fooducate from Israel lets you scan the barcodes on packaged items in your grocery store to see each product’s good and bad highlights, allow you to compare with similar products and best of all, select healthier alternatives.  It’s like having a dietician on speed dial. (Free.)
5. The Night Sky enables you to identify stars, planets, galaxies, constellations and even satellites in real time as you see them.  Stand anywhere and hold your smartphone or tablet up to the sky and The Night Sky will display the names of everything you see.  Perfect for camping with the Bedouin beneath Wadi Rum’s pristine night skies. ($0.99)
6. Springredients allows you to select one key ingredient and then spin the dial to view three established flavor combinations. It’s a cool tool that helps you to discover an endless array of flavor combinations.  Less likely to waste food if you see more ways to use random ingredients.($1.99)
7. Seafood Watch was created by the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the aim to promote responsible purchasing of wild and farmed seafood. Shopping sustainably is made easy, as this app ranks seafood items as “Best Choice”, “Good Alternative” or “Avoid” rankings. (Free.)
8. Ease into 5K with a running coach app perfect for those who are new to racing world.  The 8-week regimen guides you through 30 minute sessions, each designed to improve your endurance. I’ll be using this one to prep for April’s Dead Sea fun run. ($2.99)
9. Wild Edibles Full offers a massive compendium of foraging knowledge suitable for beginners and experts alike.  Use this app as a quick home reference, or in the field as a replacement for hefty field guides.  This app takes edible plants to a whole new level of accessibility. ($7.99)
10. Don’t Eat That lets you conduct an instant food “health check” right in the store just by entering its name.  Find out if an ingredient causes allergies or drug interactions, is carcinogenic, banned in other countries, bad for kids or pregnant women, or genetically modified. ($1.99)

As with all apps, you’ll need to do a check on the product websites to ensure these are geared up to work on your specific device, and in your slice of the globe.

Close-up of a smartphone by Shutterstock

The post 10 Smartphone Apps to Green Up 2013 appeared first on Green Prophet.

Dig in.

1. Eating Animals (Penguin, 2011)

Part memoir, part science: novelist Jonathan Safran Foer’s takes a philosophical look at how we justify what we eat . Prepare yourself for an epiphany.

2. Manifestos on the Future of Food & Seed (South End Press, 2007)

Food activist Vandana Shiva edits a collection of papers from advocates of the slow food movement, organic farming and local eating.  A choppy ride, but in the end these varied views (from the likes of Prince Charles and Michael Pollan) make a solid case for food deindustrialization.

3. Animal Vegetable Miracle: Miracle of Our Year of Sustainable Eating (Faber & Faber, 2007)

A chronicle of the year that author Barbara Kingsolver and family went to the woods, unlike Thoreau, to eat deliberately. Their radical experiment to “go locavore” explores my mom’s old gem “you are what you eat”.

4. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (Penguin Press, 2006)

Michael Pollan explores modern American eating: dubious trends with far-reaching influence. If you like your wake-up calls loud and clear, crack this binding.

5. New Book of Middle Eastern Food (Alfred E. Knopf, 2000)

Claudia Roden’s original 1973 classic updated and expanded.  Culled from 30 years of extensive Middle East travel, she’s concocted simple prep methods for over 800+ regional recipes from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.  Read it for the recipes, but also for the riveting stories behind this extraordinary food.

6.  Book of Jewish Food (Alfred E. Knopf, 1996)

Oy, Claudia, again with the 800+ recipes?

Here’s the story of the Jews told through the story of their cooking, with emphasis on development of both Ashkenazic and Sephardic cuisine. Ms. Roden’s stories are as delicious as her recipes.

7. Appetites (Counterpoint Press, 2003)

It’s sad to tag this as an “anorexia” book.  Sadder still that its author died before publishing more of her sagacious take on the modern female experience. Caroline Knapp’s memoir of her war with self-image expands to explore wider cultural messages.  It’s a powerful call to all women to learn what it is to “feed both the body and the soul”.

The post 7 Books for New Year’s Resolutions on Sustainable Food! appeared first on Green Prophet.