Living an eco-conscious life can be tricky. But smart phones are turning the tide, offering applications that do much of the groundwork for you. Whether you’re trying to maintain a vegetarian diet or looking for sustainable seafood at the market, these apps help you make earth-friendly choices:

Locavore

Become the locavore you always wanted to be with this fun app that identifies seasonal produce in your area and locates the closest farmers’ market. It also finds local farms and shares recipes – which is helpful when kholrabi isn’t on your regular ingredient list. Locavore is free and available on Android and iPhone.

Happy Cow VeginOut

Being a vegetarian is easy when you’re in charge of your meals. But it can get difficult when you’re at the mercy of eating establishments. Happy Cow VeginOut finds local vegetarian restaurants and provides reviews. The free VeginOut app is available only for Android.

Fooducate

Reading food labels is a pain. Fooducate allows you to scan the item’s bar code and check out all of its ingredients. It goes even a step further, offering healthy alternatives. Available for Android and iPhone, Fooducate is a virtual nutritionist hiding in your pocket or purse.

ShopNoGMO

Determining which products contain GMOs can be a mind-boggling process, but this app makes sense of it all. Not only does ShopNoGMO give a list of non-GMO products, it offers tips for how to decipher ingredient lists and how to avoid GMOs when eating out. ShopNoGMO is available for iPhone.

Seafood Watch

Want to know which fish is safe to eat, or better yet, which fish aren’t endangered? Seafood Watch is an app created through the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, which educates the public on ocean-friendly seafood and sushi choices. It also offers an interactive map, allowing you to identify ocean-friendly eateries providing sustainable seafood choices. Seafood Watch is available free through Android and iPhone.

– Courtesy of Vivian Nelson Melle, www.greenlivingideas.com