Joe Laur at Greenopolis has some ideas you can use to make your farmers’ market trip even more responsible and rewarding. Check out these 10 Tips to Shop Smart at Farmer’s Market by clicking on the picture or link.
In a study on male rats, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) discovered that triclosan, used to kill germs in antibacterial products, “decreased sperm count, damaged the male reproductive system, and disrupted male hormone production.” The NRDC is asking the FDA to ban the use of antibacterial for products due to the risk it is taking on its consumers. To read the full article, “Our Antibacterial Overload” and the downloadable report, “Not Effective and Not Safe,” click on the link.
I have been seeing commercials, especially on Hulu.com, for this particular project called Coal River Wind. This organization is trying to help eliminate mountain top removal for cheap coal and install windmills to generate clean wind energy. There are a few things that you can do to help save the mountain:
1. Email the EPA
2. Sign the petition found on CoalRiverWind.org
3. Donate to save Coal River Mountain
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3YwnN9WArk&feature=player_embedded]
Click here to read The Environmental Science and Technology Abstract
Did you know that 70% of antibiotics produced in the US are given to animals? The factory farms they are crammed into (concentration camps for animals) are so unhealthy that operators give the cows and chickens doses of antibiotics to prevent or cure plagues caused by overcrowding.
One result: microbes have evolved to survive the antibiotics. That’s evolution for you!
Second result: medicines that once cured human diseases are no longer working, and people are dying.
Even the soil is now impregnated with antibiotic-resistant genes! A recent study found that present-day soil has 15 times as many tetracycline-resistant genes than did soil that had been preserved since 1940 – even though this occurred in the Netherlands, which has stricter (read saner) laws about unnecessary antibiotic use in agriculture than we do. Read the study abstract in the Environmental Science and Technology. So please support efforts by legislators and regulators to rein in the overuse of medicines! In effect, this means opposing confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) which are horribly cruel.
Finally! The US Department of Agriculture is putting more resources into increasing access to local, healthy foods at affordable prices to residents of low-income communities. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “The Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, will provide training, technical assistance, and funding to community organizations, entrepreneurs, and small businesses working to build local and regional food systems across the country. Promoting the production and distribution of food within a local foodshed opens new markets to small- and mid-sized farmers, fosters social connections between urban and rural residents, and can improve health in inner-city neighborhoods where fresh fruits and vegetables are often scarce.” I’m sure we can all applaud the creation of food equality.
Yes, Wolfgang Puck, who leads a multi-million-dollar empire of restaurants and frozen foods. Puck recently had a revolution and said, “I have had a change of heart. I want to be more outspoken about the treatment of animals in all my restaurants, catering businesses, licensed foods and takeout establishments, I’m committed to using organic ingredients and humanely raised meats and fish.” Think of the enormous impact that one man’s decision has made!
-From The Earth-Friendly Food Chain (p. 105)
