Organic Change, Organic Life, Eco-Friendly Water

The CDC, ADA, and local health officials continue to promote fluoridation even though just this January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended a nation-wide reduction in fluoride levels after it learned that 41 percent of American adolescents, ages 12-15, have dental fluorosis, a clear sign of overexposure to fluoride, and that the rate is continuing to increase steadily. Only now is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water reviewing the allowable amount of fluoride in drinking water, more than four years after the National Research Council reported to Congress that the current allowable fluoride levels (MCL/MCLG) were too high. In the face of lax federal regulation, health activists are acting locally. More than 250 communities that have rejected fluoridation. This year in New Hampshire and Arkansas, citizen groups got legislation introduced at the state-level which would require notices on all municipal water bills warning paren...

They’re Growing Nationally, but Federal Policies Favoring Industrial Agriculture Hold Them Back WASHINGTON - August 4 - Over the last several decades, thousands of farmers markets have been popping up in cities and towns across the country, benefiting local farmers, consumers and economies, but they could be doing a lot better, according to a report released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). What’s holding farmers markets back? Federal policies that favor industrial agriculture at their expense. “On the whole, farmers markets have seen exceptional growth, providing local communities with fresh food direct from the farm,” said Jeffrey O’Hara, the author of the report and an economist with UCS’s Food and Environment Program. “But our federal food policies are working against them. If the U.S. government diverted just a small amount of the massive subsidies it lavishes on industrial agriculture to support these markets and small local farmers, it would not only improve A...

Source: http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/reports/oceans/oceans-reports/leading-the-way-toward-a-clean-ocean-communities-around-the-world-take-action-against-plastic-bags Update, July 2011: On July 14th 2011, The California Supreme Court ruled that the city of Manhattan Beach can enforce a local ordinance banning plastic bags. The policy had been held up by a lawsuit brought by the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition. Manhattan Beach can now move forward on their bag ban, bringing the total number of California cities and counties that have successfully taken action against plastic bag pollution to 12. [1]  http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S180720.PDF Plastic bags contribute to the pollution of California’s ocean and beaches. Californians use approximately 16 billion plastic bags per year—more than 400 annually per person. Less than 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled. Instead, they end up sitting in landfills, littering streets, clogging streams, foulin...

Another way to eat. I love this article and Casey's motivation to change people's way of eating in (Bulgaria) Eastern Europe. Funny how these people were used to gardening and eating from scratch, but the big thing now is to become like any other industrial country.... Eating processed!! Enjoy! h.deux.flo By Molly Theobald This is the final part in a two part blog series about the  Culinary Institute of America ’s (CIA) “greening initiatives,” which are designed to teach young chefs about sustainable food production and consumption. The emphasis on sustainable food production and consumption at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) was very appealing to Casey Angelova when she applied to become a student at the New York campus in Hyde Park two years ago.  Designed to both reduce the impact of the school’s four campuses on the environment and also teach students about the benefits of sustainable food production, the CIA’s greening initiatives include on-campus recycling and ...

Hey Guys, I found this great article about nano-particles and wanted to share... h.deux.flo Nanotechnology was supposed to revolutionize the world, making us healthier and producing cleaner energy. But it’s starting to look more like a nightmare. Nanomaterials—tiny particles as little as 1/100,000 the width of a human hair—have quietly been used since the 1990s in hundreds of everyday products, everything from food to baby bottles, pills, beer cans, computer keyboards, skin creams, shampoo, and clothes. But after years of virtually unregulated use, scientists are now starting to say the most commonly used nanoproducts could be harming our health and the environment. One of the most widespread nanoproducts is titanium dioxide. More than 5,000 tonnes of it are produced worldwide each year for use in food, toothpaste, cosmetics, paint, and paper (as a colouring agent), in medication and vitamin capsules (as a nonmedicinal filler), and in most sunscreens (for its anti-U...