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Month: August 2014 - Organic Lifestyle Magazine Month: August 2014 - Organic Lifestyle Magazine

An Introduction to Hydroponics – Healthy for Your Body and Good for the Planet

What is hydroponics? Hydroponics is a system that allows plants to be grown indoors, without soil, in a nutrient rich environment.  While this may seem oddly against Mother Nature, the process and result can be incredibly beneficial to both your body and the earth.

Imagine a nondescript inner city building surrounded by old manufacturing facilities and a desolate parking lot. Now picture yourself walking in the door of this building. Rather than finding the tired emptiness expected from the exterior, you are surrounded by floor-to-ceiling, brilliantly lit herbs and leafy greens. Welcome to urban hydroponics and the fantastic array of good deeds it offers.

If you are like many who live in a frozen tundra during the winter months, you will be very pleased to know that perfectly ripened, fresh herbs and greens can be harvested and added to your happy-body salad in the same afternoon. When food is grown around the corner, there is no delay from harvest to table and there is no carbon footprint.

Hydroponic methods do not use pesticides or herbicides, allowing for clean eating and that welcome smile of gratitude from your body. Because of the widespread use of pesticides and herbicides, cross contamination in traditional farming has become a sad reality and something that our lovely organic farmers work hard to control. Hydroponics are grown indoors. Therefore, the cross contamination concern is eliminated.

I had the opportunity to sit down with an expert in the field and President of Garden Fresh Farms, Peter Cordell, to discuss his hydroponics techniques and to learn from his wealth of knowledge.

Do you recall your inner city urban vision? Peter and his business partner, Dave Roeser, have created exactly that reality. Their hydroponic system headquartered in St. Paul Minnesota is an award winning program of ingenuity and hard work.

To give you a better idea of just how this process works, let’s begin with the seed. In the Garden Fresh Farms model, non-GMO seeds are sprouted during what Peter calls the “kindergarten” stage in a traditional bunk bed method.

bunk bed hydroponics

After graduation, the seedlings are placed in tall vertical boards hung from the ceiling and rotated through a 35 day cycle (That’s fast! Want to know why? Nutrients! Stay tuned). Stemmed plants are placed in a rotating barrel to keep them on the straight and narrow. (Much like the plant version of your mom telling you to sit up straight.)

barrel hydroponicshydroponics 2

Now what about those nutrients? Depending on the system and producer, hydroponics may use many different types of nutrient methods. In our example, Peter found that using a clean closed water loop system that involves hundreds of tilapia, fed high quality nutrient rich fish food, is a recipe for both optimal flavor and integrity. His process uses 95% less water than traditional irrigation. A multi-step conversion process ultimately adds nitrogen to the water that hydrates the plant roots, resulting in a highly nutritious and excellent tasting greens.

Now that your visions are inspired, picture a well fed world with the perfect combination of outdoor organic farming and healthy hydroponics.

Intrigued? Do your research. With some well-placed lights and a lot of knowledge, you too may start your own urban farm.




Raising Children on TV Disrupts Their Ability to Pay Attention and Learn

(NaturalNews – PF Louis) It’s almost intuitively obvious to most that too much TV viewing is conducive to physical deterioration and not conducive to mental development. But what types of viewing at what ages affects children’s ability to pay attention over amounts of time and assimilate actual learning from experience or studying has been a topic of several studies.

One of those studies even considered background TV as a major distraction. That is leaving the TV on most of the time even when not watching it for a specific purpose while a child is doing homework, or if parents watch a specific TV show while the kids are around doing whatever.

This study has determined that a TV show’s momentary distractions from whatever a child is doing helps promote a poor attention span or a tendency to be easily bored. It’s a sort of “there’s something more important or interesting on the tube” tendency.

The study’s paper was titled “Background television in the homes of American children.”

Background TV is like secondhand cigarette smoke; it pollutes others

The University of Iowa (UI) publication Iowa Now interviewed one of the lead authors of that study, Deborah Linebarger, associate professor in the UI College Education’s Department of Teaching and Learning. Locally, she worked with two UI graduate students in her department and networked with others in different universities.

The other university study contributors were Mathew Lapierre at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and Jessica Piotrowski of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Linebarger and her UI grad student associates conducted lengthy telephone surveys, often close to an hour long, among 1,454 households with children just under one year old to eight years old. Here are some of her comments from the Iowa Now interview:

“We discovered that the average American child was exposed to 232.2 minutes of background television on a given day. Using multiple regression analyses, we determined that younger children, children living in single-parent homes, and African-American children were exposed to significantly more background television than their older, multi-parent, and non-African-American peers.”

Linebarger added, “What was really distressing was the fact that the youngest kids, the ones under 2, were exposed to 5.5 hours of background TV per day.”

By calculating expected active TV watching and adding to the background TV, the researchers found that children two years and younger are exposed to six or seven hours of TV media daily.

And if we examine content of what’s going on with TVs that are simply kept on most of the time, there’s a lot of advertising of bad foods and bad medicine or a lot of bad or silly news, all in short visual clips and in sound bites.

This is how kids and are being programmed, and perhaps you were, or are, too. Moderate active viewing can be interesting, exciting or even occasionally uplifting or informative. Even then, too much is simply debilitating at any age. The younger the child, the more impressionable. This includes video gaming as well, which are often violent and addictive into later years.

It disrupts physical playing and social intercourse even within families. The tube has too much influence, which is why researchers recommend less active TV time and no background TV. It’s an enticing consciousness pollutant, and it can be the model of behavior to greater or lesser extent among children.

Regarding parents’ attitudes about background TV, Linebarger, who has four children of her own, explained: “[P]arents tend to leave the TV on all day even when no one is actively watching it. When I come into my house and no one is there, I like to turn on the TV to keep me company. And it’s easy to forget to turn it off… you get up and leave the room with it still there and on in the background.”

Sources for this article include:
http://now.uiowa.edu
http://now.uiowa.edu
http://psychcentral.com




Autism and Vaccines: CDC Whistleblower Exposes Vaccine Dangers, Lies, and Cover-ups

According to a study by Focus Autism Foundation, a CDC whistleblower revealed manipulation of scientific data in regards to the MMR vaccine. There was pressure from the top to get CDC (The Center for Disease Control and Prevention) scientists to support government policies on Vaccine Safety, ignoring and hiding the risks involved.

It turns out that the CDC knew about increased autism rates among African-American Boys who received MMR shot earlier than 36 months.

A top research scientist working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) played a key role in helping Dr. Brian Hooker of the Focus Autism Foundation uncover data manipulation by the CDC that obscured a higher incidence of autism in African-American boys. The whistleblower came to the attention of Hooker, a PhD in biochemical engineering, after he had made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for original data on the destefano et al MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and autism study.” – marketwatch.com

Dr. Hooker stated “The CDC knew about the relationship between the age of first MMR vaccine and autism incidence in African-American boys as early as 2003, but chose to cover it up.”

The whistleblower confirmed this.

The CDC whistleblower informant, who has worked for the government agency for over a decade, remarked to Dr. Hooker in phone calls: “We’ve missed ten years of research because the CDC is so paralyzed right now by anything related to autism. They’re not doing what they should be doing because they’re afraid to look for things that might be associated.” The whistleblower alleges criminal wrongdoing of his supervisors, and he expressed deep regret about his role in helping the CDC hide data.” focusautisminc.org

For those who don’t regularly keep up with vaccine news, this may come as a bit of a shock. Most of us that are in the know are aware of the fact that the CDC and vaccine manufacturers know vaccines can increase the risk for autism and other very serious health issues. That’s not really news. The news here lies in the fact that the CDC has been exposed as the fraudulent special-interest organization that people in natural health have suspected them to be for some time now. There are also, obviously, huge racial issues implied as well.

We at OLM are not saying that vaccines do not have any value. They may. The problem is that it’s naive to believe the powers that be when they tell you that there is nothing wrong with injecting yourself with ingredients known to be very toxic. Furthermore, we at OLM advocate a level of health that builds natural immunity. We do not believe that good health is a crapshoot, a roll of the dice. We know that good health is a result of eating right, exercise, getting plenty of clean nutrition and sunlight, and getting enough sleep. Health cannot be found in a pill bottle or a shot. Nature weeds out the weak. We choose to stay strong, and we choose not to trade one disease for another.

We suspect that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and we will keep you updated.

In the meantime, remember this. When there’s a lot of money involved, there is always corruption. And there is a lot of money in vaccinations.

Further Reading:
Sources:



4 Reasons Why Farmers’ Markets Boost Health, Body and Soul

(DrFrankLipman – Frank Lipman) In the last decade or so, hundreds if not thousands of farmers’ markets have opened their gates, creating a thriving alternative to industrially produced food and the impersonal food shopping experience. And while they haven’t totally replaced the supermarket, farmers’ markets are definitely taking a bite out of the industrial food business by offering an easy way to connect with beautiful, fresh, healthy food – and I couldn’t be more delighted.

With access to this healthy shopping option now easier than ever, here are four essential reasons why I believe farmers’ markets are fantastic for your body, mind, and spirit – and why everyone should support them.

1. Farmers’ Markets Are … Good for Your Body and the Earth

There’s a lot to like about food from the farmers’ market. For starters, it’s the farms themselves. Most are small, non-industrial, hands-on, often family-run or cooperative operations with close ties to their land. They tend to value and treat their land right, using low-impact, pesticide-free, sustainable farming methods, which are kinder and less poisonous to the soil and the food that’s grown in it. The result is produce that’s pretty close to organic, minus the official USDA certification.

When these nearly-organic foods arrive at the market, they’re fresh and unadulterated, not having been subjected to the preservative and ripening treatments used on much of the picked-too-early, trucked-in-from-2000-miles-away produce found at a typical supermarket. Even if you don’t count the smaller carbon food-print, you can’t ignore the fact that the stuff is fresh, having been picked at its nutritional peak, just a few hours before it’s in your hands – making farmers’ market produce among the healthiest you can buy.

2. Farmers’ Markets Are … an Excellent Way to Shed Extra Pounds

Granted it won’t happen overnight, but buying the majority of your produce, and when possible eggs, meats, and poultry, at the farmers’ market will help you drop weight. How? Simply by preventing you from buying cartfuls of health-sucking, weight-boosting processed crap. You’ll be choosing from whole, healthy, unprocessed foods – virtually nothing in a box, bag, or can.

You won’t fill your car with a trunk-load of added sugars, sodium, chemicals, or preservatives, thoughtfully wrapped in endocrine-disrupting plastic packaging. You’ll be buying and eating clean, nutrient-packed foods, and eliminating a vast majority of the processed food ingredients that have been keeping you fat and sick.

3. Farmers’ Markets Are … an Uplifting Sensory Experience, Not a Depressing Chore

For most of us, a trip to the supermarket is anything but enjoyable; it’s just one more mind-numbing chore on our never-ending to-do lists. A visit to the farmers’ market, however, is an event – and an experience that engages the senses. There are vivid colors to excite the eye, produce to sniff and squeeze for freshness, and at some markets, on-site musicians adding a live soundtrack to the festivities.

There are the wonderful aromas of produce, freshly-picked, presented in the raw, or handmade, baked, churned, cured, or fermented into wonderful, healthful treats for your table, many of which you can ask to sample before you buy. How many supermarkets provide this kind of an experience – and do it all outdoors, no less?

Farmers’ markets deliver not only the freshest, most earth-friendly and nutrient-dense options in town, they also connect us with the simple, pleasures of discovering, tasting, touching and smelling whole, real foods in an atmosphere that’s inviting and exhilarating, not dreary or exhausting.

4. Farmers’ Markets Are … Good-for-the-Soul Social Events

At the supermarket, there’s little opportunity for human interaction, and with the rise of self-serve checkout machines, the shopping experience can wind up being an insular, solitary one as you troll the aisles, stuck in your own head. Not so at the farmers’ market, which can be a daily or weekly opportunity to connect with your neighbors as well as the real, live people who grew your food.

Amazing, isn’t it? The guy (or gal) standing behind your food can tell you about their unique growing processes, how the plants were treated along the way, how to store your purchases and even how to cook them when you get home. When’s the last time that kind of knowledgeable exchange happened at your local supermarket? My guess would be never.

Another bonus is the easy interaction and natural conviviality between like-minded shoppers, foodies, and farmers, all sharing their knowledge and appreciation of nature’s bounty on offer that week. In our fragmented and disconnected and screen-obsessed lives, I think of farmers’ markets as the ultimate antidote. One of my patients describes her local farmers’ market as “a cocktail party minus the cocktails.”  She stocks up on produce, conversation, and social connection every week.

Locate a Local Farmers’ Market

So this weekend, instead of trudging off to the so-called “supermarket,” head outdoors to the market that really is super for you. To find a farmer’s market in your area, check out Local Harvest’s directory of more than 30,000 family farms and farmers markets. Also have a look at the USDA’s database of more than 8,000 farmers’ markets – and don’t forget to bring your own tote bags to carry home all your purchases! 

For more of my favorite healthy food resources – where to find a farmer’s market, get wild fish, find grass-fed meat and more, see my post on “12 Great Food Resources”.




New Data Reflects the Continued Demand for Farmers Markets

WASHINGTON, August 2, 2014 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Administrator Anne Alonzo announced today that USDA’s National Farmers Market Directory now lists 8,268 markets, an increase of 76 percent since 2008. The data reflects continued demand and growth of farmers markets in every region of the country. Alonzo also announced that AMS is developing three new local food directories that will expand USDA’s support for local and regional foods by providing easy access to the most current information about the local food market.

Alonzo made the announcements at the Dane County Farmers Market in Madison, Wisconsin, the country’s largest producer-only market, where she kicked off the 15th annual “National Farmers Market Week”, from August 3 through 9, 2014.

“The National Farmers Market Directory numbers reflect the continued importance of farmers markets to American agriculture. Since its inception, the directory has proven to be a valuable tool for accessing up-to-date information about local farmers markets,” Alonzo said. “Farmers markets play an extremely important role for both farmers and consumers. They bring urban and rural communities together while creating economic growth and increasing access to fresh, healthy foods.”

The USDA National Farmers Market Directory, available at farmersmarkets.usda.gov, provides information about U.S. farmers market locations, directions, operating times, product offerings, and much more. The data is collected via voluntary self-reporting by operating farmers market managers and is searchable by zip code, product mix, and other criteria. The National Farmers Market Directory receives over 2 million hits annually.<

In addition to USDA’s National Farmers Market Directory, AMS is adding:

  • USDA’s National Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Enterprise Directory
    A CSA is a farm or network/association of multiple farms that offer consumers regular deliveries of locally-grown farm products during one or more harvest season(s) on a subscription or membership basis.
  • USDA’s National Food Hub Directory
    A Food Hub is a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of source-identified food products to multiple buyers from multiple producers, primarily local and regional producers, to strengthen the ability of these producers to satisfy local and regional wholesale, retail, and institutional demand.
  • USDA’s National On-Farm Market Directory
    An On-Farm Market is a farm market managed by a single farm operator that sells agricultural and/or horticultural products directly to consumers from a location on their farm property or on property adjacent to that farm.

USDA invites local food business owners who fall within these categories to list their operational details in the new directories www.usdalocalfooddirectories.com. These new directories will be available online early in 2015, giving potential customers, business partners, and community planners easy, one-stop access to the most current information about different sources of local foods.

2014 Directory Highlights

According to USDA’s 2014 National Farmers Market Directory, the states with the most farmers markets reported are California (764 markets), New York (638 markets), Michigan (339 markets), Ohio (311 markets), Illinois (309 markets), Massachusetts (306 markets), Pennsylvania (297 markets), Wisconsin (295 markets), Virginia (249 markets), and Missouri (245 markets). All geographic regions saw increases in their market listings, with the most growth in the South. The 10 states with the biggest increases in the numbers of farmers markets include Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Arkansas, North Carolina, Montana, Florida and Nebraska.  Five of these states – Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and North Carolina – are part of USDA’s StrikeForce for Rural Growth and Opportunity, where USDA has increased investment in rural communities through intensive outreach and stronger partnerships.

Farmers market development is a cornerstone of USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative, which coordinates the Department’s policy, resources, and outreach efforts related to local and regional food systems.  Secretary Vilsack has identified strengthening local food systems as one of the four pillars of USDA’s commitment to rural economic development.

USDA Office of Communications




Artificial Food Dyes and Kids: Not a Good Mix

(DrFrankLipman.com – Robyn O’Brien)report released by the National Cancer Institute showed a 9.4% increase in childhood cancer between 1992 and 2007. And today, cancer is now the leading cause of death by disease in kids under the age of fifteen.

Correlation is not causation, but the escalating rates of conditions like cancer, diabetes and food allergies have a lot of parents paying attention to what is in their food.  Some cancer doctors even call it the “doorknob syndrome.”  A patient is diagnosed with cancer, spends hours in the office being walked through procedure options, then as they turn to go, with a hand on the doorknob, turn back into the office and ask, “Is there anything I could be doing differently with my diet?”

We are quickly learning that our food is full of a lot of non-food ingredients.

About 15 million pounds of petroleum-based dyes are used in food each year.  And a certain kind of red food coloring, known as “Red 3,” is a known carcinogen that the FDA banned from our medicines and makeup in 1990, but it’s still used in our foods.

But instead of making the long overdue move to do something serious about getting rid of toxic food dyes so ubiquitous in our food supply, dyes derived from synthetic chemicals that studies have linked to cancer, the FDA, upon learning this, fell back on two simple words: “more research.”

In kitchens across this country, eight dyes, currently being used by manufacturers, can be found in everything from packaged macaroni and cheese to breakfast cereal to practically every piece of candy your child has ever put in his or her mouth. Links are being found to hyperactivity in kids (ADHD), cancer and serious food allergies.

But here is the truly amazing thing, and for those of us who have fed our kids these color-laden foods, perhaps the toughest thing to stomach: Kraft, Coca Cola and Wal-Mart have already removed these artificial food colors and dyes from the same products that they distribute in other countries. Skittles?  Don’t have them.  M&Ms?  Don’t have them either.  Neither do cereals, fruit snacks and just about any food you’d think to put in a kids mouth. They did it in response to consumer demand and an extraordinary study called the Southampton Study.

The Southampton Study was unusual in that it tested children on a combination of two ingredients: tartrazine (yellow #5) and sodium benzoate. The study’s designers knew that a child very rarely has occasion to ingest just a synthetic color or just a preservative; rather, a child who is gobbling up multicolored candies is probably taking in several colors and at least one preservative.

What’s amazing is that in the U.K., the federal food safety agency actually funded the Southampton Study that led to even U.S. corporations eliminating synthetic colors and sodium benzoate from their U.K. products.

And in response, a whole host of companies, including the U.K. branches of Wal-Mart, Kraft, Coca Cola and the Mars candy company (who make M&Ms), have voluntarily removed artificial colors, the preservative sodium benzoate, and even aspartame from their products. Particularly those marketed to kids. Take a close look at the ingredient list for the product below.

Nutri Grain Bars and Food Coloring

Our American companies had removed these harmful ingredients from their products overseas — but not here.

Kraft, Coca Cola and Wal-Mart are living proof that it is possible for giant corporations to make and sell kid-friendly, family-friendly, and healthy processed food without necessarily exposing them to a chemical cocktail that might also give them allergic reactions, brain tumors, or leukemia, or the symptoms of ADHD, as the Center for Science in the Public Interest recently highlighted in their report Rainbow of Risks.

Is it too much to ask the FDA and the processed food companies for the same value to be placed on the lives of the American kids in their cost-benefit analyses that has been placed on the lives of kids in the UK?

We can create that same change here. There are apparently 51 million moms waking up to the dangers that toxins present to the health of our kids, that number is the equivalent to the entire population of Spain. And if what is happening in this food movement or the changing landscape of childhood health is any indication, it is time to get down to business, level the playing field for our kids, and send a message to these companies. We can navigate the grocery store a little bit differently, share information with friends and family or even reach out online to our favorite food companies asking them to support this change.  Because while the American children only represent 30% of our population, they are 100% of our future. So while the FDA may not value their lives accordingly, we can.




Repel Ticks with this Natural Oil

(NaturalNews – Heidi Fagley) With summer in full bloom and more and more cases of Lyme disease being reported, many are searching for ways to repel ticks without having to resort to harsh chemicals. Luckily, there is one sweet-smelling alternative that is proving to be quite powerful in the fight against this growing concern.

It’s summer and time to experience the great outdoors, yet many are opting out in order to avoid the feared tick bite that could possibly lead to a host of health challenges. The good news is that something as simple and natural as rose geranium essential oil has been found to help ward off those pesky little parasites.

Ticks operate mostly by using their sense of smell. Ticks don’t jump or fall from trees; instead, they do something called “questing.” That is, they climb to the top of a blade of grass or plant and stick their front legs up in the air, waiting for the scent of a victim to walk by. If you find one on your head, then it crawled there. Their front pair of legs have what are called Haller’s organs, which detect smell, temperature, movement and carbon dioxide. This is how they know that you are coming. And since it is well known that they like warmth and moisture, they are waiting for a warm, moist environment to call their home. The best part about this is that, for some reason, they are not attracted to the scent of rose geranium essential oil.

There are two varieties of rose geranium oil. In order to get the most bang for your buck in repelling ticks, you want to find the one with the botanical name Pelargonium capitatum x radens. The more popular rose geranium oil under the name Pelargonium graveolens is from the same family, but not the same species.

Most essential oils need to be diluted, but rose geranium does not fall into that category if used in small doses. So, because all you need is a few drops to do the job, a little most definitely goes a long way. Simply placing one drop on each ankle and on the wrists, then a little behind the knees and one on the back of the neck is all you will need to do the trick. Since dogs are extremely sensitive to smell, you will want to go easy on the oil for your canine friends. One drop behind each shoulder blade and at the top of the base of the tail. Be careful to avoid the face and nose; their sensitive sniffers can’t handle anything anything too strong.

Other essential oils such as lavender, lemongrass, citronella, eucalyptus, and cedar wood have all been found to be helpful in repelling these unwanted guests as well. Please check specific directions before using to ensure safety for dilution purposes.

Whatever scent you use, take caution and remember to double-check yourself from head to toe after coming in from a summer stroll.

Note:

The essential oil of rose geranium is one single oil and not a mixture of rose and geranium oils.

Not all essential oils are recommended for animals, especially cats and horses. Consult your veterinary doctor before using any essential oil for pets.

Sources include:
http://insects.about.com