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Tag: Greenwashing - Organic Lifestyle Magazine Tag: Greenwashing - Organic Lifestyle Magazine

God Made a Farmer…

The Super Bowl airing of a Dodge Ram commercial in which Paul Harvey described the noble qualities of a farmer is a glamorization of today’s typical agro-industrial production. It is not a true representation of the majority of today’s farmers.

Decades ago, farmers did possess gentility towards the animals they raised; they were a symbol of land stewardship and environmental awareness. Their passion was to cultivate life for the nourishment of others. The fertility and integrity of the land was a priority; it ensured future success. For the most part, farmers of the past are icons of an era that has been changed as much as the land they plow.

Too many of today’s farmers relentlessly sow a single crop in nutritionally barren land and repeatedly spray their yield with poisonous chemicals. Government subsidy checks are the priority instead of nutritious food. Their focus has shifted from sustainability to maximum profitability, resulting in vast fields of single crops and confined animal feeding operations.

Corporations have taken control of production away from the farmers, placing unnatural demands on the land and animals. These modern conventional farming practices have led to the rise in food borne illness; antibiotic, pesticide and herbicide resistance; genetic erosion of species; and a detachment of a people from their food source.

We cannot, however, lay all the blame on the farmer, or even the government. We, the public, the consumers, carry the majority of the responsibility for this dramatic change in our food production. We have sent a loud and clear message to farming companies, telling them that we approve of gluttony and harsh environmental practices, that we tolerate the plundering of our lands as long as there is a never ending supply of nutritionally substandard food. We tell them this every time we purchase today’s quick, prepackaged meals.

The once intimate relationship we had with our food is in the past, but it doesn’t need to stay there. For the health of our children, the preservation of our land, and the future of our people, we must rekindle our emotional connection to food: where it comes from, how it is grown, and the bonds that it can create among us. Food can once again become a means for celebration and family togetherness. We can take our first step with a return to purchasing fresh, local, wholesome foods.

Many of the qualities of a farmer mentioned by the Dodge Ram ad are maintained by today’s sustainable, heirloom, and organic farmers and ranchers. Their growing ranks are leading a shift back to fresh and local food production. By changing our consumption, we can demand a rise in organic, ethical farming. In turn, this rise in demand will impact food production, driving government policy to provide assistance to alternative, clean, environmentally conscious farmers instead of commodity producers.

God made a farmer, a steward of the land, an advocate for healthy food and humane ranching practices. Across the nation we are seeing a return of this iconic image of the farmer who raises grass fed beef and sheep, free range chickens, and organic crops. We want them to be bold and courageous, to stand against tyrannical corporations that dictate unsound methods of food production. We want them to succeed. But they cannot succeed without our full support—support that comes through our choices each time we buy our food.

Will we continue to use our dollars to support factory farming, GMO foods, and giant food conglomerates? Or will we choose organic? Grass fed? Free range? The choice is ours.

 




What’s in Your Water?

Chemicals and Other Contaminants You Really Shouldn’t Be Drinking

If you’re like most people, you use tap water for cooking, cleaning, bathing, and drinking. Also like a lot of people, you may not have given a thought to what could be in that water—things like chemicals, microorganisms, and bacteria. If you’re concerned about your health, you should consider purchasing and installing a home water filtration system to ensure that the water you and your family members use is safe and clean.

Contaminants in Drinking Water

Recently, the Environmental Working Group analyzed almost 20 million drinking water tests that had been done by U.S. water suppliers between 2004 and 2009. The results showed that there were hundreds of different pollutants in American drinking water. Most of those contaminants have no safety levels set by the government; others exist at levels higher than recommended by health guidelines.

These contaminants may come from chemicals added by water utilities for treating the water, from industrial or agricultural contamination of water supplies, from chemicals leached from water pipes and tanks, or from wastewater treatment plants.

Chemicals Intentionally Added

Just a few of the chemicals intentionally added to drinking water include , supposedly for oral health, but the World Health Organization  does not advocate the addition of this toxic substance to water supplies where people have a good health structure. In fact, the World Health Organization recommends the removal of fluoride from drinking water in first-world countries. Fluoride consumption is linked to certain cancers, lowered IQ, and diminished thyroid levels.

Other chemicals that may be intentionally added to drinking water during the water treatment process are potassium permanganate, aluminum sulphate, hydrated lime, chlorine, and polyphosphate. Some of these chemicals are added to disinfect the water. Some are added for other purposes.

Unintentional Contaminants in Drinking Water

In addition to industrial pollution, common sources of unintentionally-added contaminants to drinking water are agriculture, factory farming, and the water treatment (disinfection) process itself.

Nitrates from fertilizer can infiltrate groundwater and run off into rivers and streams, contaminating water supplies. Nitrates are particularly dangerous to infants and children. Other agricultural contaminants include perchlorate, bromochloroacetic acid, MTBE, and Di-n-butylphthalate.

Trihalomethanes, bromate, haloacetic acides, and chlorite are among more than 600 by-products of the disinfection process. Most of these by-products are not restricted, nor do water treatment plants test for them.

Yet another group of contaminants in our drinking water are microorganisms. These may come from factory farm run-offs and sewage treatment plants. Some include Cryptosporidium, Giardi lamblia, Legionella, E. Coli, and a variety of viruses.

For every contaminant we test for, there are thousands we don’t. We don’t know the dangers of these chemicals in our drinking water, and no attempts are made to remove or prevent the contamination.

Types of Home Water Filtration Systems

One of the best ways to protect yourself against these contaminants is to install a home water purification system. There are several different levels of filtration that you can use. It depends on how many of those contaminants you want to remove and how much money you want to spend.

If you have a limited budget, a carbon filter system (pitcher, faucet-mount, or large dispenser) will remove chlorine, mercury, lead, asbestos, and VOCs. It will not remove fluoride, nitrate, arsenic, hexavalent chromium, or perchlorate. Some carbon filters are better than others.

The very best (and most expensive) way to remove the most contaminants from your water supply is to install a reverse osmosis (RO) system combined with a top-level carbon filter. Reverse osmosis uses a semi-permeable membrane that holds all particles larger than water molecules. This type of system will filter out perchlorate, hexavalent chromium, fluoride, arsenic, and nitrates. These types of filters are used for drinking and cooking water only.

To kill off bacteria and microorganisms, an ultraviolet light system works the best. These filters do not remove chemicals, but you can install a UV system to your reverse osmosis and carbon filtration system.




Organicwashing – Companies Greenwashing Our Health Food

Who can you trust? Many products that are designed to appeal to the health consious should be avoided.

There are some great companies out there that are trying to make a positive impact on this world by producing healthy, beneficial, environmentally friendly products. There are companies that obviously put profits above our health and our environment. And then there are companies that pretend to care about consumer health and the environment only because they are able to profit by doing so. This is a form of greenwashing called organicwashing.

Organicwashing: a form of greenwashing where companies market a product in a manner that is meant to convince consumers that the product is produced with people’s health and animal welfare in mind, while secretly not giving a damn about anything but profit. Yeah, we made that up. If you are new to organic foods, trying to eat healthier and trying to reduce your environmental impact, it can be overwhelming to find out that the eggs you have been eating and the milk you drink are no better than conventional products you were purchasing before. It’s often enough to make well intentioned consumers throw their arms up and walk away from the more expensive organic products for good. Not only are we going to list for you companies to avoid when purchasing healthier foods, but we will also give you a list companies that are doing a good job of staying green. Surprisingly, some of them are owned by the least environmentally friendly companies. You can be the judge as to whether or not to purchase their products. We will also list a few of the better options to choose from, like companies that are not owned by big bad businesses, green companies that do everything they can to adhere to their original standards. In our comment section below, feel free to add to the list and help this page be a resource to identify the good companies and the organic washers. Not all of these companies are labeled organic, but they are all appealing to the health minded consumer.

Horizon Foods: Milk, Cheese, and Eggs

Horizon is the largest producer of organic milk and organic eggs in the world. They are owned by Dean Foods, the largest conventional dairy company in the world. Dean Foods does not care about organic standards. Actually, that’s not entirely true. Dean food cares a great deal about reducing organic standards. Horizon is often in trouble for bending and violating organic rules and regulations. Dean Foods lobbies to reduce organic standards. And their eggs and milk actually tastes no better than conventional eggs and milk, because they are not much better. For milk, try not drinking it! Consider this: milk is produced by impregnating a cow (or a sheep, or a goat) and then taking away the infant, putting it on formula, and milking the mother. We are ripping apart a mother-infant bond. If you think for a second that the cows don’t know any better, you need to go to a farm and watch it happen. It’s heart-wrenching. There are many other options available. Soy milk is not one we recommend, but there is almond milk, rice milk, hemp milk, coconut milk, and more! The taste is acquired, but believe it or not, cow’s milk is an acquired taste, too.

Silk Soy Milk

Owned by Dean Foods again. The soy beans are genetically modified. And soy milk IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU ANYWAY!

Cascadian Farms

Owned by General Mills, Cascadian Farms, whose principle investors include: Alcoa, Chevron, Disney, Dupont, ExxonMobil, General Electric, McDonalds, Monsanto, Nike, Pepsico, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Starbucks, Target, and Texas Instruments. Every one of those companies has atrocious human rights and environmental issues. 100% of the brand’s cereal and granola products are certified organic, and yet the corporate owners include the nation’s largest agribusinesses involved in GMO/ chemical agriculture. So while Cascadian Farms has done a good job of staying organic, even after they were bought out by this evil company, supporting Cascadian Farms is supporting the worst of the worst companies and everything Cascadian Farms used to stand against. Plus, most grains and the sugar they sell their grains with, really aren’t good for you anyway.

Kashi

Again, most grains are not good for you. And Kashi is grains and sugar too. They are also owned by Kellogg (who also owns Bear Naked). Kashi makes promises of “all natural” and/or “nothing artificial” on the front labels of most of its products. This lead to the August 2011 class action lawsuit filed against the company by Michael Bates. Processed and synthetic ingredients are in most of their products. The lawsuit indicates that a number of these artificial ingredients are listed as “prescription drugs, irradiated substances, pesticides that are a by-product of uranium mining and federally declared hazardous substances.” Kashi also stated that some of its foods “may contain GMOs.” And they followed with, “Many factors outside our control, such as pollen drift from nearby crops and current practices in agricultural storage, handling, and shipping, have led to an environment in North America where GMOs are not sufficiently controlled.”

Hain Celestial Group

Heinz Co. owns nearly 20% of Hain. And Hain owns Garden of Eatin’, Health Valley, WestSoy, Earth’s Best, Hain Pure Foods, Spectrum Naturals, Walnut Acres Organic, Imagine Foods, Rice Dream, Soy Dream, Ethnic Gourmet, Yves Veggie Cuisine, JASON, Avalon Organics, and Alba Walnut Acres, Westbrae, Imagine, Arrowhead Mills, Breadshop’s, Casbah, The Good Dog,The Good Slice, DeBoles, Lima, Biomarche, Grains Noirs, Earth’s Best, and Nile Spice. The Company is a leader in 13 of the top 15 natural food categories. The Cornucopia Institute put together an Organic Soy Scorecard that reveals which soy product companies are truly trustworthy versus those that are not. Cornucopia took into account thesourcing of soybeans, use of toxic chemicals for soy protein extraction, and the use or avoidance of genetically modified soybeans. Westsoy and SoyDream (both owned by Hain Celestial Group) – Refused to share their sourcing information. Hain Celestial Group routinely uses yeast extract in its foods (a form of hidden MSG). Their personal care products (Avalon Organics, and Alba) contain a wide variety of toxic ingredients as well.

Trader Joe’s

Why is trader Joe’s so popular among the green and health conscious? To their credit, when their consumers have spoken out, Trader Joe’s responded with the proper policy changes: they now carry cage-free eggs and GMO-free foods. And they did recently agree to revamp their seafood policies, after a lengthy campaign by Greenpeace to get red-list fish out of its stores. But why did they have to be pressured to do this? And their produce and other foods tend to come in plastic packaging. You can’t buy a fruit or vegetables without buying them being wrapped in SaranWrap, and typically wrapped on a Styrofoam tray.

Stoneyfield

Stonyfield is owned by Dannon. YoKids Squeezers conatian carrageenan. Carrageenan is a water-soluble polymer, also known as a gum, which is used as a fat substitute in processed meats and can be found in condensed milk and some soy milk products. Stonyfield assures us that the FDA says it is safe. And we all trust the FDA. No, kidding, the FDA cannot be trusted anymore than Monsanto. And carrageenan may cause stomach lesions or cancer. There have also been issues about Stonyfield refusing to pay fair prices for milk. And at 99 cents a yogurt, it’s no surprise.

Odwalla and Naked Juices

Pepsi owns Naked. Odwalla is owned by the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. We can thank Odwalla for the laws that require juice to be pasteurized. Before they were acquired by Coca-Cola they selling unpasteurized juice. But they were juicing rotten fruits and vegetables with filthy equipment. People got sick. Wikiepedian states, “A period of decline occurred as a result of a fatal outbreak of H7 in 1996 that was caused by using bruised fruit that had been contaminated. Following the E. coli outbreak, Odwalla adopted flash pasteurization and other sanitization procedures.”

Organic Companies You Can Trust

Eden Foods is an amazing company. And while they are pretty substantial in size, the people running this company care a great deal about producing healthy, beneficial products for their consumers. The best egg producer we know of is Vital Farms. They really do care about the welfare of their eggs. “There are many elements we consider vital to our methods: organic green pastures, multiple native grasses, herbs, seeds, and other natural foliage, top quality organic feed, plenty of fresh water, relatively small flock sizes, lots of space to roam and forage, protection for the birds, shelter from inclement weather, and a personal attentiveness to the birds’ welfare!” And their eggs taste incredible! Organic Valley is a pretty good company for eggs and milk. They have been in some trouble, but they do take measures to abide by organic standards, and they aren’t looking to greenwash consumers. But they, along with Whole Foods, and Stonyfield, recently decided it’s time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto’s controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for “coexistence” with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack. Read more at The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now?

Organic Bureaucracy

According to many farmers, it has become difficult, even prohibitive, for many small farmers to become certified organic.

And there’s more! Watch this video:

Conclusion

The truth is, organic standards mean very little at this point. And a product labeled as organic is likely to not adhere to these almost meaningless standards anyway. But even if the product does meet the qualifications, the standards leave so much room for manipulating the system. And with the big companies wanting to get in on the organic scene, it is only getting worse and worse. The easiest thing you can do to avoid organicwashing is to avoid buying from big companies! If you see a banana labeled organic sold by Chiquita, don’t buy it! Buy from smaller companies that got into the organic business to make a difference.




Bush-Obama Presidential Commemorative Coin

Act Now! (satire)

Obama Bush CoinIn light of President Obama’s continued efforts to clean up our environment by pushing for clean coal and nuclear power, signing the extension of the Patriot Act, and his inspiring warlord like acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, we at Organic Lifestyle Magazine have decided to release this limited edition commemorative presidential coin featuring our president Barack Obama on one side and our former president George W. Bush on the other.

In Greed we trust.

As Obama continues to disappoint liberals and conservatives alike with broken promises and general short comings this minted official fake coin is bound to increase in value.

For only $49.95 you can have this official “Two Sides of the Same Coin” presidential memorabilia. If you order now we’ll pay shipping and handeling!

Disclaimer: This coin is not real. Half of all proceeds from people who send us money to purchase this coin will be donated to the Tea Party. The other half will be donated to the Green Party.

Disclaimer 2: We would never ever donate money to the Tea Party, ever!

Disclaimer 3: We will not be donating any money to anyone. We tree huggers will keep it to ourselves.




Issue 2 – Plastics & Organic Certification

Brainwashed – Letter From the Editor

Ask OLM

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Plastic Bags

Organic, All Natural, and Certified Naturally Grown Food Labels

Gyre

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Plastic Everywhere

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What is Organic Food?

Organic vs. Conventional