So, you’ve decided to get healthy. You’re going all the way. You’ve cleaned up your diet. You’re exercising regularly. What’s left to do? Detox. But first, you need to take a good hard look at the chemicals you use on a daily basis and get rid of them. Dump the toxic shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, after-shave or perfume, soap, lotion, make-up – whatever it is you put on your body and pretend your skin doesn’t soak right up like a sponge. Come on; face it. Whatever we put on our skin is drawn right into our bloodstream.

Whatever we breathe is taken right into our system as well. As soon as you are through tossing out the toxic products you use on your body, toss the toxic solutions you use to clean your home. Here are some great replacements for the noxious, dangerous chemicals you have been using.

How to Clean Your Bathtub

For years I’ve leaned over the tub and scrubbed with any number of cleaners from conventional to green alternatives. There are a number of ways to clean a bathtub. Not one of them comes close to this method. It is by far the easiest, cheapest, simplest way to clean your tub.

After you are through washing your body, let out half of the water. Now soap up your washrag, scrubby mitt, or whatever it is you use to wash yourself. Use it to wash out the soap ring around the tub. That same soap ring you have struggled to clean with numerous sprays and powders immediately dissolves when faced with plain old (better be organic!) soap. Just rub in a circular motion and rinse. Do this every time you take a bath and your tub stays clean.

How to Clean Your Oven

The Healthy Food Team suggests this ingenious, easy method of cleaning your oven.

Apply a paste of baking soda and water to the surfaces in your oven. Let it sit for 12 hours. Use a wet towel to wipe out the oven the next day. Spray vinegar on any residue that is left. Again, wipe with a wet towel.

How To Clean Your Floors

Mop your tile, linoleum, and wooden floors with a mixture of water and vinegar. Just add ¼ cup of vinegar to 2 gallons of warm water. Or add a few drops of your favorite essential oils to warm water.

How To Freshen the Air

Boil citrus peels in a pot of water, spritz the air with water mixed with essential oils, or use a diffuser with essential oils. Better yet, open your windows and let in some fresh air.

How To Clean Your Carpets

Various sites suggest using cornmeal and/or baking soda for a dry clean of the carpet. No way I am putting cornmeal into the carpets. One of the reasons carpets are so hard to get really clean is that they trap dirt between the mesh that holds the carpet fibers together and the padding underneath the carpet. Why would you want to get edible bug attracting food caught there?

Baking soda? Now that’s the way to go. You not only can get carpets cleaner by sprinkling baking soda on the carpet and then vacuuming it up, the carpets will smell better as well.

You can use plain hot water to wash your carpets or you can add essential oils or vinegar to the water. For spot cleaning, try spraying with a vinegar solution of 1:1 vinegar to water.

Remember that the first thing to do when anything spills on the carpet is to blot, blot, blot. After dabbing, stand on that towel to soak up anything that is trapped under the fibers. Then pour a little bit of boiling hot water on the area and blot it again.

Other Cleaners

Make sure you purchase truly green cleaners for washing dishes and clothes. This is not just for the environment – it is also for you! Remember you will be ingesting any chemicals that come in contact with your dishes and your skin will soak in any chemicals that come in contact with your clothes!

As far as other cleaners, use baking soda, lemons, salt and vinegar as much as you can to replace those toxic chemical cleaners. If you do choose to purchase cleaners, read the labels well – beware of “greenwashing”. Just because it says natural, doesn’t mean it is.

Detox

Now that you’ve cleaned all of those toxic products off your shelves, it’s time to clean their residue out of your body. Many chemicals are endocrine disruptors; others erode our health in numerous ways, including gut inflammation that disturbs the proper balance of bacteria so essential to all processes of the body. For a complete detox, we recommend Doc Shillington’s Total Detox .

You may also want to check out the Cheap and Easy Detox Diet Plan.

Recommended Products:

• Essential Oils

Further Reading:

•  Household Toxins
• 6 Things in Your Home That Are Unintentionally Making Your Family Sick

Resources:

• You’ve Been Cleaning Your Oven The Wrong Way Your Entire Life. This Is Brilliant! – Healthy Food Team
• Clean your floors without store-bought chemicals – non-toxic cleaning recipe and instructions – Natural News
• How to Clean Old Stained Carpet Naturally – SFGATE

As parents, we always have our kids’ safety in mind. We rarely hand something over to our children without thinking of how it could potentially harm them. Will he be able to pull parts off that car, put them in his mouth, and choke? What happens if she eats that Playdough?

While we do take the time to analyze various aspects of a toy, we probably don’t put enough thought into it. Does the toy have hidden chemicals and toxins? Did its production harm the environment?

Let’s look at several factors parents should take into consideration before hitting the toy store.

1. Repurpose First

Before buying anything new, take a good look at what you have at home. Has your son been begging for a drum set? Maybe the pots and pans would be a satisfactory alternative. Is your daughter determined to have that hot pink playhouse? A refrigerator box with a custom paint job might do the trick.

Here are some great ideas. Otherwise, google phrases like “toys from trash.”

2. Broaden the Age Range

See if you can adapt toys to fit different age ranges. The longer you can use a toy, the longer it will stay out of the landfill.

For example, all you need to do to make “old kid” toys more age appropriate for a younger crowd is bend the rules a little. For example:

• Move the foul line closer when playing cornhole and tossers so little arms can play, too.
• Don’t worry about forming words with the Scrabble tiles; use them with preschoolers who want to learn their letters.
• Use the Twister game board to help kids sort toys by color.
• Rather than use a big, heavy soccer ball, let younger kids play with a balloon (by the way, this makes it a great inside game for rainy days).

3. Phase Out Dangerous Things

Sort through your kids’ toy box. Take a look at what is already in there. You probably have several things that are no longer safe—toys with broken or missing parts.

You might also have toys that are unsafe because of the products used for their construction.

Rather than throw these toys out and contribute to landfill waste, repurpose them. There are lots of creative ways to make use of discarded toys (you can find examples here and here).

4. Buy Natural When Possible

The best toy construction materials are all-natural. Look for toys made out of sustainably logged, solid wood. Toys sans finish are best; otherwise, look for options with a non-toxic finish (vegetable, water-based, or beeswax).

Avoid any toys made of pressed woods (plywood or particle board). These woods often have toxic chemicals in the glue.

Other natural materials that make great toys include felt, wool, silk, hemp, organic cotton, and bamboo.

5. Buy High Quality Items

You might have to spend a little more, but high quality toys are worth the investment. These toys are preferable for several reasons:

• Quality toys are less likely to break, meaning sharp or dangerous parts won’t be an issue.
• The better the toy, the longer it will last. Several children—sometimes multiple generations—can play with a single quality toy.
• It is much easier to sell used toys if they are quality. Other parents won’t be interested in purchasing (repurposing) your second-hand toys if they aren’t in great shape. That means they could potentially end up in the landfill.
• Higher quality toys are more likely to be made with safe products—sans unwanted chemicals.

6. Buy Local

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by buying local. The shorter the distance the item needs to travel between manufacturer and consumer the better.

If there aren’t eco-friendly toy makers in your area, see if you can convince someone to give it a try. Ask a local carpenter to make wooden blocks. Ask someone crafty to make eco-friendly dolls and stuffed animals.

7. Be Smart about Imports

If you do buy an imported toy, make smart decisions. Not all countries abide by the same regulations when it comes to making consumer products. Therefore, the country of origin can greatly influence the chemicals included in the toy.

Buy safer toys from Japan, Canada, or European countries.

8. Encourage Creativity

Open-ended toys (ones that can be used in a variety of different settings) inspire the most creativity. Not only is this good for your child’s cognitive development, it also means a single toy can have more uses—meaning fewer toys will need to be purchased.

Great examples of open-ended toys include

• A sand box (or sand and water table for inside play)
• Art supplies
• Wooden blocks
• Dress up clothes

9. Avoid High Risk Toys

While many toys pose a low-level threat, other toys are extremely dangerous because of the chemicals they contain.

Cheap plastic jewelry and cosmetics specifically designed for kids are especially dangerous. These often have lead and known carcinogens. Avoid these at all costs!

While it is impossible to avoid plastic altogether, you can make smart decisions about which plastics make it into the shopping cart. A good way to tell if a plastic product is safe is to check the recycling label on the bottom. If it is safe (free of the most dangerous chemicals), the item will have a number 1, 2, 4, or 5 inside the arrow logo.

10. Get Recall Notifications

Subscribe to recall notifications and find out as soon as possible if a toy you purchased is labeled unsafe. The email alerts from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission would be the best resource for toys.

You can also sign up for recalls from the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Authority (for safety information related to tires, child restraints, vehicles, and school buses).

11. Don’t Buy Anything!

In the end, your child probably doesn’t really need a new toy. Simplify your child’s toy box. Your youngster’s creativity, your wallet, and the environment will thank you!

What are your favorite eco-friendly toys?

Editor’s Note

We don’t really buy toys for our two year old son. Most of the time when people have given us toys for him, he was not interested. He likes to play with what we use. For instance, we prepare virtually all of our own food, so he loves to mimic us and pretend to cook. We give him pots and pans to play with. Add a few spatulas and a some water and he’s set for at least 30 minutes. Big cardboard boxes are always awesome, we cut them out and make forts. I am convinced that letting him play in this way helps boost his creativity, and it certainly saves us a lot of money!

Sources:

• Natural Toy Care Instructions, by Bannor Toys
• Bringing up baby with safe and green toys, by CNN
• Cornhole for Kids, by Custom Corntoss
• 10 ways to reuse board games, by Mother Nature Network
• Go Green With Eco Friendly Toys, by Health Guidance

Most people aren’t gardeners, and even fewer are bona fide farmers. All of us, though, eat.

For this reason, food producers around the country — and around the world — are faced with a high demand for their products, a demand that might become unattainable in the future. In order to ensure a greater sense of food security, it’s time for us all to consider cultivating our own gardens.

You might be scratching your head if you live in an apartment, urban environment, or any other place that doesn’t have the green space for a garden. Fortunately, green thumbs before you have come up with the idea of a vertical garden. You can hang plants, put them on shelves, or simply put them in pots with trellises so that they can grow onward and upward.

You, too, can grow onward and upward if you start your own vertical garden. Aside from improved food security, below are six more reasons home gardens are the way of the future.

It’s Good for the Environment

Imagine the journey the vegetables you buy in a grocery store must go through to get there. They’re often picked in another state or country and transported for miles to reach you. That effort requires a ton of resources that your backyard garden can eliminate. Your own fresh fruits and veggies will produce less waste, help prevent soil erosion, and stave off future droughts.

It’s Healthier for You

You’ve heard — or you might know from sampling them yourself — organic fruits and veggies typically taste better than their pesticide-laden counterparts. Naturally grown produce also boasts more vitamins and minerals, especially if it’s locally grown and bought as fresh as possible. Imagine how flavorful and beneficial your vertical garden will be: freshly picked vegetables and fruits can go directly into your cooking, no middleman or nutrients lost.

Many home gardeners also get creative, growing produce that might otherwise be hard to come by or expensive in stores. This daringness has health benefits, as your body craves dietary diversity. New fruits and vegetables without steep price tags or miles of travel? Sign us up.

It Keeps Water Cleaner

As previously mentioned, many farmers rely on chemically based products to keep insects and other plant-eating pests at bay. These might be helpful to the farmer and improve overall yield, but they’re not good for us or for our water supply.

Perhaps it rains or the farmer waters his plants after spraying on a layer of pesticides. Where does the run-off go? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it often goes into our groundwater, and more than 35 states have contaminated groundwater because of this cycle. Your home garden can help cut down on this, and you can drink from the tap with a little more confidence.

It Cuts Down on Energy Usage

You probably don’t think about farms as places where a massive amount of energy is used, but think again: modern farming uses more petroleum than any other industry. This figure includes the production of synthetic pesticides, which actually account for more energy usage than the planting and harvesting of natural crops. If you say “yes” to gardening — and “no” to synthetic pesticides — you can help reduce this number.

It Boosts Biodiversity

Crop fields are often dedicated to, well, one type of crop. This makes the farmer’s life easier, for sure, but it doesn’t do much for the environment. It saps nutrients from the soil and allows pests to become smarter in their attack on our food supplies; that’s why fertilizers and pesticides have become commonplace.

By planting your own garden with a bunch of different plants, you’ll be doing your part to mix it up. Even if you don’t have a plot of land to improve with your green gardening, your vertical garden can attract bees and other helpful insects that might not show up to tired farmlands. They’re vital to the biodiversity of an area, too, because of their role in pollination.

It Bulks Up Your Wallet

This one might not necessarily save the world, but it might mean the world to you and your family. A vertical garden can help you save grocery money.

You can also use scrap wood and recycled containers, rather than buying new supplies to start your vertical garden. It doesn’t take much: seeds, soil, and some basic power tools can transform an unused corner of your patio or apartment into a tiny farm.

You can also create your own compost in order to fertilize your plants for free. Once your garden starts yielding produce, you’ll save money at the grocery store, too. You’ll avoid rising food costs, help the environment, and eat more flavorful meals. Who said saving the world had to be hard?

If you want to contribute to sustainable lifestyles and grow your own food, vertical gardening is a great solution! Nearly anyone can do it; you just need the right inspiration.

What vertical gardening strategies could you use in your home? I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below!

Further Reading:

• How to Start a Vegetable Garden – How to Grow Vegetables
• Planting a Fall Garden
• DIY Solutions for the Garden
• Medicinal Herb Garden – What To Grow and How To Keep It Growing All Winter
• 12 Organic Ways to Keep Your Garden Free of Slugs
• Planning Your Organic Garden
• 5 Reasons Small Scale Gardening Could Save the World

Sources:

• Growing A Vertical Vegetable Garden – Gardening Know How
  
• Power Tools – Hermance
• Top 10 Reasons To Grow Your Own Organic Food – Food Matters
  
• How to Start a Vegetable Garden – How to Grow Vegetables – Organic Lifestyle Magazine

As we move forward in the twenty-first century, more people than ever are concerned about preserving the environment and our natural resources. This concern has been carried over into the world of business, which means that an increasing number of businesses are going green in a variety of ways.

Running a green business is similar to running a traditional business, though there are a few additional perks and pitfalls for eco-friendly owners. Here are a few secrets to make your green business even more successful.

1. Look for government incentives for green businesses.

Whatever your motives for running a green business, the U.S. government wants to sweeten the deal by offering a variety of incentives for businesses to use renewable and more efficient energy.

The Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE) offers a complete list of incentives available to business owners. Here are a few highlights:

• Corporate Tax Incentives: If your business invests in eligible renewable or energy-efficient equipment, you may be eligible for special tax deductions, credits, and exemptions. The exact incentives vary by state, and some states have a minimum requirement before the incentive can be applied.
• Green Building Incentives: Chances are you have heard of LEED certification, but other organizations can also issue green building certifications that qualify your business’s building for a government incentive. Typically this incentive applies to proposed buildings and, if approved, the permit fees are greatly reduced or even waived. Green businesses that are erecting new buildings should capitalize on their environmental efforts with this incentive.
• Sales Tax Incentives: Businesses that purchase a renewable energy system or other energy-efficient goods can have the sales tax from such a purchase waived or refunded. If your business is thinking about getting a new energy system, then don’t overlook this valuable opportunity.

2. Choose green power for your business.

During the twentieth century, businesses had little choice but to use the energy supplied by the local electricity company. Now, however, most businesses can choose to get their energy from a green utility company.

Depending on your business’s location, it could be feasible to switch your power supply from traditional sources to more eco-friendly sources–such as a green electricity company.

You can look on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website to locate a green power center near you, after which you have to take a few simple steps such as identifying your annual power usage and signing a Green Power Partnership agreement.

Once your business is identified as a Green Power Partner, the EPA will provide you with tools, expert advice, and certifiable credibility for the green nature of your business.

3. Apply for grants and loans for your green business.

Depending on your business’s product, you may qualify for a government grant. Listed below are several types of industry-specific grants that may apply to your green business.

• Energy Development: Whether your business is working on developing renewable energy or more efficient energy production methods, there are grants available to support your mission and minimize your costs. The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency both offer grants for these types of businesses.
• Real Estate: Developers who improve polluted real estate qualify for Brownfields Grants for their eco-friendly efforts. These grants can also be applied toward assessing polluted property, cleaning it up, and training staff on environmental matters.
• Pest Management: Traditional pesticides wreak havoc on the environment, which is why the Environmental Protection Agency partnered with PestWise to promote Integrated Pest Management programs. Businesses and schools that focus on developing more eco-friendly approaches to pest management qualify for grants to support their work.

4. Use caution when advertising your eco-friendly ways.

While the previous tips are potential perks for green businesses, one pitfall to avoid is falsely advertising the eco-friendliness of your business. Since many consumers tend to prefer doing business with a green partner, it is important that you do not falsely advertise your business, lest you draw the wrath of consumers or law enforcement.

If your advertising is false or misleading, consumers can take actions such as submitting a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission or filing a chargeback against your business. The FTC can start an investigation on or even issue sanctions against your business, which will hurt your reputation. Consumer chargebacks can put your credit processing privileges in jeopardy and hurt your business’s bank account as well.

The bottom line for green businesses is that there are many more potential benefits than costs associated with doing business in a more eco-friendly way.

If you currently run a green business, tell us some of your insider secrets—we’d love to hear them!

 Sources:

• Environmental Grants & Loans, by U.S. Small Business Administration
• Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business, by Federal Trade Commission
• What is a Chargeback?, by Chargebacks911
• Guides Against Bait Advertising, by U.S. Government Publishing Office

What is the largest, most comfortable, yet most wasteful thing in your possession? If you answered “my home,” you’re probably correct. Every year, countless people waste tons of cash paying for staggeringly high energy bills. It’s not only financially, wasteful, it’s also a big ecological problem. All the unneeded power your house draws means higher bills for you and a greater carbon footprint for your home. If you can find ways to make your home more energy efficient, you save money and help to save the planet as well! Today we’ll help you fight wasteful spending with five ways to make your home more energy efficient.

Programmable Thermostats

Installing a programmable thermostat is a great way to see some fast reductions in your energy bills, helping to ensure your home is the most comfortable when you’re there to enjoy it. Relatively inexpensive and easy to install, you can program your thermostat to keep your home the coolest overnight as you sleep and allow the AC a break while you’re away from home at work. It’s a fantastic, simple change that can help you save 5-15% a year on heating. While you could also simply reset your thermostat manually, a programmable thermostat saves you the trouble of remembering to constantly adjust it!

Insulation

Insulating your home to retain heat in the winter may seem like a no-brainer, but that same insulation can help to contain your home’s cool air during the summer as well. It’s important to make sure that your ceilings, attic, and walls have proper insulation for all seasons, not just one. Your windows are another important spot to check, as an older window with damage to the frame can become an energy vampire as the temperature controlled air escapes outside. Provided you can fill the gaps and cracks of your home, you can be sure that your inside temperature will stay stable no matter what it’s like outside.

Energy Efficient Lights

Check the lighting in your home. If you still have traditional incandescent bulbs, it’s probably time to go shopping. Replacing your bulbs with light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs will cost more upfront, but the energy savings more than cover the initial price difference. They are that a great way to reduce your energy consumption while producing fewer burned out bulbs as trash. While LED bulbs do not contain mercury, many do contain lead and other contaminants. Check to see if your local hardware stores like Lowe’s or Home Depot will recycle them for free.

Low-Flow Fixtures

Cutting back on your water consumption is a great way to lower your bills, but nobody wants to stop showering. Fortunately, if you install low-flow fixtures throughout your house, you can save water without sacrificing your hygiene. The EPA states that a family of four can roughly save 20,000 gallons of water annually by simply swapping standard 4.5-gallon-per-minute showerheads with 2.5-gallon-per-minute ones. The lower volumes of low-flow fixtures allow will help guarantee that you’re able to increase your home’s water efficiency while seeing significant reductions in your water bill.

Solar Panels

Arguably the best way to combine energy efficiency with financial savings, installing solar panels can help protect both your pocketbook and the environment. Homes with solar panels can reduce or eliminate their reliance on traditional coal-burning power plants, the nation’s top carbon dioxide emitters, while also lowering their energy costs with cheap, clean, and renewable energy. You might also be pleasantly surprised by the price of residential solar panels, with great financing options and tax breaks available. Out of everything we’ve covered, solar power can have the greatest positive impact on both your personal finances and the health of our planet.

Revamping your home’s energy efficiency is one of the quickest and easiest ways to save money. Best of all, the improvements that you make will actively help to minimize your homes contribution to greenhouse gasses. It’s always a good feeling to save money, but recognizing that you’re also saving the Earth is an even better reward. Whether you look for small, simple changes like programmable thermostats, or large, impactful changes such as solar power, there are tons of ways to make your home more energy and financially efficient. With so many options, we hope this list has given you an idea of where to start on your energy-saving adventure!

We all know our safety—and that of our environment—is constantly under attack. Sometimes these attacks come from very unique, seemingly innocent situations. For example, foreclosed properties could be bad for your health—and the future of our environment.

What Is a Zombie Foreclosure?

Any time property owners fall behind on loan payments, they run the risk of entering into foreclosure. This is most common among homeowners—but commercial properties are at risk too.

The foreclosure process is very lengthy, time consuming, and filled with legalese. It is easy for a property owner to feel overwhelmed, discouraged, and pessimistic. Assuming the bank will take over their property no matter what they do, many of these homeowners pack up and move away.

However, for one reason or another, the bank doesn’t acquire ownership. Technically, the property owner is still in possession of the title—even though they’ve moved on. These abandoned properties in a state of ownership limbo are called zombie properties (or zombie foreclosures).

Why Do Zombie Foreclosures Happen?

There are various reasons why a bank might cancel the foreclosure process.

The most common cause of zombie proprieties is the location. These foreclosure homes are in low-income areas and the bank isn’t excited to obtain responsibility of a property in such a neighborhood.

Other times, squatters might take over the property or it falls into severe disrepair. In these situations, the effort to obtain ownership is more trouble than it’s worth.

The cost of foreclosing on the property might be more than the property is worth or more than what is owed to the bank. In these cases, the bank wouldn’t waste the money to complete the process. Similarly, the bank might not choose to proceed if the institution already has an excess of foreclosed homes in its inventory.

Zombie Properties are More Common than You Think

At one point, the number of zombie properties had soared above 300,000. While the number of abandoned properties has come down, experts still report one in five homes has been given up as a lost cause.

Some states have started to get the zombie property problem under control; but as recently as June 2014, half of the states in the U.S. had seen an increase in the number of abandoned homes.

This is especially true in states with the lengthiest foreclosure process: Florida, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey.

The Widespread Effects of Zombie Foreclosures

Abandoned properties quickly become a public nuisance. Studies show that a block with a vacant property has:

• More than 3 times as many drug calls to police
• Almost 2 times as many theft calls

Another study conducted in Philadelphia (a city that spends nearly $2 million each year to clean vacant lots) said any home within 150 feet of an abandoned property loses more than $7,000 in value.

Besides the damage these homes do to our wallets, they also have a terrifying effect on our health and safety. Abandoned buildings have pests, rodents, falling rubble, and sharp, rusty objects.

Plus, the risk of fire increases with zombie properties. Each year in the US, there are more than 12,000 air-polluting fires in vacant buildings which causes more than $73 million in damage.

But most importantly, these abandoned properties are wreaking havoc on our environment. Mold, standing water, and lethal chemicals are just a few of the things we have to worry about.

Homes aren’t the only buildings being vacated. Many commercial properties are left unattended, too. Many of them are classified as “brownfields,” buildings that once housed dangerous chemicals in massive quantities. Known carcinogens like lead, mercury, asbestos, petroleum, and PCBs are still present. These uncontained chemicals can seep into the drinking water. They are blown around during fires. They are quietly destroying our depleting natural resources.

The Solution

RealtyTrac offers two solutions for the zombie property problem.

In reality, the solution will depend on the property and the surrounding area. No matter which method professionals use to rectify the problem, we all need to consider how management of these properties will affect our environment.

Do you have experience with a zombie property? Did you live in close proximity to one? How did it affect your life, home, and health?

Sources:

Abandoned buildings still present environmental hazards – The Day

Florida’s Standing in the Midyear Foreclosure Report – Ziegler Law Office

How abandoned buildings could make you sick

Vacant Properties: The True Costs to Communities by National Vacant Properties Campaign

Zombie Foreclosures – Nolo

Zombie Foreclosures Still A Lingering Legacy of the Housing Crisis – RealtyTrac

Change We Can Believe In

In 2007, then presidential candidate Barack Obama promised that if elected he would direct more money for organic agriculture. He also said, “If I am elected president of the United States, I will support legislation that will require the mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods.” Now, well into his second term, it seems Obama has no intention of honoring his promises. Even if Obama honored his word, would such steps be enough to ensure our survival?

Can organic farms yield comparable outputs with conventional farms? To answer this question in 2002, Dr. Paul Mader and colleagues analyzed more than two decades of data. On average, organic farms yielded 80% of the output conventional farms produced. Although the yield was lower, the quality of the produce and the quality of the soil was far superior in every conceivable way. There are more nutrients found in organic foods.

The use of chemicals, so prevalent in modern agriculture, may result in a high yield (for a time), but their use is actually more expensive than organic food production. Conventional agriculture is more profitable for farmers due to government subsidies. That’s right; our taxes pay farmers more to cause harm to the environment and to produce chemically laden foods.

Subsistence strategies are a cultural phenomena. Just as language cannot be separated from culture neither can food be separated from culture. The food people eat and how the food is produced varies dramatically from one group of people to another. As with linguistic centrism, people tend to think that their way is the best way. Americans are often under this delusion in regards to feeding the world without simultaneously polluting it. Could the world feed itself without the so called benefits brought forth by the chemicals and drugs used in conventional agriculture?

Sustainable Farms

Farmers all over the world are proving it can be done, among them farmers such as Takao Furuno, a successful organic farmer from Japan. The Furuno farm works as a part of an ecosystem. Every year, after planting their rice, they release hundreds of ducklings into the rice paddies. The ducklings consume weeds that would otherwise compete with the rice. They also consume pests such as insects and snails. The ducklings fertilize the rice with their waste and oxygenate the water by their movements.

The Azolla fern is also grown on the farm. This plant helps to fix nitrogen into the soil as it feeds the ducks, provides cover for the fish from predators, and provides habitat for critters that also help feed the ducks.

By manipulating the natural processes on their farm, the Furuno family’s level of production is amazing. With only three hectares of land, they yield 7 tons of rice, 300 ducks, 4,000 ducklings, and sufficient vegetables for a hundred people.

Japan is a relatively small country. When including the entire Japanese archipelago, the total landmass is about 142,000 square miles. The Furuno farm is twice as productive as other conventional Japanese farms ­– not 80% as productive as Mader’s study would indicate. Twice as productive. With this kind of yield, 2% of the Japanese people could farm and feed their nation, organically and sustainably.

Eduardo Suiza’s Sustainable Fois Grais

Sustainable, humane, and organically produced foods also tend to taste better. Eduardo Suiza has been helping to prove this. Recently he took 1^st place in the Cu de Cois Culinary Competition for his legendary fois grais.

Chef Dan Barber explained that fois grais literally means to force feed geese or ducks a massive amount of food. This makes their liver expand by a factor of eight, a practice many see as inhumane. Eduardo Suiza uses an entirely different approach. He lives by the concept of giving the geese what they want. On his farm, he has everything the geese might need – olives, figs, lupin bushes and other plants to feed the geese.

In the fall, the temperature drops and Eduardo’s geese gorge themselves in preparation for the coming winter. After the geese gorge themselves, Eduardo slaughters some of his birds. This makes a more natural, more humane, and better tasting fois grais. His geese are so content; they invite wild geese flying by to join them. These regular additions to the flock voluntarily stay.

Examples of a sustainable approach to food production can be found all over the world. Thankfully, not all of these examples are in small-scale farming. In the Seville province of Spain, located 10 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, another example of sustainable, high quality agriculture thrives.

Veta La Palma 27,000 Acre Farm

Aquaculture has been instituted on an island farm, and their productivity and quality has caught the attention of the world. The original owners planned to create a cattle ranch so they dug canals to drain the water away. Despite their best efforts, the area was poorly suited for dry farming or raising large amounts of cattle, so eventually the property changed hands. The new owners had a different concept; they reworked the canals to reverse the water flow back inland. The result: Veta La Palma.

Here was a company trying to solve what’s become this unimaginable problem for us chefs. How do we keep fish on our menus?” – Dan Barber

Veta La Palma is a 27,000 acre farm with an amazing annual yield –1,200 tons of fish and shrimp. This aquaculture is self-sustainable; there is no need to feed the fish, as the fish feed themselves. There is no need to feed the shrimp, as the shrimp also feed themselves. In addition, the fish have attracted more than 250 different species of birds (some of which are endangered), and many of these birds fly to the farm from over 150 miles away. One might think that losing fish to the birds is the last thing anyone in aquaculture would want, but the farm is so productive they can feed the birds as well. Veta La Palma has become the largest bird sanctuary in Europe as a well as an incredibly successful fish farm.

Organic agriculture is seen by some as low-tech, and it is often described in terms of what it isn’t rather than what it is. Organic agriculture is agriculture without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. But it is so much more. Organic agriculture isn’t low tech; far to the contrary, the techniques used in organic agriculture today would astound the farmers of days past. True, sustainable, organic farming is a holistic approach to the microbes in the soil, the plants, the animals, and the relationships between them.

Barack Obama and Monsanto

In 2007, during the presidential debates, Barack Obama promised that if he got elected he would allocate more money for organic agriculture. Instead of honoring that promise, he appointed a man with ties to Monsanto, Tim Vilsack, to head the USDA. If we are to have change that we can believe in, it has become apparent that we must become the change.

Voting for change doesn’t necessarily bring change. Agribusiness votes, too, and they vote with their donations to politicians’ political campaigns. Monsanto, ADM, and other large agribusinesses are able to drown out the desires of the American people with huge sums of money.

Conclusion

Collectively we can change the world overnight by changing the way we spend our money. If we don’t want GMOs on the market, we can stop buying them. If we don’t want our foods grown in chemicals and sprayed with chemicals, we can stop buying conventional produce. And if we don’t want animals to be treated inhumanely, we can purchase our meats more selectively, as well. Together, by changing our buying habits, we can change the world. That’s change we can believe in.

Further Reading:

• 5 Reasons Small Scale Gardening Could Save the World
• Ten Great Gardening Tips
• Urban Gardening
• Planning Your Organic Garden

Sources:

• How I Fell In Love with a Fish – Veta la Palma, TED Talks
• A foie gras parable – Eduardo Sousa, TED Talks
• Jay Withgott and Scott Brennan, Environment The Science Behind The Stories (Boston: Pearson Education, 2011), 274.