Going organic on a tight food budget is a challenge. But there are strategies to help you align your ideals with your fiscal realities. One is to select organic versions of key staple foods so that you increase the percentage of your organic food consumption without significantly increasing your food shopping budget.
What would a trip to France be without that symbol of national identity, that beacon of cultural pride, that epitome of paradox, the very quintessence of French – what would your visit be without wine?
Voluntary human testing on the effects of pesticides.
The environmental protection agency (EPA) under the Bush administration (after a 1998 moratorium under the Clinton Administration) now urges chemical pesticide producers to test their pesticides on human volunteers.
Though a little old, I found a few different articles on this issue. Check them out:
foxnews.com, "EPA to Allow Pesticide Testing on Humans" http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,140334,00.html
Discovermagazine.com, "Testing Pesicides on Humans" http://discovermagazine.com/2003/dec/testing-pesticides-on-humans
People exposed to high levels of pesticides appear to have a greater risk of developing brain tumours, suggests a study to be published in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Journal.
The study concludes show that both agriculture workers exposed to pesticides and those using pesticides indoors for house plants have a higher risk of developing a brain tumour.
The study authors acknowledged that their conclusions warrants further research because as it didn't isolate the types of agents, such as fertilizers, pesticides or other chemicals, had been used in enclosed home environments.
The population-based case-control study is one of the largest to specifically examine the linkage between exposure to pesticides and the development of brain tumours.
It involved 221 cases of brain tumours and 442 individually matched controls enrolled between May 1999 and April 2001. Histories of occupational and environmental exposure, medical and lifestyle information were collected and a cumulative index of occupational exposure to pesticides created.
The authors say: 'The study supports the role of pesticides in brain tumours but only for high levels of occupational exposure'.
They add that gliomas are more common in men than women and speculate that 'the differences in occupational exposure between men and women could contribute to the difference in rates between them'.
However, they are unable to determine which types of pesticide are particularly associated with development of brain tumour because information on the use of specific pesticides in a given area is not available in France.
Infants are more sensitive to pesticides because of their more vulnerable nervous and immune systems. A government study of children whose diets were changed from regular to organic found their pesticide levels plunged almost immediately. The amount of pesticide detected in the children remained imperceptible until their diets were switched back to conventional food. All of this clearly explains the rise in popularity of organic baby food. Sales of organic baby food have jumped nearly 18% since last year, double the overall growth of organic food sales, according to the marketing information company ACNielsen.
Fasting means the removal of all food (and sometimes water) from the diet. While technically not a fast, juice fasting remains a mild but very effective cleansing strategy.
Air pollutants are an issue in cities and rural areas, and they're a cross-country, international problem. Smog in the United States' Western cities can be partially attributed to coal-burning in China.
Many industrial processes increase air pollution, such as auto emissions, forest fires, and home heating. Air pollution contributes to acid rain, climate change, and poor human health. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 4.6 million people die each year due to complications associated with air pollution.
Water is necessary for life, so it's a wonder that it's treated with such disregard. What flows from the tap at home is often polluted with some form of pesticide, industrial chemical, pharmaceutical drug, or other toxin - even after it's passed through a treatment facility.
Human beings are at the top of the food chain, thus we bioaccumulate the collective environmental toxins that go into the growth and processing of our food. Every step between you and your food is a pathway for toxins to be added to your dinner plate.
