Archive for the ‘Food-Nutrition-Health’ Category

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On Sustainable Living: the Hunter-Gatherer

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

by Catherine Haug, December 17, 2011

The Paleo, or Hunter-Gatherer eating plan is gaining popularity, especially amongst people who want to live more sustainably. It is not a diet in the sense of weight loss, but rather a diet to optimize health for you, your family, and the planet.

While it relies on foods that are native to the area in which you live, including wild fruits, berries, roots, leaves/stems, and game, as the primary source of food, in a modern society, these native foods can be supplemented with non-native foods that are locally-grown/raised, and in-season. Such a diet requires minimal energy input and is not toxic to the body or environment.

See also my earlier post: Preparing for, and Surviving our Future. (more…)

Posted in Food-Nutrition-Health, Health | 1 Comment »

New legislation affecting GMOs

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Frankenfood

By Catherine Haug, December 14, 2011

Image, right, from Organic Consumers’ Association.

In my opinion, there is good news on the horizon regarding GMOs. Rep. Dennis Kucinich has introduced two new bills affecting GMOs:

  • HR3553  would mandate GMO labeling, and
  • HR3554 would provide stricter safety protections for genetically engineered (GE) products.

To learn more about these bills, refer to ANH Action Alert: GMO Legislation, or see below. If you support for these bills, you can take action on the ANH Action Alert: GMO Legislation website. Alternately, whether you support or oppose these bills:

For more of my articles on GMOs, see ESP Topics: GMO. For more on the two proposed bills, read on.

(more…)

Posted in Agriculture, Ecology, GMO | Comments Closed

How GMOs destroy life, soil and your gut probiotics

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

by Catherine Haug, December 11, 2011

I’ve written many articles about GMO/GE crops and foods, hinting at the harm they cause, despite big-Ag’s insistence that GMO foods are no different from non-GMO (see October is GMO Month for list of prior articles on this site). But now, more information is coming out about just how this harm comes about. (more…)

Posted in Agriculture, GMO, Health | 1 Comment »

Irradiated Foods

Sunday, November 6th, 2011

Radura: Irradiation label

by Catherine Haug, November 5, 2011

To those of us who support the growing Organic and Local Foods movement, our main perceived bad-guy is Genetically Modified/Engineered foods (GMO/GE). But there’s another bad-guy out there: Irradiated foods (IR).

[NOTE: the Radura symbol may be green or pink; either way, it means the food has been irradiated.]

What is irradiation?

Irradiation is simply exposure to radiation from radioactive elements such as radium, uranium and so on. We are all familiar with X-rays – as mammograms, dental x-rays, chest x-rays and skeletal x-rays to name a few.  (more…)

Posted in Food-Nutrition-Health | Comments Closed

Certified Naturally Grown Produce Label

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

by Catherine Haug, October 29, 2011

If you sell produce at local farmers markets, and use organic methods to grow them, listen up.

Earlier this week, the produce manager at Bigfork Harvest Foods mentioned he buys from several small local growers that use organic methods but are not Organic certified (such as Loon Lake Gardens), and he wished there were an easier certification for them.

My response: There IS! It’s called Certified Naturally Grown (or CNG). I wrote about this last year (Natural vs Organic), but it is worth discussing again.

Why this label is important

The CNG label is a certification available to local growers who use Organic methods but don’t want to incur the high fees and paperwork required for true Organic certification.   (more…)

Posted in Agriculture, Food-Nutrition-Health, Gardening | Comments Closed

Event Summary: Cider Press at Tamarack Time! Oct 15,2011

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Raw cider from press

by Catherine Haug

Despite forecasts of rain and cold, the weather cleared off just as we were setting up on the deck of La Provence. It was a beautiful day! We started grinding and pressing the first apples around 11:30, and continued without stop until 4:30. Lots of new people brought apples or stopped by to check out our operation.

Jeffrey’s latest modification to his grinder added a bicycle to power the grinder in tandem with the stair stepper – perfect for couples to work together. Our youngest helper, Caleb Riedesel (kindergarden), helped by working the stair stepper! and with pouring cider into the jugs.

14 individuals/families brought apples; a total of 70 gallons of cider was pressed (last year we pressed 44 gallons).

A big THANK YOU to all who brought apples and/or volunteered to wash & rinse apples, feed the grinder, work the stair-stepper and/or bicycle, pour cider into jugs, and give out tasters. Thanks also to Jeffrey for the use of his grinder, and to Marc Guizol for the use of his deck. And thanks to my fellow ESP core team members for your dedication to this community event.

We have no new photos this year, but you can see lots of photos from last year’s cider press event at Event Summary: Cider Press at Tamarack Time, Oct 9, 2010.

 

Posted in Community, Food-Nutrition-Health, Gathering Summaries | Comments Closed

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