I’m sure you’ve read by now all about how the bees are “mysteriously” disappearing and not returning to their hives. It’s called Colony Collapse Disorder. Well, there seems to be a real answer instead of all of this false speculation to lead us off the trail of the true culprit – pesticides.
A group of German beekeepers noticed that two-thirds of their bees died following an application of this pesticide called clothianidin. In Germany, they find this to be an emergency situation and have suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweetcorn. Fifty to sixty percent of the bees have died and some beekeepers have lost all of their hives.
The tests performed on the dead bees showed that ninety nine percent of the bees had a build up of clothianidin in their body which is a systemic chemical that works its way through a plant and attacks the nervous system of any insect it comes into contact with. The US Environmental Protection Agency also considers this pesticide to be highly toxic to honeybees.
Bayer, one of the world’s leading pesticide manufacturers (as well as pharmaceutical manufacturers) makes this pesticide and imidacloprid, sold under the name Gaucho in France. Imidacloprid has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers in that country since 1999, after a third of French honeybees died following its use. Five years later it was also banned as a sweetcorn treatment in France. Recently, the company’s application for clothianidin was rejected by France. Clothianidin and imidacloprid are both members of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. They are well known as insect neurotoxins, especially with regard to bees.
In the U.S., beekeepers in North Dakota are taking Bayer to court after losing thousands of honeybee colonies in 1995 when rapeseed in the area was treated with imidacloprid. A third of honeybees were killed at that time and the term “colony collapse disorder” began.
Representatives for Bayer say that their pesticides are safe for bees if applied correctly. This involves using a glue that keeps the pesticides stuck to the seeds on which they’re used.
Agricultural corporations are known to evade anything that costs them money. All the glue, the personnel to apply it correctly and the equipment used requires extra money. Obviously, they are not applying these popular neurotoxins correctly because now we have an epidemic of dead bees on our hands.
Colony Collapse Disorder is a name given to mislead the public from finding out the real, simple truth that toxic pesticides are to blame. If we knew this fact right off the bat instead of being directed to look for a bacteria or parasite or environmental stress on the bees that could possibly be causing the die-offs we would have been cutting into the enormous profits that these manufacturers gain. Bees are necessary for our food supply and therefore, human survival and are being allowed to be killed off just for pure greed and profit. It’s sick, really.
This is just another reason to go organic – whether you grow an organic garden, buy only organic foods from the supermarket or buy direct from organic farmers through a CSA or a farmer’s market. Pesticides are just toxic to all of life period. In the end, they affect us all and are not safe, no matter what the greedy chemical companies say.
This is a new documentary film brought to you by Producer-Directors James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch.
Here is the synopsis:
With nutritionally-depleted foods, chemical additives and our tendency to rely upon pharmaceutical drugs to treat what’s wrong with our malnourished bodies, it’s no wonder that modern society is getting sicker. Food Matters sets about uncovering the trillion dollar worldwide “Sickness Industry” and gives people some scientifically verifiable solutions for curing disease naturally.
Great trailer – check it out above. On their website, you can order the movie or download it for just $4.95. I recommend anyone suffering from any kind of illness, even cancer, should spend the 5 bucks and really learn some important info from the many experts interviewed that can potentially change their world in 80 minutes.
“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food” -Hippocrates
Mark Bittman, a NY Times food and cooking columnist and best selling cookbook author spoke at TED last year about the link between our food and global warming, environmental degradation, and human health problems. His talk is really well done and is worth watching.
Kevin Gianni from Renegade Health shows a nice visual of what the difference is between organically grown and conventionally grown produce. Especially important to remember is about the little kids – the chemicals effect them even moreso than an adult and builds up fast in their little bodies.
If you eat conventional produce, make sure it has a peel or removable skin on it like bananas and avocados. Check out EWG’s Guide To Pesticides In Produce to see the chart from the highest (peaches) to the lowest (onions) in chemical residue. I think Kevin’s image in the video above is enough to make anyone think twice about what they are actually allowing to go into their bodies to nourish their cells. Do you think those chemicals nourish your cells – or maybe do something else?!
I came across this blog post recently on greenlivingbuilding.com that is something I’ve been thinking a lot about myself since I’ve gone raw. This person said it so well, I thought I would list some of their facts from the post in italics with my comments on this thrown in as well.
Raising food for human consumption creates 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than 130 times the total of human generated greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of pollution created just to grow and deliver animal food to our tables is extraordinarily high.
And water used to raise animals for human food is equally high. Here are some of the worst offenders:
4500 liters of water for one steak.
1000 liters of water for one liter of milk.
1170 liters of water for one chicken breast.
1440 liters of water for one serving of pork.
840 liters of water for one pot of coffee.
2500 liters of water for one piece of cheese.
Compare that to 70 liters of water used to deliver one apple.
These stats are so shocking when you read that in black and white. 4,500 liters of water for one steak? That’s not even 1% of the cow! It’s crazy, really. Plus, all of the grain to feed the cows stuck on those cruel, barbaric factory farmed feedlots. It gets expensive so the feedlot owners went the cannibalism route – it gets the cows weight up faster so more money for them. You do know that they feed cows, who are herbivores, rendered dead cows and other animals including cats and dogs, don’t you? Mad cow, anyone? I wonder how much water is wasted on that heinous act. If you eat red meat, at least buy pasture raised (grass-fed) beef from companies you can trust!
Reducing the percentage of animal foods in your diet is one of the most effective ways to help our environment. It’s also one of the best things you can do for your health at the same time. Two benefits in one!
Since I’ve gone raw, even when I was only 80% raw in January, I realized that I make so much more compost everyday and that I myself hardly throw away anything and only have to recycle a few things. I make very little garbage now. It feels so good to know that whatever I’m eating, if there is any waste it can go feed the squirrels outside or go on the compost pile. My little Bio Bag compost bin and bags we have been using the past several years is way too small for what our needs are now. I need a trash can sized compost bin nowadays!
Another benefit (to me, anyway) is that my child sees me eating all these different veggies, fruits, nuts and sprouts prepared in different ways and is very intrigued. He calls me “the cooking guy” since I’m always whipping up some new recipe and oohing and ahhing over it to him. Even though he is very picky about eating combination foods, his intake of simple fruit and veggies and raw nuts and seeds has gone up so much everyday now. This is huge for me. I can put a pile of spinach leaves in front of him and he will eat it. An entire apple or pear, he eats all of it and bananas, forget it. He can eat 3 or 4 in a day (and no, they are not constipating). Tonight, he tried some raw asparagus we got from the farmer’s market (which was so delicious!). He even drank some of a green juice I made last night which consisted of: collard greens, cucumbers, celery, wheatgrass and an entire lemon and he drank at least 2 ounces of it. That’s so amazing!! He’s really trying out new foods in the plant world and I couldn’t be happier.
And, my husband, a determined omnivore, well his increase in vegan meals and raw vegan foods (he’s so into juicing now) has gone up greatly and the cooking of flesh foods has dropped tremendously. All his choice, I don’t push my food on him but I do ask for him to taste the recipes I make and give me his opinion because my taste buds have definitely changed from detoxing these past 5 months. I have sampled some bites of cooked vegan foods recently when I was cooking for them and I thought, “yuck”. It felt heavy and dense and slow. I know that sounds weird but that’s how it felt and it was some of my favorite cooked foods like couscous and quinoa. I can just imagine what I would think if I ate some chicken or red meat now.
I am so into the high frequency I feel off the living foods. It’s kind of hard to describe but it feels like this total connection to the plants and the earth and to being part of the cycle of life itself. Raw, living foods took the blinders off my eyes and my mind and I feel re-awakened, balanced and more clear again.
And do you know what is the original raw food we mammals get to eat? Breastmilk!
The third Friday of every May has been declared Endangered Species Day. It is a day to educate yourselves and your children about what animals and plant life are on the list and what simple actions you can take at home to help make a positive change for endangered species and other wildlife and fauna all around you.
One of the animals listed, the Grey Wolf, has technically been “delisted” several weeks ago. This, in my opinion, is a travesty. They need the protection from our government because it is now open season on hunting these wise and beautiful creatures who help to keep the balance of the forest and the health of the herd of other species such as elk.
I have a deep, personal connection with the grey wolf. One summer, when living on a ranch in the mountains of CO, (the same location where I met my husband and got married), I had the chance to live with and bond with a 3 year old grey wolf named Cloud that was the pet of one of my housemates. The wolf and I bonded immediately and he soon started following me around everywhere and even wanted to sleep in my room at night instead of with his dad. This did not go over well with my housemate but he worked a lot and different hours than me so I soon became Cloud’s surrogate mom.
This wolf was so smart, loving and playful and really acted as my protector, too. One day, Cloud and I went for a hike down to the creek nearby which was about 1,000′ lower in elevation so I could harvest some plants that grew there to make medicine. I got caught up in the plant world, kept wandering and wildcrafting and when I was finally done we started hiking back up and I realized, I was lost deep in the forest! I had lost the small animal-made trail we followed down. It was late afternoon, it would be getting to be dusk soon and I was worried because of the bears and mountain lions that also lived in the forest and I had seen them on occasion on the ranch property before. I started running up the mountain since I was more than an hour away from home.
Cloud wasn’t worried, he was happy being out on our adventure running with me like one of his pack and I kept saying to him, “we need to go home, where’s home?” He was the one to eventually lead me back towards the ranch, running off in one direction and stopping to look back at me as if to tell me “this way”, with his sense of direction being much better than mine!
My housemate and Cloud eventually moved out of state, I offered to adopt Cloud and my housemate said no way. I was very sad over them leaving but what a gift I got in spending so much quality time with such a magnificent animal. I will never forget him.
The northern rocky mountain states such as Montana, Wyoming and Idaho have it out for the grey wolf. The plan is for killing off 39% of the 732 total wolves that live in the wild. Many are the collared, reintroduced to the wild adults and are highly tracked and studied since wolves were exterminated to extinction in the wild.
Earthjustice and 11 other conservation groups* filed a federal court lawsuit challenging the federal government’s decision to remove the northern rockies gray wolf population from the list of endangered species. They also filed a request for a preliminary injunction in order to reinstate Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves until the court issues a final decision on the merits of this case.
The injunction states:
“We maintain that wolves should not have been stripped of federal protections so soon because they are not yet recovered in the Northern Rockies region and the state management plans currently in place are woefully inadequate, not based on current science, and do not ensure the long term survival of the Northern Rockies gray wolf.”
“Since delisting, a spate of wolf killings by a variety of methods—pursuing wolves long distances with snowmobiles, shooting wolves from the roadside, and lying in wait for wolves at state-run elk feedgrounds—demonstrates the need now, as much as ever, to protect wolves under the Endangered Species Act.”
In Native American teachings, the wolf represents the supreme guardian, the teachers, the wisdom keepers. They are loyal, family oriented, playful, loving, wise beings. They kill to survive and feed their children as other carnivores do. They don’t take more than they need and keep the sick, old and frail animals they prey on from suffering a long, strung out death of illness or starvation.
I hope you can take action and give some support – even just signing an online petition to help protect this amazing animal from cruel, senseless murder.
*Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of the United States, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Western Watersheds Project, and Wildlands Project.
Over the past few months, I’ve read a few different articles about a man named Kipp Nash who runs an urban farming project here in Colorado that has turned into a CSA called Community Roots. He basically got several of his neighbors to allow him to turn their front lawns into garden beds for food production using intensive growing techniques – he calls them “mini organic farms.” He’s even added a program to harvest his neighbors’ untended fruit trees, too.
Nash provides all of the labor with the help of some volunteers in removing the grass, planting, weeding, irrigating, tending and harvesting the crops. He then divides up the weekly harvest between what each neighbor gets and what he sells. He calls it a modern day version of sharecropping. The word is out about his Community Roots project and he has more houses of people waiting for him to transform their front lawns into lush crops of organic food. He has also created real community between all of his neighbors by doing this. Someone is training with him now to establish this type of urban farming in another part of his town, too. Hopefully one day we will see no more front lawns and only lush, organic veggie gardens everywhere in suburbia.
I am so inspired by this. Front lawns are such a waste of water, effort, resources and space! If you own that land, why not put in productive plant life whether it be flowers, herbs or veggies there instead of grass? That is the way it used to be a long time ago for the working class. Growing your own medicinal herbs and some food for your family was the norm. Lawns are great for play areas in the backyard, but they don’t have to take over everything.
I wish I could get something started like that where I live but living on a somewhat busy street in a school zone, it’s not likely that it would go over well in my area. I just keep adding flower beds and removing more lawn from in front of my house instead. We have expanded our backyard garden space by adding two new beds in different areas and added more large planters for more herbs and for my son’s special garden plants area. We gave him two large planters so he could water them and tend to them as he likes and watch his special plants grow and so that he doesn’t accidentally destroy part of our main garden.
There is another urban farming site called Path To Freedom in Pasadena, CA who call themselves “urban homesteaders” and they have many garden beds in all of the available space including the entire front lawn and even the driveway! They have several fruit trees and shrubs and even some chickens, goats and bees. They produce so much food on their small one-fifth of an acre property that they sell to restaurants and other people and feed themselves almost exclusively from it. Dateline NBC is featuring them very soon on their show. You know if that is happening, people are curious to know more about living this way.
With food and gas prices rising so much, we are going to have to rely more on ourselves and our local community more than ever and that is a good thing. There is just no reason why we humans can’t grow some of our own food even if it’s just tomatoes and basil plants in large planters on your balcony or back porch. It’s so empowering eating something that you yourself cared for and grew. Plus the produce just tastes so much better having been picked just before you eat it in your meal. And even just doing this small act connects you to the natural world even if you live in a high rise apartment building. Think about how much this will teach your children, too in so many different ways and on different levels.
Take back your power, people! Grow something edible this summer and feel empowered!
We went on a little vacation to one of our favorite places in the world, Santa Fe, NM. This is a place we still consider moving to and a place that I thought I was originally going to move to when I relocated from NYC. I got “sidetracked” in Colorado and 14 years later, I’m still here.
Whenever we go there, we try to do some new things that we haven’t done before and to also visit with some friends and family that live in northern New Mexico. It is very, very similar in lifestyle and consciousness and attitude (mostly) to where we live now (which I do love where we live). There is just an “extra something special” there with the architecture and art and the energy of the land itself for me. This city has also been there for the past 400 years. I’m drawn to it and recharged by it every time I can spend at least a few days there and we were there a week and it still felt like it was not enough time.
We stayed in a 1 bedroom condo for the week and traveling with a young child, this is the BEST way to travel and have little stress. Since my son is a major picky eater, eating in restaurants is really no fun for us with him so we did take out at night a lot and he got to eat his favorite foods right in the condo and be his loud little self and pretty happy. The wireless for the rooms was down and only accessible in the lobby bldg. so we were internet free for the week. I think I had a harder time with it initially than my software engineer husband did. I tried one night early on to check email in that bldg. with our laptop but it was noisy and annoying and not worth it. We both really enjoyed the relaxing evenings of getting to spend some real quality time together and I think it was great that we couldn’t use the computer in our condo!
This was my very first trip as a raw vegan and I was worried that I would not have much to eat so I prepared different foods before we left and brought it with us which worked out great for me since we had a kitchen. I knew I would go crazy on the guacamole and pico de gallo found everywhere so I made raw corn chips and crackers for that but funny enough, I now prefer to dip into those yummy foods using veggies instead of my chips or crackers. I did eat some green chile (which is cooked but I love it) on my salads and other foods and can now tolerate more heat and spice than ever before since going raw.
I made this new recipe of raw granola I found and my (omnivore) husband loved it and said it was the best granola he’s eaten – and that is saying a lot! I also made raw nori rolls, sun garden burgers with raw ketchup, and a raw bread. I brought my “magic bullet” chopper/blender in case I wanted to make some smoothies. I was pretty well stocked for the week and only needed to get fresh veggies and fruit. I saved a lot of money doing this and didn’t feel deprived at all (I love all of these recipes) and wound up bringing a lot back home, too.
I found the one restaurant in town that served raw entrees and desserts which is inside this cool place called “Body” that is a natural home store, yoga/pilates workout studio that also offers healing services (yes, it was huge). My kind of place! I had a raw pizza and salad to go and it was excellent and now I am on a quest to figure out how to re-make their recipe this week.
So, I managed to stay totally raw for at least 98% of my trip and looking at my husband eating the traditional NM food smothered in cheese didn’t even tempt me – which is very weird for me bec. I love the food there and had the vacation mindset going on. I even lost weight from all the walking and hiking we did. Woo hoo! And, I had lots of energy – even at night. I am loving living raw!!
We took a tour one afternoon of a new community being built that has everything we like – photovoltaic and passive solar design, wind power, reclaimed water for landscaping, geo-thermal, eco-friendly building materials and insulation from top to bottom, beautiful architecture, lots of open space and trails surrounding it, community garden plots, commercial sized greenhouses going in for food sold to the community at a discount first, farmer’s market second, lots of fruit trees planted on the property for the community, parks and playgrounds, only environmentally friendly landscape maintenance used, etc. Basically our dream community. We just need work to support us down there and we are not moving in a bad real estate market for at least a few years. Good thing they will have a few phases being built so we have time to re-consider in the future.
The one new hike we did was at a place called Tent Rocks. It is just south of Santa Fe and a totally awesome place. These other-worldly looking rock formations formed millions of years ago from a volcanic eruption and it’s a soft sand and gravel type of rock pillar with the top part being a harder granite rock which kept it in place all this time. It has very narrow channels to walk through as you ascend to the top which my 4 year old loved doing as well as climbing on all the rocks (although for the other half of hiking he wanted to be in the backpack). It even had a cave that the two of them climbed up into and my son thought it was the coolest thing and wanted to sleep in it. I guess spelunking will be something we can do with him when he is older. He even pointed out a few formations that he thought were spaceships so even a 4 year old thought it looked alien like.
We took a train ride one day on the Santa Fe Southern Railway in an old 1920’s passenger car out to a train depot in a town called Lamy, had lunch and then rode the train back to the Santa Fe station. My son loved it since he loves trains so much. There was an outside platform to stand on, too which was fun.
There is so much more but this is a little recap of some of the fun and interesting things we did. I’m so glad that even though I don’t get to live there right now, we are only a (several hours long) car ride away from such a special place.
It seems to me that we are all on some level yearning deeply for that true connection with the Earth that we once had all the time – for some of us it is way back in our ancestral memory and for others, not that long ago. In many different religions, there are ceremonies tied to the cycle of life, of birth and death, planting and harvesting throughout the calendar year. We humans still yearn (consciously or unconsciously) for the tribal community, of gathering and preparing, sharing the bounty of our hard labor and amazing at the splendor of the vast beauty that surrounds us all over this planet. This desire is innate in us as humans, has been a part of our way of life for millennia.
Throughout it all, all the choices we humans have made both good and bad, our Mother Gaia has been there for us, caring for us as her children, always providing for us if we could just open our eyes and truly see. Perhaps then we would not be making such harsh, greedy, worthless and destructive choices so often that are disrespectful and hurtful to her and in turn, ourselves.
Maybe this year, we can all try and take some time to tune in to Gaia and try to talk to her and hear what she has to say. Sit quietly on the Earth somewhere you like and offer her your thanks and ask a question or two. She is there, alive and present in every moment and would love to talk to you. Even if you hear nothing back, talk to her and keep trying – one day you will. Honor her in your daily life by planting something: flowers, houseplants, vegetable garden. Be kind to our fellow creatures who are her children, too.
Whatever happens in the future for us here on Earth, the cycle of life will continue. She is not going anywhere and will welcome us back again and again. Her love is unconditional. Our greatest wish for Gaia and for ourselves should be Peace On Earth. If we all could keep that thought in our consciousness and say it out loud or to ourselves everyday, it will happen. Our thoughts do create our worlds and if enough people think Peace everyday, it will happen. Healing can and will occur.
We went on a little vacation to one of our favorite places in the world, Santa Fe, NM. This is a place we still consider moving to and a place that I thought I was originally going to move to when I relocated from NYC. I got “sidetracked” in Colorado and 14 years later, I’m still here.
The one new hike we did was at a place called Tent Rocks. It is just south of Santa Fe and a totally awesome place. These other-worldly looking rock formations formed millions of years ago from a volcanic eruption and it’s a soft sand and gravel type of rock pillar with the top part being a harder granite rock which kept it in place all this time. It has very narrow channels to walk through as you ascend to the top which my 4 year old loved doing as well as climbing on all the rocks (although for the other half of hiking he wanted to be in the backpack). It even had a cave that the two of them
climbed up into and my son thought it was the coolest thing and wanted to sleep in it. I guess spelunking will be something we can do with him when he is older. He even pointed out a few formations that he thought were spaceships so even a 4 year old thought it looked alien like.
There is so much more but this is a little recap of some of the fun and interesting things we did. I’m so glad that even though I don’t get to live there right now, we are only a (several hours long) car ride away from such a special place.
