There’s no better way to eat locally than to grow your own food. Maintaining a home greenhouse lets you do that all year round. With a home greenhouse kit, installing and maintaining a greenhouse has never been easier. Because I’m such a huge fan of growing your own and eating local, I’ve teamed up with Emerald Kingdom Greenhouse this holiday season to highlight the benefits of having your own greenhouse. Maybe it’s time to put a home greenhouse kit on your Christmas list!

Why Put a Home Greenhouse Kit on Your Christmas List?

1) Go Organic More Easily

Growing your own food gives you the power to produce organic fruits and vegetables that aren’t contaminated by toxic pesticides and herbicides. It’s easier to protect your plants from infestations from bugs like Japanese beetles, tent caterpillars, locusts, spider mites, slugs, and other pests, as well.

Plus, when you’re able to create an ideal growing environment for your plants, with healthy soil and just the right amount of irrigation, additional fertilizers, which may be full of excess chemicals, may not be required.

2)Eat Locally Grown Food 12 Months a Year

A big benefit of having your own greenhouse is that you can grow many of your favorite vegetables 12 months a year. As long as you maintain the conditions inside the greenhouse that your plants require, you should be able to keep your greenhouse producing. Greenhouses enable you to garden 12 months a year, in good weather and bad.

3)Keep Your Plants Safe From the Elements

One of the great advantages of greenhouses is that they keep your plants safe from the elements. This is particularly useful if you live somewhere where the weather hits extremes, with very hot or cold temperatures, or even lots of winds or regular hailstones.

Apart from just generally keeping plants inside a greenhouse protected, this type of structure is also handy when you want to transplant some of your yard’s plants or grow new ones from seedlings or other small sizes. When they have been moved or are very young, plants can struggle to survive if meteorological events like dust storms, blizzards, and high winds come along and erode the soil and buffer them about too much, so this protection can make a huge difference. It will also save you from having to race home from another location to try and cover them up if the weather changes!

4)Create the Optimum Growing Environment

Another reason to utilize a greenhouse is that doing so gives your plants the optimum growing environment, regardless of the time of year. When you use these structures, you can typically set the temperature, light, feeding, and soil conditions to the ideal levels, even if the conditions outside are completely different.

When you can have control over these factors, it means you can plant new crops any time you’d like, rather than having to wait for a particular season. Ideal conditions also help fragile or smaller plants to grow more quickly, while giving you the chance to grow plants which normally aren’t found in your region because they’re not sustained by your local climate. Compost works great in the greenhouse, too.

NOTE: You can put a small home greenhouse like the one pictured above in the middle of an existing garden if you need to protect or cultivate plants that aren’t “ready for primetime” in the main garden yet.

5)Grow Flowers and Houseplants for Your Home and Yard, Even in the Winter Months

If you prefer to grow flowers and houseplants rather than food, a home greenhouse still does the trick. When you add a greenhouse to your backyard, you can quickly start building up your collection of plants, by propagating cuttings from existing plants, sowing seeds in flats you can transfer to pots or the garden, and cultivating exotic species like orchids and roses that might not otherwise survive outside the protection of the greenhouse. You’ll enjoy having a botanical paradise to admire in the depths of winter!

6)Enjoy Gardening Year Round, and Any Time of Day or Night

If you’re one of those people who loves to garden and hates to put away your tools when the bad weather sets in, a greenhouse lets you indulge your favorite hobby no matter what the weather. You don’t have to stop gardening when the sun sets either. Just string some lights in your greenhouse and keep going.

7)Make New Friends

Gardeners are a sociable lot! You could end up making lots of new friends or traveling to more interesting destinations if you join gardening clubs and associations as a result of your new passion for greenhouse gardening.

8)Develop a New, Healthy Hobby

If you haven’t started gardening yet, take it up as a new hobby. Even if you don’t think you have a green thumb or have never done any gardening at all before, you may find that once you have a greenhouse, this all changes.

Here’s another benefit: being active bending, digging, and otherwise moving about in your garden throughout the year will help you stay fit and get you out of your chair or off the couch.

Plus, it’s really fun to watch a seed turn into a tomato or a big head of lettuce!

9)Create a Soothing Place to Relax

You can get a home greenhouse kit that’s small and devoted only to plants. Or, get one that’s a little bigger so you can set aside a corner as a place to relax and de-stress. Put in a comfortable chair, some of your favorite gardening books, a journal and an electric kettle so you can make yourself a cup of tea. Ahhhh…

Ready to Get Started? 

You can probably find the home greenhouse kit that’s perfect for you at Emerald Greenhouse Kingdom. Let me know if you decide to put one up. Send pictures!

NOTE: Partners enable us to bring you the expert content you need to live the greener life you want. All editorial opinions remain our own. Thanks!

The post 9 Good Reasons to Put a Home Greenhouse Kit on Your Christmas List appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Want to kill mosquitoes before they bite you to death and make the kids miserable? So did Brandi Stupica.

The Michigan mom of two hated worrying about her kids getting mosquito bites that could lead to something more serious, like dengue fever or even the Zika virus.

But she also hated using toxic chemical-based mosquito repellent because, well, hey, she’s a mom. And what mom doesn’t identify with Mother Earth?

One day, Brandi’s husband came across a bacteria that could be sprinkled on standing water to kill mosquito larva, plus black flies and gnats.

FREE NATURAL MOSQUITO KILLER GIVEAWAY!!
DETAILS BELOW

Brandi had a brainstorm.

Why not create a way to lure mosquitoes around the house into a trap where they’d be exposed to the bacteria – and DIE?

Brown Bread Mozzie, the natural mosquito killer, was born.

Here’s How Brown Bread Mozzie Natural Mosquito Killer Works

It’s Non-Toxic (to People) Bacteria

It’s a Trap, Not a Repellent

The Bacteria

The secret to this natural mosquito killer is in the bacteria that the company uses to lure and then kill mosquitoes. The bacteria is called Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis – Bti for short.

BTI contains spores that produce toxins that specifically target the larvae of the mosquito, plus pesky black flies and fungus gnats.

Bti has no toxicity to people and is approved for use for pest control in organic farming operations, reports EPA.

It’s a Trap, Not a Repellent

Brown Bread Mozzie, which is British and Australian slang for dead mosquito – comes in a kit of four containers, a scoop, and enough granules of Mozzie to keep your yard of an acre or less mosquito-free for a year.

You use the Bti in the four buckets, not on your skin. You don’t spray it on your clothes, or fog your yard, the way other mosquito control chemicals are applied.

To get started, first, get rid of all the places in your yard where mosquitoes like to breed, like stagnant ponds, kiddie pools that aren’t covered, drainage ditches, bird baths that aren’t cleaned frequently, kids’ toys like pails, and even old tires.

Then, set out the Brown Bread Mozzie buckets to lure mosquitoes to lay their eggs in the water you’ve put in each one.

Use fresh water from your hose, but what’s better is stagnant water you might empty out of a pond or birdbath. (Brandi says, “The nastier and more stagnant the water, the more mosquitoes love it!”)

Sprinkle a scoop of granules into the bucket, then fill the bucket half way with water.

Place the buckets on the edges of the property no more than 300 feet from the next closest bucket. You can also put them on top of a wall, hang them on a tree, or set them on a stump.

Use all four buckets.

If there’s any standing water you can’t or don’t want to eliminate, you can add a scoop of Bti granules there, as well.

That’s All There Is To It!

Your Brown Bread Mozzie kit includes enough granules so you can repeat monthly for 12 months.

When your supply of Mozzie granules or “bits” is gone, just order a new bag. You can reuse the buckets over and over again

Inexpensive, and Worth It!

A Brown Bread Mozzie kit costs $99; a replacement bag of Bti bits costs only $20. You could easily spend $20 on a summer’s worth of mosquito repellent, and spraying your entire yard with a mosquito insecticide would cost more than $99, so this is a good deal for your pocketbook as well as your skin.

GIVEAWAY + FREE SHIPPING

To Enter Giveaway, Leave A Comment Below

⇓⇓⇓

Brandi and her Brown Bread Mozzie Company have a special offer for the Big Green Purse community: free shipping when you order the $99 kit (which includes the 4 buckets, a year’s supply of  Bti granules, and the scoop).

But more, Brandi will give away one free kit to a lucky Big Green Purse visitor. All you have to do is leave a comment below. Tell us what you’re doing to control mosquitoes at your house, or why you know natural mosquito control is better than using insecticides or just why you love summer.

The winner will be picked from a random drawing on Friday, July 14.

The post This Natural Mosquito Killer Won’t Hurt You, Kids, Bees or Birds appeared first on Big Green Purse.

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“GMO” stands for genetically modified organisms. Some people also call them genetically engineered organisms. Either way, GMOs are foods whose genetic make-up has been re-engineered, altered or modified to give them different traits than those they evolved with.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 94% of all soy, 93% of the corn, and 96% of the cotton grown in the U.S. is genetically engineered. That means you could be eating GMOs in your bread, cereal, packaged cookies and cakes, and any other foods that contain soybean oil, corn oil, and high fructose corn syrup, to name a few.

Many biologists, scientists, public health officials and consumer advocates believe we should avoid GMOs. Here are the most important reasons why.

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7 Most Important Reasons to Avoid GMOs

1) Health risk – According to the Academy of Environmental Medicine, animal studies link GMOs to organ damage, gastrointestinal and immune system disorders, accelerated aging and infertility. This may happen because genetic material inserted into soy plants, for example, can transfer into the DNA of bacteria we already have living inside us. The American Public Health Association and American Nurses Association oppose the use of genetically modified (GM) bovine growth hormone because milk from cows that have been given this hormone contains more IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1), which is linked to cancer.

2) Contamination of other crops – Like other plants, GMOs cross pollinate. When the wind blows, their seeds can travel. Farmers trying to grow crops organically or with non-GMO seeds report that their fields are being contaminated through the natural cross pollination that occurs when GMO seeds go airborne. Once GMOs are present in a field, they are almost impossible to get rid of.

3) Increased pesticide use – Most GMO crops are engineered so that they are not susceptible to particular herbicides. For example, many GMO crops are resistant to Roundup, an herbicide produced by Monsanto. Ironically, as a result, farmers appear to be using more Roundup to control their weeds than previously.

4) Unpredictable side effects – We’ve all seen science fiction movies that feature monsters created when lab experiments go wrong. What happens if our GM foods turn into “Franken-Foods”? The Union of Concerned Scientists worries that the process of creating genetically-modified plants could lead to new allergens, carcinogens, nutritional deficiencies, and toxins that we’re unprepared to confront. It’s taken us decades to clean up after toxins like lead and asbestos, and those were known elements. How are we prepared to deal with the side effects of GMOs?

Don’t miss: Benefits of Organic Food: It’s More Nutritious!

5) Serious effect on the environment – GMOs are causing an explosion of “superweeds,” weeds that have evolved resistance to glyphosate, a chemical used on GM crops. As a result, even more powerful insecticides must be applied to control weeds, which ultimately contaminates groundwater and kills many animals and plants that are not targeted by these toxic chemicals but are nevertheless susceptible to them.

6) Devastating impacts on birds, bees, and butterflies – Research is ongoing into the impacts that GMOS could be having on birds, butterflies, bees, frogs, and micro-organisms that live in soil and our lakes, rivers and streams. Monarch butterfly populations are down 50%; scientists are exploring whether GMOs are reducing their habitat, or poisoning the milkweed that butterflies feed on. Roundup herbicide used in conjunction with GMO crops has been linked to high rates of mortality in some amphibians and organ damage to various animals.

7) Corporate control of seeds and agriculture – Ideally, farmers could get seeds from a variety of sources or save their own seeds for the next planting cycle. Today, one company controls about 95 percent of GM seeds. As cross-pollination increases, more and more natural crops may be unable to produce their own seeds, putting farmers – and us consumers, too – at the mercy of an agribusiness that is more focused on profit that people or the planet.[/box]

[box type=”tick”] What Can You Do? Use Your Purse!

√ Buy from local farmers who are growing food without GMO seed.
√ Shift your spending to organic food.
√ Look for the Non-GMO label when you shop.
√ Support legislation that would require all GMO foods to be labeled so that consumers can make informed choices when they shop.

RELATED

8 Fast Food Chains That Serve Local, Organic Food

The post The 7 Most Important Reasons to Avoid GMOs appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Lawn chemicals are designed to kill weeds and bugs. But they can harm people, too, which is why so many communities are banning or minimizing their use.

According to BeyondPesticides.org, suburban lawns and gardens receive more pesticide applications per acre (3.2-9.8 lbs) than agriculture (2.7 lbs per acre on average).  Can we really care more about grass than food?

That’s not even the bad news. “Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides,” says Beyond Pesticides, “19 have studies pointing toward carcinogens, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 15 with neurotoxicity, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 27 are sensitizers and/or irritants, and 11 have the potential to disrupt the endocrine (hormonal) system.”

Yet, we put this stuff on the same lawn where our kids play, our pets run, where we picnic…Crazy!

Wildlife are at risk, too. Fifteen million birds are estimated to die each year from pesticide contamination, reports the Poughkeepsie Journal. Domestic dogs and cats suffer a wide variety of illnesses when they’re exposed, too, as Pesticide Watch documents here.

Here’s What to Avoid

If you want to have a lawn but avoid dangerous chemicals, read the label on the fertilizer bag before you buy. Look for these chemicals of greatest concern:

1) Bifenthrin – This is the key ingredient in many grub- and insect-control products. It’s listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a possible carcinogen and is toxic to fish. It is already banned in several counties in southern New York State.

2) 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid, or 2,4-D – This weed killer is linked in some studies to increased cancer risk (though it’s not classified as a carcinogen by the EPA).

3) Glyphosate – Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s RoundUp. It is also used to pre-treat seeds as a way to inoculate them against pests and disease. Because it is used so widely, it is inevitably showing up in our air and water. The impacts on human health could be serious. The Pesticide Action Network says that glyphosate can “activate the estrogen receptor in a breast cancer cell line, which means it may be able to mimic the function of the key sex hormone estrogen.” Research also shows it could deform the heads in developing frog and chicken embryos.

4) Atrazine (1,2) – This herbicide is used to control broadleaf weeds. It is one of the most widely used herbicides in the U.S., but was banned by the European Union in 2004, when the EU found groundwater levels exceeding the safety limits set by regulators. Studies suggest it is an endocrine disruptor, which means that it could alter people’s natural hormonal system and ability to reproduce.

5) Carbaryl – This chemical is used primarily as an insecticide. It is sold under the brand name Sevin. While it kills mosquitoes, it also targets honeybees, whose populations are under seige nationwide. Carbaryl is illegal to use in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden, but it’s still applied to over a hundred crops in the U.S. It is often produced using the chemical compound methyl isocyanate (MIC). A leak of MIC used to produce carbaryl caused the Bhopal disaster in India, a catastrophe that led to 11,000 deaths and over 500,000 injuries.

Here’s What to Use Instead

√ In place of these and other toxic chemicals, use organic means to control pests. Beneficial insects and organic fungicides can keep pests and disease under control. Corn gluten is a popular organic option to control weeds.

√ Plant native grasses that resist fungus, rather than more delicate cultivars.  

√ Get specific suggestions for disease and pest- resistant grass varieties from your lawn and garden center and your local county extension agency.

Or Just Replace Your Lawn!

Ultimately, the best strategy may be to replace lawns with ground covers, gardens, decorative stones, wood chips, and other materials that require no fertilizers. We researched these 8 natural alternatives to growing grass to help get you started. 

Related Posts

Important New Film “The Human Experiment” Exposes Health Risks From Chemicals

Eating Organic Produce Will Reduce Your Exposure to Toxic Chemicals

The post 5 Chemicals in Lawn Fertilizer You Want To Avoid appeared first on Big Green Purse.

How clean is the air you breathe?

Because you don’t see smog inside your home, you might think your air is pretty clean. You’d sure want it to be, since you spend 90% of your time indoors, either in your home or at work. But in fact, indoor air can be two-five times more polluted than outdoor air.

Why? One reason is that 25% of outdoor pollution can still get indoors.

But more importantly, many common items we use in our homes actually pollute our indoor air.

Because indoor air doesn’t circulate as much as the air outside, it can stagnate, and the pollutants inside can concentrate.

Fortunately, there’s a LOT you can do to reduce indoor air pollution. We’ve partnered with AirFilterBuy.com to bring you this two-part series on indoor air pollution causes and what you can do right now, and affordably, to clean up your air.

HOW INDOOR AIR POLLUTION MAKES YOU SICK

The chemicals in indoor air pollution can have any or all of the following effects:

Irritation – Did you ever get itchy eyes or a scratchy throat after using an air “freshener” or home “cleaning” product? Most common cleansers contain powerful chemicals that we shouldn’t be inhaling.

Headache, Fatigue, Nausea, Dizziness – Those same chemicals can give you an annoying headache, make you feel inexplicably tired or dizzy, and even give you an upset stomach.

Shortness of Breath – You might also feel shortness of breath, not something that’s pleasant at all.

Trouble Concentrating – If you’ve got a headache or feel sick to your stomach, or just have an uneasy feeling, it will be hard to concentrate on what you have to do.

Allergic Reactions, Sinus Congestion, Coughing & Sneezing – If you already suffer from allergies or are prone to sinus infections, these can get worse when you breathe in polluted air.

INDOOR AIR POLLUTION CAUSES

Here are 16 surprising sources of air pollution inside your home. Let’s start with the no-brainers first:

1) Second-hand Smoke – If you are still smoking inside your home, at the very least, please go outside. The smoke you exhale along with the smoke that comes from a burning cigarette is full of all kinds of carcinogens that can get into the lungs and blood vessels of people who are in a room with smokers, even if they’re not smoking themselves.

2) Pesticides – Do you use pesticides when you spot ants or spiders or other bugs? Insecticides contain toxic chemicals designed to kill a pest upon contact. But if you inhales them, they can make you sick, too.

3) Mold – Mold crops up in lots of places in your home: damp showers and bathrooms, around leaky faucets, behind a wall that might have water damage, around the drain of a washing machine or dehumidifier. You’ll recognize it by the black stuff that looks like soot, or the grey or pale green spots you see on a wall, ceiling or floor.

Now, here are some other sources:

4) Your Pet Cat and/or Dog – I’m really sorry to report that dander and hair from Fido or Felix can pollute the air you breathe – but they can.

5) Fireplaces, Gas Stoves, Cars & Trucks – Both fireplaces and gas stoves can give off carbon monoxide. This is a tricky pollutant because you can’t smell it at all – but it is deadly. Your car or truck emits carbon monoxide (as well as carbon dioxide) when they burn gasoline.

6) Furniture in Your Living Room, Kitchen, or Bedroom – Furniture that is made from plywood or pressed wood may contain formaldehyde and glues that “off gas” those chemicals for a long time.

7) Your Beauty Products – I know, they’re supposed to make you beautiful! But make-up, soaps, and shampoos are often made from artificial fragrances and ingredients that contain trace amounts of toxic chemicals. Using one product one time wouldn’t be a problem. But because we use so many different products every day, the burden on your body can increase significantly.

8) Non-Stick Pots & Pans – If you use non-stick cookware, beware. The coating that gives non-stick pots and pans their non-stickiness may contain PFOA, a known carcinogen that goes airborne at high temperatures.

9) Household Cleaners – Most common household cleansers, especially sprays, contain artificial fragrances made from “volatile organic compounds” or VOCs. Depending on your sensitivity, they could cause most of the ill-effects described above. They do for me!

10) Home Computer Printer/Fax Machine – Depending on the equipment you use and your level of sensitivity, the chemicals in printer and fax machine ink could make you feel uncomfortable.

11) Household Paints & Finishes – Common wall paint is a big source of VOCs. Before I switched to non-VOC paint, I would have to leave my home to have it painted, and then wait until it completely aired out before I could move back in.

12) Radon – Radon is an odorless gas that can be extremely toxic, causing lung cancer and even death. It comes from the breakdown of naturally occurring uranium in soil, and gets into your home through cracks in your foundation, spaces in the walls, and even water that gets contaminated when radon gets into tiny cracks in your water pipes.

13) Pillows, Cushions, Bedding – Dust makes your house look dirty. Imagine if you’re breathing the same stuff that’s settling on your coffee table. An ounce of dust can be home to 40,000 dust mites. If you’re allergic, you’ll be miserable.

14) Crumbling Paint & Paint Chips – The paint used in homes built before xx probably contains lead, a powerful neurotoxin that is particularly dangerous for kids and can cause learning disabilities

15) Asbestos Flooring, Shingles, Siding, & Insulation – Asbestos has been widely used in home construction because if resists fire. Unfortunately, asbestos also causes mesothelioma and other cancers.

16) Rotten Food – Food will rot – plain and simple. When it rots in your compost pile, that’s good. When it rots underneath your couch or at the bottom of your trash can, that’s bad. Not only might it stink to high heaven. It might draw ants or roaches or mice or rats, and then you’ll have an even bigger problem to content with than cleaning up the rotten food.

DON’T DESPAIR…

Yes, this is a pretty big list. But for every item on it, there’s a clear and simple solution, and with a couple of exceptions, the solutions cost very little money.

Stay tuned (or jump ahead to “Everything You Need to Know about Indoor Air Pollution,” a very useful infographic produced by AirFilterBuy.com, the sponsors of this post).

The post Indoor Air Pollution Causes: 16 Surprising Things That Pollute The Air in Your House appeared first on Big Green Purse.

A new study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that “organic crops and crop-based foods are up to 69% higher” in antioxidants than crops grown using toxic chemicals. In fact, shifting to organic fruit, vegetables and cereals, and to foods made from them, would provide additional antioxidants equivalent to eating between 1-2 extra portions of fruit and vegetables a day! Why does it matter? Many studies link antioxidants to reduced risk of heart disease and certain cancers. Eating organically can help reduce those risks.

The study also shows that organic food contains “significantly lower levels of toxic heavy metals.” Cadmium, a heavy metal that can cause a number of serious health problems, was found to be almost 50% lower in organic crops than conventionally-grown ones.

That’s not all. Pesticide residues were four times more likely to be found on conventional crops than on organic ones.

So add the nutrition and health benefits of organic agriculture to a long list of environmental benefits we enjoy when farmers skip toxic chemicals or when we grow our own organic gardens. Those environmental benefits include cleaner air, safer drinking water, protection for birds, bees, and other wildlife, and even healthier soil.

With so many benefits to growing and eating organic food, there still seems to be one barrier to choosing it: cost. In some cases, organic food can be more expensive than conventional. Here’s what we suggest to make organic food affordable. If you have other ideas, please leave them in the comments section below. Thanks!

SUMMARY OF BENEFITS OF ORGANIC FOOD

1) It’s more nutritious.

2) It offers more antioxidants.

3) It’s far less contaminated with toxic heavy metals.

4) It contains less toxic pesticide residue.

5) It protects clean air, safe drinking water, and the natural world.

For More Information

Afford Organic Food! Top Ten Organic Food $$$$ Busters

Florida Resident Shifts $1,137 to Organic Foods, Native Plants & Worm Poop

Organic Food Backgrounder

The post Benefits of Organic Food: It’s More Nutritious appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Consumer Reports, which did the research on arsenic contamination in rice, reports that “According to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the U.S. is the world’s leading user of arsenic…since 1910 about 1.6 million tons have been used for agricultural and industrial purposes, about half of it only since the mid-1960s. Residues from the decades of use of lead-arsenate insecticides linger in agricultural soil today, even though their use was banned in the 1980s. Other arsenical ingredients in animal feed to prevent disease and promote growth are still permitted. Moreover, fertilizer made from poultry waste can contaminate crops with inorganic arsenic.”

Most plants absorb some arsenic when they are grown. But because rice is grown in water, it  absorbs significantly more arsenic, which ends up in the rice grains we eat.

What can you do?

* Eat less rice, especially babies, kids and pregnant women – Consumer Reports recommends that “babies eat no more than one serving of infant rice cereal per day on average. And their diets should include cereals made of wheat, oatmeal, or corn grits, which contain significantly lower levels of arsenic, according to federal information.”

* Wash rice before you cook it. Rinse rice before you wash it until the water runs clear, which will help wash away some of the arsenic .

* Cook rice in a lot of water. Consumer Reports recommends cooking rice in six cups of water for every one cup of raw rice you want to cook. When the rice is done, pour off the cooking water before serving. Between washing the rice and cooking it in extra water, you can reduce your exposure to the arsenic it contains by as much as 45%.

* Vary your diet. Regardless of your age, it makes sense to vary your diet and find healthful vegetable and whole grain alternatives to rice. Replace rice cakes with popcorn, rice cereal with oats or other whole grains, rice milk with almond milk or soy milk, rice syrup with maple syrup. Replace rice pilafs with whole wheat pasta dishes, couscous, or bulgur.

* Buy more organic food. Ironically, some organic rice cereals contained levels of arsenic equal to or higher than non-organic brands. So when it comes to rice, there may be no truly safe option. Nevertheless, buying organic food generally will help reduce the amount of arsenic added to the soil and that gets into groundwater.

* Sign this petition. Anna Hackman at Green Talk started this Change.org petition to encourage the Food and Drug Administration to set specific safety levels for arsenic in our food.

Here’s the link to the original report from Consumer Reports.

The post How You Can Avoid Eating Arsenic When You Cook Rice appeared first on Big Green Purse.

In honor of national Food Day, I’d like to suggest 10 ways we can revamp our food system to make it healthier for people and the planet, and more delicious, too! What do YOU think we should do?

1) Help more farmers grow organic food. Right now, U.S. agriculture policy provides price supports and subsidies to farmers who use pesticides and insecticides – and penalizes those who don’t.  Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

2) Charge more for food that’s grown using pesticides and herbicides. Organic food can cost as much as 30% more than food that’s been raised using all kinds of chemicals that pollute our air and water and make us sick. Organic food is more expensive because there’s less of it, and it’s more labor intensive to grow because (see 1 above) organic farmers don’t get paid not to use pesticides and herbicides. Given the cost to society of cleaning up the environmental and human health problems created by pesticide use, shouldn’t there be a “HEP” (health/environment penalty) imposed on conventional food that would help bring its price more inline with the price of organics? 

3) Require all restaurants to compost food. In fact, not just restaurants, but hospitals, government buildings, school cafeterias – any institutions that throw away massive amounts of food — should be required to compost food waste rather than throw it away, turning it into organic fertilizer for use locally. FYI, you could be composting your own kitchen waste, too!

4) Define “natural.” A lot of food is marketed as natural, even though it’s been highly processed, is overpackaged, and doesn’t bear one iota of resemblance to the food it originally came from. Working with biologists and botanists, let’s define what “natural” really means – and prohibit flagrant misuse of the word by marketers who know we want to eat natural food, even if that’s not what they’re selling.

5) Stop wrapping food in plastic. Plastic wrap, plastic boxes, plastic clam shells, plastic bags, plastic bottles: these days, it’s hard to find food that’s NOT wrapped in plastic. What’s the big deal? Plastic doesn’t biodegrade, and there’s some research indicating that chemicals in the plastic can leach into the food itself. How can you avoid the plastic? Buy fresh food, fill your own safe containers from bulk food bins, and choose food packaged in glass jars or wrapped in paper.

6) Get rid of BPA in the lining of canned foods. Bisphenyl-A has been linked to a variety of health disorders. This new study suggests that pregnant women exposed to BPA could give birth to girls with behavior disorders. It’s time to ban the use of BPA in any food container, including soda cans, baby bottles, and plastic food containers.

7) Make cooking a required class for all high school students. When I was growing up, girls in middle school were required to take “home economics” (the boys got away with “shop”). These days, both of those classes are optional – which means many kids opt out. Yet I’d argue that one of the reasons why fast food is so popular is because so many people don’t actually know how to cook. Why not make cooking class a requirement in senior year of high school, regardless of whether kids are heading off to college or to live on their own? The semester-long curriculum would focus on nutrition, locally grown food, organic agriculture, and composting, along with how to make a decent omelette or a delicious salad.

8) Prepare more of your own food. If you don’t know how, here are a few good cookbooks to get you started.

 9) Grow your own. If you have a pot, a patch of sun, and a patio, you can grow cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and herbs. With a 10×10 plot of land and some good compost, you can grow plenty more. These 10 tips will get you going.

10) Sit down at the table when you eat. Preferably, with friends or family. One of the reasons we may not mind eating junky food so much is that we don’t give ourselves enough time to enjoy our meals. If you get up a few minutes earlier, can you actually eat a nice breakfast instead of snarfing down some kind of McMuffin on the run? If you get your kids and spouse or partner involved in the cooking, can you all pull together a meal of what Food Day sponsor the Center for Science in the Public Interest calls “real” food? Yes, time is of the essence. But delicious food is the very essence of life!

Surely you must have other ideas for ways we can make our food system better for us and healthier for the planet. Please share, and Happy Food Day!

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The post In honor of Food Day, 10 Radical Ways to Make Food Better appeared first on Big Green Purse.

President John F. Kennedy was so moved by Silent Spring that he initiated a presidential advisory committee to study the issues it raised. The U.S. Senate opened an investigation into the use and abuse of pesticides based on her research. Nevertheless, Rachel was vilified by the agricultural chemical industry, who accused the book of being “sinister” and “hysterical.”

Today, we’re coming full circle. Even as proof mounts almost daily that cancer is linked to pesticides and herbicides, Rachel Carson’s detractors persist. Their latest ploy? Derail an effort in the U.S. Senate to commemorate Rachel’s birth and honor her unique contribution to environmental protection.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is using Senate rules to oppose a commemoration of Rachel Carson, blaming the pioneer for using “junk science” to sway public opinion against DDT and other chemicals.

On the eve of Rachel’s 100th birthday, her own words seem more relevant today than when they first appeared on the page:

“The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery – not over nature but of ourselves”

“Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species — man — acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.”

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, ‘What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?’”

The post What is it about Rachel Carson that some misguided souls just love to hate? appeared first on Big Green Purse.