Credit *clarity* via Flickr

I was recently caught in a discussion over organic food. Our family eats quite a bit of organic food everything from dairy, meat and most of our vegetables. We prefer to eat organic mostly for the health benefits and the reduction in chemicals use that goes into the environment and our bodies. But in a recent discussion the opinion was expressed that organic food was a marketing ploy and that we were being ripped off. I of course defended our choices by stating that organics are supposed to be safer and the certification process is supposed to protect that.

But the discussion did prompt me to think twice about organics, was organic food really worth it? Are we really just suckers of a current trend, like the Atkins diet craze a few years back? What if the organic certification wasn’t really being followed and we were consuming the same apples everyone else was albeit at a higher price?

While you can never be absolutely certain a producer isn’t circumventing the organic certification, there are some facts that have led me to believe my original reasons for going organic were the right choices to make.

Everyone acknowledges that current vegetables and fruits are sprayed with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This is not a debate, this is a fact. What is debated is whether these chemicals have any effect on our bodies. Some say that these chemicals are benign and without them we could never have the abundant food harvests cultivated in modern farming. In addition using these chemicals are necessary if we are to feed an ever increasing global population.

On the other side of the argument the organic camp states that any amount of chemical ingested is bad for you. Children in particular are most susceptible due to their size and decreased capacity to process these chemicals. And the chemicals also pose an environmental threat as ground water contamination from run off.

So what is the risk from these chemicals?

Studies have show that many chemicals still exist in our bodies long after consumption. PCBs for example can be found in every person on the planet even those with no direct contact from this chemical. PCBs have been found amongst the most remote indigenous tribes to the upper reaches of the arctic circle.

In addition according to a Fast Company article posted earlier, it states that the chemical companies in the US are not regulated by a particular government body. That means the onus to prove that a chemical is safe rests solely on the chemical manufacturer’s shoulders. In the case of Bisphenol A the chemical manufacturers admit it’s bad for you, but again they revert back to the argument that it’s safe so long as it’s in small enough quantities. Studies have show that Bisphenol A can take some time to pass our bodies, during that period we are exposed to more Bisphenol A so it has an accumulating effect. With millions on the line and shareholders holding the executives accountable, how thoroughly are products like Bisphenol A being tested?

We know that chemicals are being sprayed on conventional fruits and vegetables, and we also know that there are some unanswered questions about the chemicals that surround us. While it’s true I can not proove inconclusively that organics practices have been followed, if there is a food option that has a higher likely hood to contain fewer chemicals I’ll take it. And when it comes to my child no price is too steep to reduce exposure to chemicals.

But what about the cost? Critics of organic foods also point out the increased cost of the everyday food items. This is not something I debate either, we definitely see a larger grocery bill than we did previously, but we also buy half if not more of our food as organic, I suspect we eat more organic food than the average consumer so our bill may be larger than the average organic consumer.

According to the USDA in 2006 the average American household spent 9.6% of their income on food. While this may seem like a lot of money consider these facts; India (39.4 percent) and Indonesia (49.9 percent) are among the highest when it comes to the amount of disposable income spent on food according to an article published in the Salem news. In reality most of us have the resources to purchase foods that are less likely to contain pesticides. While others may not want to spend that much, there are options.

For instance certain foods absorb more chemicals than others or are more susceptible to pesticides when sprayed. Start with the foods you eat that have the greatest risk and purchase only those as organic. In essence buy organic strategically, you don’t have to convert your shopping habits overnight. (For a list of the foods with the highest toxicity levels jump to the links below.)

While I realize not everyone can afford to purchase organic, if you can afford it, why not reduce your chemical exposure? I for one am happy to reduce our risk even if it comes at a higher cost, and I think my daughter will thank me for it later.

Let me know what you think in the comments, I’d love to hear about others opinions or experiences.

Click here for a list of which fruits and veggies have the highest pesticide loads.

List of sources:
Percent of us income spend on food
Article providing stats on income spent on food globally

Credit 96dpi via Flickr

Like most Canadians over the years I’ve been told of our abundant freshwater resources, and how we are one of the richest countries when it comes to fresh water resources. Numerous reports have been publishes that put our global fresh water share at varying amounts; 25%, 20% and so on. Either way many people would agree, we have an abundance of fresh water. Or do we?

Upon closer examination it becomes clear that only a fraction of the fresh water we currently have is renewable. Again there are varying stats but I’ve read numbers such as only 7%, 9% etc of our national fresh water supply is renewable. That means most of our fresh water is tied into non renewable resources such as glaciers, icebergs and other resources that are in retreat. Withe the onset of global warming it only speeds up the diminishing nature of these non renewable resources.

Many climate and water experts now believe that water scarcity in many countries will reach a global crisis in the latter part of this century, wich raises the possbility of conflict in certain parts of the world.

The myth of abundant, never ending fresh water seems so tied to our public psyche here in Canada that most of us take it for granted. Perhaps that’s why Canadians are amongst the top consumers of fresh water per capita in the world. In fact Canadians use more than twice the water people in Europe use.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, with simple steps we can reduce our consumption. GoBlue.org is a site created by Unilever canada, it discusses the issues above in detail and gives tips on how you can reduce your water consumption in your home.

Visit GoBlue.org
More stats on Canadian water use in Canada

SOIL: Sasha Kramer (right)

Haiti is the poorest contry in the western hemisphere, it is estimated 80% of it’s population is living in poverty. An already bad situation has been made worse by the desertification of this small carribean country. In 1925, Haiti was lush, with 60% of its original forest covering the lands and mountainous regions. Since then, the population has cut down all but an estimated 2% of its original forest cover, and in the process has destroyed fertile farmland soils.

In a country where many struggle to feed themselves having fertile soil to grow food and crops is essential. A friend has written in about Sasha Kramer and Sarah Brownell two women who run a non-profit grop called SOIL in haiti. Their goal is to raise funds and teach haitiens how to build composting toilets. Composting toilest turn human waste into valuable fertilizer without the use of water or chemicals. And when built properly they omit few odors and can be quite safe.

By providing a natural source of fertilizer this allows SOIL to empower communities and help rebuild their ability to feed themselves and flourish. SOIL is a small non profit and they’re looking for help to continue their work.

Here is a quote from Sasha about their need for funding:

We know that times have been tough everywhere and certainly our organization has felt the pinch with donations dropping in response to the economic crisis.  We currently have enough money to continue to function through the month of April but with our rent coming due in early May and no vehicle we are still struggling to stay afloat. Our network has been so generous in the past and we are so grateful to all of you who have supported us over the past few years…you have made this work a reality and it is such an honor to be part of such a compassionate group of people.

More on composting toilets; in the west we aren’t as familiar with this concept but it has been proven safe and effective, there are experiments with composting toilets in some countries including Europe, Canada and the US. One example is the three-story C.K. Choi Building at the University of British Columbia (Canada), which contains 5 compost chambers with 12 toilets for 300 full-time employees.

Read more about SOIL in Haiti
Visit the SOIL homepage, they are in need of any donations you can spare
More about composting toilets

VBS.tv Video Series

We all know the problems plastics pose, their resource use as a petroleum and chemical product, the leeching of chemicals, and the problem with waste once the product they make up is no longer needed.

However one problem that isn’t as widely know is how everyday products are infiltrating our waterways slowly making their way into our Oceans and collecting in the north pacific. The most widely know of these spots is the North Pacific Gyre, aka the North Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Gyre is a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high-pressure system of air currents in the norther pacific ocean. The area is an oceanic desert , filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to its lack of large fish and gentle breezes, fishermen and­ s­ailors rarely travel through the gyre. But the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It’s the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.

VBS.tv has presented a 12 part documentary on the gyre, each episode lasting about 5 minutes give or take. It’s a little slow in the middle and there is some swearing but I think the message is what’s important and in the end they show the average person just what we are putting in our ocean.

Captain Charles Moore has dedicated himself to exposing the gyre and studying it effects. Towards the end he reflects on the gyre and what it says about us as a society, here are his thoughts:

Critical thinking it’s  a faculty that’s in danger in our present day society. We live in the happy consciousness era. We’re the strongest nation on earth (the US), globalization is inevitable, we’ve got more stuff, he who dies with the most toys wins.

I think that’s why I’m so gung-ho on this plastic thing, because it’s a symbol of the wrong direction we’re taking as a society as a whole. What is the promise of society? Descartes said there was such a thing as a social contract. That we give up our individual liberties to the society as a whole because it can liberate us greater than we could do by ourselves. Is that still the case? Are we getting the bang for the buck out of our society and our social institutions that we gave up our anarchistic tendencies for? We’re caught in the trade winds of our time, we can’t succeed from society, but we have to plant the seed of the future in the present.

Warning: this video series uses some coarse language.
Watch the VBS.tv series

More on the north pacific gyre:
Treehugger article on the gyre

Mark Bittman

New York Times food columnist and author Mark Bittman is interviewed in this NPR radio show. In it he discusses his move to a healthier diet and how it impacts not only his health but also the planet.

Mark Bittman found himself at a cross roads, his health was suffering from extra weight and after consulting with his doctor he was told to shift to a more vegetable based diet. At the same time he also became more aware that our meat and process food centric diet was not only unhealthy but that we needed to change our views of food. After reading the UN report “Livestock’s Long Shadow” Mark discovered that 18% of all greenhouse gases are produced by industrial livestock production, therefore almost a fifth of all greenhouse gases are produced by eating meat, Second only to energy production.

With this knowledge he made positive changes that not only helped him loose weight and become healthier but also help reduce his carbon footprint.

Listen to the interview here
Amazon page for Mark’s Cookbook: Food Matters a Guide to Conscious Eating

Credit: Shrff14 via Flickr

With the amount of money we spend on bottled water we could bring fresh water to all the people in the world who need it. The American people, including most western nations, have been conned into thinking that bottled water is healthier than tap water. In fact the regulations for tap water in the US are much stiffer than for bottled water in most situations. The same is true of most western countries and as regulations pass in other parts of the world the same holds true there as well.

Bottled water costs about a thousand times as much as tap water. We complain about the higher prices of gasoline but we’ll pay even more for water that’s often inferior to what we can get from the tap.

And this doesn’t take into account the environmental impact from bottled water. Oil is used to produce the plastic bottles and even more oil and energy is consumed transporting and distributing a product that we can get from our taps for next to nothing per liter.

Bottled water is one of the easiest items to remove from your carbon footprint. Get a reusable canteen such as a sigg or kleen kanteen and open the tap. If you don’t like the taste of your water get a Brita pitcher and filter your water. While Brita filters have their own environmental issues, such as distribution and adding to landfills, they aren’t as significant as those presented by bottled water.

For more on bottled water and related issues follow the links below:
Treehugger: A world of reasons to ditch bottled water
Earth Policy Institute: Pouring Resources Down the Drain

Lester Brown

Lester Brown knows a thing or two about the challenges we face globally. To paraphrase the introduction to the presentation by Doug Fine, about Lester Brown Doug states “His (Lester Brown’s)  report and now book “Who will feed China?” Did what no threatened Olympic boycott could, it scared the countries leaders into changing policy.” The Washington Post called him “one of the world’s most influential thinkers”.

In this presentation Lester goes over some the of the most pressing challenges we face globally over the coming decades, what he outlines is alarming and enlightening. It would be easy to simply want to give up if you stopped listening after the first third of his presentation, but that would be a mistake. In his measured and carefully prepared manner Lester outlines what we can do to avoid some of these problems. It leaves you with a feeling that something can be done. But his most important point is saved for the end, Lester urges us all to get involved:

“Saving civilization is not a spectator sport we all need to get involved”

Listen to Lester’s presentation
The earth Policy Institute

Credit: Aaron Escobar via Flickr

Global warming, what should have been an honest scientific discussion based on facts, has over time become a contentious debate. By now most people have accepted that global warming is real, but there are still those who believe the opposite is the case.

What happened to create this debate? Was it based on simple diverging scientific opinions? Or is there more going on here? This CBC documentary tries to get to the heard of the matter. What they discover is repeat pattern of another similar debate that happened years ago, when big tobacco was trying to convince the public smoking was safe. Many of the same scientists and companies who were involved in that debate have resurfaced and are applying the same approach to cast doubt on global warming.

Watch the Denial Machine documentary on CBC