Natural Family News

The following petition is now posted on The Center for Food Safety. I would greatly encourage each of you to read the petition, visit their site and sign it.

In 2001, Hershey’s, M&M Mars, and American Crystal Sugar told consumers they would not use genetically engineered sugar. But now that sugar beets are close to being planted commercially, you have made no such assurances. As a customer, I am very disappointed.

As someone who actively avoids genetically engineered ingredients due to the threats they pose to human health, family farmers and the environment, I have always looked to sugar as one of the few ingredients I could count on to be GE-free, unlike corn syrups and some other sweeteners. Without labeling of GE products, I have to rely on companies that have publicly stated that they will avoid GE ingredients in order to make my purchasing decisions.

I will not buy products that include sugar that may be genetically engineered.

For this Valentine’s Day, show me the love by continuing the opposition you voiced in 2001, and do not accept genetically engineered beet sugar for your products.

If you’re looking for a way to get your children interested in literature, you should check out Literary Child. This magazine has been highly recommended by M0thering Magazine. Each month’s magazine contains activities and ideas for that month’s novel. The magazine is written by a single homeschooling Mom of three children under the age of 6. You can check out a sample activity on drawing music inspired by The Tale of Despereaux here.

Carbon monoxide can kill you. That’s the message the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is again emphasizing since recent power outages caused by bad weather have prompted people to turn to generators and other alternative sources of power, heat and light. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is produced when any fuel is burned.

EPA’s advice is simple and straightforward:

·Do not to use fuel-burning devices such as gasoline-powered generators, gasoline-powered pressure washers, camp stoves and lanterns, or charcoal grills in homes, garages, or any other confined space such as attics or crawl spaces, or within 10 feet of windows, doors or other air intakes.

·Have vents and chimneys checked to assure that debris does not block or impede the exhaust from water heaters and gas furnaces.

·If you start to feel sick, dizzy or weak while using a fuel-burning appliance, get to fresh air right away.

·Go to the emergency room and tell the physician you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning.

Tips on protecting against carbon monoxide poisoning

Proteja su vida y la de su familia Evite el envenenamiento con monóxido de carbono

EPA also has public service announcements on carbon monoxide in English and Spanish:

English PSA

Spanish PSA

INDEPENDENT AMERICA: THE TWO-LANE SEARCH FOR MOM & POP

Filmmakers Take to the Road to Uncover Growing Insurgency Against Big Box Retail

These days, you have to go out of your way if you want to do business with Mom & Pop. One couple has taken that notion a little bit farther, 13,000 miles farther to be exact. Independent fi lmmakers and award-winning journalists, Hanson Hosein and Heather Hughes, take the road less traveled in a thought provoking new documentary, which uncovers the growing opposition to big box retail across the U.S. and the often desperate fi ght being waged by independent retailers to stay alive.

Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop is an entertaining account of Hosein and Hughes’s expedition through 32 states as they look for an America unchained by corporate retail. Self-imposed road rules bar them from major highways and corporate chain retail. Traveling on alternative roads, the duo can only do business with Mom & Pop.

What the filmmakers fi nd during their travels is the re-emergence of independent retail as individuals and communities band together to preserve not only their livelihoods but also their local communities. Pockets of resistance across the country add up to a nationwide opposition: Starbucks is vandalized in
Colorado. Supporters of an anti-big box law in Arizona are compared to Nazis. A rebellious Texan city forces Borders Books into retreat. Patriotic residents of America’s “Fourth of July” capital in Nebraska start to turn on their new super center. And an entire town in Wyoming goes into business for itself after
it’s abandoned by its chain department store.

Stopping in Bentonville, Arkansas, home to the biggest retailer on the planet, osein and Hughes have a rare and frank conversation with a top Wal-Mart executive. That encounter and their conversations with economists, advocates, political leaders, union members, entrepreneurs and everyday Americans lead them to conclude that it’s really up to the American shopper to decide whether Mom & Pop should survive and thrive. And that any healthy democracy needs to find a place for independent business if it wants to control the ever-growing dominance of powerful corporate retail.

Wal-Mart is high on the national radar right now with controversial films from Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart, The High Cost of Low Price) and Ron and Robert Galloway (Why Wal-Mart Works: And Why That Makes Some People C-r-a-z-y). Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop not only provides a balanced and much larger picture of what is happening in communities across
the country when it comes to chain retail; it provides solutions that viewers can employ to change their lives and their communities.

The film was financed in true mom & pop style by the filmmakers, their families and a private-sector business partner. Executive producer is Tom Powers for Open Door Co. Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop is currently being screened across North America thanks to strong interest by a number of independent grassroots organizations. It’s also under consideration by several major film festivals.

About the Partners:
HRH Media is a West-Coast-based production company founded and operated by Hanson Hosein and Heather Hughes. Open Door Co. is a Toronto-based production company offering compelling, relevant and entertaining factual programming with worldwide distribution.

Independent America: The Two Lane Search For Mom & Pop is available on DVD from the film Web site at: www.independentamerica.net

It’s so tempting to just let the baby sleep when you bring them in from the car in their car seat, and they’re asleep. But a recent study shows that this may cause breathing problems in some children, especially those who might be predisposed to breathing difficulties. The study recommends that children not be left in car seats for extended periods of time, even on trips.

Many of you may have seen the recent article about Kati Kim who was lost in the Oregon snow for 9 days with her 7 month old and 4 year old. What you may not have read was that Mrs. Kim kept her children alive by breastfeeding them after food ran out. She was already nursing her 7 month old daughter, but she also nursed her 4 year old daughter prior to being rescued. Doctors have said that it is very likely that the breast milk made the difference between life and death for the two girls.

Unfortunately, Mr. Kim did not survive. Please be praying for the mother of these young girls at this time. Additional information on help for the family is available here.

A recent study shows that it’s better to lean back than to sit up straight. Apparently, it puts less stress on the back. However, that doesn’t mean that you can slouch— that’s even worse than sitting up straight. I guess this will change the whole field of ergonomics. New chairs will have to be created. Of course, then you’ll end up with neck strain from pushing your neck forward while you’re leaning back. Maybe we should all save ourselves a lot of trouble and not spend so much time sitting.

Those of you who know me or regularly read this blog, must know how this pains me. I have to (gasp) write something positive about Wal-Mart. I’d love it if Wal-Mart on a regular basis used its immense size and purchasing powers to encourage environmental friendliness, ethical business habits and global peace and harmony, but— alas— that is unlikely to happen.

However, recently they have decided to throw their weight behind the elimination of certain harmful chemicals. Suppliers will receive carrots for meeting Wal-Mart’s goal of reducing the chemicals propoxur, permethrin andnonyl phenol ethoxylates and a stick if they fail to fall in step. Eventually, the plan is to add other chemicals to its “Preferred Chemical Principles” list. So, thumbs-up to Wal-Mart for using its powers for good in this arena.

I don’t know if this is really news, but this Google video about the flu vaccine is hysterical! The next time someone asks you when you’re getting your flu vaccine, just send them this video.

In general, I’m not always a big fan of the U.N., but their environmental group has recently joined Kenyan Nobel prize winner Wangari Maathai urging the planting of 1 billion new trees and encouraing people to make sure that their plantings survive. Certainly, planting trees seems like an incredibly common sense way to fight excess carbon dioxide in the air. If you’d like to pledge your support, you can visit the official website.

I know we’ve been pretty short on posting recently. I hope to change that in the next few weeks. One reason is that we’ve been working on a new project. So, head on over and check out our new Natural Product Review blog. Let us know what you think. If you have a product you want to see reviewed, be sure to let us know.