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Wow, I truly am speechless. BPA was the "big plastics scare" last year. It is found in the liner of almost all canned goods, and is linked to a host of health problems, especially in young. They wanted to hire a pregnant woman to consume large amounts of products containing BPA, and get her to be a champion for it. Some of the wonderful corporate citizens who are setting a good example for us : Coca-Cola, Alcoa, Crown, North American Metal Packaging Alliance, Inc., Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), American Chemistry Council, Del Monte

Way to go! It's only one small town, but it is a start!

This is only one of the manifold reasons not to drink bottled water. This study shows in great deal that bottled water requires about 1000 times the energy of tap water, per volume of water delivered! Wow! So if you think you can be good to the planet by buying bottled water and recycling the bottle, you are just plain wrong. Bottled water is extremely harmful to the planet. Just say "no"!

Canadian Food Inspection Agency mailing lists. Stay informed on the latest health hazards in the food chain in Canada.

Their website says it best : "An exciting new project is underway in Windsor, ON. FedUp is a community gardening network, which promotes sustainable food production. It aims to transform the current urban landscape into a greener, more livable, and democratically controlled space. So far, two backyards and a large field have been donated to FedUp, and participants have been building, weeding, and watering gardens there since early spring. "

The USDA home-canning guide is a great free guide on home canning. A must-read for anyone who wants to get into this wonderful hobby.

Many of you have probably heard of Mike Reynolds and his revolutionary "earthship" homes. They are sustainable houses which are constructed out of "castoff" materials like old tires and pop bottles. This movie is a documentary about him - simply fascinating. He lost his architect's license in the US in the late 90's, and got mired down in a whole lot of legal problems for his revolutionary designs. He ended up in south-east Asia after the tsunami there, teaching local architects how to use his revolutionary, sustainable methods. There he was greeted with open arms.

Now this truly rocks! An all-natural, sustainable, garden weed-eater! From one of the blogs I follow.

There are no big surprises here for us. As I wrote about some time ago in my article A Father's Experience with Midwives, our 2nd was delivered by midwife albeit in the hospital. The midwifery program here in Ontario is absolutely fantastic, and midwives have to have 5 year university medical degree.

My dear sweet wife will get a kick out of this one - because I am so reluctant to throw out food that I've eaten some truly scary things (and called Tele-Health Ontario in at least one case)

This article echos a long-held belief of mine that the best thing for us in the long run is to let the economy die. It goes into detail on just what is wrong with our economic model, and why it simply cannot be fixed in its current form.

I really have to give credit where due and extend a huge "kudos" to Loblaw / Superstore, for pledging to get rid of all unsustainable seafood from their shelves by 2013! This is a huge, and welcomed announcement that will definitely have me shopping more at their establishment for seafood.

The world's fisheries are extremely stressed at the moment, and it is really going to require huge companies like this taking a leadership role exactly as they are doing. Well done folks!

The family just got back from the boys' school where we had a seminar on "Mindmasters". Both of us came back with a positive attitude about the program so far - which uses games that teach kids meditation and postive-thinking techniques for managing stress and frustration in their lives. The entire program including the audio CDs is downloadable from this website.

Go France! If only North Americans would get off their fat complacent butts and speak up.

... how about we do something useful with it?

Please read this article carefully, and if you agree - which I think will be difficult not to - please write to your elected representative for action, NOW!

I'm sure this is a worst-of-the-worst example, but I've seen reports on farms in Canada and it is not too far from the truth even here. Pork farms are major environmental problems, and this is one of the key reasons why we have almost completely weaned ourselves off factory pork, and get our from a local farmer. A farm we can visit and see with our own eyes that this does not happen. The pigs we eat are raised in a traditional fashion like you'd see on Little House on the Prairie.

Must ... hold ... back ... rage ...

My son has very long hair - by his own choice. He is only 7 but we are all in favour of him making his own decisions on things which ultimately do not matter. If someone did this to my child I would want them charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and I am honestly not sure if I could keep myself from doing precisely the same thing to my child's assailant.

Wow, this is really inspirational! A salad bar in the school cafeteria? Who would have thunk it? If you have kids, please watch this! If you want to know what is in the food you eat, watch this!

This is not terribly surprising to Canadians given the huge Maple Leaf Foods outbreak last year. The only really surprising part is that governments are still pushing for more self-regulation in the food industry. As this article points out, self-regulation in the financial industry is a large part of our current economic problems.

This could get really scary, really quickly. At least people are finally talking about the cause being factory farming techniques. When the big Bird Flu scare was on a few years ago I was appalled that nobody was talking about the root cause of the situation - factory farming and the fact the animals are stacked in like cordwood in absolutely filthy conditions. And they are so pumped up with antibiotics that whatever flu comes out of one of these places is going to be extremely resistant and therefore have the potential to kill an awful lot of people.

No big surprise here, unfortunately, that the news we see on TV is so negative mainly because that is what generates profits. Sad, but true. So glad I don't have TV ... helps keep a more balanced perspective on things.

This is a pretty scathing article from the popular Rolling Stone magazine. And I have to say I agree with every word of it. A few choice quotes here :

"So it's time to admit it: We're fools, protagonists in a kind of gruesome comedy about the marriage of greed and stupidity. And the worst part about it is that we're still in denial — we still think this is some kind of unfortunate accident, not something that was created by the group of psychopaths on Wall Street whom we allowed to gang-rape the American Dream"

Something that we read about all the time on Free Range Kids is that the world is actually full of kind-hearted people who mean well, but we never hear their stories because it is only the sleaze which sells newspapers. Well, someone in my extended network of friends just experienced this the other day when she forgot $200 in a bank machine, and 30 minutes later when she realised what she'd done, she hurried back to find that the person who'd found it had waited there the whole time for her to return.

Note this was written before the earthquake. It is a quick read on the unintentional consequences of well-intentioned donations. Please think before you donate.

This is a promising start and a nice change of direction from the incessant sabre-rattling of his predecessor.

Wow, what a fantastic idea! An Urban CSA! If I had 1000 sq ft I'd so be in, but that is bigger than my house! I wonder if he's using Square Foot Gardening techniques to minimize space requirements

Now this is the kind of "Common Sense Revolution" I like to see in Ontario! "Walking School Bus" programs. "P.L. Robertson elementary in Milton, which opened this week, has been designated a "walking-only school". This goes right back to this article I wrote some time ago.