Michael Edwards – Page 11 – Green Lifestyle Market

BikeRiding – Life without a Car

My dad is blind, I love my bicycle, and I am happy.

I really do love the bicycling life. I’ve always loved bikes, but I have also always loved driving.

I have in the past fantasized about giving up the car to do it all on a bike, but Atlanta is not the easiest city to do that in. Don’t get me wrong; if I moved back to Atlanta I’d make it work sans car, but it is a lot easier in L.A.

Kristina and I recently moved to Los Angeles. We planned on traveling the whole country but with an auto repair, the cost of gas, and the launch of the new market, greenlifestylemarket.com, it made more sense to got to LA and try the bike and bus way of life.

I’m one of those guys that have had over 50 jobs in my life. I say that as if there is a lot of us, but maybe not so much. I’ve rarely worked close to home, and when I did I only lasted a couple of weeks. Not because I didn’t like working close to home, but because I rarely lasted more than two weeks anywhere.

It’s an old story. The less stuff you have the happier you are. The more you exercise, the happier you are. The more fresh air you breath (can you call Los Angeles air fresh?), the happier you are.

Atlanta has a lot of hills, and it’s also so spread out. In Los Angeles I can ride for 100 miles. After 20 miles at a good clip, put a hill in my way and my legs are jelly. But I am getting better and better at hills. If I were to get a job here where I rode even 40 miles a day, I could bike that without a sweat if it’s under 80F.

Fortunately, my job is what I am doing right now at this very moment.

I ride an average of 20 miles a day. I beat traffic almost anywhere I go. It’s mostly flat, but if there is a steep hill and I’ve been riding all day, I won’t hesitate to hang on to a car for a break.

The morning after I got my bike, I road about 20 miles. The next day I could barely move! Until, that is, I slathered on some deep tissue oil and then barely got my leg up and over my bike for another 30 miles. BTW, Shillington’s Deep Tissue Repair Oil got me through it. Seriously, for sore muscles and injuries, there is nothing better!

I have fun with it. If I can’t pass them, I try to at least keep up with the cars. I am careful not to cause anyone else’s tension levels to rise too much as I carefully and methodically weave in and out of traffic while ignoring the laws that govern our roads.

Ignore is the wrong word. I certainly take the stoplights and other traffic signs and rules into consideration. And speaking of consideration, I really am careful not to cause other drivers to hit their brakes or go out of their lane unless absolutely necessary to my ability to stay alive. I will hop from road to sidewalk, continually choosing whichever holds the route with the least resistance at that moment. And while I do run red lights, I do it carefully, without causing alarm or brake tapping from anyone.

I’ve been called reckless before. I disagree, but I am adventurous and I do not give a damn about laws (if you know my history you’d understand). So in this city where almost no one jaywalks and the only way people walk across the street is when the sign tells them to, I get a lot of looks as I blow by traffic, running a red light.

In Atlanta, only tourists consider the crosswalk (whether it be at a lighted intersection or not) anything more than a suggestion.

I need to get a trailer for groceries and baby carrier. Either one of those items will certainly change my riding habits, but I think on most days I’ll still be faster than traffic.

Then I think about how my dad rode me on his bicycle. He was a carpenter. He made a little baby seat and put it on the back of the bike above the rear tire. My dad didn’t ride me because he loved bicycling everywhere; he did it because he was legally blind. He cannot see well enough to drive. He did at one point, but thanks to a lifestyle of drugs and crap food, he lost his vision at age 21 (if memory serves).

My dad, like me, loved to drive. We both used to race. We both got a lot of tickets. We both drove in a similar manner.

And bicycles are the only vehicles we own.

The difference is, I do it by choice. And he can’t get a driver’s license.

Well… Sort of by choice. It seems life did pretty much say “No car for you!”

I suppose I needed that to happen. And now, what’s happened? I am happier. Much happier. Life is so much better without a car. I should preface: Life is so much better without a car when you live in a temperate climate that hardly ever rains and always has tons of traffic with mostly flat terrain.

It’s an old story. The less stuff you have the happier you are. The more you exercise, the happier you are. The more fresh air you breath (can you call Los Angeles air fresh?), the happier you are.

And my dad is miserable. He didn’t have a choice.

My dad has made it very clear to me that he believes that the cause of his depression and anger are due to the fact that he has been dealt a short hand in life.

But that’s not likely his issue. I am reasonably sure that he is miserable because he chose drugs and alcohol over anything or anyone else most of his life. I figure he is unhappy about his whole life, but for the most part blames it on the loss of vision.

For all we know, if he didn’t stop driving maybe he would have killed someone with a DUI. He is a man with a conscious, so I am pretty sure that would have made him feel worse than the lose of his eyesight.

Our way of being in this world is so similar in so many ways. But my dad is miserable with life, while I keep having better and better years.

I will try to remember this next time I feel I don’t have a choice. For instance, I run the wrong red light, and end up in a wheelchair. I will try to remember how much fun I have whenever I sit in a wheelchair. I go nuts! Obviously I have a thing for wheels. If I were confined to a wheelchair for a week or for the rest of my life, I like to think I would have fun with it. Hell, I know I would. It may not be my choice, but I promise you this, I would be known, in whatever town I am in, as, “That crazy dude that passes cars and bicycles, running red lights, all while evading cops in his wheelchair!

Human Revolution…GMO Right 2 Know Yes on Labeling Tour!

Our good friend, Jason Taylor of The Source Project, is here in the US and he is traveling with Human Revolution.

Jason uses his video camera to document the truths behind our food supply. His work takes him from his home in the UK to the palm fields of Uganda and the shores of Goa. He tells the story of the farmers, the fishermen, and the real people who are being affected by corporate greed, environmental destruction and industrialized agriculture.

Human Revolution is a political rocker who is using music as a medium to spread the word about the unjust, unhealthy, and unlawful practices behind GMOs. His latest tour is titled, GMO Right 2 Know Yes on Labeling Tour! The goal of the tour is to raise awareness and educate people about the dangers GMO’s pose to both consumer health and to farmers and get the word out to voters in California to vote YES on labeling this November! Human’s California tour is sponsored by Dr. Bronners Magic Soap.

We’re going to be following The Human Revolution here on OLM through Jason’s lens. Keep an eye on our blog and facebook page to see what The Human Revolution is up to and help spread the word by sharing the videos, photos, and blog posts with your friends! Let’s help Jason and Human get GMOs labeled in the state of California and throughout the world.

Click here for The Human Revolution tour schedule.

Visit Jason Taylor’s website to see all of his work.

Organicwashing – Companies Greenwashing Our Health Food

Who can you trust? Many products that are designed to appeal to the health consious should be avoided.

organciwashing There are some great companies out there that are trying to make a positive impact on this world by producing healthy, beneficial, environmentally friendly products. There are companies that obviously put profits above our health and our environment. And then there are companies that pretend to care about consumer health and the environment only because they are able to profit by doing so. This is a form of greenwashing called organicwashing.

Organicwashing: a form of greenwashing where companies market a product in a manner that is meant to convince consumers that the product is produced with people’s health and animal welfare in mind, while secretly not giving a damn about anything but profit. Yeah, we made that up. If you are new to organic foods, trying to eat healthier and trying to reduce your environmental impact, it can be overwhelming to find out that the eggs you have been eating and the milk you drink are no better than conventional products you were purchasing before. It’s often enough to make well intentioned consumers throw their arms up and walk away from the more expensive organic products for good. Not only are we going to list for you companies to avoid when purchasing healthier foods, but we will also give you a list companies that are doing a good job of staying green. Surprisingly, some of them are owned by the least environmentally friendly companies. You can be the judge as to whether or not to purchase their products. We will also list a few of the better options to choose from, like companies that are not owned by big bad businesses, green companies that do everything they can to adhere to their original standards. In our comment section below, feel free to add to the list and help this page be a resource to identify the good companies and the organic washers. Not all of these companies are labeled organic, but they are all appealing to the health minded consumer.

Horizon Foods: Milk, Cheese, and Eggs

Horizon is the largest producer of organic milk and organic eggs in the world. They are owned by Dean Foods, the largest conventional dairy company in the world. Dean Foods does not care about organic standards. Actually, that’s not entirely true. Dean food cares a great deal about reducing organic standards. Horizon is often in trouble for bending and violating organic rules and regulations. Dean Foods lobbies to reduce organic standards. And their eggs and milk actually tastes no better than conventional eggs and milk, because they are not much better. For milk, try not drinking it! Consider this: milk is produced by impregnating a cow (or a sheep, or a goat) and then taking away the infant, putting it on formula, and milking the mother. We are ripping apart a mother-infant bond. If you think for a second that the cows don’t know any better, you need to go to a farm and watch it happen. It’s heart-wrenching. There are many other options available. Soy milk is not one we recommend, but there is almond milk, rice milk, hemp milk, coconut milk, and more! The taste is acquired, but believe it or not, cow’s milk is an acquired taste, too.

Silk Soy Milk

Owned by Dean Foods again. The soy beans are genetically modified. And soy milk IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU ANYWAY!

Cascadian Farms

Owned by General Mills, Cascadian Farms, whose principle investors include: Alcoa, Chevron, Disney, Dupont, ExxonMobil, General Electric, McDonalds, Monsanto, Nike, Pepsico, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Starbucks, Target, and Texas Instruments. Every one of those companies has atrocious human rights and environmental issues. 100% of the brand’s cereal and granola products are certified organic, and yet the corporate owners include the nation’s largest agribusinesses involved in GMO/ chemical agriculture. So while Cascadian Farms has done a good job of staying organic, even after they were bought out by this evil company, supporting Cascadian Farms is supporting the worst of the worst companies and everything Cascadian Farms used to stand against. Plus, most grains and the sugar they sell their grains with, really aren’t good for you anyway.

Kashi

Again, most grains are not good for you. And Kashi is grains and sugar too. They are also owned by Kellogg (who also owns Bear Naked). Kashi makes promises of “all natural” and/or “nothing artificial” on the front labels of most of its products. This lead to the August 2011 class action lawsuit filed against the company by Michael Bates. Processed and synthetic ingredients are in most of their products. The lawsuit indicates that a number of these artificial ingredients are listed as “prescription drugs, irradiated substances, pesticides that are a by-product of uranium mining and federally declared hazardous substances.” Kashi also stated that some of its foods “may contain GMOs.” And they followed with, “Many factors outside our control, such as pollen drift from nearby crops and current practices in agricultural storage, handling, and shipping, have led to an environment in North America where GMOs are not sufficiently controlled.”

Hain Celestial Group

Heinz Co. owns nearly 20% of Hain. And Hain owns Garden of Eatin’, Health Valley, WestSoy, Earth’s Best, Hain Pure Foods, Spectrum Naturals, Walnut Acres Organic, Imagine Foods, Rice Dream, Soy Dream, Ethnic Gourmet, Yves Veggie Cuisine, JASON, Avalon Organics, and Alba Walnut Acres, Westbrae, Imagine, Arrowhead Mills, Breadshop’s, Casbah, The Good Dog,The Good Slice, DeBoles, Lima, Biomarche, Grains Noirs, Earth’s Best, and Nile Spice. The Company is a leader in 13 of the top 15 natural food categories. The Cornucopia Institute put together an Organic Soy Scorecard that reveals which soy product companies are truly trustworthy versus those that are not. Cornucopia took into account thesourcing of soybeans, use of toxic chemicals for soy protein extraction, and the use or avoidance of genetically modified soybeans. Westsoy and SoyDream (both owned by Hain Celestial Group) – Refused to share their sourcing information. Hain Celestial Group routinely uses yeast extract in its foods (a form of hidden MSG). Their personal care products (Avalon Organics, and Alba) contain a wide variety of toxic ingredients as well.

Trader Joe’s

Why is trader Joe’s so popular among the green and health conscious? To their credit, when their consumers have spoken out, Trader Joe’s responded with the proper policy changes: they now carry cage-free eggs and GMO-free foods. And they did recently agree to revamp their seafood policies, after a lengthy campaign by Greenpeace to get red-list fish out of its stores. But why did they have to be pressured to do this? And their produce and other foods tend to come in plastic packaging. You can’t buy a fruit or vegetables without buying them being wrapped in SaranWrap, and typically wrapped on a Styrofoam tray.

Stoneyfield

Stonyfield is owned by Dannon. YoKids Squeezers conatian carrageenan. Carrageenan is a water-soluble polymer, also known as a gum, which is used as a fat substitute in processed meats and can be found in condensed milk and some soy milk products. Stonyfield assures us that the FDA says it is safe. And we all trust the FDA. No, kidding, the FDA cannot be trusted anymore than Monsanto. And carrageenan may cause stomach lesions or cancer. There have also been issues about Stonyfield refusing to pay fair prices for milk. And at 99 cents a yogurt, it’s no surprise.

Odwalla and Naked Juices

Pepsi owns Naked. Odwalla is owned by the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. We can thank Odwalla for the laws that require juice to be pasteurized. Before they were acquired by Coca-Cola they selling unpasteurized juice. But they were juicing rotten fruits and vegetables with filthy equipment. People got sick. Wikiepedian states, “A period of decline occurred as a result of a fatal outbreak of H7 in 1996 that was caused by using bruised fruit that had been contaminated. Following the E. coli outbreak, Odwalla adopted flash pasteurization and other sanitization procedures.”

Organic Companies You Can Trust

Eden Foods is an amazing company. And while they are pretty substantial in size, the people running this company care a great deal about producing healthy, beneficial products for their consumers. The best egg producer we know of is Vital Farms. They really do care about the welfare of their eggs. “There are many elements we consider vital to our methods: organic green pastures, multiple native grasses, herbs, seeds, and other natural foliage, top quality organic feed, plenty of fresh water, relatively small flock sizes, lots of space to roam and forage, protection for the birds, shelter from inclement weather, and a personal attentiveness to the birds’ welfare!” And their eggs taste incredible! Organic Valley is a pretty good company for eggs and milk. They have been in some trouble, but they do take measures to abide by organic standards, and they aren’t looking to greenwash consumers. But they, along with Whole Foods, and Stonyfield, recently decided it’s time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto’s controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for “coexistence” with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack. Read more at The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now?

Organic Bureaucracy

According to many farmers, it has become difficult, even prohibitive, for many small farmers to become certified organic.

And there’s more! Watch this video:

Conclusion

The truth is, organic standards mean very little at this point. And a product labeled as organic is likely to not adhere to these almost meaningless standards anyway. But even if the product does meet the qualifications, the standards leave so much room for manipulating the system. And with the big companies wanting to get in on the organic scene, it is only getting worse and worse. The easiest thing you can do to avoid organicwashing is to avoid buying from big companies! If you see a banana labeled organic sold by Chiquita, don’t buy it! Buy from smaller companies that got into the organic business to make a difference.

Wikileaks Priceless Parody

At OLM we believe that knowledge is power, and transparency is the key to emotional and spiritual human evolution. This is why we love WikiLeaks. We as a society will not learn from our mistakes when we hide them. We as a society will not grow spiritually if we do not learn from our mistakes. Humans will continue to be at war as long as we continue to hide truth.

WikiLeaks follows this philosophy. They believe the government should work for us. They believe in transparency. They believe in accountability. And we love what they are doing. And we understand the fight they are going through.

Solar Hot Water

From the 1890s through 1910, thousands of Americans used solar water heaters to heat water for their homes.

Out with the Old and In with the New

I was doing research for an article on alternative energy when I discovered an interesting fact. From the 1890s through 1910, thousands of Americans used solar water heaters to heat water for their homes. But as soon as natural gas became available, as a relatively cheap, new alternative, solar systems were abandoned.

Now, a century later, we are investing our time and money into solar technology. Why did we have to wait so long? What if we’d been improving the technology for the last hundred years? How far would we have come?

And then, I thought about western medicine. We turned our backs on centuries of wisdom. Eastern medicine was discounted as foolishness. Home remedies used for generations were labeled as dangerous or ineffective. Again, something new—antibiotics—replaced the old.

What about food? Modern agriculture? The “green revolution,” using synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, did indeed increase yields. But at what cost? For thousands of years we replenished the soil with manure and compost. But the new method replaced the old. And now our fields, the lifeblood of our crops, are stripped of nutrients and contaminated with poisons. So what do the big agricultural businesses do? Do they look to the past and embrace the wisdom of those who came before us? No. They create genetically modified plants and contaminate the entire food chain with poorly or virtually untested unnatural food.

If we are to find solutions to the problems we face today—depletion of fossil fuels, world hunger, global warming, clean water, pollution, and more, we need to embrace the wisdom of the past, while we look to the future.