Category: Environment

Meadowsweet – Check Out What This Wild Herb Can Do For You

Meadowsweet is a wild herb and flower that is rich in vitamin C, antioxidants, and bioflavonoids and works as a natural digestive aid and pain reliever. It has been found to decrease the amount of acid build up in the stomach by soothing the mucous membranes and digestive tract which makes it an excellent remedy for digestive issues such as nausea, ulcers, heartburn, gastritis, indigestion, ibs, and diarrhea. Meadowsweet contains

Meadowsweet contains salicyclic acid, which is commonly used as the active ingredient in aspirin and can provide similar pain relief from headaches, fevers, and various aches and pains. Meadowsweet also contains potent anti-inflammatory properties and can help reduce swelling associated with arthritis, rheumatism, fibromyalgia, bursitis, sinusitis, allergies, migraines, and chronic illnesses. Meadowsweet is a gentle, yet effective herb for urinary tract, bladder, and kidney infections and can safely be used on children and adults alike.

Meadowsweet also contains sedative properties that help to relax the nervous system and reduce muscle tension throughout the body. Meadowsweet tea has a smooth, clean, sweet flavor. Use 2 teaspoons of dried herb to 1 cup of boiling water and allow to steep for at least 20 minutes, sweeten with raw honey if desired. Topically, meadowsweet tea can be used as compress for neuralgia, painful arthritis, rheumatic joints, hemorrhoids, cellulite, acne, and edema. It is also an excellent eyewash for conjunctivitis and other eye related problems.

If you find the herb growing locally in the wild the flowers can be added to fruit salads, ice tea, jams, and sorbets for a subtly sweet almond flavor. Meadowsweet can also be found online or at your local health food store in tea, tincture, extract, capsule, and cream form.

 

Is Global Warming Man Made or Nature? Here’s Why It Doesn’t Matter

A few years ago it wasn’t in vogue to believe that we mere mortals were contributing to global warming. The majority of scientists said no and Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth was…inconvenient. Now the tide has turned and scientists are pretty much lined up behind the idea that humans are causing the icebergs to melt.

Global warming is a fact. Hopefully no one denies it now. The only question is, why? Is global warming caused by humanity? Are our carbon emissions to blame? Does it really matter?

What do they say we are doing to cause global warming? What is releasing all that CO2 into the atmosphere?

  • deforestation
  • coal burning electric plants
  • ocean vessels burning dirty fuel
  • car emissions
  • airplanes
  • factories

Another factor, which is not myth, is the problem of methane gas produced by livestock. We can laugh about cows farting all we want, but the truth is that methane gas is a real problem, especially since agriculture is producing 14% of our greenhouse gases. Grazing animals actually emit dozens of polluting gases, mostly through belching (and flatulence to a lesser degree). The estimates vary from 26-132 gallons of methane gas a day.

All of the greenhouse gases released by our factories, vehicles, ships, planes, and power plants pollute our air and water. Fish from every river and lake in the United States are found to contain mercury, a byproduct of coal burning.

Our oceans are in trouble. Global warming and increased levels of CO2 are blamed for acidification of the water, which will result in extinction of species.

Whatever the cause, global warming will have a catastrophic effect on many parts of the globe. Oceans will rise. Populations will be displaced. Fertile land will turn to barren wasteland.

Here’s the bottom line. Should it take a global crisis for us to consider change? If there was irrefutable proof that our greenhouse gas emissions were not the cause of global warming, should we keep burning up fossil fuels? Should we keep starting wars to gain access to oil? Should we keep burning coal, polluting our rivers and streams with mercury? Should we keep polluting our oceans and our air?

Common sense says no. Along with every other living being (except the nasty ones) our health is dependent on clean air and clean water. Trees filter the air and release oxygen. Our rivers and oceans, once teaming with life, can again be our greatest resource for food. Every action we take to reduce carbon emissions benefits our health, the health of the planet, and other life forms, whether or not we are decreasing global warming. It is time to do what’s right because it is right for all of us.

We must continue to replace fossil fuels with sustainable energy. We must increase our efforts to utilize energy from the sun, the wind, and ocean tides. We must clean up our act and become responsible global citizens. It’s time to grow up.

Oh, and the cows? If we started feeding them their natural diet, a diverse mixture of grasses and other plants rather than rye grass fertilized with petroleum based fertilizers, they wouldn’t produce so much gas.

 

Sources:

Global Warming Myth Or Fact – Organic Lifestyle Magazine

Do cows pollute as much as cars? – How Stuff Works

Global warming data FAKED by government to fit climate change fictions

Amazing Homesteading Ideas to Help You Become More Self-Sufficient

(NaturalNews – Jonathan Benson) Self-sufficiency has gone mainstream, which means that more and more people, including many urban dwellers, are looking for easy and effective ways to produce food and care for their families without having to rely on the system for sustenance. Since knowing where to start with all this is half the battle, here are some amazing homesteading ideas to get you and your family on track to becoming more autonomous in an increasingly centralized and unstable world:

1) Build an aquaponics system for high-output vegetables

It might seem daunting at first, but raising fish and using their waste to grow food crops without soil, a process more popularly known as aquaponics, can actually be quite simple. Raising fish in small water tanks generates ammonia-containing waste, which can then be converted into nitrite for fixation in growing soils. Nitrite is then converted into both nitrobacter and nitrospira, two substances that are crucial for maintaining the necessary nitrogen cycle, which promotes plant growth.

“Fish excrete ammonia in their wastes and through their gills,” explains aquaponics expert Rebecca Nelson in a piece for the Aquaponics Journal, which explains how to build your aquaponics system at home. “Nitrifying bacteria, which naturally live in the soil, water and air, convert ammonia first to nitrite and then to nitrate… [which] is used by plants to grow and flourish.”

Since pre-built aquaponics systems can cost thousands of dollars, building your own may be the preferable option. Nelson’s article explains how to build a simple aquaponics system for around $100 that, depending on its size, can stow away nicely in a space as small as the floor of a closet:
http://aquaponics.com.

2) Construct a backyard chicken coop for fresh eggs

In many ways, owning chickens is a lot like owning a dog, except chickens do not need to be walked and aren’t really interested in playing fetch. And what they lack in terms of love and companionship, they easily make up for with their eggs, the unique, golden yolks of which are unmatched by the commercial imitators sold at your local supermarket.

Contrary to popular belief, chickens require a surprisingly small amount of space to roam — although the more you have, the better! Studies show that chickens raised on pasture or backyard grass, where they are free to roam and peck at worms and insects, produce eggs that are more nutritious, higher in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and tastier than eggs from chickens raised on factory farms.

“They’re omnivores and will eat just about anything that comes out of the kitchen, including meat,” says Andrew Malone of Funky Chicken Farm in Melbourne, Florida, as quoted by the Green American.

Websites like BackyardChickens.com offer ready-made coops and all sorts of other resources to get you started on your journey to obtaining fresh eggs daily from your own backyard. Or if you’re feeling particularly handy and willing to take on a small project, building your own backyard chicken coop is another option that could save you money:
http://www.backyardchickens.com.

Culture your own vegetables, dairy products and healing elixirs

If you’re noticing a trend here with food recommendations, it’s because proper nutrition is an absolutely essential component of long-term survival, especially in an “off-the-grid” situation where local grocers may or may not have a ready supply of food. And one of the best ways to maximize your nutritional input is to culture, or ferment, nutrient-dense foods using traditional methods, many of which date back centuries or even millennia.

More of an art than a science, the fermentation process not only allows for the extended preservation of food — fermented and cultured foods do not require refrigeration if properly prepared and stored — but it also unlocks key nutrients that simply cannot be attained from commercially prepared foods, including beneficial bacteria that maintain a healthy gut and promote optimal digestion.

“Getting started with fermented food and beverages is an important step to incorporating Traditional Diet in one’s home,” writes Sarah Pope of TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com, which contains more than 20 instructional videos and other resources on how to make things like yogurt, kefir (fermented dairy), kombucha (fermented tea), kvass (fermented beverage made from bread), kimchi (fermented vegetables), miso (fermented, high-protein seasoning) and much more:
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Fermenting Foods by Wardeh Harmon, which is recommended by the Weston A. Price Foundation, is another excellent resource to get you started on your journey to culturing and preserving your own nutrient-rich foods at home:
http://www.westonaprice.org.

Knit your own fabrics for making clothes, blankets

The availability of cheap clothing made by grossly underpaid workers at third-world sweatshops has become the norm in much of the developed world, obscuring the rich and artful histories of fabric production that have long sustained civilizations. Knowing how to knit a coat or blanket might not seem like much of a marketable skill in today’s globalized economy, but should the lights suddenly go out and the heat stop running, possessing such a skill could save your life.

Once you understand the basics of how to knit and create fabric, this powerful skill can be expanded to include the crafting of materials like rope, matting and even walls and roofing for shelter. Each of these items is essential to long-term survival, and knowing how to make them yourself is an invaluable skill that should not be underestimated.

The Homesteading Handbook: A Back to Basics Guide to Growing Your Own Food, Canning, Keeping Chickens, Generating Your Own Energy, Crafting, Herbal Medicine, and More by Abigail R. Gehring is just one resource out of many to this end. It also contains a wealth of other useful information for homesteaders, both urban and rural:
http://www.amazon.com.

You can also access the free resource The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour, in PDF form at the following link:
http://thehomesteadsurvival.com.

Sources for this article include:
http://www.viralsoma.com
http://aquaponics.com
http://www.backyardchickens.com
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com
http://www.westonaprice.org
http://www.amazon.com
http://thehomesteadsurvival.com
http://www.greenamerica.org
http://science.naturalnews.com

Five Reasons Why You’re Totally Crazy If You Aren’t Growing Your Own Food

(NaturalNews –  Mike Adams, the Health Ranger) As things get ever crazier in the world, there are more reasons than ever to grow at least some of your own food. In fact, I say you’re crazy if you don’t grow some food!

Here are five huge reasons why…

#1) With food prices skyrocketing, you’ll save money by growing your own

Have you priced organic romaine lettuce recently? Or beautiful red peppers? With food prices continuing to skyrocket, the economics of growing your own food make more sense than ever before.

Growing food costs almost nothing in terms of actual dollars — it’s the labor input that represents the greatest input cost. But with container gardening, square foot gardening, simple hydroponics systems and even countertop sprouting, growing your own food doesn’t have to be a labor-intensive activity. You don’t even need dirt or a yard to do simple things like grow window sill herbs or countertop sprouts (alfalfa, mung bean, chickpeas, clover, broccoli, etc.).

Ever better, the much higher nutritional value of home-grown food (compared to processed factory foods you buy at the grocery store) actually saves you money on long-term health care costs. By eating your way to good health, you are eliminating your future need to buy expensive prescription medications and undergo costly doctor visits (or hospital procedures).

It’s true: Growing your own food saves you money both today and tomorrow.

#2) The end of cheap water is making food more scarce and difficult to produce

The end of cheap, easy water is upon us. Thanks to extreme weather events and runaway drought conditions in food-producing states like California, underground water aquifers are being rapidly pumped dry.

The end game of all this isn’t difficult to see: Today’s food-producing hubs will become tomorrow’s Dust Bowl regions. Without cheap water, there is no cheap food. And as water becomes increasingly scarce, food will become increasingly expensive, vastly outpacing price inflation rate for other product categories.

In addition to water scarcity, modern mechanized monoculture (chemical agriculture) also destroys soils, rivers, trees and healthful microbes. There is no long-term sustainability of modern agricultural practices, which are focused on “poison and pillage for profit” rather than growing nutritious food to nurture a civilization toward a better future.

The era of scarce, expensive food has already begun. You’re witnessing its beginnings right now, and as the march of human agricultural destruction accelerates, real food is only going to become harder and harder to acquire.

#3) Home-grown food is far more nutritious and medicinal

Stated plainly, nearly all the food you buy at the grocery store is little more than a mere shadow of real food. Processed, packaged food provides empty calories and little else. Dairy products are almost universally homogenized and pasteurized, and even the fresh produce that claims to be “ripened on the vine” was actually cut from the plant — with the vine still attached — weeks before it reached its peak nutritional potency.

Even more, the soils in which these foods are grown are nutritionally depleted and utterly lacking any real quantities of trace minerals. When you buy food or produce at the grocery store, you’re mostly buying the illusion of food — which is also why you’re always hungry for more of it. It’s never satisfying because it doesn’t provide the real nutrition your body craves.

When you grow your own food in nutrient-rich soils, you are producing the world’s healthiest foods and medicines right at home. Every edible plant in the world naturally synthesizes its own medicines to keep itself alive (and free from infections). These medicines are at their peak when you harvest vegetables, fruits and herbs after they achieve full readiness… and that’s something grocery stores can never do because they have to pick everything prematurely to account for transportation and distribution time.

In terms of minerals, phytonutrients and natural medicines, home-grown food is the world’s best source for nutrients. That’s why home-grown fruits and veggies also taste better — your tongue is telling you the truth about real food!

#4) Growing your own food strengthens your self-reliance and preparedness

You probably already know our world is headed for some extraordinary challenges ahead. Political strife, social chaos, weather radicalization and even prospects of war are all very real risks throughout the world. When regions are destabilized, food supplies are almost immediately wiped out or seriously disrupted.

Having the ability to grow your own food provides protection from the unexpected. While riots or war can wreak havoc on supplies of traditional grocery store foods, they usually have no negative effect at all on home gardens and a home food supply. Even better, if you’ve practiced the skills of growing food, harvesting food, saving seeds and nurturing healthy soils, those skills are immediately applicable no matter what scenario comes your way.

Ask yourself this question: If the food trucks stop delivering to the grocery stores, would you rather find yourself standing in a government food line, or popping open a jar of home-canned salsa that you grew yourself? Care to guess which food is healthier?

#5) When you can produce your own food, you can’t be easily controlled by others

The real danger of being entirely dependent on government for emergency food supplies is that you will simultaneously have to obey the government’s unreasonable demands. Depending on the circumstances, those demands might include giving up your tools of self defense, surrendering your personal property or even abandoning your own home and being relocated to a refugee camp of some sort.

Throughout world history, food has often been used as a weapon against the People. Even today, every dictator knows that the easiest way to control the people is to first control the food. (Just ask anyone who hasn’t yet starved to death in North Korea…)

In the days of ancient Rome, raiding forces are rumored to sometimes punish a conquered land by plowing the soils with salt, destroying the ability of that land to produce food. [1] This would make the conquered region beholden to the victor for food. Remember: He who controls the food controls the people.

The U.S. government increasingly criminalizes home food production

Growing your own food is one of the greatest expressions of freedom and liberty. This is precisely why governments across the United States frequently seek to criminalize those who engage in home gardening, small-scale farming or raw milk production.

Julie Bass of Oak Park, Michigan, for example, was threatened with jail time for growing vegetables in her front yard. Read about my interview with Julie Bass at this Natural News article.

Similarly, in 2012 the government of Tulsa, Oklahoma, deliberately destroyed the herb garden of a woman named Denise Morrison. Their goal? To make sure private citizens cannot independently produce their own food and natural medicine.

Government officials in both the USA and Canada have also frequently conducted armed raids on indoor vegetable grow operations, destroying indoor cucumber farms and terrorizing innocent families. As Natural News previously reported:

…the Harte family of Leawood, Kansas, was literally held hostage at gunpoint by law enforcement goons who ravaged their house and tore apart hydroponic growing equipment that they falsely believed to be part of a nonexistent marijuana grow operation in the family’s basement.

Just this year, another SWAT-style police raid on a home garden was conducted in Georgia, where law enforcement officers are apparently too stupid to know the difference between okra and marijuana. In a televised interview, Georgia State Patrol Capt. Kermit Stoke literally said on camera: “We’ve not been able to identify it as of yet. But it did have quite a number of characteristics that were similar to a cannabis plant.” (Seriously? People who live in Georgia don’t know what okra looks like?)

One of the red flags of knowing you’re living in a police state tyranny, in fact, is when government criminalizes home gardens and conducts armed raids on vegetable growers. That day has already arrived in America, where being arrested as a “criminal” only requires that you attempt to grow your own nutritious garden vegetables. And that’s all the more reason to grow them anyway… in defiance of the government insanity that seeks to jail home gardeners and force everyone to eat processed factory foods that promote disease and cognitive decline.

Learn how to grow your own food with these resources

Geoff Lawton teaches permaculture
www.GeoffLawton.com

Marjory Wildcraft shows you how to “Grow Your Own Groceries”
www.MarjoryWildcraft.com

The Square Foot Gardening Foundation:
www.squarefootgardening.org

Sources for this article include:
[1] http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/historia/republ…
[2] http://www.naturalnews.com/047360_marijuana_…
[3] http://www.naturalnews.com/044529_armed_raid…
[4] http://www.naturalnews.com/036234_edible_lan…

Study Shows Organic Cotton Causes Less Environmental Damage than Conventional Cotton

(Cornucopia – Sourcing Journal – by Tara Donaldson) More than just a “feel-good” fiber, organic cotton has now been proven better for the environment than conventional cotton, according to a new study.

Textile Exchange, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing sustainability in the textile sector, in partnership with sustainability consultancy PE International conducted an 18-month Organic Cotton Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) demonstrating the tangible benefits of organic cotton cultivation.

In short, the organic process showed reduced global warming potential, lower soil erosion, less water use and less energy demand.

La Rhea Pepper, managing director of Textile Exchange said the study’s findings mark a turning point for the organic cotton industry as a whole. “For 12 years, we have been promoting the benefits of organic cotton. This study allows us to show the quantitative data that supports what we already know – that organic cotton is much better for our environment than conventional cotton,” she said.

The LCA study looked at the impact of organic cotton production in five categories, and compared the findings to a separate independent peer-reviewed study of conventional cotton done by Cotton Incorporated.

In the comparison, the LCA uncovered that organic cotton had 46 percent reduced global warming potential, 70 percent less acidification potential (such as acid rain), 26 percent reduced soil erosion potential, 91 percent reduced blue water (water withdrawn via immigration) consumption, and 62 percent reduced energy demand.

“Under current system boundaries, the difference in results can be attributed to the lower agricultural inputs that are required by the principles of organic agriculture, namely of mineral fertilizer, pesticides, as well as the practices related to tractor operations and irrigation,” the report noted.

The lower acidification potential can be attributed to reduced or avoided agricultural inputs like fertilizer and pesticide production, irrigation pumps and tractor operations. The difference in field emissions due to varied amounts of applied nutrients also contributed to the disparity.

In terms of soil erosion, organically cultivated systems can prevent 90 percent of the soil erosion that would otherwise enable washing off of nutrients into nearby water and soil bodies. Cultivation of rotation crops and intercropping also contribute to less loss in nutrients due to leaching.

The LCA found that nearly all (95 percent) of water used to produce organic cotton is green water, or rainwater and moisture stored in soil and used for plant growth. Organically cultivated cotton in the regions surveyed receive relatively little irrigation in addition to rainfall, reducing blue water consumption—the impact category with the highest relevance to the environment.

Avoiding mineral fertilizer, as organic cotton does, reduces the use on non-renewable energy since mineral fertilizers are derived from petroleum and have a high primary energy demand.

“This information is empowering for the people and organizations along the organic cotton supply chain, including farmers, cotton ginners, spinners, brands and retailers and all the way to the consumer level. Making a commitment to plant, grow, cultivate and use organic cotton in our textiles is also making a commitment to improve our water, soil and air,” Pepper said.

In terms of costs, Pepper said there are a few things retailers can do to accommodate the higher costs of organic cotton compared to conventional cotton: Strategically put organic cotton into products in which consumers place high value – for example, baby wear. This is where consumers are willing to invest a little more to have the best possible materials; Work within their supply chain to leverage cost-effective ways to save on shipping and other costs so they can then accommodate the higher price (and value) of organic cotton; Engage their consumer–show them the value of their investment in organic cotton. This can help eliminate the barriers consumers have to face in understanding why costs are higher and they will eventually be willing to pay a little bit more.

Data for the study was culled from the top five countries for organic cotton cultivation, India, China, Turkey, Tanzania and the United States—which combined account for 97 percent of global organic cotton production.

“The brands and retailers that are committed to organic cotton have seen first-hand the positive results that going organic has on communities, soil, water and more. They already understand the value. What this LCA does is give them the numbers and proof to support what they already know. This LCA demonstrates what we have been saying all along. In addition, this LCA can help convince companies that have been on the fence about organic cotton. To see the results in real numbers is what some need to make the commitment to incorporate organic cotton into their long-term plans,” Pepper said.