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news bulletins  march
2007 |
- Fruit Tree Tour
- From Cow Pies to Clear Skies
- The Green Festival 2008
- Landmark Federal Court Concession - Child Developed Autism from Vaccines
- Natural Labor—Better for Mom, Better for Baby
This spring Common Vision is running its fifth annual Fruit Tree Tour—a 20-city, 70-day tour planting over 1000 fruit trees at urban schools and community centers from Los Angeles to Sacramento. Traveling in a veggie oil-powered caravan, 25-earth educators from Common Vision will teach students about sustainable ecology through a daylong program that includes theatre, drumming, dancing, storytelling, and earth-conscious hip-hop.
An all-volunteer crew of over 25 modern-day Johnny Appleseeds with Common Vision set out on this one-of-a-kind tour traveling the length of California aboard the world's largest veggie oil-powered caravan. In 2008, the Fruit Tree Tour fleet will travel a collective 20,500 miles on 100 percent recycled vegetable oil.
Decked out with rooftop solar arrays, Fruit Tree Tour's hand- painted, bio-powered busses carry over 1000 bareroot fruit tree trees destined to transform barren inner-city schoolyards into abundant urban orchards. This year, volunteers will plant varieties including apple, asian pear, avocado, cherimoya, fig, guava, grape, jujube, kiwi, lemon, loquat, mulberry, nectarine, orange, peach, pear, persimmon, plum, pomegranate, sapote and tangerine.
"A green rush is well underway in the Golden State!" shares Megan Watson, one of the visionaries behind Fruit Tree Tour. "By transforming schoolyards into living classrooms, we are waking up a new generation of urban youth to the wonders and wisdom of the natural world that nourishes our every need. Most inner-city California students never get to go into nature. Fruit Tree Tour's hands-on, day-long, outdoor program gives tens of thousands children a once-in-a-school year opportunity to reconnect with the natural rhythms of the Earth."
"Fruit Tree Tour's veggie oil-powered fleet has the technology to travel the entire state on recycled fry oil," said Leo Buc, the tour's organic mechanic and homegrown eco-hip hopper. "When our beautiful hand-painted, bio-powered buses roll up, students can see first hand that there are more sustainable ways of getting from A to B."
Learn more about the Fruit Tree Tour at Common Vision.
Running an environmentally responsible and sustainable business is at the top of the list for the Crave Brothers Dairy Farm and its cheesemaking enterprise, Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese. Seeking greener ways to get things done, they have a sophisticated, computer-controlled anaerobic digestion system that generates electricity—enough to run their rural Wisconsin farm and cheese plant and power up to 120 homes. The entire system runs on organic waste from their 750 Holsteins.
Anaerobic (oxygen-free) digestion is a biological process in which microorganisms break down organic waste in a process that ultimately produces gas, mainly methane with some carbon dioxide. This gas can be burned just like natural gas, thus generating energy.
The anaerobic digester is owned and installed by Clear Horizons, a firm that specializes in organic waste management solutions and biogas energy systems, and is computer-controlled over the Internet from the company's office in Milwaukee. The digester helps manage the farm's manure, provides clean, renewable energy for the farm, and produces excess electricity, which Clear Horizons sells on the electrical grid. What's more, the digester reduces odor from the manure, and provides some saleable byproducts such as liquid fertilizer, animal bedding, and organic potting mixes.
For the Crave family, the decision to use the anaerobic digester grew out of their usual consideration of what is best for the environment, the consumer and the cows. For them, a commitment to go green is a natural way of doing business.
Visit the Crave Brothers at their website CraveCheese.com.
Learn more about anaerobic digestion systems at Clearn Horizons.
Join Mothering magazine in Seattle at the Green Festival, April 12 & 13, 2008. Get two admissions for the price of one. Simply use the code word Mothering at the ticket office. Visit our booth in the Kids Zone and learn about the practical aspects of cloth diapering from The Real Diaper Association. Subscribe to our print or digital edition at the festival and enter to win a Cloth Diaper Sampler Kit.
At the Green Festival, you'll enjoy more than 200 visionary speakers and 400 green businesses, great how-to workshops, green films, yoga and movement classes, green careers sessions, organic beer and wine, delicious organic cuisine and live music. To learn more about how to live green, go to: www.greenfestivals.org
Landmark Federal Court Concession - Child Developed Autism from Vaccines
A couple from Atlanta will join with their 9-year-old daughter in a press conference discussing their daughter's development of autism from vaccines. This landmark court case alleged that autism was caused by childhood vaccines and was scheduled to be heard as a test case before the concession was made. The Centers for Disease Control have estimated that 1 in 150 children have autism, and many have linked the autism epidemic in this country to the mercury based preservative used in childhood vaccines.
A press conference will be held Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 11:30 a.m. at the US Federal Courthouse Steps, 75 Spring Street, Atlanta, Georgia.
Members of the media may contact Todd Scott at 212-564-4692 or 516-312-6573 for information.
NOTE: Evidence of Harm author and journalist David Kirby is available for comment on this breaking news: He can be reached at 718-230-4250 or www.evidenceofharm.com
Source:
National Autism Association
Natural Labor—Better for Mom, Better for Baby
Drug-induced labor is a procedure coming more and more into question. It is performed for a variety of reasons but now is often used for the convenience it provides the family and medical staff in "planning" birth. Hospitals can ensure sufficient staff are present, physicians can schedule births for times that are most convenient for them, and the expectant parents can make work and family arrangements in advance, thanks to the induction date.
This may indeed make the birth more convenient for everyone involved; however, it's important to recognize that induction can increase labor time and hospital stay, require more medical interventions, higher costs, risk of potential for litigation, and adverse outcome for a mother or baby. Studies consistently show that inducing labor almost doubles a woman's chance of having cesarean surgery.
In most cases a woman goes into labor when her body is ready to deliver and when baby is ready to be delivered. "Research at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School suggests that it is a signal from the baby that starts the process of labor," says Debby Amis, RN, BSN, CD(DONA), LCCE, FACCE. "The best way for a mother to know that her baby is fully mature and ready to be born is to allow labor to begin on its own."
Research shows that allowing labor to start naturally is more beneficial to both mom and baby. To avoid potential complications, including a vacuum or forceps-assisted birth, fetal heart rate changes, babies with low birth weight or jaundice, and cesarean surgery, labor should not be induced unless medically necessary.
Lamaze International has developed a care practice paper entitled "Labor Begins on its Own," which presents the research surrounding labor induction and "Induction Tips" for avoiding induced labor. Visit http://www.lamaze.org to find Lamaze childbirth education classes in your area that can help you make educated choices during labor and birth.
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