'The Last Mountain'

The fight for the last great mountain in America's Appalachian heartland pits the mining giant that wants to explode it to extract the coal within, against the community fighting to preserve the mountain and build a wind farm on its ridges instead. 'The Last Mountain'  highlights a battle for the future of energy that affects us all.

My Potato Project; The Importance of "Organic"

A child's experiment turns into a lesson on the toxins in our food supply.......

The lovely sweet potato.

Rooting the sweet potato in a glass of water.

Roots and leaves appearing.

The lovely sweet potato plant.



Sharing a Great Search Site!

Alternative Wind Solutions, LLC

Wanted to share a great search site for all things natural and organic that offers your company free listings! You can find us under 'Natural Home & Garden' as well as 'Business to Business' categories! :)

http://www.greenpeople.org/
Search for organic food, natural pet supplies, natural baby products, beauty products, green products, hemp, organic cotton, health products. Free listings.

ReDriven Turbine Benefitting Farming Operation

First Commercial Wind Turbine in Oswego County To Power Muck Farm

The first commercial wind turbine in Oswego County will soon be powering one of the area's muck farms and the technology is so unique, there are only 70 of these types of turbines in the world.

By: Candace Hopkins
Dec 19, 2011

OSWEGO, N.Y.--Here at Gianetto Farms in the Town of Oswego, the Gianetto family has been harvesting onions since the 1950s. Throughout the decades, owner Nick Gianetto says that process has mostly stayed the same, but now, thanks to new wind turbine technology, this farm will soon be powering itself.

"I've thought for years, I mean like 20 years, that I would love to go to some alternative energy, then we got hooked up with Pyrus Energy and about three years ago started wind studies," Gianetto said.

Those wind studies showed that Gianetto Farms was an ideal spot for a wind turbine. Now it will have the first commercial one in Oswego County and one of only 70 in the world that can be lowered for easier repairs and once it is up to full speed, Gianetto says it will power all of the muck farm's machinery.

"It will power my packing operation down at my packing house, where we bag up 50 pound and 25 pound onions and ship them out up along the east coast," said Gianetto.

To help offset the over $130,000 price tag, Gianetto Farms has received about $70,000 in grant money and is eligible for at least $30,000 more.

Jeff Wallace, a Renewable Energy Consultant for Pyrus Energy of Weedsport, helped Gianetto Farms navigate the grant process and says this is a great time for farmers to apply.

"If they're interested in considering renewable energy option for their farm, to supply power there couldn't be a better time than right now. The NYSERDA grants are very generous, the USDA REAP grant, which is for rural businesses, is also very generous," said Wallace.

Now those grants have helped two more Oswego County muck farmers sign on to install their own wind turbines, which Wallace says is a sign of just how dedicated local farmers are to using modern technology.

"If there was ever one industry in this county that is cutting edge on new technology, it's the farming industry. These guys, even though there are some homes having solar put on, in other parts of the county, it's the farming industry that's really moving this forward," Wallace said.

Experts say that process of moving forward with new technology has endless possibilities in Oswego County.

During the busy season, it costs about $900 a month to power a muck farm, but this wind turbine is expected to produce all of the power Gianetto Farms will need and possibly extra that can then be sold back to National Grid.

The project is expected to pay for itself in about three to four years.

Just Label It!

Just Label It! So We Know When it's GMO

By: Maria Rodale
January 9, 2012


I demand organic. It's that simple. I know, you're thinking, "Of course you demand organic. You wrote the Organic Manifesto and grew up on an organic farm." True, but, even if I didn't, I would demand organic and so should you. In lieu of giving you my big speech about how organics can feed the planet and make us safer, I will focus on one very good reason why I demand organic: GMOs. Genetically Modified Organisms, or, as the FDA says, foods that have undergone genetic modification, meaning they've been engineered and altered at the genetic level "using any technique, new or traditional."

Choosing organic is the only way, right now, that I can make sure I am not feeding my family potentially dangerous biotech ingredients. And although the food manufacturers have done a tobacco-industry-worthy job of trying to convince us that GMOs are safe, the truth is that the science is starting to say otherwise.

There aren't a whole lot of comprehensive studies out there on GMOs and the health impact they have on humans because scientists have to ask permission to do them, and because GMOs are patented by two major corporations, Monsanto and Syngenta. These patents make it extremely difficult to gain access to the information needed to study how GMOs affect human health. That said, here's a sampling of what has been published about GMOs:

So far, there's only been one published study on how GMO ingredients affect us when we eat them. It was in the journal Nature Biotechnology, and it found that after we eat GMO soy, some of the GMO genes are transferred to the microflora of our intestines and those GMO genes are still active.

Another study, published in Reproductive Toxicology, found Bt-toxin (used in genetically modified Bt corn) in the blood of 93 percent of the pregnant women studied and their babies. The study authors suggest that aside from eating products made from GMO crops, eating meat from animals fed GMO crops may lead to a "a high risk of exposure."

Finally, an Italian study published in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that in young and older mice fed Bt corn, there were changes to their immune systems that corresponded with allergic and inflammatory responses. In humans these same inflammatory changes are associated with arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies, and autoimmune diseases.

So here are three studies: One reports that GMOs survive in our bodies -- they aren't killed in the stomach, as some have suggested, but travel to the intestine where they remain active in the body. Another study reports that we are exposed to these GMOs, not only from the GMO foods themselves, but also from eating animals that eat GMO foods. And finally, animal studies reveal that these GMOs may be linked to disease.

So I say, Just Label It!

Right now there is a grassroots effort underway to mandate the FDA to label GMO foods. In October, The 'Just Label It: We Have a Right to Know' campaign filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require mandatory labeling of GMO foods. It is supported by more than 450 businesses and organizations dedicated to food safety and consumer rights and more than 400,000 people have already raised their voices to tell the FDA we have the right to know what is in our food.

If there's nothing for us to worry about, then seed and chemical companies should freely allow studies to be done so that food companies can confidently label their products. Show us the science saying that there's nothing to worry about, and then label products, proudly: "Made Using Biotechnology." (Hmmm, "M.U.B" -- well, I'm sure their PR teams would come up with something catchier.) But the point is, show us the real science behind the safety claims, and then put your money where your mouth is. Although, according to a study in the journal Food Policy, studies that "cast genetically modified products in a favorable light" often have authors with either financial or professional ties to industry. So perhaps their mouths are already full.

Don't get me wrong; I don't blame the scientists. The problem is that most scientists are blocked from doing the non-biased work they need to do because seed companies will not fund or give permission for research unless they have the right to control what gets published. Which means that studies that cast an unfavorable light never see the light. We need transparency!

Again, I say Just Label It!

It seems like a simple solution, but manufacturers have decided that, if given the choice, we the consumers might not choose to buy GMO products. So, they've decided not to give us a choice, which doesn't seem very American.

And the FDA says they have "no basis for concluding that bioengineered foods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way, or that, as a class, foods developed by the new techniques present any different or greater safety concern than foods developed by traditional plant breeding." Maybe I should send them some of those studies, in case they missed them. Or maybe they should use some of the government money that is currently being spent to subsidize GMO crops to fund non-biased research that benefits the American people.

So, until our government and big business catch up, here's what you can do to stay safe:

Demand Organic!

GMOs are banned in organic farming and in organic food, although as the U.S. Department of Agriculture approves more genetically engineered crops, the risk of cross-contamination through pollen increases.

Sign the Just Label It petition. Having choices in the marketplace is something that Americans take pride in, but that right is stripped of you every time you set foot in a grocery store because GMOs aren't required to be labeled. Ask the FDA to change that policy.

Know the "Usual Suspects". Corn, soy, cotton, canola, and sugar (in nonorganic form) are the five ingredients most likely to be genetically engineered. Eighty percent of the packaged foods in the U.S. contain GMOs. If you can't buy organic, then look for the Non-GMO Project Verified seal. The group tests for GMOs, but not for pesticide residues.

Spread the Word. The best solution is education. The more people who know about the hazards of GMOs, the less people will want to consume them. And voting with our dollars is one of the most powerful ways to send the message: We demand the right to know what is in our food! Share this message with as many people as you can so that companies hear us loud and clear.

The "Green Thing" Back Then

The "Green Thing" Back Then

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this "green thing" back in my earlier days." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But, we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right, we didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right, we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right, we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But, we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?