Danielle's Discoveries

Whole Foods Market has it all!

2011-03-07T23:51:00.001-06:00

I recently moved to Hillsboro, Oregon-- just outside of Portland, and low and behold I live right next to one of my favorite grocery stores, Whole Foods Market. I was excited to see what they offered and whether this particular store was as big as the one in Duluth, MN where I used to go. I was excited to find that this particular Whole Foods was about three times the size and had it all!
For anyone that has never been to a Whole Foods Market, it is definitely worth checking out. I would suggest visiting their website before heading to the store for several reasons.
For starters, the website offers a basic guide to help you choose healthy foods, plan meals and making healthy lifestyle choices when it comes to your diet.
Additionally, different headings along the top of the site tell you about their products, values, and why to choose whole foods. Healthy recipes are offered as well as a scoring system that shows healthy choices store-wide. There is even an "under $3" section :)
One portion that catches my eye is the fact that Whole Foods is dedicated to buying local when they can. The picture to the right shows one of the Colorado stores selling locally grown melons while they are in season.
Check it out!

looking for books!

2011-01-11T22:17:00.000-06:00

I plan to begin a new chapter of "Read n' Seed:"

I am looking for some new environmental health books to check out. My past Read n' Seed posts were all about one book called "Newman's Own Guide to a Good Life" which was an interesting and informational guide to living more environmentally friendly.

Some of the books i have been checking out include "Diet for a New America," "Is Our Food Safe," "Harvest for Hope," "The Gorgeously Green Diet" and "In pursuit of the Common Good."

As I read them, summaries will be posted under this section of Read 'n Seed.

A new beginning: update

2011-01-11T08:00:00.018-06:00

Update:
I have finally finished my bachelor's degree in Community Health and am pursuing a job in a health related field. I continue to be a huge advocate of environmental health topics. Anything I come across in my personal research, interests or future career that involves health related/environmental topics I will post to this blog!

(photo taken by myself, my view of the front yard on a winter afternoon)

Share & Voice: real or fake christmas tree?

2009-12-17T21:20:00.003-06:00

Well, I may have some personal bias with this issue, but I wanted to look into whats more eco-friendly. A real or fake Christmas tree? My parents own a tree business and we sell REAL Christmas trees this time of year. I believe families getting together and picking out a tree is a great way to spend time before Christmas, we see tons of happy families come in and sometimes spend hours outside deciding what tree is perfect for them. I see a lot of my classmates from high school even come in when I work there which is cool because this is something families of all ages enjoy doing!

This video takes a look at why many believe cutting down real trees is actually more eco friendly than getting fake trees, EVEN after the fact that fake trees can be re-used.

I love the fact that many towns re-use the trees in many different ways, I didn't even know that was happening.
I personally agree with this video; I love having a real Christmas tree in the house, they smell so good and they're refreshing. And looking at sales this year, it seems as if the Christmas tree business is still prosperous in rural Minnesota :)

Have a wonderful holiday season everyone!

Reflection: Weeks 13 & 14 combined withReflection: Overall Course

2009-12-17T18:30:00.001-06:00

The last two weeks of this class went by way too fast, and I am sad that its almost done :(

Week 13 started with a tour of Goodwill, which was insane!! I had no idea that place was so big, nor did I know how much they recycle used items. Our tour guide was very informative, he knew the business in and out and gave us a great tour. He talked about jobs they give to people with disabilities and how much their company saves our landfills. Our letters to a public official were due as well, and I got an response from Al Franken, I believe it was a pre-written response but still cool, inviting me to a breakfast at the white house with his committee.

Week 14 began with our junk project show, it was cool seeing what everyone came up with! I took the motherboards from a couple computers that my friend had and decided to used them as end table-tops. They look really intricate up close. We had a discussion about the overall things we learned in class and it was really nice, even though I've spent all semester with these people, I felt like I got to know them in a different way and like we were more unified after this discussion, it just seemed more personal and we all were comfortable saying whatever as we sat in a circle.

Overall Reflection: As I stated in class, this class has hugely impacted my life. Not only do I feel healthier, but I've nearly turned into a vegetarian due to this class. I see life differently. I think that every freshman coming into college should take this class! We need to see these issues that we learn about first hand, and this class shows us and puts us right there! The eye opener about skin products was probably the 2nd most important activity to me personally because I learned about how dangerous my skin products were, so I'm slowing incorporating safer, more environmentally friendly products into my life and I feel much better.

Advocacy Project: Sanitation, online learning activity

2009-12-13T17:06:00.002-06:00

Sanitation Overview Lesson:

I chose the topic of sanitation for my project because it is something I will be working with in my future.

The issue of sanitation is both an issue we face in our day to day lives as well as a global crisis.

For this lesson, I would like to focus a little bit on both of these spectrums.

The purpose of my first part of this lesson is to show how much of a global problem poor sanitation is STILL causing.

My main purpose is that I would like this lesson to show students how necessary it is to have public health inspectors, and that even in our society we need more of them! There is so much that goes on behind closed doors that so many people are unaware of. We need cleaner, safer food for the average consumer.

I have chosen three videos as part of my activity, and I have asked response questions for each.

Everyone is affected by poor sanitation, many of us just don't realize it and take clean air, clean water and clean food for granted. Somewhere, at some point, someone checks these things to ensure our safety. The question that I have is when did this come about? Think about the different decisions that had to be made.

What happens if there is no policy, no regulation, and those who do have the power aren't doing anything?

Think about these questions as you watch the following video.

In the video below which is brought to you by WECF (Women in Europe for a Common Future), we see women uniting to try and find solutions for poor sanitation problems. I chose this video because it features several countries across Europe. Usually when I think of Europe, it seems more developed, more on the ball! There are so many European countries that need help!

After seeing this video, how do you feel about the fact that this whole European program, creating better sanitation for all, is developed and carried out by women?

Poor sanitation in the U.S. still exists as well. We may have more policies, regulations and enforcers, but that does not mean all is well at the home front. Has anyone noticed the high amount of serious foodborne diseases in the recent years? Some of these foods still make me cringe a little bit when I buy them!

On September 14th, 2006 the FDA warns consumers to "not eat bagged spinach due to serious E.Coli breakout." The FDA keeps updating more and more cases of people getting sick up until March 23, 2007! Thats a long period of time to not eat a product that I eat religiously.

THEN, in June 2007 the FDA gives a nationwide recall on certain tomatoes and jalepeno peppers due to a Salmonella outbreak...this one lasted until the end of July before we could start buying tomatoes and feeling *better* about eating the tomatoes that weren't even on the list. We continue to be skeptical about certain types of peanut butter and pistachios both recalled within the last year, but why is this happening so often?

Don't we have policies, food inspectors? How do these recalls affect those selling these products? Think about these questions as you watch the following two videos.

There are gaps in the system.This is a serious problem, and that is why the bill I am supporting (S.1269) is to get more regional food safety centers and put our consumer safety first. These recalls don't only hurt the people, but they greatly affect those marketing these recalled products that are actually safe (i.e. the tomato growers from the video!)

If you are concerned about foodborne outbreaks check out FoodHaacp which is updated daily and has an extensive database of past outbreaks.

Read 'n' Seed 6: Final Review of "Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life"

2009-12-10T19:48:00.001-06:00

Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life was a great general guide for beginning a healthier and more eco-friendly lifestyle.

This book had many eye-opening chapters; I'd say it was a perfect way for me to get started on a healthier life, just as the title insinuates. I liked that it wasn't particularly too in depth on any specific topic. Of course, each topic got plenty of attention, but it mostly touched base with everyday issues to inform readers of things to look out for in daily living and what you can do to ensure healthier living. Nell, the author, kept with need-to-know facts on a topic that would be just enough to keep you interested and inform you enough to lead you in a direction so you could further research on your own if anything caught your eye. I enjoyed how personable she was with each subject. She always mentioned her own experiences, such as with her own gardening tips and pet tips in each of those sections, as well as her opinions on consumerism that were both interesting and informative. I especially enjoyed some of her analogies that made many of her topics much more understandable for the general reader. Each chapter began with a personal story involving her, or someone she knew, and it always brought the subject into perspective for me. She then would give a section of statistics on the subject, followed by tips for the reader. I really like that she laid it out this way because I could always count on tips at the end of the chapter if I had any questions in the beginning. She never brought up problems that she didn't have any tips on changing which was nice.

I think one of the most significant things I found was that this book is definitely something that nearly anyone, in any socio-economic stance could read and take tips from. Another significant thing, as I mentioned above, would have to be the personal tips she left at the end of each chapter, I have already started using the pet tips that she gave because I did not realize that my dog can eat many things that I eat safely, and its better for my dog to eat to eat some of my food because a lot of pet food isn't safe!! The third most significant thing I found would have to be her chapter on consumerism and how we need to stop feeding the powerhouse mega stores! Many of them don't care about the community, and take business away from the little guys. I enjoyed a quote she stated about how we should be more willing to pay that 50 cents extra for a safer product from a local place, isn't our health and our community worth it?

This whole book had priceless information. She puts high value on both personal and environmental health, and her small tips could be followed in small easy steps! It is too bad that we have to be reminded of these things, it means a lot to me that she took the time to write a guide that anyone can use. It is something than that anyone can follow! I would definitely recommend this book, not only because it has valuable information and is an eye opener, it can be followed by anyone! It touches on elements that effect everyone! She shows that you do not have to be rich to go green! Anyone can do it. But we all need reminders, so read this book!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 10: Overall Project Reflection

2009-12-08T18:45:00.001-06:00

It is already the last week of my eco-chic lifestyle change! BUT this does not mean may change will stop at a dead hault. Everything I have taken from this experience will stick with me and so will many of the habits I have picked up due to it, as well as the class.

My original SMART goal was to not eat any red meat and eat less than 2 servings of other meats per week.
Of course this was a difficult step for me in the beginning, but i very quickly realized that the hardest part was just making that decision. As I got used to it, I decided to incorporate a hault on dairy into my goal as well. This non dairy step was not as precise so it was harder to measure, but I was able to say that I completely stopped buying both cheese and milk, so I know that was a definite change. Eventually I incorporated smaller everyday changes into my goal as well, such as using a metal refillable water bottle instead of buying disposable plastic water bottles. I also bought cloth grocery bags so I don't have to make the tough decision of paper or plastic when I go to the grocery store (and of course don't have to get disposable bags that are bad for the environment).

There were many variables that added to my success in this goal. Feeling better about my impact on the environment as well as my health was the number one variable. I also impacted others behaviors with my changes which was awesome! There were a few things that did get in the way such as family meals when I went home that usually involved red meat, so there were probably 2-3 times during this change that I have had red meat, but that is much better than I expected. In the future I hope to take part in more of the cooking when I go back home, and maybe try converting my parents to ground turkey over ground beef!

This project benefited me much more than I expected. I thought this decision to stop eating red meat may result in a failure. Not that I don't have faith in myself, but I just never expected it to happen. Education in good nutrition is something I possess, so I know that eating red meat is really not a good choice for me, so having that extra push to TRY going without it for awhile was great!! I realized I could do it. I even impacted those around me. My boyfriend actually took part in the project with me almost 100%, and now he is also trying to cut out red meat and dairy completely even after I'm done with the project. I also impacted my parents and my brother a little bit; they have been forced to try a few meatless dishes. I cooked wild rice burgers for them one time and they loved it, so I gave them the recipe and they now have one item they can make that is meat free!

I plan to continue this behavior. I cooked plenty of meat free meals this semester so now cooking them on a weekly basis is more of a habit than a limit.

I think anyone who is even considering making a lifestyle change, even if it is extremely minimal should know that it's easiest taking it one small step at a time. And, just deciding to make that change is the hardest part, once it is a mind set it becomes a habit just like brushing your teeth! For me, just having it down in writing that I am not going to eat meat was one of the biggest parts. Also the process of incorporating meals into my diet that didn't have meat got easier as I began learning new recipes and tried cooking with substitutes.

blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 10 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.
Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 10

Advocacy Project: Letter to Public Official

2009-12-06T17:10:00.001-06:00

Danielle Wall

2824 Branch St.

Duluth, MN 55812

December 5, 2009

wall0743@d.umn.edu

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Al Franken

United States Senate
320 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2304

Dear Senator Franken:

I am writing to ask you to support Bill S.1269, titled: A bill to provide for enhanced foodborne illness surveillance and food safety capacity, to establish regional food safety centers of excellence, and for other purposes. I am a fourth year student at the University of Minnesota Duluth majoring in Community Health. I did a summer internship at Kandiyohi County Public Health, and I believe that this bill could greatly assist public health facilities.

The purpose of this bill is to help out existing public health facilities as well as establish regional food safety centers. It proposes enhanced foodborne illness surveillance which is critical in recent times where we have seen huge E. Coli and Salmonella outbreaks. For example, the Salmonella outbreak found in spinach in 2007 forced the recall of 8,000 cartons of spinach, as well as the recall of certain types of peanut butter in 2009 both showed a gap in our food safety system. Bill 1269 would allow for better surveillance to help prevent these types of happenings.

I think that this is an important bill. It will benefit not only consumers by assuring safer production of food products, but it will also benefit the already overwhelmed public health workers. Opening more safety centers will provide more jobs to public health workers while relieving some of the burden on current public health employees.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Danielle Wall

Reflections: week 11 and 12

2009-12-03T23:15:00.002-06:00

The past two weeks have gone by extremely fast! It seems like just yesterday I was posting my last reflection...I can't believe there are only 2 weeks of class left! wow. The past two weeks also proved to be challenging for my SMART goal, but I did my best! I also finished my Read'n Seed book and found the last couple chapters to be very intriguing!

Week 11 started with an environmental literacy activity where we got into groups and tried defining environmental literacy in our own words.We then did an intro to junking project where we were asked to come up with different uses for random pieces of junk which we had no idea what they originally were used for. Some groups came up with some very interesting things! My favorite piece of junk was this random wire-y thing with a wood stand that we decided would make a good spice rack!

Week 12 introduced us to blog hopping...which panned out to be very useful for showing each other our photo essays! The essays turned out really well, I enjoyed seeing everyone else's pictures and really learned some neat ideas from other people. We also talked about communicating with decision makers and how we would write a letter to an editor or policy maker. This was also pretty helpful because our next advocacy assignment will involve writing to an editor about our issue.

Pictured at right is what is called STEAMPUNK!! The junking project reminded me of this because it actually is a type of junking. If you have not heard of it, check it out. The people that create this art are genius's. They take old antique appliances, and put in the parts that make them run, they basically resurface, refurbish and rebuild modern day things that we use and make them look like they're from the 1800's. Just type in STEAMPUNK into google images and see all the amazing stuff that pops up!

Share & Voice: how about some travel!

2009-12-02T20:14:00.002-06:00

Cleanest Countries in the World
I decided I wanted to do a little research on the cleanest countries in the world to visit because I am very interested in doing some traveling in the near future, and right now I could use a little narrowing down on my list.

First of all, I will more clearly explain my research and what I was exactly looking for. I have pretty bad asthma so the first item on my checklist was to look for countries with the cleanest air. Second, I was looking for places that ranked the highest in Environmental Performance Index (EPI) which would determine the cleanliness and environmental safeness of a country. The EPI in most basic terms is an index that ranks countries based on their environmental performance in categories such as water quality, air quality, biodiversity, their use of pesticides, etc.
Just for the record, with 1 being the best/ cleanest and 140 being the worst, the U.S. ranks at a dismal 39th on the list. Not the worst, but for real?? How sad is that. For being such a "developed" country...I guess I'm just not even going to go there.
Anyways, back to my main focus, there were a few different sites that all agreed on the same places and a few that only slightly differed from the norm. When it comes to clean countries Switzerland takes the cake. According to Forbes, "Switzerland scores a perfect 100 in eight environmental indicators, including sanitation and water quality, forest health and pesticide regulation." WordPress also indicated Switzerland as number 1 and stated, "The environment has been in the country’s interest as early as 1876 when it passed a forestry law...Nearly all electricity comes from dams and nuclear plants, reducing emissions caused by burning fossil fuels. Strict standards for exhaust are placed on vehicles to lower air pollution. The country is also one of the top recyclers in the world, with stiff penalties levied on offenders."

Next on the list was Sweden, although all of the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway and Finland) nearly scored the same EPI. According to Forbes, "Sweden has low levels of airborne pollution, pristine drinking water and low per-capita emissions of greenhouse gasses"
Costa Rica followed the Scandinavian countries, thanks to 25% of the country being under wildlife preserves.
Columbia, New Zealand, Japan, Croatia and Albania (due to the fact that has not yet become industrialized) all made it in the top 10 overall cleanest countries.
If we are just talking air quality, Tasmania, Iceland and South Africa are all pretty safe according to Travel Leisure. Many of the cleanest air countries can thank their location; high elevation or wind direction can often prevent the movement of pollution from other countries.

Of the places that I researched, several of them ranked in the top ten on my list of places I would like to travel, so that was awesome! I also believe that traveling to any of these countries and seeing how their daily lives differ from ours as well as how the government has implemented more environmentally friendly choices would be awesome to see first hand.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 9: Weekly Update

2009-12-02T16:46:00.001-06:00

This past week has been quite the challenge for my lifestyle change.

My SMART goal is to not eat red meat, and eat less than 2 servings of other meats/ week.

Well, I would say this week wasn't a complete failure; I did eat red meat on Thanksgiving last Thursday, but it was a very small serving and consisted of venison which my dad caught! (very organic). I did stick to the less than 2 servings of other meats part. I also continued to not use cheese or milk in any of my cooking. (pictured below a delicious looking salad I'd like to try in the near future!!)

The challenges and successes this past week both had to do with Thanksgiving. I knew Thanksgiving would be a challenge, obviously, there is always a ton of food, and who wants to be picky on Thanksgiving? Especially when my mom has made so much delicious food! Also, I personally am not very fond of turkey, so when my mom mentions she has made wild rice meatballs, it was impossible to turn down. I had to try some! The successes were that there was a lot of other food that were vegetable based! So I tried my best to fill up on those. There were also tons of leftovers, so I was able to eat healthy for most of the week.

My feelings weren't hugely impacted this week, nothing was too different from the past weeks, but I did feel a little guilty about eating red meat. Although I think I may have felt worse not trying them. Maybe next time I will suggest making them out of ground turkey!

I learned that it is not impossible to stick to your diet and your goals even in the most tempting situations! I watched Jessica turn down everything except for the veggies and bean dishes and I need to make it my goal to stick to my diet over Christmas.

My plans for next week will be to continue my goal, and try out a few new meat free recipes to add to my collection.
Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 9 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.
lifestyle change post 9

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

2009-11-30T01:33:00.002-06:00

For my photo essay, I found several great ideas back at home this Thanksgiving weekend, so I decided I would combine them into an eco-chic Thanksgiving theme. Compared to past years, this Thanksgiving turned a new leaf; my parents have been making many eco-chic changes back at the homestead so I figured its time to document this awesomeness!

Decorating was my favorite part. My mom decided we wouldn't spend any money on decorations this year, so my dad and I explored our field and found some natural decorations. My dad is a botanist so we have tons of plants. Dried hydrangea's, berries, pheasant feathers and oak leaves made up 2 of our fall-themed vase decorations (pictured at left).

For other Fall-themed Thanksgiving decorations we lined our windows with wild dried grasses from our fields, and used gourds and mini pumpkins which my parents grew in our garden to hold it down (a much bigger garden than previous years!!). Our last decoration was a center piece I made with more colorful squash, mini pumpkins, and oak leaves, placed in a decorative bowl my mom had (pictured below).

For the meal this year, we had several dishes that came straight from our garden such as squash and mashed potatoes.

My mom also made her famous crunchy cream-corn dish, but this time with our own corn from the garden and eggs from our own chickens! We also had a green bean casserole with beans from our garden.

I also made my apple-banana bread which contained apples from our own apple trees.

We topped the bread with jelly my mom made from our own grapes in my dad's mini vineyard behind the house.

These are just a few of our eco-chic changes back home! Overall, I would say a very successful and tasty Thanksgiving!

Read 'n Seed 5: Fourth quarter of Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life

2009-11-26T19:16:00.000-06:00

For my Read 'n Seed this week, I covered chapters 8 and 9 (p. 129-175) of Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life.

Chapter 8 covered "cleaning and household pests." Nell's introduction to this chapter makes perfect sense. I must quote one line to keep from screwing up her meaning, " A pest is something that annoys us. Annoying doesn't mean useful, so 'pest' is a relative term. Consider stoplights. Annoying? yes. Essential? probably." This being said, we live in a world where we don't want to stop and think about whether "pests" have a purpose, we just want to kill them so they don't bother us on our picnics or pop up in our gardens. Killing these pests doesn't come without a consequence as the chapter suggests; we become exposed to numerous chemicals just because we don't want to weed our gardens and can't handle a few ants at our picnic. BUT as the chapter goes on, Nell provides different eco-friendly ways to rid your house of many different pests, as well as making your own cleaners. One thing I found really interesting that she listed were different plants that clean the air, such as areca palm and english ivy. A couple of new terms I learned from this chapter involved reading product labels. The exact definition of toxic is provided as "toxic materials are substances that can be poisonous to people and pets, can cause illness and death if swallowed or absorbed." Corrosive products "can severely burn skin and eyes or internal organs if swallowed."

Chapter 9 covered "gardening." One factor Nells puts extreme importance on is "composting" which involves letting nature decompose your biodegradable products such as yard waste, you can then use them as fertilizer in your garden. She then discusses some gardening tips such as eliminating chemicals, banishing pests the "green" way, and knowing how and when to properly water.

All in all, these chapters were really informative and definitely gave me a new look on our culture and pests!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 8: Weekly Update

2009-11-24T17:30:00.001-06:00

This week, my lifestyle change goal went pretty smoothly. It helped that I was trying not to buy anymore groceries before Thanksgiving break, so I had no meat left in my cupboards besides some tuna.

My SMART goal is to not eat red meat, and eat less than 2 servings of other meats/ week. This week I met that goal with flying colors. I had a tuna sandwich one day, and ended up going with meat-free soups the rest of the week.

The successes of meeting my goal this week, as I mentioned previously, had to do with me not buying groceries...it sounds weird BUT I had food that I had been avoiding eating that needed to be dealt with (such as potatoes, onions, canned spinach and some canned soups). So I had a cheap week I guess, but a successful one. I did stop and get some egg nog one day though, sometimes I get the weirdest cravings, and after a successful week, I thought I should probably have some sort of reward. The challenges this week were minimal, but Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so I am hoping I can keep to my goal as the holidays begin to tempt me.

My feelings about this week were pretty good, after reading a few other blogs, I too have been getting ideas to incorporate into my lifestyle change such as using a metal water bottle and just re-filling it, and buying products in bulk when I can to avoid small packaging. I learned this week that basically you just have to tough it out once in awhile and save money!.. Especially this time of year when Christmas is just around the corner.

My plans for next week are to continue my regular SMART goal as well as to avoid dairy as much as possible. I would also like to add that I use my metal water bottle instead of buying one-time-use water bottles. (Thankful for the time I got to spend with my grandma.)

Have a great thanksgiving everyone!!

Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

2009-11-22T20:10:00.001-06:00

Introduction:

The topic of my advocacy project focuses on reducing foodborne and sanitation related illness.

Under Healthy People 2010's goal 8, "promoting health for all through a healthy environment," I will focus on objective 8.29 which specifically states "Reduce the global burden of disease due to poor water quality, sanitation, and personal and domestic hygiene."

One main issue is sanitation problems, which can refer the fact that “Poor sanitation, hygiene and unsafe water claim the lives of an estimated over 1.5 million children under the age of five every year” (WHO 2009). Additionally, 2.5 billion people live without the access to effective urine and feces disposal which is a leading cause of diarrheal disease (wateraid.org). Together, these two issues alone create a domino effect of problems. For example, a child experiencing diarrheal disease due to improper water or sanitation, may also miss school and will need an adult around to take care of them; this adult will then miss work and miss out on the pay for that day/s until the child gets better, leading to more issues. Poor water quality, personal, and domestic hygiene all contribute to the sanitary issue.

The Legislation that addresses this is bill S.1269 which is titled "A bill to provide for enhanced foodborne illness surveillance and food safety capacity, to establish regional food safety centers of excellence, and for other purposes." This bill introduces a way in which we can improve our health at a local level by diminishing sanitation problems.

Those affected most by this issue are those living in developing countries, but you can find sanitation problems just about anywhere, including here in America. Anywhere that there are large amounts of people with very poor sanitation problems will arise that can greatly reduce human health as well and lessen the quality of life. According to WHO, the main routes in which human health is affected by poor sanitation include polluted drinking water, contamination into the food chain, dirty areas that provide breeding grounds for insects such as flies whom spread disease, and environmental pollution that limits certain sources of food such as fish.

THe Development Goal (MDG) target is to "reduce by half the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015." If this were to happen The gains would be that people wouldn't have as many problems with poor hygiene which leads to "loss of productivity, preventable health costs, low educational achievement, high morbidity and poor social development" (WHO). These situations happen in America as well but not as extreme in most areas; if bill S.1269 does pass the losses may include a small increase in taxes to ensure that we are able to provide better surveillance when it comes to preventing foodborne illness, and establish these regional safety centers.

We know the severity of this issue, but the consequences of putting another bill in place that would ensure better food safety and sanitation would be the need for funding. At the moment, I can't seem to find any information on how this bill will be funded whether it be by a specific health organization or the government. For those most affected by the issue, it seems as if the benefits would weigh out the consequences; for society these benefits would equal lower rates of foodborne illness contributing to better quality of life overall.

I may have touched on some of the economic impacts previously, but if bill S.1269 were to pass, and more regional safety centers were opened as well as more food safety surveillance, more jobs would be created in health services! Our economy seems to be at an all time low, so creating jobs seems like a really good boost, as well as lessening foodborne illness outbreaks. Overall, this bill should pay itself off over time rather than be a burden. "For every $1 spent on sanitation, up to $9 is returned in reduced healthcare burden and increased productivity."

I mentioned social impacts previously, and how better sanitation creates a domino effect of better health, better quality of life, less disease, better productivity, etc. for all people. As mentioned earlier, it is possible that the funding could slightly effect taxes, but at the moment we have no idea what the costs would be.

The barriers to addressing better sanitation worldwide includes many variables. Better education and cleaner availability of resources are key. In America, we have to reach out to areas that have the poorest sanitation, and make sure that we are educating and making these resources available to lessen the cases of foodborne illness.

We will need resources such as funding for buildings for these safety centers, as well as resources to pay workers at the new jobs that will be created. Resources that least burden the general public is the number one goal. Restructuring county buildings where food safety surveillance could be optimized could also be a less expensive route.

The history of the sanitation issue has expanded with time itself; as we have become more educated, sanitation issues have lessened. In the state of Minnesota, I have found that many food safety workers are over-worked due to some multi-county centers with very few workers trying address way too many problems, therefore, it is more likely that some problems get overlooked or don't get the attention they need. In many rural communities, it appears as if nothing is being done to address this problem. We need more safety centers/workers if we want to prevent foodborne illness.

It is likely that most public health workers would definitely be for this bill, I for one would recommend this bill. We need to put our health first!

Reflections: week 9 and 10

2009-11-19T22:41:00.004-06:00

The last two weeks have gone by extremely fast; I feel like this semester has just been flying by!
Week 9 started with an introduction to advocacy in environmental health class; we got into random groups and each group presented one topic about understanding advocacy. We also learned how to use THOMAS to find a bill that would relate to our advocacy project choice. This brought us into our first and main assignment of the advocacy project which was to chose a Healthy People 2010 goal and a bill that related to it. I chose the topic of reducing foodborne illness and poor sanitation due to my specific interest in environmental health.
This week was extremely packed for me, so my lifestyle change goal didn't go as well, and I felt like I was just getting behind, but all in all everything worked out after the week was over.

Week 10 introduced a video in class on Monday called "unnatural causes" which documented the lives of many people who are barely making ends meet. It discussed the idea that health correlates with wealth; those who do not have as high of an income of much less of a chance living a healthy lifestyle when it comes to many variables such as healthy eating, less stress, less everyday problems, etc. It was an interesting video, but it really did make sense. Next, we got into groups again and discussed how to "understand an issue" relating to advocacy.
All in all, this week was much better than the last, I was able to catch up on everything, and my goal was on track as well.

See you all Monday!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 7: Weekly Update

2009-11-17T22:11:00.001-06:00

Week 7 of my lifestyle change wasn't quite as obnoxious as the last. My goal is to not eat red meat, and eat less than 2 servings of other meats/ week. The week slowed down a bit, and I was actually able to spend a little more time cooking and preparing my meals.
This week I DID actually achieve my smart goal, AND I was also able to cut way back on dairy and avoid it as much as possible.

Successes: I had more time to prepare healthier food for myself, and only had meat once this week! (had to make up for last week). I made a really good fresh vegetable stew and had a lot of leftovers! (pictured below, the potato of love that went into my stew!! I couldn't believe I found a heart potato, I had to take a picture.)

Challenges: My friends and I like going on Perkins runs every once in awhile, and we allll have a big crush on the chicken tender melt, which was my weakness this week. It also had pepperjack cheese...but it was really good! and that was my one meat I allowed myself this week. ...so bad, but ooh so good!

The feelings I have experienced this week, are slightly less stressful than last week. I didn't feel terrible about my choices this week, but I am hoping with Thanksgiving just around the corner, that I'll be able to keep myself from over-indulging. But I AM glad that turkey isn't a red meat! :)

I learned that giving yourself a break is much easier if you plan ahead! It sounds weird, but when I planned ahead and made my soup, I didn't have to worry about what I was eating, and I had leftovers which are always nice! I may have talked about planning ahead before, but really, with anything, just simply writing out to-do lists gives you an idea ahead of time of what you will be dealing with during the week and then its much easier to plan around that.

I plan on keeping the same goal for next week, as well as the cutting down on dairy part. I have completely stopped buying milk and cheese which is something I never thought I'd be able to do.

Share and Voice: Blog award-expressing inner health educator!

2009-11-15T20:41:00.001-06:00

Last week I received an award from Pam for my Coca-Cola Share and Voice post. My post was about making sure people know what Coca-Cola and big companies really do in other countries, and what they really get away with.

Today, I came across Amanda's Share and Voice blog about UMD wasting paper, specifically, the HUGE stack of courses for spring semester, which as she mentioned can easily be found online. I definitely felt slightly agitated as well when I passed by this large stack near the student center, it's probably still there! I'm sure a good chunk of those will have to be thrown away or hopefully recycled. She definitely expressed her inner health educator when she reacted to seeing this "problem." Go check out Amanda's blog and see the huge stack for yourself!

Award Instructions for the Award Winner(s)

Leave a comment below so that I know you "picked up" the award.
Within 1 week, create a Share and Voice post that says you've received the award and indicate who the award is from (be sure to hyperlink).
Also indicate to whom you are going to pass on the award and why. Be sure to hyperlink the blogger (use main blog URL) and the blog title (use the specific URL for that blog post).
Copy and paste these instructions at the bottom of your post.
Publish the post.
Visit each blogger you've awarded and leave a comment telling them they've won.
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Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS

2009-11-15T19:00:00.002-06:00

My focus for my advocacy project will be on reducing foodborne illness; I am especially interested in this topic because I plan on going into health inspecting/ environmental safety sanitarian eventually after I graduate.

1.The objective that I believe fits my interests the best is objective 8-29 which is to "Reduce the global burden of disease due to poor water quality, sanitation, and personal and domestic hygiene."

2. Expanding on the objective, according to the progress quotient chart, this target has been met by 161% since 1990. Some emerging issues discussed in this focus area are the fact that clean water issues as well as lack of water in many countries further creates sanitary issues as well, for example, the deterioration of sewer and water systems. This focus area shows an overall goal of
"improving the environmental health of people and their communities has positive social and economic benefits."

3. Environmental Health Bill S.1269

  Title: A bill to provide for enhanced foodborne illness surveillance and food safety capacity, to establish regional food safety centers of excellence, and for other purposes.
  Sponsor: Senator Amy Klobuchar, [MN] (introduced 6/16/2009) 2 Cosponsors
  Latest Major Action: 6/16/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

.
Recommendation: Vote Yes for Environmental Health Bill S.1269
My Political Representative: Senator Amy Klobuchar

Read 'n' Seed 4: Third quarter of Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life

2009-11-12T18:58:00.001-06:00

The third quarter of my read 'n seed for Newman's Own Guide to a Good Life, covers chapters 6 and 7 (p.104-128).

Chapter 6 titled "Shopping," was very pertinent to localization and safety of consumerism. With the holidays just around the corner, I wish I could read this entire chapter to the average American consumer. I feel the need to do a lot of quoting, but I'll stick to one that really stuck out to me. Nell discusses purchasing products that should "matter to you," involving your families health as well as supporting local economy. "When you shift your dollars from a megastore to a mom-and-pop store because the smaller place carries water-soluble paint and decking that isn't loaded with aresenic, you're showing the big boys the way to your heart and you're supporting local economy too. If a company hasn't been a good neighbor--they recklessly pollute the city where they're headquartered, they refuse to recycle, or they won't give their workers a fair shake-- you can withhold your dollars from them until they shape up." I feel like that quote also goes well with my Coca-Cola Share and Voice post when discussing the idea of a megastore being a "poor neighbor."

I really like how she refers to a ripple effect when you do buy "green" products (meaning environmentally friendly), because you are educating others by example. Some products to watch out for when shopping are Phthalates (chemicals that soften plastic); choose PVC free, especially when shopping for toys that may end up in a childs mouth. Also, when building or remodeling your home, try to avoid VOC's (volitile organic compounds); if you smell them, they are getting into your lungs. Instead, look for environmentally friendly options which are becoming more readily available (oftentimes slightly more expensive, but you have to decide if your health is worth the cost.)

(pictured below, my puppy Lola)

Chapter 7 titled "pet care," wasn't quite as helpful as chapter 6, but there were a few good tips for keeping your pets healthy, but a lot of it is pretty obvious, and some of it doubles as ways for us to keep healthy as well. She does mention that the rule about "no table food" for your pets only really makes sense if you eat a really poor diet (which many Americans do, hence the rule applies). Humans and pets alike should avoid white refined sugar, white refined flour, and candy. Specifically, when it comes to pet food, avoid packages that begin with "beef by products, water, poultry by-products." Pets can have human food so long as its "healthy" (not high in fat, sugar or salt), but specifically shouldn't have chicken or fish bones, citrus, tomatoes, organ meat (unless organic) and bacon.
Many other tips double as overall safety tips for everyone: fresh water, no cigarette smoke, keep away from poisonous household chemicals, organic is the way to go for food-soaps-repellents-and shampoo. Being conscious about your pets' health is important, it oftentimes goes hand-in-hand with your own health!

Overall, very informative chapters, it's always nice to be able to share what I learn with everyone!

Share and Voice: Superstar Blogger!!

2009-11-12T15:54:00.000-06:00

I received this award from Ashley for my quality format and content for my blog about the coca cola company: Share and Voice: How do you feel about Coca Cola? along with a video guide.

I will be now passing this Award onto Mediterranean Melissa for her Share and Voice: Eco Shic Hotel. This blog was really eye catching and a really interesting approach as well! Content was interesting, and she depicted many forms of "eco-chicness" through photography and displayed that in a blog. Even better, was the fact that she did this while on a vacation! Overall, very appealing post in both content and format. :)

Award Instructions for the Award Winner(s)

Leave a comment below so that I know you "picked up" the award.
Within 1 week, create a Share and Voice post that says you've received the award and indicate who the award is from (be sure to hyperlink).
Also indicate to whom you are going to pass on the award and why. Be sure to hyperlink the blogger (use main blog URL) and the blog title (use the specific URL for that blog post).
Copy and paste these instructions at the bottom of your post. Be sure to include the Award in the post as well!
Publish the post.
Visit each blogger you've awarded and leave a comment telling them they've won.
Continue the process...

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 6: Weekly Update

2009-11-11T18:19:00.002-06:00

Week 6 was probably my most difficult week with my SMART goal. My SMART goal once again was to not eat red meat, and eat less than 2 servings of other meats per week.

I have had way too many challenges this week. It has been extremely busy, and basically I haven't had time to even think about what to eat and not eat; if something is available or offered, I just eat it.

I am hoping that this wont be a problem for me in the long run.When under pressure I just need to remember its important to manage my time as best as I can, and I guess what I can take from this is planning ahead definitely pays off. I did have success when it came to my goal of not eating red meat, but I believe I had chicken 3 times this week, fish once, and pizza... :( I also have not paid much attention to dairy, but I did have ice cream one night. Sometimes there is nothing better than ice cream.

Overall, this week was a semi-failure. But, I will admit that its nice to just not worry about what I eat once in awhile, and just eat whatever I had in the freezer.
Rule #1, plan ahead and make sure healthier foods are available when I don't have time to go grocery shopping!
Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 6 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 6

Share & Voice: Go Dakota County!

2009-11-09T23:47:00.001-06:00

"As Americans, we generate 1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste each year"

I was searching for articles on reducing chemicals in our daily lives, and was very happy to find that Dakota County's website is a great resource in itself!!

First of all, you can choose from a large category of different ways to protect the environment, and each category has many helpful tips.

The categories I found the most interesting were "Reducing harmful products in your home" and "Reducing harmful products in your yard"

Some valuable tips that I found from these were the importance of buying "green" cleaning supplies with non toxic, all natural or biodegradable ingredients. Also, multi-purpose products such as white vinegar can be used to clean many different appliances. Look out for words such as corrosive, toxic, dangerous... AND always pay attention to the label (more is not always more effective). Vacuum often if you have children playing on the floor, especially if shoes are not taken off at the door (many chemicals leach onto our shoes). Floor mats keep chemicals by the door, and can be washed as well. Do not cut grass too short, it allows for better tolerance. Allow the grass trimmings on the lawn to act as a natural fertilizer. Use phosphorus free fertilizers. Reduce chemical weed killers by pulling weeds by hand!!

Many other health tips are covered in their health section from food to environment and water, even a Green Guide, check it out!

There are many different areas to search within the website, and after searching it, I really wanted to advocate for more available resources in my hometown (county) AND help my county create a more helpful website like this one!

Advocacy Project: My Political Representatives

2009-11-08T18:30:00.002-06:00

My representatives!

For the first advocacy project, I will list my political representatives and ways in which to contact them such as their website.

You can call or write to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, using this website or the office address below:

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

To contact congressmen/ women of Minnesota, this website provides contact links to each individual.
Al Franken: 320 Hart Senate office building

Washington DC 20510

Phone: 202-224-5641

The governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, can be contacted at: (651) 296-3391 or via email.

Minnesota state legislators can be contacted via a database at http://www.leg.state.mn.us/.
John Kline:

101 West Burnsville Parkway

#201 Burnsville, MN

Phone: (952) 808-1213

The county board president of Kandiyohi County is Richard Falk, here is a link to the commissioners home page
320-235-0271

627 NW Knollwood Drive

Willmar, MN 56201

The mayor of my hometown is Denny Baker, the Spicer mayor homepage gives his contact information as well as other city board members.
(320) 796-5218

Email:
denny@bprinting.com

Reflections: week 7 and 8

2009-11-06T21:52:00.000-06:00

The past two weeks have been really informative!
I did a lot of personal research for this class for my share and voices, as well as for maintaining my lifestyle change.

Week 7 started with a discussion and a movie called "Green" which was about chemical plants near residential neighborhoods causing dangerous health problems to citizens who do not have the resources to just up and move. It was sad because it is a huge problem that seems to be far overlooked.
The activity (researching products at Skindeep) for this week actually got me started on browsing new, safer make-ups to try, which is really awesome because I learned that my make-up is actually terrible for my health, as well as many other skin products of mine.
Week 8 started with the movie "Thirst" which actually inspired my last Share and Voice blog about the company Coca-Cola. The eye opener about "junking" for this week was also cool because I have always been into recycling and reusing materials, especially for art projects at school and home. Learning about different thrift shops and "green" shops was really helpful because I love browsing through second hand stores and seeing what I can find! I actually found different parts of my halloween costume at Savers and Goodwill, so it was nice to research and see other places around town I can go. I actually visited the "Green Mercantile" which had a lot of really neat, safe to the environment products! Everyone should go check it out!

Share and Voice: how do you feel about Coca-Cola?

2009-11-04T23:47:00.002-06:00

In class, we watched a video called "Thirst," which I will put in as short of terms as possible: a film about the mistreatment of water and those who deserve to use it. This video brought up an issue involving the Coca-Cola company and how they have plants in developing countries that are using up public water supplies and leaving behind toxic waste, as well as trying to sell coke products back to the community whom would rather just have their water back.

This issue really caught me off guard, I can honestly say I had no idea this was happening.

For this Share and Voice, I decided I wanted to show some claims against the Coca-Cola company, as well as their side and let you be the judge.

When we see fun loving commercials for coca-cola, who doesn't get a positive feeling?

This is not the case in India.
This next video shows the extreme problems Coca-Cola has created in developing countries such as India.

I did not know that the sale of Coca-Cola has actually been banned in many cafterias in India because high levels of pesticides containing DDT were found in it. Additionally, piles of toxic waste left behind were found to contain extremely high levels of arsenic as well as lead, causing dangerous health affects to many civilians.

My final video contains arguments from citizens of India, as well as Coke's defense against many of the accusations. This video is slightly longer, but the epic music makes up for it. ;)

All in all, I am very surprised and disappointed that a powerhouse company like Coca-Cola tries to send off really happy, upbeat messages to their customers, yet at the same time ruin thousands of lives.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Weekly Update

2009-11-03T21:03:00.003-06:00

The past week of my Lifestyle Change has probably been my best, decision-wise.

My smart goal is to cut down on my meat consumption, specifically cut red meat from my diet, and eat less than 2 servings of other meats per week. Achieving my goal this week was much easier than I thought it would be thanks to certain situations. (one of which was not eating at home so I could avoid my barbaric roots as my halloween costume shows below) My meat choice of last week is the sushi pictured to the right.

My challenges were that there were 3 situations in which meat was very hard to turn down, but my successes were that I chose no meat in each situation. My friend's birthday on Friday was at Mexican Village, and I LOVE their sizzling chicken fajitas... but I knew that I would feel much better choosing the all veggie fajitas. 2nd was at our Halloween party, we ordered pizzas, but I am trying to cut down on meat and dairy, so I chose to get Chipotle (awesome burrito place!) before the party. That brings up the 3rd hard decision which was turning down my favorite chicken burrito at Chiptotle for a veggie burrito, but it was still really good!

One main reason I have been successful, is that after I eat, I don't feel terrible or tired but rather energized! Another reason is having support from my boyfriend who has chosen to also not eat as much meat as long as I don't, so its nice to just not have that temptation around most of the time. For the most part, I haven't had any problems this week, it has been a good experience. I learned that once again, just making that initial decision is the hardest part; I never thought I could turn down meat as much as I have. At home, our meals were based around meat, that's just the way its always been, so this is definitely a good step for my health, and one that I never thought I could do.

My plans for the coming week are to keep at it. My diet has been going really well and there is nothing else I am willing to alter, besides cutting down on the amount of dairy I eat.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

2009-11-01T22:44:00.000-06:00

This weeks eye opener started with defining a few terms including the following...

antiques/ antiquing:of or belonging to the past; not modern; shopping for antiques

j unk/ junking: Junking is the retrieval of ordinarily discarded things and materials

flea market: a market, often outdoors, consisting of a number of individual stalls selling old or used articles, curios and antiques, cut-rate merchandise, etc

thrift shop: A shop that sells used articles, especially clothing, as to benefit a charitable organization.

upcycling: involves processing used materials into new products, or the re-use of a product with crippled functionality for alternative purposes

resale shop: like a thrift shop, used items can be re-sold

These terms all relate to environmental health in many ways. First of all, they all involve the idea of "reducing, reusing and recycling" which we all know are key concepts involved in environmental health. Reusing products can benefit our wallets as well as mother nature. Antique shops, thrift stores, and resale shops take your items (sometimes giving you money, coupons, or the feeling of giving to a good cause) and re sell them for someone else to use, which prevents these items from filling up landfills for hundreds of years and causing multiple other problems that go along with that. One interesting article I found on this subject is called Seven Reasons to Shop at a Thrift Store which also gives environmental reasons as well as personal reasons.

Here are some local resources I found for each of the above terms:

Old Town Antiques: Duluth MN, (218) 722-5426

Chesney Salvage: Duluth, MN (218)721-4874

Cambridge Flea Market: Main Street, Cambridge, MN 763.689.4888

Savers (Thift shop): Duluth, MN (218) 722-1894

Green Mercantile (many upcycled and green products): Duluth, MN (218) 722-1771

Plato's Closet (re-sale shop): Duluth, MN 218-733-9455

I have gone to several of these places, its always interesting to see what you can find, and normally it's very affordable!

Last but not least, a visit to Junkmarketstyle.com! check it out! You can find some very interesting project ideas.

I really enjoyed the vintage jewelry project, I personally love vintage styles and this jewelry looked so authentic! My artistic background definitely contributes to my attraction to this kind of stuff. The creator, Gretchen, really had an eye for designing these awesome pieces! Another project I enjoyed had a very similar appeal, which was the Paris themed necklace collection, also by the same creator. These had a slightly different style but still very cool! It definitely makes me want to start designing my own stuff rather than spending money on it! Last but not least, was another project that caught the attention of my artistic eye. This project made chandeliers out of junk! They are gorgeous and also have that same vintage look; I have always been attracted to chandeliers for some reason.

Read 'n' Seed 3: Second quarter of Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life

2009-10-29T22:16:00.000-05:00

The second quarter of my Read'n Seed, for Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life was very intriguing!
The chapters were 3 (energy and water), 4 (communication) and 5 (money, credit and investing); pages 40-103.

The main topics I read about started with energy and water. Dirty coal, the greenhouse effect, and the Kyoto Protocol (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) aimed at combating global warming) were all discussed in the energy section. Some suggestions for consumers were to use rechargeable batteries, use compact flourescent lights, and use solar lights outside to name a few. The water section brought up the fact that over 97% of the water on Earth is unavailable for human use. Some tips suggested were to not let water run, use full loads when washing clothes, and just be more conscious in general. I found the list of ten things to do instead of showering twice a day quite funny. For example, repopularize the Macarena or learn the way to San Jose.
Chapter 4, communication brought up some interesting points such as printing responsibly-- its easy to print everything we need, additionally choosing recycled paper and recycling cartridges.
Chapter 5 was very informative, especially for college students! Many terms were presented such as screening which is a criterion or set of criterion that helps you determine which companies' stocks will be included in a portfolio and which will be excluded. Additionally, shareholder activism which is when you buy a stock, you become part owner in a company and must be socially responsible. Lastly, community investment, which involves investing in municipal bonds that fund public initiatives.
The most interesting things I learned this quarter were the reminders about saving energy and water, just being conscious in general.
Anyways, I definitely found these chapters to be informative and important to address especially when our society is having all kinds of money problems and credit crisis's, but I find the energy and organic food chapters much more interesting.

Share & Voice: website and debate

2009-10-28T21:20:00.001-05:00

I found a really interesting website called Our World 2.0
There is a lot going on and a lot to explore! Climate, Oil, Food, Biodiversity and About, are the categories.
Under each category, you can find really interesting articles and pictures about each topic.
The home page shows the newest articles and highlights those in pictures at the top of the page.

I really was puzzled by "Debate 2.0: Meat or the climate? Pick one!" but in a good way. This article by Brendan Barret poses a question to the reader about their diet. It talks about our diets affecting global warming: specifically eating meat.
The opening statement of the article reads "Meat free Mondays has to be the way to go. Former Beatle Paul McCartney backs it. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, advocates it."

This previous statement, is first backed and then questioned. Some health ministers do not believe that our meaty diets affect climate change enough to matter, but others say that cutting out meat would have a great affect. They specifically link an article called Livestock's Long Shadow, which suggests that 18% of our greenhouse gases come from meat production.

This is all very interesting to me, and I personally am all for "meat free Mondays," but it seems like quite a difficult task! I'd definitely like to see how it is advocated.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4: Weekly Update

2009-10-28T16:12:00.002-05:00

The following week has been going well with my SMART goal for the most part. My goal is to eliminate red meat from my diet, as well as cut down on my intake of other sources of meat. I have been doing pretty good about finding sources of protein without eating meat.

One success I had was last weekend, I still had some ground elk meat that my mom had sent, but I instead decided to make my chili without meat. It turned out great! I replaced the meat with corn and black beans, and made corn bread on the side. Delicious.

One challenge I had happened last night. I had a million things to do including starting and finishing a self portrait, as well as finishing a paper; the challenge was I was at my brothers house working on these things, and he offered to make me dinner. This dinner was spaghetti, that had a beefy meat sauce, and there was no way I was going to turn down supper when I had no time to make my own! So, spaghetti was my one downfall, but it was the first time I have had red meat since I started my goal, so its not too disappointing.

So, what I have learned this week is you always have to be willing to have some leeway when it comes to your goal; you never know when your going to be lacking even an hour in your day to make dinner! (especially if your brother is ACTUALLY cooking for you.)

I will continue with my goal as is for next week. Last week I had mentioned cutting down on my intake of dairy, which has been tricky, but good, so I will continue with that as well.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

2009-10-25T23:12:00.000-05:00

I am just going to start out by saying this eye opener has made me challenge my everyday routine, but in very good ways.

The activity was to visit Skin Deep an environmental working group that tests the safeness of products that we put on our skin. I did this activity last week and after seeing terrible results (a 9 out of 10 on a scale in which 10 is the most hazardous) for my eyeshadow, I decided to test all of my make up. I found that 90% of my makeup is an 8 or higher; I have 2 other products that ranked 7 and 4. After seeing these results, I decided that I needed to make a huge change unless I am okay with "Cancer, Allergies/immunotoxicity, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Enhanced skin absorption, Occupational hazards, Biochemical or cellular level change" among others.

I had no idea how terrible make up really is to my body; its something that I've been using since highschool and never thought twice about; an everyday ritual! After seeing my results, I am now aware of these dangers and have began to research different products that are safer. I realized that it is somewhat hard to find reasonably priced makeup that's actually alright for your skin, but I did find out that the New York brand isn't all that bad when I searched a couple of their products and got in the 3-5 hazard range. This link provides New York's consumer safety page from their website.
I have already made a couple changes due to my results from this activity including throwing away some of my eyeshadow. I ordered sample products from a company called "Rejuva Minearls" which offers natural and organic skin products and makeup (and receives 1, the lowest hazard level of all the makeup I checked) and I liked the two products that I tried! So, I would suggest this website to anyone wanting to change their makeup!

Share & Voice: article!

2009-10-23T16:58:00.002-05:00

So, to begin, I found an article that I had to look at 3 or 4 times and still have a hard time believing, but if this really is the plan, then heck yes! (Even if its not, its at least the right idea!)
The website I came across is called guardian.co.uk. The website appears to be legit, and has many interesting articles, world news, sports, etc. The article I happened to come across was called "Countdown to Copenhagen," which is a MUCH bigger countdown than one would think.
Am I the only one in the dark here? As quoted in the heading, "Europe offers to cut emissions by 95% by year 2050 if deal is reached at Copenhagen." This is a very clear message; Europe is making the first move and wants everyone else to follow! Like I said on one of my previous blogs, just taking that first step and making the initial decision is oftentimes the most difficult part, once you make that decision, you have somewhere to start!
This article was posted just last Wednesday, the 21st, and the importance is that Copenhagen has 6 weeks to sign the pact, after 27 EU countries have already finalized a common position. In addition, the proposal also states that a 30% cut in carbon emissions will be the goal by 2020. One major setback is the few developing countries involved may have some financial burdens and over-reliance on coal, so these problems are still being discussed.
This seems like a huge deal, and Europe deserves a pat on the back for making the first move.
I did find another older article ("Carbon Offsets") that also talks about Europe's plans to cut emissions 20% by 2020, but this more so mentions their plans to delay this project.
Anyways, I just found this to be really cool even if it is a few years down the road, has anyone else heard about this?

Reflection: Weeks 5 and 6

2009-10-23T16:00:00.000-05:00

Week 5 started with a quiz activity on Monday, followed by a movie on the "Future of Food," and a discussion. It was a really eye opening movie, sad as well. Farmers appear to be getting the shaft from large companies such as Monsanto, and GMO's are taking over America's food supply. We can't give in! Our discussion after the movie was informative as well, it was really interesting to hear everyone's take on this.

As the week progressed, I delved deeper into Newman's Own and really enjoyed the facts on organic food, and incorporated some of what I learned into my diet to add to my Lifestyle Change project.

Week 6 began with "Diet for a New America" which was a film by John Robbins addressing how terrible many American foods are, and discusses portion sizes pertaining to meat and dairy. I learned that what is considered to be a "normal" meat portion here is 5 times greater than average in many other countries such as Japan. We as a society really need to make some huge diet changes if we all don't want to die from heart diseases and cancers in our 50's and 60's.

Weeks 5 and 6 overall were very informative and interesting to me, and helpful in my aim towards cutting out meat and some dairy from my diet.

Share and Voice: Enviro -Cool Blog Award

2009-10-22T18:34:00.000-05:00

I received the cool blog award from Karly for my share and voice from an experience I had at Fitgers. This experience was great; I went out of my box and tried something new (that being a veggie burger) which I thought would never happen. AND to my surprise, it ended up being my first step to a healthier lifestyle because I discovered that it was actually good, so I went home and decided I wanted to try and make these on my own! I left the recipe on that blog if anyone is interested in trying it (it worked out well for me!) thanks Karly for the award! I am passing it onto Abby, for her share and voice: worry about more than just your water bottles. I thought this blog was very informative and shocking... everyone needs to see it!

Leave a comment below so that I know you "picked up" the award.
Within 1 week, create a Share and Voice post that says you've received the award and indicate who the award is from (be sure to hyperlink).
Also indicate to whom you are going to pass on the award and why. Be sure to hyperlink the blogger (use main blog URL) and the blog title (use the specific URL for that blog post).
Copy and paste these instructions at the bottom of your post.
Publish the post.
Visit each blogger you've awarded and leave a comment telling them they've won.
Continue the process...

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3: Weekly Update

2009-10-20T19:00:00.003-05:00

One more week down on my lifestyle change, and its going smoothly.

My SMART goal was to not eat red meat, and cut down on my intake of other meats to less than 2 meals per week. This week was a success for several reasons. This past weekend I went home to celebrate my birthday and my "sister" Jessica's wedding which usually would mean a lot of tempting "bad" food. But, luckily Jessica is vegan so there were many options great for both of us! She actually made a vegan banana cream pie AND "chocolate" cake that were surprisingly delicious! So, I accumulated a couple new recipes. :) On the challenging side, because of my birthday, my mom wanted to cook me a huge meal, which usually consists of a hamburger type hot dish. Luckily, my dad had been hunting and caught pheasant, so we had fresh pheasant which was awesome! I learned many more new things this week, especially from the movie in class as well as the discussion, and they all kept me positive about my goal. Specifically, when we talked about the mistreatment of animals, and how much grain it takes (12lbs) to equal out to 1lb of hamburger, I was satisfied with my semi-vegetarian choice.

So this next week, I probably wont modify my goal, but of course I am going to try and turn down meat as much as possible. (pictured above, my mother, happy I finally came home, making home-made tortillas with a plethera of fresh garden veggies!)
"Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy."

Share & Voice: idea and experience

2009-10-18T11:04:00.002-05:00

When I decided I wanted to start incorporating more vegetarian meals into my diet, it all started when my boyfriend took me on a date to Fitgers in Duluth. We were browsing the mall there and a lady greeted us in an outerwear store. We got to talking and said we were headed to the Fitger's diner for a date, and she got all excited and said "oh! I would suggest trying the wild rice veggie burgers! Even though I'm not a vegetarian, they are amazing." I looked at Michael and cringed a bit. The idea of veggie burgers has always put eerie pictures in my head. So anyways, I got there, and got to thinking, and I decided to let go of those horrible feelings and trust this lady I had just met because I had been wanting to convert to a mostly vegetarian diet. After trying it, I was in awe. How could a burger that doesn't have any "burger" not be completely worthless? Well, apparently you can mock the taste of a burger and its consistency by using wild rice and other veggies...Yes. It's true. I went home and actually looked up their recipe. Which I could not find. I'm sure its a secret, but I was able to guess on most of what was in it, as well as find mock recipes. So, finally Michael and I tried making these beasts and had a little get together with some carnivorous friends who all gave us the thumbs up after trying. (Here is a link to a Sue Redmond's wild rice burger recipe I found, but I would suggest adding mushrooms and onions on top after you patty up and cook the burgers). This share and voice may seem minuscule compared to some, but for me, it was the first huge step into a diet that I thought would be impossible, and I really wanted to share my positive experience. So, if you or anyone you know, wants to become a vegetarian but just can't seem to make that first move, show them this website (as soon as possible) AND take them to Fitgers (directions here) for a wild rice veggie burger.
Becoming a vegetarian is very eco-friendly. Seriously. check out the website I have posted above if you haven't (or here). Some of it seems hard to believe, but a lot of the information I found on there, I found on many other sites as well, but this particular website is very straightforward and isn't here to make you feel good about eating cows and "hot dogs" all-American style.

Read 'n' Seed 2: First quarter of "Newman's Own Guide to a Good Life"

2009-10-15T22:54:00.000-05:00

So far, I have read the rest of chapter one, and finished chapter 2 in Newman's Guide which is pages 14-39. The main topics I have read about at the end of chapter one have been organic food: why we should choose it, statistics, and what to look for when buying organic food. I especially found this last part particularly helpful. She talked about how we need to look for certain labels when buying organic products. These include three terms of certified organics: "100% organic," "organic," and "made with organic ingredients." Additionally, she mentions the importance of buying local produce in season, eating lower on the food chain, avoiding over packaged products, and buying for whole food stores. Several parts of the chapter discuss her opinions on the affects of society; one particular quote I highlighted was after she mentions people complaining about how expensive organics are and it states, "In terms of money, we have to learn how to cook food that is really tasty using vegetables. I don't think we know how to do that, we are so meat dependent. But vegetables and grains are very affordable foods...you pay for your health, and I want to give my money directly to the farmer." Like she suggests, when we pay for foods that have been over processed and shipped they are less healthy but cheaper, therefore you are paying for the depletion of our natural resources, and sacrificing your health. I think we need more information in public schools teaching health and more information in general on why eating organic foods and buying from local farms is so important! Chapter 2 was less interesting to me, but it still had some good information as well as helpful tips, such as how we can help the environment by keeping with the speed limit to save on fuel, not stomping on the gas and speeding off, taking care of our cars, carpool as much as possible, take the bus when you can, and try to incorporate an eco friendly car into your life.

check it out!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2: Weekly Update

2009-10-14T01:16:00.000-05:00

Week 2 of my lifestyle change has been going really well. My goal was to cut down on how much meat I eat, and completely rid my diet of red meat. The second part of my goal was to only eat 2 servings or less of chicken or fish per week, and that goal was also achieved last week. I actually made wild rice veggie burgers one day with an awesome recipe that I partially acquired and partially made up. *great success*

For the most part, I have not faced too many challenges on my way to switching over to vegetarianism: I guess my main challenge has been the fact that my parents have a very small hobby farm and raise chickens, so of course my mom loves cooking chicken hot dishes and sending them my way, but at least it is organic and I can limit myself and save it in the freezer. I DO feel better about this choice I have made. Not only is it environmentally friendly and better for animal welfare, but also making wild rice burgers last weekend for my friends was awesome because they all really enjoyed them, and now they also have a healthy alternative to meat, that they can try it on there own as well. (specifically getting one of my stubborn roommates AND my brother to like them was a landmark occasion). I guess what I have learned so far was that once you put your mind to a huge lifestyle change like this, you realize that the hardest part is actually just making that decision ( I never thought I'd be able to give up meat), and I've hardly had any problem so far with my change. My plans for this next week are just to keep up with what I am doing, I already believe I am challenging myself, yet I don't want to make it any easier. I would at least like to challenge myself to eat more organic foods.

Here is an interesting website I found that has given me motive to keep up with my vegetarian choices.

21 reasons to become a vegetarian!

( toothpastefordinner.com )

Eye Opener: CSPI

2009-10-11T19:43:00.001-05:00

For this weeks eye opener, I chose to do the "Score Your Diet" activity. At Center for Science in the Public Interest, you can rate your diet using a drop down menu that rates the amounts of different food that you eat, and gives you a total health score, an environmental score, and an animal welfare score. The options also allow for whether you eat organic food or low fat foods.
My score showed an overall excellent health score, but my animal welfare and environmental scores both need improvement. Vegetables were my highest score by far, fruits came in second and whole grains came in third, which makes sense to me because I do eat a lot of veggies and legumes to make up for my lack of meat. My worst scores were in the amount of yogurt and cheese that I eat, which is apparently too much, but I feel like my diet works well and I wouldn't really want to give up anymore dairy than I already have after switching to soy and almond milk (tastes better than it sounds!) 2 years ago. My lowest scores overall were under environment, and I am not sure how to make sense of this because I got negative points under environment for eating fruits and vegetables, and more negative points for grains, so this rating was slightly confusing. My total score overall was 52 which ranked "good."
I do eat organic some of the time, so my goal will be to slowly incorporate more and more organic food into my diet. What this activity has shown me, is that there is always room for improvement, and you have to alter your diet in the areas that work best for you, as well as what works best for the environment. I believe my personal diet improvements have come a long way and they will only get better. It wasn't that long ago that I would eat just about anything in the spectrum...

(obtained from toothpastefordinner.com)

Reflection: Weeks 3 & 4

2009-10-08T20:00:00.002-05:00

The past two weeks have been very beneficial for me. During week 3, we figured out what book we wanted to read for our Read 'n Seed; I chose a book in which I had special interest. This book is called Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life. We also made sure we had all blog requirements and learned how to use Google Reader. Week 4 started with questions we discussed in class, which benefited everyone because most of us had some uncertainty. Additionally, we watched An Inconvenient Truth which stars Al Gore. This movie is a documentary discussing the reality and seriousness of global warming. This movie was really an eye opener. The thing that stuck out the most to me, (it sounds weird because it's something really small..sort of) was an image of Lake Chad in Africa full of fresh water in 1963! I remember learning about this huge lake from 8th grade geography. The images below show how it has shrunk dramatically, nearly drying up! That really stuck out to me and made me sad. Moving on, Wednesday our Lifestyle Change plan was due, and in doing research on what my plan would be, I learned so many more reasons on why I want to be a vegetarian, as well as change many other aspects of my life to be more eco-friendly. This class has really been life changing even in the short amount of time I've been in it. This class will definitely be the push I needed to make all the lifestyle changes I have wanted to make. The ecological footprint activity showed me how disastrous my lifestyle really is, and that isn't my only motive. I have been researching on my own, as well as discussing with friends and classmates why we need to advocate these lifestyle changes and recruit as many people as we can! Even if its just simple things, like carpooling more often, taking shorter showers, and not eating red meat! Now, hopefully my mom wont be too disappointed when I don't eat her famous tator-tot, ground beef hotdish when I come home next weekend.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My SMART Goal

2009-10-06T22:00:00.001-05:00

Over the next ten weeks, I will reduce the amount of meat that I eat, more specifically I will completely eliminate red meat from my diet, secondly I will reduce my overall meat intake to chicken and fish: no more than 2 meals per week that include chicken or fish, starting today 10/6/09.

I did some research on why becoming a vegetarian is eco chic, and I found many good reasons why everyone should! For example, many rainforests are destroyed in order to make grazing fields for beef cattle (more info here), much grain is shipped from countries over sea to feed our beef cattle and that takes energy to transport and could actually be used for starving people in these countries from which it is shipped, rather than to fatten our cattle. I also found this information from the same site: It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. If the US meat industry wasn't supported by the taxpayer paying a large proportion of its water costs, then hamburger meat would cost $35 a pound. I found many more interesting facts at Vegan net, including this fact: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the world's livestock herds are the largest source of human-induced emissions of methane which is a potent greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.
This particular lifestyle change is important to me for several reasons. One of which is because being a vegetarian is environmentally friendly as my explanation above suggests. Additionally, being a vegetarian has many health benefits for my personally. As quoted from a pro-vegetarian website I discovered, avoiding meat is one of the best and simplest ways to cut down your fat consumption. Modern farm animals are deliberately fattened up to increase profits. Eating fatty meat increases your chances of having a heart attack or developing cancer. Personally, the term meat usually makes me cringe; we don't always know what is in our "meat," especially "ground beef." Also, we can avoid eating as many chemicals if we don't eat meat. For example, I know that cows are injected with loads of chemicals and hormones, it is terrifying that we can sell this poisoned animal as food.
Overall, this change is something I have been wanting to do for a long time, and have been slowly stepping into; I have all the reason in the world to make the change now!

I thought this comic was funny, its definitely true.

Eye Opener: ecological footprint

2009-10-04T23:45:00.000-05:00

Ecological footprints are something I hadn't really thought about before this activity. It is scary to think that with our selfish lifestyles, we use resources 1.3 times faster than Earth can regenerate them, and this number is doomed to get worse. "According to Redefining Progress’ latest Footprint Analysis, humanity is exceeding its ecological limits by 39%." I found this progress website to be interesting not only in the fact that we can calculate our own biological footprint, but it shows how to interpret results and how individuals and communities can take action to reduce their ecological footprints and inspire others. We were asked to take quizzes and track our own ecological footprint. One website in which I took a quiz was at Earthday.net, my results were much worse than I had expected. Apparently we would need 4 planets if everyone lived like I do; this was a shock to me because I do recycle on occasion and don't feel like I use that much waste, but like I said, this was an eye opener! After seeing this, I looked at even simple everyday changes I can make by exploring other scenarios. For example, I can reduce the amounts of animal products I use, try avoiding products that use unnecessary packaging, and bring my own grocery bag when going to the supermarket.

Read 'n Seed: Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life

2009-10-03T20:18:00.004-05:00

I have chosen to read two different books, but the book I will focus on for my Read 'n Seed is called Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life. The link provides a website in which you can see details about the book as well as purchase this book or shop for other environmentally friendly products. Amazon provides a rating of the book, as well as a way in which you can view the chapters of the book for you to explore. Additionally, more specific information and a more in depth review of the guide can be found here. I chose this book because I feel I can use it as a personal guide to help me take steps in becoming healthier and more environmentally friendly. The first chapter I read is simply called "food." This chapter has so far been a reality check. I have tried incorporating organic foods into my diet in the past, but after reading this chapter, I now see even more importance to this goal. How many of us actually think about how everyday foods are delivered thousands of miles, packaged, processed, over processed some more, and the distributed with loads of plastic and chemicals. This not only hurts the environment, its slowly poisoning us and our families when we do not take that extra time to cook a fresh meal and spend a little more money on organic food. Another big problem with not using organic food is GMO's ! (a more precise definition by following the link). These are genetically modified organisms...which are a huge concern, but the have laid low until recently; they are largely unregulated, untested, unlabeled, and unannounced. I found the author's list of America's top contaminated fruits and veggies to be very beneficial. Topping the charts was strawberries and bell peppers, which in a way makes sense to me because when I grow strawberries they NEVER get as big as the ones in the store. There are 227 pages in this book, and 9 chapters. I will finish the first chapter and move into the 2nd chapter for the first quarter, 2nd quarter will be 3rd, 4th and 5th chapters, 3rd quarter will be 6th and 7th chapters, and 4th quarter will be 8th and 9th chapters. The other book I have purchased is called The Organic Food Guide. This one is more of a personal guide that I can use to make smart decisions when grocery shopping; it talks about how to "shop smarter, and eat healthier." If time prevails when I finish my first book, I would like to discuss what I learn in this 2nd book. In the pictures below I would like to compare a normal sized strawberry, like one I would find in my garden, compared to those I buy at the grocery store with GMO's.
normal sized strawberry at right GMO strawberry below
(very large strawberry) just kidding, but you get the idea :)

Reflections: week 1 and 2

2009-09-24T19:54:00.001-05:00

The first two weeks of Environmental Health have brought me new places in the blogging world. This being said, I have never had a public blog before, and feel like a child learning how to read; I’ll eventually get it, and hopefully recruit others.

I thought the Star Wars activity was a good way to start class; we were forced to work together as a team right off the bat. The in class discussions also helped me get a feel of what other people were like and what kind of opinions they had. I personally enjoyed the quotes relating to nature which gave me the urge to read some Robert Frost.

Blogging itself opened me up to a whole new world. Just learning how to personalize my blog let me use my imagination and creativity, forcing me to bust out some artistic skills as well. My goal is to connect my creative side to environmental change, and my personal focus on preserving the beauty of nature.

More cute environmental poems I found!

(below) A recent visit to Gooseberry falls! Check out the beautiful falls before it gets too cold!

Welcome to Danielle's Discoveries

2009-09-22T22:10:00.002-05:00

I am Danielle Wall, an art and community health student, and I am all about discovering the beauty in our natural surroundings. So far I have highlighted my interests in art and nature, and I would like to tie that into my blog and doing my part in preserving our natural environment, and helping others become healthier, well informed decision makers!

Thanks for checking out my blog, I hope you enjoy!

Blogged for the Welcome Linky Party hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy

The Office: best quotes.

2009-09-22T12:24:00.002-05:00

Starry Night

2009-09-22T12:12:00.002-05:00