Vegetarianism

Nothing adds credibility to a writers voice like quoting a more famous and credible source. I think I found a good one for this topic.

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet” Albert Einstein.

I like how he used the term evolution to a vegetarian diet. Albert was quite succinct in his argument, I took a few more words in saying vegetarian motherhood and raising vege kids is absolutely healthy and a huge step towards saving the planet, from us.

Read on…

Is a Vegetarian Diet Suitable During Pregnancy?

Raising Vegetarian Children

Earth Day is April 22

Earth Day is a global campaign to raise environmental awareness and inspire the masses (that's you) into taking green infused action (not just talking about it). It's a good idea.

Here is what I wrote about Earth Day for Green Parenthood; Earth Day Is Tomorrow,

and here is what the Earth Day Network has to say about it.

A Billion is real big number and depending on what part of the world you are from it will have 9 or 12 zeros. The English speaking portion of the world means a thousand million (9 zeros) when they say a billion. The rest of the world defines a billion as million million (12 zeros). Weird huh?

Anyway the Earth Day Network has set humanity a goal of making A Billion Acts of Green before 4th June 2012. An act of green is anything that is good for the earth or that tells others to be good to the earth, ie. an act of environmental service or advocacy.

This link is to my article on A Billion Acts of Green and this is the real A Billion Acts of Green website, were you should go to record your good green deeds.

Green Parenthood

Greenparenthood.com is not a website about mothering plants or raising little green men. It is about being a parent and going about it in a way that nourishes your child and the planet.

I am not a parent but if I was it’s the sort of website I would visit. I now write for GreenParenthood.com so by the time I do get around to having kids I should be well informed.

Links to articles:

The importance of Omega-3 For Children

Shoes

I have spent the past year searching for the greenest travel shoe possible. I arrived in Peru with a pair of hiking boots and very old Chuck Taylor One-Stars. Neither of which were particular eco-friendly choices in footwear. They were just the shoes I had in my cupboard, thus using them avoided unnecessary consumerism (Not buying is better than buying, even if you are purchasing the latest “eco” model outdoor shoes).

This search for clean, green, earth friendly footwear that is easy to pack and looks OK with most of my clothes has lead me to sell the hiking boots that were too heavy, socially awkward and only actually necessary about 2% of the time; spend too many idle hours drooling over the latest model of Patagonia footwear, only to realise it is entirely pointless buying an eco-friendly product shipped internationally; embarrass my girlfriend and amuse the local people by being shoe-less for weeks, and finally I came around to admiring the poorest guy in the markets sandals.

Why the shoes of the dirty guy with matted hair and smelly clothes? Well, they are locally made out of recycled car tyres, hand stitched roughly but still no glue is used to hold them together and they will last longer than a really long time. You can’t fault the dirty guy on his environmentally conscience choice of foot protection, nor me since I bought these in Colombia.

Eventually I couldn’t help myself, and in Costa Rica, I took a hacksaw to a tyre and bought some leather straps to come up with these.

Now I wear them everywhere, or go bare-feet.

BocasTravel.com

Bocas del Toro is Panama's Caribbean surfing paradise. We thought we would maybe spend a week or two there but ended up staying over a month. On one island they spoke English but with a Jamacian accent from a particular neighbourhood (ghetto) in Kingston. It was easier to understand their Spanish.

We contributed a couple of articles to a local travel website called BocasTravel.com. To read them follow links below

http://bocastravel.com/bicycle-riding-in-bocas

http://bocastravel.com/visiting-up-in-the-hill-on-bastimentos-island

Otra Cosa

Otra Cosa, is Spanish, it translates literally as another thing. It is the name of the volunteer agency I volunteered through in Peru. Their name Otra Cosa refers to another way of doing things, another way of living, another way of interacting with your fellow humans and of viewing the world. For me it meant another compost pile.

Follow this link to read my entry on the Volunteer Blog

http://otracosanetwork.blogspot.com/2010/12/slo-la-educacin-salvara-al-peru-how_09.html.

HEMP SURFBOARDS IN JAPAN - An article in the Annual Design Issue of Surfing World Magazine

This was one of my favorite articles to write. I love surfing, I love green technology and in my opinion Surfing World is one of Australia's finest surf mags.

The article is about Ono Takahashi. Ono, is a man pursuing his own vision of how surfing should be. For him, this means using his favorite plant to produce home grown surfboards. The boards he makes have close to 80% plant material, hemp fins, hemp cloth and hemp in the blank.

Industrial hemp is "the goods" as far as environmentally friendly materials go. It's a rapidly replenishable resource that can be produced easily without pesticides or harmful chemicals. A genuinely green alternative to the environmentally damaging petrochemicals in the standard surfboard.

Stay tuned, there will be more articles on green surfboards.

The article is titled The Board Farmer, page 54 in Issue 303. This is a link to the Current Issue of Surfing World. I'll post a copy of the article once its no longer the current issue.

BROWN'S FIELD - AN ORGANIC OASIS

Brown's Field was one of our favorite places to visit when we lived in Ichinomia. It's such an idyllic place. I'd go as far as to recommend anyone travelling to Japan, skip Tokyo! And head straight to Brown's Field from Narita. Then if you don't have the impulse to sit right down and stay (which you may well do) take a day trip to Tokyo and the rest of Japan.

This article appeared in the November issue of the Tokyo Weekender. Click here to read the article.