Artificial Food Dyes and ADHD

Since the 1970s there has been concern over the connection between artificial food dyes and hyperactive activity. Since the 1990, use of these dyes has increased by half. Many parents give testimonials about how removing artificial dyes from their children’s diets has had a dramatic effect on their attention span and focus. Consumer concerns about food dyes are significant enough for major companies like Kraft to provide artificial dye free options and for websites like “The Red Dye Free Store” to be successful. There is even an iPhone app that can help people decode ingredients labels; “Don’t Eat That”. Some consumer groups are pushing for artificial dyes to be banned from food completely. Although a ban is unlikely, these groups are at least hoping for a warning label to be added to these foods. An advisory panel to the FDA has recommended a study to figure out if there is a link between food coloring and childhood hyperactivity (ADHD). The same panel also decided that products containing these artificial food dyes don’t need any warning labels. They are still required to list the food colorings as ingredients. At this time there is not enough evidence to prove food dyes increase hyperactivity in all children, but the panel agrees that diets eliminating dyes may help some children. Banning or adding warning labels would be harmful only to major food manufactures and dye producers. They argue the dyes restore products natural colors that they lose during processing. http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2011/apr/01/fda-panel-votes-study-food-dyes-hyperactivity-ar-440140/ http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42359720/ns/today-today_health/42355829

Child Nutrition Act

The act was passed last year to improve child nutrition standards in school cafeterias, but now it's time to implement this legislation. Send your comments to the USDA:
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/blog_post/tell_usda_how_you_feel_about_school_lunch#howto

Here they come!

So things are coming along quickly, weve missed a weekend so we had a lot to do. We planted most of our seeds last week and things are starting to come up. Here is a yellow golden squash mixed among our sweet corn:

Our strawberries are starting to come along nicely too:

Herbs: we were short on herb seeds so i gave my friend Allston a call, he works for Sea Island Savory Herbs, we traded him an old laptop battery for a flat of herbs and quite a few leafy greens for the side bed.

The beets are coming along quickly and strongly. We grew 4 different types and the "early beet" blend is getting close already!

Our peas were getting quite large so we went ahead and put in the fence for them to grow on. we planted two rows a few weeks apart to give us a gap between productions so we could keep it coming.

Our big project this weekend is our chicken coop. We had to break down and buy our 2x4's for this project. we needed about 13 of them and picked them up from Lowes :(. But with a little hard labor we got the frame done in one day. The day after this we put the wire and roof on the house. now all we have left is to put some wheels on it so it can be easliy moved about the yard and to buy some chickens.

Well this is all we have for now. Ill post some pics of the chickens when we get them going.

Shady Gardening

Many aspects of a smaller scale garden can be adjusted to meet the needs of plants. If your space has low soil nutrients you can add compost, manure or other fertilizers. If there is a drought you can simply water your garden with a hose. One limitation that is harder to remediate is shady areas. Buildings are unlikely to disappear and neighbors are often unwilling to cut down their trees (nor should they be asked to). Growing up, my family used to always grow a garden with a variety of fruits and vegetables including corn, strawberries, melons, broccoli, squash and much more. Overtime the neighboring trees grew taller and out gardening space was reduced to partial sunlight. The garden was no as successful and eventually my parents gave up on it completely. Now they usually only plant tomatoes and zucchini in the last remaining full sun areas of our yard. The once garden is now just an empty space covered in wood chips. In hopes of revitalizing the area, I have looked into plants that do well in shady conditions. Leafy vegetables are the most shade tolerant. This includes delicious lettuce, spinach and arugula. Herb gardens are also perfect fillers a shady spot. Leafy greens and herbs are wonderful plants to have on hand because they can be picked and enjoyed at almost any stage of their life, they don't need to ripen. These leafy plants can struggle in the heat of the summer, so planting them in the shade is important for their summer success. Root vegetables can be productive with partial sun. Fruits and vegetables that would not be well suited for this space are ones whose fruits come from a flower. These varieties require full sun. http://www.colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4dmg/VegFruit/vegsshady.htm

A global food crisis?

Farmers respond to increased prices for cotton, planting less corn and soy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/business/29cotton.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25

Common Everday Grocery Store Shopper's Worst Nightmare

Several Environmental and Food Safety activists have filed a lawsuit over the USDA allowing for unrestricted growing of a genetically modified alfalfa engineered by none other than, that's right Monsanto. Why is this a big deal? Alfalfa is one of the key parts of the domestic cow's diet, and with the effects of wind and cross pollination eventually almost all alfalfa will contain at least some amounts of genetically modified material. This could put an end potentially to the organic dairy industry as no food or drink can be labeled "organic" if it contains any traces of genetically modified material. This decision will also cause an increase in the use of herbicide. While alfalfa is not normally treated with herbicide, this new Monsanto breed can withstand a large amount of their brand of herbicide, leading to more potential use of the toxic chemicals. Yet this may not even be the biggest issue. As your Common Everday Grocery Store Shopper, this is my worst nightmare. As if shopping at a grocery store and determining what exactly is in my food wasn't already tough, with the implementation of this USDA plan it will be all but impossible....

Getting closer

So things are moving along in the garden. Its been a ton of work. But things are starting to come in. Fritz and I drove up to north charleston and picked up a load of manure compost for free from the horse shed on the weapons base. Its so rich and dark, the plants will be very happy.

So far we have lots of veggies so we decided to mix it up a bit so we put in 25 strawberry plants last week:

And last night we put in the corn and beans next to it. ( on the left)/ We decided to plant squash at the base of the corn. it will act as a mulch and help keep the weeds down. it also allows us to produce more calories in a smaller amount of space and with less water. This is the kind of arrangements that permacultre are made of.



Are seedlings are coming along well, so well in fact that we have had to move the lights up a few inches to accommodate the new growth. We have started leaving the marigolds outside now to harden them. Marigolds are very good insect repellent and with all the gnats and mosquitoes in the garden, we sure need it.

We are just now starting to see our first sprouts from the species weve planted outside. So far we've got beets, kohlrabi,carrots, spinach, green onions, radishes, peas and strawberries as well a few common herbs. Here is some of the 4 varieties of mint that we are growing:

The peas are coming up quickly and will soon need something to grow on. I found some 1inch stakes in the construction dumpster around the corner and will be putting them up with some twine for the peas and beans to grow on. Weve also used an organic compound that helps fix nitrogen for the beans.

So next we are putting in the melons, but we have to wait a bit. I feel that a lot of this is a waiting game. But it should be well worth the wait.