The Christmas spirit
Posted on | December 23, 2008 | 1 Comment
It has been a while since my last post, which was mainly due to a couple of friends visiting me and to a vigorous influenza that got my family all together. This not only kept me from writing on this blog, but incredibly kept me away from the busy Xmas shopping. I have to admit I am not so sorry for that. Going around in the city, trying to find my way through shoppers carrying numerous huge bags is not exactly my idea of a relaxing day. Looking at it as an outsiders can give some interesting thoughts. Why do we buy all of this? Is there a real need for giving or rather a sense of guilt for not spending enough? We have been reading alarming articles on the newspaper about analysts predicting people would not buy as much Christmas gifts this year, due to the financial crisis. Shop owners have been worrying not to be able to sell all their products ( or was it that their sell would not grow as expected compared to last year? ). So we started panicking that the children will not have enough under the tree. Read more
Organic food in roman schools: an example to follow
Posted on | December 8, 2008 | No Comments
I have recently learned that my home town has something else to be proud of besides the Colosseum and many other ancient ruins. Since 2001 the public school in Rome (Italy), under the lead of Dr. Silvana Sari, has undergone a big change concerning the quality of food served in schools. About 740 schools of the Italian capital started serving food to school children chosen on the bases of quality instead of low price only, according to the ALL FOR QUALITY food procurement principles introduced by Dr. Sari. It turned out this choice is even economically convenient. The about 150 000 meals served every day include organic food, fairly-traded products and are always prepared from scratch. Special deals are offered to local producers for their organically grown vegetables and fruits so that everyone benefits from it. The producers have the certainty of their products being sold, and the school administration saves money in exchange of good quality food. But how is this even economically convenient? It is well know that good eating habits decrease the incidence of illnesses, such as diabetes and obesity, to name some. Most western countries sees an increase of overweight and obesity in children and are facing increasing health problems because of that. Something that has even a large economical impact. Thus, educating children to good eating habits is certainly rewarding economically in the long run. But there is more. Thanks to special deals with the public administration and accurate planning of menus served in the schools, the cost is only about 5 euros per meal and per child. Changes introduced include also the use of porcelains and silverware instead of plastic mug and plates, which reduces by 9 tons the amount of garbage produced and the related cost. Furthermore, more attention is paid to recycling, and unused food is given to facilities that feed the poors, while partially used food is given to animal shelters. Read more
Tags: children > health > Organic food > schools
Cocktail of pesticides for our children
Posted on | December 5, 2008 | 1 Comment
How much pesticides are we able to get into our body without consequences for our health? This is normally established by the European Union for all food both produced and imported, and limits are set on the amount of each type of pesticides to be found in food for us to be safe. But are we really?
I got across a recent study that I consider quite alarming, and I want to share my thoughts with you.
Vegetables and fruits sold in 16 of the most common supermarkets in Europe have been analyzed for presence of pesticides by six European environmental organisations: Legambiente (Italy), MDRGF (France), Greenpeace (Germany), Milieudefensie (Netherlands), Levego Munkacsoport (Hungary) and Pesticide Action Network (Europe). Many products including vegetable, fruits and cereals were found positive to residuals of pesticides, but the most alarming by far was the case of grapefruits. About 99 percent of the 124 grape samples analyzed contained pesticides, with an average of seven pesticides for sample. Although some contained amounts which were above the limits allowed by the European Union, the actual worry is in the cocktail of dangerous chemicals present in almost all of them. In fact the safe limits are set by studies of the effect on the human body of high concentration of individual pesticides. However, very little we do know about the effects of mixing up different dangerous chemicals, even if each of them is in very small amount.
Moreover the safe limits are calculated based on a man weighting an average of 70 kg. We can only imagine the effect of the same concentration on the small body of a child or even a fetus. Some of these substances normally used in intensive cultures are linked to cancer, infertility, nerve damage, hormonal disruption and DNA mutations. It is incredible how much recommendation one gets during pregnancy about not eating certain food potentially dangerous for the baby, and no one informs women about the much more certain consequences of eating non organically grown vegetables and fruits. The European Union needs to intensify controls and to modify the rules concerning cocktails of pesticides, to make sure foods getting on our tables are safe even for
children. Meanwhile I will certainly keep ordering my weekly box of organic veggies.
Tags: EU > food > grapefruits > health > organic > pesticides