Hi Friends,
I know this blog has been a long time a’comin’… and I thank those of you who have stuck with me and are still on my Elist.
First, to each and every one of you, have a wonderful, uplifting, joyful New Year. May all your dreams and plans come true. I have a lot of hope riding on this year of 2012… let it fulfill its long-awaited promise of raising humanity up to a new level of awareness, peace, prosperity and love. (I wrote this first blog entry early in Jan. but because of technical difficulties could not get it out until today.)
It’s been two years of accelerated learning for me… in many, many areas… and there have been many changes too… my Mom passed recently – love and miss ‘ya Mom – on to your new adventure… God Bless You…
And Leigh and I moved after living many years in a beautiful loft in TriBeca (NYC)… but change is a part of life and if everything goes as planned, we’ll be in our new place soon. in the meantime we’ve been staying at our farm… but for the last couple of weeks we’ve been at the Ann Wigmore Natural Health Institute in Aguada, Puerto Rico… resting, rejuvenating and just generally getting ourselves back together after the recent stressful events…
Green Gold at AWI
Wheatgrass for the students at AWI
Sprouts a'sproutin'
luscious tomatoes
Used wheatgrass mats ready for composting
1st step in the composting process: layer the mats
Compost in various stages, the pile to the right is ready for screening
Raised vegetable beds in the greenhouse
Solar dryer
I want to let you know about my internet radio show. I’ve been doing it for a while now and there are a few shows up there as podcasts. The station to go to is: www.rawenergyradio.com and look for the Hooked on Raw shows. The current show is an intimate and revealing interview with Leola Brooks, co-director of the Ann Wigmore Natural Health Institute in Puerto Rico. Leola shares some of her own memories on her introduction to the raw lifestyle, and some remembrances of Dr. Ann. Leola’s story demonstrates how much more important lifestyle choices are than heredity, having come from a family where all the members died early in life… except her.
Since we are at the AWI, we thought we would interview some of the guests and staff as well, so check out the previous show on the podcast. And we’ll be doing some more shows here in PR before we leave. There’s a new raw food center on the East side of the Island, called Paradise Wellness, and they say they provide an eco-adventure/raw food experience. We will be checking it out next week. I’ll take some pictures and give a review, and interview the director, Chef Skai.
Having fun in Aguada PR
Beautiful coconut trees
My farm in NY state is under snow right now, but in the Spring I will take some pictures of the extensive raised beds that we put in last year. Raised beds make growing easier, especially in the Northeast because the earth in the raised beds warms up quicker than the surrounding earth, in the Spring. I could even put hoops over the raised beds and cover with plastic and raise some greens in there during the Winter months, but since I’m finally getting a greenhouse this year, I didn’t do the hoops.
Here is something that we have to become aware of. The Hain Celestial Group is buying up a slew and I mean A SLEW of good, well respected health food and health related companies. At this time, they own the following: WestSoy, Arrowhead Mills, Walnut Acres, Terra Chips, Westbrae, Alba, Celestial Seasonings, Rice Dream, Soy Dream, Earth’s Best Baby Foods, Health Valley, MaraNatha, Linda McCartney Foods, Alba Botanica, Avalon Organics, Jason, Orjene Organics, Queen Helene, Zia Natural Skincare and MANY, MANY more… SEE: http://www.hain-celestial.com/brands.php
I have a nagging suspicion that things are not copacetic here. Why does Irwin David Simon, founder, chairman, CEO and Pres. of Hain Celestial Group have companies from China on his board and why is he as well on the board of Yeo Hlap Seng Ltd. (a food and beverage company)? Is the organic food that he is using in all these companies that he has bought up coming from China? I’m not saying that it does, but there is some kind of business connection between them when they are gracing each others’ boards of directors… isn’t there? I’m just sayin’, this is A LOT of companies to supply organic produce for and where are they getting it? Are they contracting American farmers? Or, as huge mega corporations are prone to do, buying from the cheapest, most economical suppliers? Here is a link to the board members.
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/relationship.asp?personId=602341&ticker=HAIN:US
And further I was SHOCKED to learn that a lot of organic and natural product companies have stockholders that are corporations we may not want to support in any way because of their connections to nefarious activities.
Hain Celestial Group principal stockholders include: Bank of America, Entergy Nuclear, Phillip Morris (cigarettes), ExxonMobil (global warming), H.J. Heinz, Lockheed Martin (weapons), Merck (drugs), Monsanto (genetically modified food), Pfizer (drugs), Walmart, Waste Mangement Inc. (giant landfills)… and all of the above are significantly owned by: Citigroup
Cascadian Farms, Muir Glen owned By: Small Planet Foods
Principle Stockholders: General Mills Significantly Owned By: Alcoa, Chevron, Disney, Dupont, ExxonMobil, General Electric, McDonalds, Monsanto, Nike, Pepsico, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Starbucks, Target, Texas Instruments.
Some of the above information is from www.organicconsumers.org website. See article: The Corporate Corruption of Organics
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=008989212650198335376%3Ajvfh-us_eqo&ie=UTF-8&q=corporate+influence+in+organics&sa=Go&siteurl=www.organicconsumers.org%2F#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=the%20corporate%20corruption%20in%20organics
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to support with my food and health-related buying dollars any products that are associated with the above-named corporations. I just wanted to make you aware of it, in case you want to join me in purchasing from smaller, respected and ethical companies who have not sold out to the big guys…
Of course, being raw, there are only a handful of the above name brands that sell raw products, such as Walnut Acres, and Arrowhead Mills… but I’ll be taking my dollars elsewhere…
