Organic and Environmental Articles

Organic Articles

Articles related to organic products and organic living. Healthier living through understanding the value of organic farming, and organic products.

Tips for Recycling at Home - We all know of the benefits of recycling, but many have yet to implement home recycling systems. However, recycling at home is an affordable way to make both a local and worldwide difference, and demands very little of your time. To help those considering effecting recycling systems at home, we have compiled a list of quick tips to help you make a difference.

Tips for Recycling at Home

Types of Pollution - Learn all about different types of pollution.

Why Do People Recycle? - First and foremost, recycling helps save the worlds precious resources from being used up. For example, we can recycle newspapers, or cardboard boxes, or junk mail. All of these can save trees from being destroyed. Trees are important: in elementary biology we learned that trees provide us with the oxygen we need, while also removing carbon dioxide from the air. Moreover the forest also houses many plants and animals, and cutting down their forests has caused endangerment of their species.

Why Do People Recycle?

What Percentage of People Recycle - To varying degrees, approximately 75% of people recycle. However, experts say that this is still not enough. Every year, roughly 30 million tonnes (60,000,000,000 pounds) of waste are thrown away from households.

What Percentage of People Recycle

How Do Humans Affect the Environment - With the growing amount of interest in the welfare of our environment, it is important to do our part in protecting it. Humans affect the environment in many ways. Some examples are cutting down rain forests, polluting, and spilling oil into the ocean. The following are 5 different ways humans affect the environment:

How do Humans Affect the Environment

List of Environmental Problems - As of late, there has been an increasing amount of interest in the environment. Due to the raised awareness, people are beginning to look into new ways to recycle, and help conserve resources. Unfortunately, it is not enough. We still have a long way to “clean” up the earth.

Humans are hurting and destroying large amounts of the environment. Part of the trouble is our fast-growing population; in the past 200 years, our population has sextupled, 1 billion people in 1800 to 6.5 billion people currently. The following is a growing list of some of the biggest environmental problems that can be tied to humans. This list is something that all of us need to keep our eyes on if we want to preserve nature.

List of Environmental Problems

Types of Recycle Bins - Recycle bins can be used for newspaper, cardboard, glass, steel, aluminum cans, foil, documents, plastic and other recyclable items. Recycle Bins are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Some recycle bins are suited for personal use while others are suited to commercial or office use.

Most recycle bins designed for consumers or home use are made of hard molded plastic which are very durable. While industrial recycle bins may be made of steel. The majority of recycle bins include a cover.

Types of Recycle Bins

Definition of the Environment - The natural environment, includes all of the living and non-living beings that naturally occur on Earth, or somewhere on Earth. The environment can be broken down into several distinct units: Ecological units that can function as systems without human intervention. This includes all plants, micro-organisms, soil, rocks, etc. that occur within their boundaries. Common natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries. Things like air and water are examples, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism; things not coming from human activity.

Definition of the Environment

How Does Recycling Affect the Environment - Recently there has been a growing amount of interest and concern for the environment. Due to this, people are starting to look into new ways to recycle and help conserve the earth’s natural resources. Unfortunately, recycling alone is not enough. We still have a long way to go to clean up the earth and create a sustainable environment for future generations.

As we are now beginning to realize, humans are destroying large portions of the environment. While part of our trouble is our fast-growing population, in the past 200 years, our population has sextupled, we also have to be more environmentally conscious. Pollution is becoming more and more rampant and government standards are not nearly strict enough, or, when they are, they are not being enforced. It is important to recycle, and do what each of us can do to help preserve our environment for future generations.

How Does Recycling Affect the Environment

Environmental Issues with Fishing - First and foremost, certain fishing techniques can damage the habitats of fish. Things like dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing and bottom trawling are big problems. Dynamite fishing is the practice of using explosives to stun or kill schools of fish for easy collection. Cyanide fishing is spraying coral reefs with cyanide and collecting the fish that become poisoned from eating from them. Bottom trawling is dragging a net underneath a boat to catch fish. It is estimated 95% of the damage to sea mountain ecosystems is a result of deep sea bottom trawling.

Environmental Issues with Fishing

Top 10 Environmental Problems - There is a growing amount of concern for the environment. The following is a list of some of the top environmental problems, numbered in no particular order:

1.) Anoxic Waters

Anoxic waters are areas of water (in the ocean, or elsewhere) that is depleted of dissolved oxygen. Living sea creatures, like fish, need this dissolved oxygen in order to survive. Many scientists are fearful that the British Petroleum oil spill has caused areas of anoxic waters in the Gulf, which would be devastating to the Gulf’s ocean inhabitants. Pollution, and oil spills like this can cause anoxic waters - creating essentially dead seas and oceans, devoid of all life.

Top 10 Environmental Problems

Organic Cotton - Although many people are becoming conscious about what they put in their bodies, they do not take necessary precautions for what they put on their bodies. Pesticides and other chemicals can not only damage our bodies as they are ingested, but also as they are absorbed through the skin. This proposes great concerns as most of the cotton grown today is loaded with pesticides and chemicals. Cotton uses the most pesticides of any product farmed. As the crop is growing insects and other pests pose a large problem, and because of this a crop can be sprayed with chemicals more than six times. These chemicals and toxins not only go into the clothing made from the cotton, but damage the environment through contaminating water, air, earth and ultimately animals.

Organic Cotton

Beans! - Dry beans are among some of the healthiest foods on the planet. Beans are not only a complex carbohydrate, which provides sustained energy throughout the day, but also have many important nutrients such as, calcium, potassium, protein and folate. Plus, you get these benefits without the fat and cholesterol that meat or dairy products might contain. Many Americans do not get the recommended daily fiber they need (25-30 grams a day) and beans are an excellent way to meet these requirements. A cup of cooked black beans contains 8 grams of fiber and a cup of cooked pinto beans contains 12 grams.

Beans, Beans and More Beans

Organic Protects the Next Generation - In our modern, fast-paced world, safety and health are too often sacrificed in the name of haste. From toys to clothing to home repairs, we take short-cuts, and in so doing we cut out what is really important--quality. Quality of life cannot be measured simply in time-efficiency. There is also value in choosing the most beneficial methods. My grandmother used vinegar and water for window cleaner. No harmful chemicals around babies, no toxins in the air. Just good ol' vinegar did the trick. The industry would have us think it easiest to buy whatever is offered in a bottle at the store, and so we sacrifice peace of mind for so-called convenience. Ironically, it takes less than a minute to mix equal parts white distilled vinegar and warm water in a spray bottle. It is equally as easy to buy organic foods from your grocery store. Buying organic is another way we bring quality into our homes while protecting the next generation from poisons carried by many commercially-grown products.

Organic Protects the Next Generation

The History of Soy - The soybean has a long history and a very long journey through out the world. This journey, lasting almost 27 centuries, changed the world that we know today. Soy products feed a large part of nearly every country's inhabitants, as well as various non-edible uses. The soybean was first cultivated by the Chinese. It then spread further throughout China and to other countries around it. Some time after the domestication of the soy plant, Europeans too learned about the uses of the soybean and they started to grow it. Much later, with a hand from Benjamin Franklin, the soybean made it's journey to America. The soybean has had a lengthy journey, and one that has effected the whole world.

The History of Soy

Sorting through the Issues of Organic Milk - In 1993 the US dairy industry changed dramatically. That year the FDA approved the use of a genetically-engineered form of bST, sparking a controversy that has persisted over the last thirteen years, leading to law suits and disputes over public health and safety. Many organically-minded consumers switched over to “hormone-free milk,” only to later learn that there was no such thing. What is rbST anyway, and how does it affect cows? The intent of this article is to sort through the issues concerning rbST, so that you can make an informed decision about the milk you buy.

Sorting through the Issues of Organic Milk

Organic Directory - Recipes to create organic products for cleaners, and fertilizers.

Organic Recipe Directory

Hemp's Legal Implications - Even though the U.S. government encouraged American farmers to grow hemp for WWII and had even accepted it as payment of taxes in Colonial America, it is now prohibited to grow hemp in the United States.

Hemp's Legal Implications

Hemp Paper and Wood - Hemp is a highly evolved plant species and is not genetically engineered. Hemp is heat, mildew, pest, light, and rot resistant. Hemp's long, smooth, hollow fibers make hemp very strong, durable and mold and mildew resistant.

Hemp Paper and Wood

Hemp Uses - There are more than 25,000 known uses for hemp.   Almost any product that can be made from wood, cotton, or petroleum (including plastics) can be made from hemp. Hemp is the world's most versatile fiber.

Hemp Uses

Learn About The Rain Forest - One and one-half acres of rain forest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries.  Rainforests are being destroyed because the value of rainforest land is perceived as only the value of its timber by short-sighted governments, multi-national logging companies, and land owners.  Nearly half of the world's species of plants, animals and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to rain forest deforestation.

There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rain Forest. Today there are less than 200,000.

In Brazil alone, European colonists have destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900's. With them have gone centuries of accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of rainforest species. As their homelands continue to be destroyed by deforestation, rainforest peoples are also disappearing.

More on the Rain Forest

Pure Essential Oils - Over the years, researchers have discovered that there are certain scents in the plant world that produce a relaxed state of mind and body. These scents are contained within the plants essential oils.

Essential oils are chemical compounds found within aromatic plants, which the plants use to fight off infections. Essential oils are referred to as the "life force" of plants.  Essential Oils are derived directly from leaves, flowers, fruits, stems, wood, mosses, and roots of very specific and special plants.  These pure plant essences are extracted from the flowers, leaves, stems, bark or roots by cold pressing or steam distillation.

Pure Essential Oils

Healthier Alternatives - In response to a growing demand on the part of consumers, more and more organic foods are flooding the market. However, many shoppers only seem to have an abstract understanding of the benefits of organic foods on the environment and their health. Organic food are not only better for your health, but it is also better for the environment.

Healthier Alternatives

Organic Research and Harmful Pesticides - Throughout this history, the focus of agricultural research, and the majority of publicized scientific findings, has been on chemical, not organic farming. Surprisingly, few empirical analyses studies have addressed the question of pesticide residue on produce.  Many believe that eating organic foods does help children ingest fewer pesticides, since logically organic foods would have significantly less pesticide residue than nonorganics, but no actionable studies have been conducted. Although this is obviously very important.

Organic Research and Harmful Pesticides

Laws Governing Organic Products - The potential of modern organic farming is thus largely unrealised, but organic and local food markets are reaching a tipping point.  The rise of organic farming was driven by small, independent producers, and by consumers.  The organic movement has develped in response to this growing demand.

In the 1980s, around the world, various farming and consumer groups began seriously pressuring for government regulation of organic production. The federal government began taking the first steps toward regulating organic, and so-called natural, foods.

Laws Governing Organic Products

Learn More About Organic Products - Many shoppers only seem to have an abstract understanding of the benefits of organic foods and products on the environment and their health.

Organic meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Many people believe that genetic engineering is dangerous, unpredictable, and can reduce the nutritional value of food. But the FDA has said that the amount of hormones used in commercial livestock isn't enough to harm humans.  As a result to be deemed organic, meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products must come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.  Typically organic fruits and vegetables, milk, eggs and meat products are produced within a 50-mile radius of their place of their final sale.

Learn More About Organic Products

What is Building Green? - Green building is an alternative approach to building construction and remodeling by using fewer raw materials and reducing unnecessary waste while, at the same time, managing to construct energy efficient and durable buildings. The term green is used so often that it is difficult to determine what may be considered "green." The criterion that follows will attempt to clarify this ambiguous term.

What is Building Green?

Dispelling Myths About Organic Foods - A look at the top 5 organic food myths.

1. No nutritional difference between organic and conventional produce.

According to the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics the demand for organic foods are increasing due to consumers believing they are safer and healthier than conventional foods. Even though there are still gaps and limits in scientific knowledge, what we do know is that fewer chemicals are used in small organic farming than conventionally grown alternatives. It is well documented that residues remain on our conventional foods and consumed by us over decades, aids heavily to accumulating fatty tissue. Organic food regulations prohibit hydrogenated fat, phosphoric acid, preservatives, colourings, hormones, antibiotics, GMOs and 7000 other artificial flavourings that are permitted in conventional food.

Dispelling Myths About Organic Foods

The Basics of Aromatherapy - Aromatherapy is not a new phenomenon. In India, the "Basil" plant or tulsi is revered as holy and its roots are made into sacred beads and rosaries. In the middle ages, cloves of garlic still hung around the neck of a newborn as protection agaist dark forces.

It is very easy to get started with Aromatherapy, but there are safety issues that you need to be aware of. Most people interested in aromatherapy start with base essential oils creating blends. While its invigorating to experiment, care and caution must be taken at all times.

The Basics of Aromatherapy

Prevent Aging With Fruit Extracts - Are the growing wrinkles on your face giving you sleepless nights? Cosmetic market is flooded with innumerable types of lotions and creams that give assurance of reducing the wrinkles helping you look young. But, these cosmetic products contain harmful chemicals which may help you at present but can harm your skin in the future. At this point of time a question may arise in your mind that - "Is there any other alternative or option which can help you, without leaving any adverse affect"? Yes, the answer is "fruit extracts" that can help you look younger and that too a natural way.

Prevent Aging with Fruit Extracts

Warnings to Users of Essential Oils - Essential oils should be used with caution. Essential oils are many times more potent than dried herbs. Just like any medicine, essential oils can be harmful if they are not used carefully or properly.

Wear suitable gloves and eye and face protection when working with essential oils. Prior to mixing oils, be sure to read everything you can about the oils and their effects. The use or handling of essential oils should be avoided during the first trimester of pregnancy. In fact, all essential oils should be used with caution.

Warnings to Users of Essential Oils

Organic Gardening Tips - There are a few additional techniques the organic gardener probably used, such as tilling in a cover crop to add organic material for the microbes and earthworms to decompose. This process results in a crumbly textured soil that holds moisture and allows the roots to breathe.

But even without the soil improvement from a cover crop, it's fairly clear which tomato is better for health: the only nutrients that can be found in the fruit had to come from what was available in the soil. The organically grown tomato provides better nutrition.

Organic Gardening Tips

Is Organic The Future? - It has never been easier to shop for organic food, and there has never been so much choice. Every food category now has an organic alternative. It's also common sense; organic food is good food. Good to eat, good for the environment, good for the small-scale farmers and the farm workers who produce it.

Is Organic the Future?

Why You Should Protect Your Skin with Organic Skin Care Products - Each one of us desires to look beautiful. Looking good is no more confined to woman, in today's world both man and woman has become cautious about their beauty. The word beauty is denoted by how healthy your skin is. Organic skin care is the best way to take good care of your skin.

Your skin is something that will be with you for the rest of your life. It serves you and your body in a number of ways. It aids in sensory perception, protects you from injuries, works as a barrier against dehydration, assists in temperature maintenance, removes toxic wastes, aids in the manufacture of vitamin D, and serve as a structure to the organs and tissues within your body. In simple words, your skin is a vital part of your life. It's very essential that you care for it and maintain it in a healthy state so that it will continue to function well for you in future too.

Protect Your Skin with Organic Skin Care Products

The Benefits to Organic Wine - What could be a better accompaniment to a meal of organic food than a glass of organic wine? Wine is one of humanity's oldest beverages. It's been used in medicine and religious rituals, and it is all over our social calendars. A lot of research has been made to study its effect on human health. Is it a coincidence that the French, who are second in the world in wine consumption, also have the second lowest occurrence of heart disease?

That alone is a good reason to enjoy a glass of wine. But why select an organic wine over one made with conventional methods?

The Benefits to Organic Wine

Growing Organic Products - A large part of organic agriculture involves the health of the soil and the ecosystems in which crops and livestock are raised. Foods certified as organic must be produced using growing methods that minimize soil erosion and that maintain or enhance the fertility of the soil. All the chemicals in the world can't nourish a garden as well as healthy organic compost.

Growing Organic Products

What Does Organic Mean? - The word "organic" may appear on packages of meat, cartons of milk or eggs, cheese and other single-ingredient foods. Certified organic requires the rejection of synthetic agrochemicals, irradiation and genetically engineered foods or ingredients. Literally, of course, the term is a redundancy: all food is composed of organic chemicals (complex chemicals containing carbon). Any materials used in the production or processing of organic food must be proven safe. Awareness is growing about the value of organic foods. But, whether organic chicken or pesticide-free lettuce represents "healthier" alternatives has long been a subject for debate.

What Does Organic Mean?