Cannabis for Cancer: Medicinal use of cannabis is legal in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Israel and 16 US states, why not SA?NORML ZA Activists to Highlight The Absurdity of Arresting Medical Patients By Doing The 702 Walk The Talk Backwards.

This Sunday morning a crew of NORML ZA Cannabis For Cancer Patients activists will set out on the Backwards to NORML Walk! The Cannabis For Cancer Patients expedition team, lead by NORML ZA Community Outreach Director, Imiël Visser, will be doing the 5km walk backwards to highlight the South African Government's backwards policy of arresting medical patients for using and growing a plant which has been scientifically proven as an effective treatment for people suffering from cancer.

What I’ve learned about sourdough is that you don’t need specialised flours to make a good loaf. If you are on a budget you can buy ordinary white bread flour sold at supermarkets, it is the process of sourdough making that transforms the flour and makes the loaf a nutritious one (although you might have to face your eco-conscience when buying flour that isn’t sustainably produced).

Hundreds of years ago bread was denser, heavier and took anywhere from three days to make. Isn’t technology wonderful that it takes supermarket chains only three hours to make a loaf of bread?

Do you find yourself irked by such a proposition? In fact, what the arrogant bread-making innovators did in transforming the baking process, is transform the loaf into an item almost wholly indigestible by the human system.

A new study reported in The Lancet last month found that with a restricted diet alone, many children experienced a significant reduction in symptoms.

I recently found myself on the couch. In an educational psychologist's office. I won't bore you with the details of how I found myself in such a position, but suffice to say the debate turned to ADHD or ADD and medication very quickly.

What has fracking (hydraulic fracturing for natural gas) got to do with water? The answer is 'everything'.

This came as something of a surprise to me, sitting virtually in the front row of the independent movie house, the Labia, in Cape Town last night, craning my neck at a rather delicate angle (the lesson here is, get to the movie house early if you want a good seat) to watch the movie Gasland, screened by the ngo While you were Sleeping.

It appears all is not as it seems with the cows down at Fair Cape Free Range (the 'happy, healthy' ones that 'live in super comfort in spacious surroundings').

Muriel Gravenor, a concerned consumer of said milk, emailed us last week with a different take on Fair Cape Free Range's trademarked milk. It seems that these cows are grateful simply to be in a shed all day long and the area in which they are free to range is little more than a glorified feedlot.

It's a pity we can't all visit the farms from which our food comes; get a first-hand take on just how what we eat is treated, before we ingest it. It might help us get a handle on all the marketing speak through which we have to wade on a daily basis, whilst we try to make a decision about just what is good for us.

Did you know that 26 apples grown in 1997 collectively contain the same nutritional content as 1 apple grown in 1914? This is one of many shocking facts presented in the “Super foods for radiant health” talk which I attended last night. The talk was given by a company called Super foods which was started by Peter and Beryn Daniel who are both UK-trained, Raw Food Chefs working towards raising raw food consciousness in South Africa.

“I can’t live on rabbit food!”

We received the most beautiful peaches and figs yesterday from Hoogwater Farm via the food collective. These have to be the biggest and juiciest peaches I've tasted in a long time, and the figs, well....

The Food Collective isn’t a business, or a formal organization. It encompasses the friendship, koffieklets, food activism projects and support group of three women called Kate, Pia and Liz. We became friends through our work founding and running Slow Food Mother City, and the relationship developed into weekly (or bi-weekly. And market visits. And cherry-picking road trips) sessions where we generate ideas, projects, and websites, support each other’s fledgling business ideas and also recipe- and plant-swap, complain about our menfolk, and drink tea.

A friend of mine, who lives in Hong Kong, got the following via email the other day:

API ALERT - Causeway Bay Roadside

The Average Pollution Index at the Causeway Bay Roadside air quality monitoring station is 178. The air is hazardous. We recommend that you avoid roadside situations and refrain from vigorous outdoor exercise.

The contributing pollutants are:

going green by simon gearIts nearly Christmas and many of us are thinking about gifts to buy. Well one book that I can wholeheartedly recommend is Going Green - 365 Ways to Change our World. This book is filled with great ideas on how to make our planet a better place. The book is written by Simon Gear, known as one of South Africa's favorite weathermen.

Highlights from this article on the grist:

Monsanto has, in the last few weeks, gone from Wall Street hero to Wall Street doormat.

Thousands of farmers are reconsidering the merits of Monsanto's flagship Roundup Ready crop varieties...

What we're seeing is signs that GMO technology is much cruder and less effective than its champions have let on. After decades of hype and billions of dollars worth of research, much of it publicly funded, the industry has managed to market exactly two traits. More devastating still, it has failed on its own terms: it has not delivered the promised dazzling yield gains...