pic: Aaron EscobarLeave it to the French to show infinite wisdom in their decision to ban French television programs designed for children under three.

Unfortunately, young French children are still exposed to TV programs broadcast from foreign channels on cable but now those channels must warn parents of the negative developmental effects of television watching. Such programming now issues the following warning to French parents...

Eating for the sake of your body and the planet doesn’t mean giving up on the foods you love. It does mean becoming more actively aware of where your food comes from, how it’s produced and how its production affects the Earth.

Fundamental to greening your diet is eating ‘real’ food. Processed and refined foods are, let’s face it, not good for you. Most of them are produced as part of the push by marketers to ‘make your life easier’ but they’re usually laden with chemicals, additives, pesticides, and barely disguised GM derivatives.

Eat organic
We’re not banging on about anything new, but it really pays to buy

New Scientist magazine, in April this year, published an article by Ian Fairlie, a London-based consultant on radiation in the environment, that looked at the one environmental concern surrounding nuclear power plants that provokes public anxiety like no other: the fear that children living near nuclear facilities face an increased risk of cancer.

Though a link has long been suspected, it has never been proven. That now seems likely to change.

Last year, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston carried out a meta-analysis of 17 research papers covering 136 nuclear sites in the UK, Canada, France, the US, Germany, Japan and Spain.

The incidence of leukaemia in children under 9 living close to the sites showed an increase of 14% - 21%, while death rates from the disease

Uranium Road. Lift the lid on the closed world of nuclear in SA revealing secrets and greed. Uranium Road is a 53 minute documentary, based on the book by Dr David Fig. It presents SA nuclear programmes, showing how the nuclear industry creates closed cliques of the powerful and fundamentally undermines the democratic principles of our young democracy. Screening in Jhb, 14 Sept at 12h00 at Atlas Studios, cnr of Frost and Owl Streets.

Workshop: diet & allergies; a holistic perspective. Many of our food addictions are allergy based, and many of our irritations in mind (depression) and body (fatigue) are allergy based. Join an exciting interactive workshop to look at how to repair our immunity so we can be less susceptible to allergies. Sept 22 Sept, Synergy Centre in Jhb, 9.30am-2.30pm.

SA's milk shortage - global warming, screwing the farmer, demand for biofuels and rbst

I was struck by an advert on the front page of the news & opinion section of the Sunday Times yesterday with the title ‘the cows are coming home’; a beautiful picture of cows in green pastures under blue skies and assurances of ‘improving milk-flow’ in the coming months – the combined implication being that this particular milk supplier, who appears to source its milk from free-range cows, will manage, somehow, to up milk supply.

On closer scrutiny, the milk supplier in question, Parmalat - who is facing a possible hefty fine for alleged collusion and price fixing - will be pumping some R200-million into upgrading its production facilities, obviously with the intention of escalating milk supply. [sundaytimes]

Major dairy processing companies are being accused of anti-competitive practices, which are driving farmers out of business. 20 years ago, there were 30 000 dairy farmers in this country. At last count, there were a meagre 3899 – farmers have been quitting their farms at a rate of 30 a month...

It’s not that we haven’t been aware of a more than possible link between chemical food additives and hyperactivity in children, but the results of the biggest UK study, commissioned by the government, into the links between hyper-activity and chemical food additives was published yesterday in the medical journal, the Lancet, unequivocally linking the two.

The UK government has reacted by issuing revised guidelines to parents from its Food Standards Agency, recommending that they steer clear of products containing certain E-numbers.

Children involved in the study were given mixtures typically consumed in the course of a normal day, and included artificial colourings and the preservative sodium benzoate – commonly used in soft drinks...

pic:nduma river lodge2025 - the year we run out of water. The WWF has warned that South Africa’s demand for fresh water will exceed its supply by 2025 and that we should be taking urgent and immediate action to stave off massive social, economic and environmental damage. This formed part of a statement at the launch of the WWF Sanlam Living Water Partnership in CT on 28 August – a partnership to promote wise management of the country’s marine and freshwater resources. [WWF]

SA’s forest fires – forestry’s own 9/11. Over the past 25 years, forestry has lost an average 14 000 hectares of trees a year to fire. This year – 84 000 hectares have already been lost in the Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Cape - and the threat of fire is far from over.

A closer look at China’s contamination scandals. Since March, exports ranging from contaminated pet food to toothpaste containing an...

pic:fernandinito.comBiofuel the reason for escalating food prices? The global demand by wealthy nations for ‘environmentally friendly’ biofuels [urban sprout] could be partially to blame for the rise of food in South Africa by almost 14% in the last year, according to analysts at the National Agriculture Marketing Council.

Africa prepares for the impact of climate change. Nepad's environmental action plan states: "Africa is characterised by two interrelated features: rising poverty levels and deepening environmental degradation ... poverty remains the main cause and consequence of environmental degradation and resource depletion in Africa. Without significant improvement in the living conditions and livelihoods of the poor, environmental policies and programmes will achieve little success." [M&G]...

Have you noticed just how many products it takes to clean your home? From your floor to your toilet bowl, there’s a different product for every surface – sprays, antibacterial agents, tablets, powders and gels - and aside from the fact that this on its own begs the question: do we really need so many different products to clean our home? there is also the added hazard of the chemicals contained therein – more and more studies are implicating health problems associated with these chemicals.

And it isn’t just about the poisonous chemicals you are introducing into your homes and onto your skins; it’s also what you’re pouring down the drain...

Sudan red in our spices. Antibiotic chloramphenicol in our honey. rBST in our milk. Ethylene glycol in our pet food. Genetically modified organisms in our non-gmo soya milk. Trans fats in our bread. Sugar promoted as a way to "manage diabetes"! Cloned meat on the FDA's agenda in the US. Cadmium pineapples in South Africa!

pic: super size meYou’re not wrong in thinking it sounds like a frankenfood freakshow – something is happening to our food supply chain. Why all the adulteration, hidden and disease-causing ingredients?

We can blame the modern industrial food complex for the complicated system of moving food from the fields to your table in the name of convenience and profit, but we're now entering an era where the large players in the system are no longer just motivated by profit but by total control.

The farmer is squeezed from all sides: by supermarkets that will drop him like a hot potato should he not fulfill orders; agri-chemical companies who supply toxic chemicals that damage the land with no liability; and biotech GM seed companies who will sue him for the shirt on his back should he infringe on their patent rights.

Consumers also feel the pinch. We're not told...