Mother's going GREEN Day 105 - What is in your milk?

I was prompted to write about this when I visited the grocery store by myself and picked up some organic milk. Since starting to live a greener lifestyle we have yet to switch over to organic milk. My husband has not been prepared to pay the $6+ for a 2 litre jug when you can buy a 4 litre jug for just over $4.

Let me explain our families milk consumption and perhaps you will appreciate where my husband is coming from. We go through 4 litres of milk in two days sometimes two days and a bit. I have always loved milk and will have a very large glass of it a day. My son will have 1 sometimes 2 small glasses a day and then my 2 year old daughter well she LOVES her milk and drinks a lot of it almost a litre a day. Perhaps this is too much for her and we should cut it down some but for now this is how it is. Then there is the milk on the cereal and milk in coffee and you can easily see how this all adds up. On average we spend $65.00 on milk a month. If we went strictly organic this would be $190.00 a month.

I also more recently noted that milk may contain antibiotics and growth hormones specifically Bovine somatotropin - rBST (rBST is a synthetic version of the cow's own growth hormone) Growth hormones are injected into cows to increase their milk supply thereby increasing the milk produced by farmers to meet the demand for milk. This made me feel a little uncomfortable considering the amount of milk our family consumes. And what scared me even more is that for all my pregnancies I craved milk so our household demand for milk increased to 4 litres a day. Could I have exposed all my children to these hormones and antibiotics in the milk? - this had me quite concerned.

Thankfully, after some research I found out that Canada has banned rBST and antibiotics in milk. But this is not the case in many US states and other countries. In Canada cows are not given any synthetic hormones and if a cow is ill and does require antibiotics it is separated from the milked cows.

From this video I learned that rBST causes up to 16 adverse health affects in cows which in turn then require the use of antibiotics and all eventually land up in the milk being consumed by humans. This video may be of interest to all my US blog readers. Check it out.

I did learn from this web posting that for us Canadians the only difference between organic milk and the 'regular' milk is what the cows have been eating in order to produce the milk. Are they eating organic grains and grass? If yes the milk they produce is organic and if not then the milk is not organic. Organic milk also means that the cows have had some freedom to graze, rather than being a "factory" cow.

What is a Mom to do? If I lived in the US the answer would be simple. Organic Milk and/or rBST free milk. In Canada I am not sure - The cost is a lot for our family.

My goal though would be to reduce our demand on milk and use it in moderation. Perhaps then we could afford the Organic milk, if we had less demand for milk as a whole. Which I guess is were these kind of problems stem from - over demand for a product weather it be fruits, vegetables, milk, chocolate, meats etc... the list goes on.

So whats in your milk?

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Mother's going GREEN Day 99 - Temptations......

I have been pretty darn good on my path and journey to becoming more green in mine and my families everyday lifestyle. But every now and again you are tempted to do an ungreen act.

The other day I went out to the store to pick up some things one of them being measuring spoons. Now I did not have any preconceived idea of what kind of measuring spoon I was going to get as measuring spoons, well are just measuring spoons.

My dilemma started when I found them in the store. They had some nice colour plastic spoons for $2.95 and then they had some stainless steel ones for $4.95. I was drawn to the plastic. Colourful, earth tones to match my kitchen and each measuring size spoon a different colour. They were pretty and I liked them. I wanted them.

The stainless steel ones well pretty boring - stainless steel.

I must have stood in the aisle for about 15 minutes, oblivious to my kids who now were fighting over a pot holder, trying to decide which to buy. Did I mention the colourful plastic ones where so pretty...... Would anyone know or even care if I bought these plastics ones.... No, not really. Okay, I decided if they are a safe plastic I will get them. I then looked for some sign or description of the plastic but none to be found. But they are so pretty.... Then I thought about how much more energy and future pollution this plastic ones would create and who knows after a year or two they would be showing signs of wear and that is not good for plastic and I would have to get rid of them and get some new ones.... but the colours go so well with my kitchen....

Okay so you get the picture. I ended up buying the stainless steal ones and could not be happier. I mean was I really going to put the spoons on display to ensure everyone who came into my house would see how well they matched with the kitchen... No.. They are safely tucked in a drawer for when I need them, and will probably last longer than me and my daughters will be able to use them with fond memories of us baking together.

The point I am getting at is that sometimes we are tempted to engage in not so green activities.... and I think that is okay. We are not perfect as much as we would like to be. Changing our lifestyles to better the environment can sometimes be a challenge. But we are up for the challenge and the occasional lapse is just fine.... Think Big Picture, Think Green.

The image for today's post is: "Growing Through Temptation." And I feel that it sums my post for today. Day 99 on this sometimes challenging endeavour of living greener.

Mother's going GREEN Day 93 - Hemp

Since greening our families lifestyle I have never come across hemp or references to hemp so much as now. It seems if you are going green there is no way to avoid hemp and the many products produced by hemp.

Here are some interesting hemp facts:

-- From its fibres we can get textiles, paper, lighting oil, rope, incense, charcoal, glue and some building supplies such as plywood and drywall.

-- US Presidents Washington and Jefferson grew hemp.

-- The US Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper.

-- The first American flag was made out of hemp.

-- The finest bible paper remains hemp-based even today.

-- The first Levi Jeans were made from hemp.

-- The rigging sails of every ship that sailed the high seas during the 18th and 19th centuries was made of hemp.

-- Hemp was money and was used to pay taxes for over 200 years.

Hemp may be the 'be all and end all' of our 'green' society it has so many benefits:

-- It can grow in just about any soil or climate and grows quickly and easily, it can reach heights of 10 to 20 feet in as little as 3 to 6 months.

-- It does not require herbicides or pesticides as it is naturally resistant to pests.

-- Hemp fiber is longer lasting than wood pulp; it’s stronger, acid free and chlorine free.

-- Paper made from hemp can be recycled 7 times over the 4 times for paper made from wood pulp.

-- Hemp can replace plastics made from petroleum and are therefore biodegradable.

-- Best of all hemp could be the answer as a fuel source. At a comparable cost in converting petroleum to methane, methanol or gasoline we can instead convert hemp and it burns cleaner without contributing to global warming.

For more information and facts visit this Hemp Site, among the many others found on the Internet.

Mother's going GREEN Day 38 - Washing Dishes

"Mom, I thought we aren't supposed to be using plastic" was my son's words as I served up apple juice in plastic cups today. The thing is I had no clean glassware. I have recently changed my dish washing habits. My routine was to turn on the dishwasher after breakfast. It would have lunch, dinner and breakfast dishes (sometimes it was full and sometimes not). But now my routine is no longer - I wait until I have a full load. I had to go out and purchase more cutlery as I kept running out of that now it looks as if a couple more kids glasses are in order.

The "Green" on Dish washing:

-- A study refered to in treehugger.com proves that the dishwasher uses only half the energy and one-sixth of the water, less soap too than hand washing. see more on this debate: hand vs. machine washing

-- Set your machine (if possible) on a low energy setting, low heat setting. My dishwasher has 3 options: Hi-Temp Wash (on or off); High-Temp Rinse (on or off); Heat Dry (on or off) - mine are all set to off thereby maximizing my energy efficiency.

-- Run your dishwasher only when you have a full load.

-- Use biodegradable soap with no chemicals

-- Don't use a commercial rinse agent (again full of chemicals) I use good old vinegar as my rinse agent. My dishes have never looked better.

Here's to the dishwasher - thank goodness it is a green choice, as I would not enjoy washing dishes by hand.