SENATOR SAYS STOP BRAINWASHING CHILDREN TO EAT JUNK FOOD
A new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report has revealed that food and beverage corporations spent $1.6 billion dollars in food advertising in 2006. As parents and public health officials understand, the nation’s alarming surge in childhood obesity and diabetes are directly related to increased consumption of junk food. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) has urged industry and government regulators to redirect the massive funds spent every year in junk food advertising toward education and programs focused on healthy eating.
Take Action: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25289

SUSTAINABILITY TIPS OF THE WEEK:
MICRO-GENERATION AND MICRO-FARMING
As energy and food prices continue to rise, global experts predict that micro-generation and micro-farming will boom over the next few years. New trends in urban farming, like vertical gardening and backyard chickens, can help feed households in an economical and earth friendly way. New technologies in micro-generation, powering your home with a wind turbine or solar paneling, for example, are making off-the-grid living more financially feasible than ever. In fact, priorities in Silicon Valley are already shifting from developing better microchips towards focusing on thin-film solar cells. Meanwhile, programs like ‘Solar City’ are offering 20% savings in solar paneling installations for neighborhoods who buy in bulk.
Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_13636.cfm

Good News for a Change: Solar Power Breakthrough Stores Energy for Later Use

Solar Power Breakthrough Stores Energy for Later Use
Environment News Service, August 2, 2008
Straight to the Source

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, August 2, 2008 (ENS) – Within 10 years, homeowners could power their homes in daylight with solar photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water to power a household fuel cell. If the new process developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds acceptance in the marketplace, electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
“This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, senior author of a paper describing the simple, inexpensive, and efficient process for storing solar energy in the July 31 issue of the journal “Science.”
“Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon,” Nocera said.

WEBSITE HELPS CONSUMERS UNDERSTAND ECO-LABELS
There are literally hundreds of different types of eco-labels on consumer products ranging from organic, to sustainably-made, to “Green”. But what does it all mean? Ecolabeling.org provides an online searchable database of over 300 eco-labels. Don’t get scammed into paying extra for a product that may not be as earth-friendly as the label suggests. Find out what the label means here: http://www.ecolabeling.org

All of the above is excerpted from the Organic Consumers Association newsletter.