Earth Hour 2009 takes place tonight, March 28th, at 8:30 p.m. whatever your local time zone. According to Wikipedia, over 2100 cities in 82 countries around the world are committed to the event, a substantial increase from last year’s 35 participating countries.

So what exactly is Earth Hour? It is an initiative from WWF intended to raise awareness of the consequences of climate change worldwide. It is easy enough to participate: simply turn off all non-essential lights and appliances for one hour. The views from space during this hour as it travels around the world is quite breathtaking! The more people participating, the more dramatic the results.

What are you planning to do for Earth Hour? Tonight, we are attending a friend’s potluck dinner and will most likely go for an evening walk afterwards. We are trying to figure out the best vantage point in East Van to watch the lights going out across Vancouver - it is actually quite exciting! Anything that brings us together in a common plight and spreads awareness of a very pressing issue gets the thumbs up from me. Fill me in on what your plans are, EC would love to know!

myfrog.ca, the newest, most innovative children’s gaming and learning site on the web needs your help.

myfrog is a creative new startup site where kids hang out around a virtual wetland, learn about frogs, play interactive environmental games, have fun, study nature and become good little stewards of the earth. Children and parents love it. Educators think it’s a brilliant new concept and an exciting way to entertain and educate children about the environment. Check it out at myfrog.ca and see how magical it is. It’s a Canadian site and worth saving.

We launched myfrog a few months ago to very good response but to be honest we started with too little money and now with the economic downturn, it’s catching up with us. We need more members right now to keep our exciting and innovative children’s environmental learning site going. So we’re having a wetland sale. We’re practically begging you to become a member so we can get the word out, save our virtual wetland and keep all those sweet little frogs croaking.

We don’t use advertising because we don’t want kids bombarded by ads while they play … we want kids to learn how to make small steps toward environmental change.

Wetland websites with all the features we offer don’t come cheap, but membership in our fascinating little wetland community does. To get more members and show kids and parents how much fun playing our wetland game is, we’re almost giving away memberships. For just $5.00 you get:

A     adopt and name your own frog
B     games to play and earn hollars
C     chat with other frogs
D     if you sign up a friend, we give you 100 hollars free!

That’s one family for a half year, playing, learning and helping to save the environment. You could hardly make a better investment for your kids. You could hardly find a better way to ensure a healthy environmental future.

So please adopt a frog right now for just $5.00 and find out how much fun it is. Become a member. It will save a virtual wetland, keep a good thing going and make a lot of kids and frogs happy. If you care about the environment, you have to care about efforts like ours to save it. A lot of things need saving now and we’re certainly one of them. For just $5.00 you can do it and a thousand frogs will thank you.

myfrog.ca is owned and operated by entrepreneur Lisa Doyle, a Canadian software designer and frog hugger.

After a bout with bronchitis and antibiotics that I could swear were meant for horses, we are back after a lengthy silence. Not one to take medication, I probably waited too long. Nevertheless, I am back on track and look forward to a nice glass of wine once the anitbiotics are done with. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Ezra Cipes, Chief Operations Officer and son of the founder of Summerhill Pyramid Winery in B.C.  Ezra passed on an interesting video and while I wanted to share it, I also wanted to know more about Ezra and why he was inspired to pass it on. Grab a glass of organic wine, sit back and be inspired!

EC: Summerhill is Canada’s largest organic winery. Has Summerhill always been an organic winery or was there a shift in philosophy at some point?

Ezra: Our family moved onto the vineyard in 1987 when we emigrated to the Okanagan from New York. The whole point of the move was a return to a more holistic lifestyle with the land, so the organic conversion started pretty much right away. The real challenge in converting to organic methods is not feasibility or economics. It’s overcoming the mental limitations; the feeling that chemicals or whatever are needed to ‘control the situation’. Our wine cellar achieved certification in 2007 under our great winemaker Eric Von Krosigk. The winemaker that Eric replaced was convinced it was impossible to go organic because he relied on caustic soda to control rogue bacteria from spoiling the fermentation process. You want to know what the organic solution is? Steam and ozone and scrub brushes. We are now working towards Bio-dynamic status in our vineyards.

EC: You’ll have to tell us when you achieve bio-dynamic status. Summerhill Pyramid Winery is more than just a winery. Tell me about the Pyramid.

Ezra: Ah, the pyramid. The pyramid is the wine’s temple and sanctuary, and it’s a bit of a spiritual beacon for people as well. The rational explanation concerns sacred geometry and the harmony of space and time. There is no electricity in the pyramid, and there is no metal in the construction. It is aligned to true north, and the angles and dimensions are a precise scale replica of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. So what you have is a very beautiful, still, harmonious energy in the pyramid. You have to go in there to experience it, I can’t explain it. But all of the wine ages there before it is put on the market, and this is our final clarifying and resting stage of production while the wine recovers from bottle shock.

EC: I’ll have to try it myself. Sounds like THE PLACE for wine tasting. Here’s a picture for the curious.

Summerhill Pyramid Winery

EC: Tell me, why should consumers choose organic wines?

Ezra:  You have to look at organics on a holistic level. It’s as much about the health of your body as it is about the health of our soils and our water. Concerning the larger environment, obviously the larger the organic market share grows, the less land will be maintained with petro-chemicals, and that is good for our drinking water, our oceans,  and maintaining the soils for the generations to come. Concerning the immediate environment of our bodies, there is new research that foods and grapes grown organically contain far more cancer fighting anti-oxidents. The hypothesis is that these compounds develop as the plant’s immune system works to live and resist disease and so on, and if you are constantly protecting the plants with herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides, as well as feeding it junk food with chemical fertilizers, these compounds will not develop in the eventual crop. (Never mind the systemic uptake of certain chemical products on the crop.)

EC: I recently discovered that I can drink organic wine after years of not drinking any wine. Instant hangover! Any ideas why I can only drink organic wines and other wine makes me feel quite ill even if I only drink 1/2 glass?

Ezra: A lot of people will tell you it’s sulphites, but sulphites only affect about 1% of the population, and they are in a lot of packaged foods, so it’s probably not that. (Some of our wines contain no sulphites, though.) A lot of people are affected by histamines, and those are mostly in red wines (ours too). So why does organic wine not give you the instant hangover that other wines do give? I don’t know, but a good percentage of our most loyal customers tell the same story.

EC: Thanks for passing the movie on to me. What struck you most when you first saw this movie?

Ezra: Well what struck me is that this is a document attempting to summon the political will for policy change regarding chemical food production, and I think that’s brilliant. As I said, economically it is feasible and I believe would be beneficial, and there is no shortage of scientific evidence making the case for organics. Of course there is always contrasting evidence funded by corporate interests and what have you, but come on! Scientific evidence can only get you so far. At some point people have to look inside themselves and ask themselves whether they believe the hype put forth by Monsanto and all the rest. Michael Pollan is a brilliant author on the subject, and he published an open letter to Barack Obama, but I don’t think the president took heed. A large scale change would take vision and chutzpah unmatched, and in the meantime we are going to have to content ourselves with the grassroots growing the organic market share every year in our own quiet way, and in turning on one consumer at a time, and touching their hearts. People balk at the extra cost of organics but I challenge the cynical perspective that sees the price of everything and the value of nothing.

http://nosenfantsnousaccuseront-lefilm.com/bande-annonce.html

EC: One final question. Since I have recently discovered that I can drink organic wine, could you suggest a couple of different wines that I should try. I am so new that you’ll have to help with what to pair them with as well.

Ezra: My favorite bottle that we make is called ‘Cipes Gabriel’. I can’t call it champagne, because champagne’s a place. but its the same thing only made in Canada. I would put the quality of this bottle up against French champagnes at twice the price and expect to come off favorably, and in fact we’ve won medals in France with this one. Drink it chilled at the beginning of an evening to get the vibe going, or pair with bread or starch to play off the earthy, yeasty notes, or salads to play off the acidity.
For a white, try our organic Gewurztraminer with sushi or curry. Gewurzt grows great in the Okanagan valley, with beautiful acidity that highlights the fruity notes and spice of the grape.
For a red try our Bio-dynamically grown Foch with the venison that your uncle brought home from the hunt, or pass it around the campfire and drink it straight from the bottle. Foch is hearty and rustic and should give you a wondrous rush of endorphins on your first sip. We don’t make much of it, and I drink most of it myself, so get it while you can.

EC: Thanks, Ezra.

I hope the movie touches you and inspires you to make change, including motivating your political representatives at all levels of government to lead the way for change. Next time you are sitting around the fire with friends drinking organic wine, toast to the health of our children.

Summerhill is B.C’s largest organic winery and vineyard. Ezra is the son of the owner/founder and the chief operations officer at the winery. He maintains a half acre organic veggie and herb garden that supplies their on site restaurant.

There are a multitude of reasons for you and your family to start eating organic foods. Organic farming and food is better for health, can prevent the onset of future disease and illness and reduces exposure to toxic elements in our environment. But… that’s not all. Read on to find out why you and your family should go organic!

1. Reduce your intake of harmful herbicides and pesticides
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 60% of all herbicides (weed killers), 90% of all fungicides (mold killers), and 30% of all insecticides (insect killers) are potentially cancer causing. Unfortunately, the usage of herbicides and pesticides is on the rapid rise in our food sources. According to testing carried out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are:

·    Three to more than four times more likely on average to contain residues than organic produce;
·    Eight to 11 times more likely to contain multiple pesticide residues than organic samples;
·    Shown to contain residues at levels three to 10 times higher, on average, than corresponding residues in organic samples.

2. Protect our children – Children are at higher risk to the effects of herbicides and pesticides due to their smaller body size and faster metabolism. In recent years, there has been a rise in childhood illnesses that have been linked to the increase use of herbicides and pesticides such as asthma and cancer. According to the Environmental Working Group, “More than 1 million children between the ages of 1 and 5 ingest at least 15 pesticides every day from fruits and vegetables. More than 600,000 of these children eat a dose of organophosphate insecticides that the federal government considers unsafe, and 61,000 eat doses that exceed benchmark levels by a factor of 10 or more.”

3. Protection against the onset of future illness or disease
There are over 7,000 different herbicide and pesticide products currently available in Canada. Many of these were approved prior to 1960 when their long term effects were unknown. Creating a causal link between the increase of various diseases and herbicide/pesticide usage is quite difficult due to the complexities involved such as age of person, combination of chemicals and genetic pre-disposition. However, there is a strong body of evidence linking various cancers (i.e. non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma), asthma and neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s to the increase in usage of herbicides and pesticides. In addition, childhood cancers are also on the rise.

4. The quality of nutrition is improved
According to a review of 41 studies designed to compare the nutritional value of conventional vs. organically grown fruits, vegetables and grains, organic produce was nutritionally superior. Specifically, organic crops contained 27% more vitamin C, 21.1% more iron, 29.3% more magnesium and 13% more phosphorus. This improvement in nutritional quality is largely due to the health and richness of the soil.

In another study, disease fighting chemicals called flavonoids found in fruits and vegetables were significantly higher in organic berries and corn. Flavonoids offer powerful protection against various cancers and allergies.

5. The taste is better!
When biting into an organic fruit or vegetable, you can instantly taste the difference. Whether it is an organic banana or sweet potato, organic food bursts with flavor. To accurately measure the improvement in taste, a study was conducted by Washington State University in Pullman, measuring the taste of organic food vs. conventionally grown crops. The results confirmed that organic produce was sweeter, firmer and more intact after 6 months of storage.

6. Reduces the amount of antibiotic residue found in your meat
The usage of antibiotics in cattle and livestock has now become a commonplace practice to prevent illness and disease from occurring. Organic livestock are provided with an environment that promotes good health and the ethical treatment of animals which eliminates the need for medications. According to the Organic Trade Association, “Organic practices prohibit the use of hormones, antibiotics or other animal drugs in animal feed for the purpose of stimulating the growth or production of livestock. If an antibiotic is used to restore an animal to health, that animal cannot be used for organic production or be sold, labeled or represented as organic. Thus, organic practices avoid the abuse of antibiotics that could have profound consequences for treatment of disease in humans, including the serious dangers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”

7. Decreases soil erosion
Organic farmers act responsibly to protect the soil from future damage and depletion. In order to receive the designation of certified organic, the soil must be free of all herbicides and pesticides for a minimum of 3 years. In addition, organic farmers use various techniques to maintain the integrity of the soil such as crop rotation, composting and the elimination of any prohibited fertilizers.

8. Organic certification is strictly monitored
Organic food handlers, processors and retailers are held to the strictest of standards to maintain the quality assurances necessary to be labeled certified organic. Organic farmers are also audited 2-3 times yearly by the organic review board to ensure they are upholding the high standards.

9. Protection of our waters
Current conventional farming practices cause dangerous “spill offs” due to the usage of synthetic fertilizers. These fertilizers can cause an overabundance of nitrogen in the ground and have been linked to the development of various cancers. In contrast, organic agriculture uses natural materials in the soil that protects drinking water supplies and safeguards against water contamination.

10. Protects the environment
According to Health Canada, “Organic agriculture is a holistic system of production with a principle goal to develop productive enterprises that are sustainable and harmonious with the environment”.  In a nutshell, organic farming is much healthier for the planet by significantly reducing toxic exposure in our soil, water, air and for the prevention of illness and disease in future generations.

Dr. Joel Shulman is head nutritionist at Sweetpea Baby Food, and one of Canada’s foremost authorities on nutrition and wellness.  Reprinted with permission from Sweetpea Baby Food.