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The risk to the clean water and produce we enjoy from upstate New York, not to mention the beautiful land itself is at risk from hydrofracking. The time to comment on the latest plans from the NYC DEC is now— the deadline is January 11, 2013 . Please don't put it off—every comment helps. The easy-to-use form at the New Yorkers Against Fracking site will help you quickly construct a few comments and send them. Otherwise, New York State may look like this: Learn more about how hydro-fracking affects the food and water supply , as well as air quality and global warming. Farms in upstate New York: Photo by Keturah Stickann/John Menier Fracking image by J. Henry Fair

The following is about protecting our air and water from hydrofracking—please read what Sandra Steingraber has to say and help out by sending your comments to the DEC now: A note from acclaimed ecologist and author  Sandra Steingraber: I’m writing to recruit you into a writing project I’m doing with Grassroots Environmental Education–and also ask if you will be an ambassador for it.  It’s called  Thirty Days of Fracking Regs , and it’s a fun-yet-deadly-serious approach to commenting on the newly released, and completely absurd, draft regulations for fracking in New York State . The story so far :  On Nov. 29, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation  issued draft regulations to allow fracking in New York. It was a cynical and reckless move—especially because the state’s own limited health review is not even finished, and Governor Cuomo has made no decision yet on whether to permit or prohibit fracking in our state.  The effect o...

Park Slope Food Coop member Elizabeth Royte has written a new article, " Fracking Our Food Supply " for the Nation. She discusses, among other things, the effects of hydrofrack oil drilling on nearby farms and how that alters the safety of our food supply. Elizabeth interviewed farmers and learned of the increasing and sometimes bizarre illnesses and deaths of farm animals since fracking began in the area. This article is a must read for all of us, especially our lawmakers who are allowing this to happen. There is just no replacement for the clean air and water in New York State

Nicholas Kristof's column in the 10/7/12 New York Times talked about The Cancer Lobby . He asks us to: Just consider formaldehyde, which is found in everything from nail polish to kitchen countertops, fabric softeners to carpets. Largely because of its use in building materials, we breathe formaldehyde fumes when we’re inside our homes. Just one other fact you should know: According to government scientists, it causes cancer. and then goes on to say: The [chemical] industry’s strategy is to lobby Congress to cut off money for the Report on Carcinogens, a 500-page consensus document published every two years by the National Institutes of Health, containing the best information about what agents cause cancer. If that sounds like shooting the messenger, well, it is. The article is well worth reading in it's entirety, but at this point we'll pause to look at which products do contain formaldehyde.,br. The Environmental Working Group provides a list of household cleaning p...

Alec Baldwin has been looking really good lately, due to a combination of factors—studying yoga, marrying the yoga instructor, and last, but not least, adopting a super-healthy plant-based diet. In this photo, he is appearing at a benefit for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine—a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research (i.e. they are opposed to animal testing.) On Monday, September 3 they are starting a 21-day Vegan Kickstart , for those who want some tips on adopting a healthier lifestyle. Coop members already have access to all kinds of healthy food, at low prices—the Vegan Kickstart can provide recipe and meal ideas, no matter what your general lifestyle. Alas, meeting Alec Baldwin isn't part of the program!

From the 8/28/12 New York Times : Destroying Precious Land for Gas By SEAN LENNON ON the northern tip of Delaware County, N.Y., where the Catskill Mountains curl up into little kitten hills, and Ouleout Creek slithers north into the Susquehanna River, there is a farm my parents bought before I was born. My earliest memories there are of skipping stones with my father and drinking unpasteurized milk. There are bald eagles and majestic pines, honeybees and raspberries. My mother even planted a ring of white birch trees around the property for protection. A few months ago I was asked by a neighbor near our farm to attend a town meeting at the local high school. Some gas companies at the meeting were trying very hard to sell us on a plan to tear through our wilderness and make room for a new pipeline: infrastructure for hydraulic fracturing. Most of the residents at the meeting, many of them organic farmers, were openly defiant. The gas companies didn’t seem to care. They gave us the feel...

Where is the plastic-free gardener who can help us with gardening, as The Plastic-free Chef  does with cooking?  That person has not yet stepped forward.  Instead a bunch of people are tinkering, and sharing their experiences. Shreveport, 1950's:  my Aunt Grace lets me "help" harvest produce in her lovely and productive backyard garden.  We feast on beans, tomatoes, boysenberries, figs.  No petroleum products, no  plastic. NYC, 2012:  plastics have become deeply embedded in the gardening mindset and in supply sources.  Even organic gardeners often choose plastic pots, petroleum-based weed cloth and row covers, and buy organic fertilizers, composts, and manures in plastic bags. However, along with all the plastic window boxes and plastic mulch, hints and help with alternatives do exist.  For instance: Beth Terry of My Plastic-free Life  , entertaining and informative as usual, shares her plastic-free gardening adventure, parts 1 ...

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is an estrogenic-like chemical used in many plastic products. BPA can can interfere with hormones and normal development in children and has been linked to everything from infertility to diabetes to heart disease. Some products—such as sippy cups for toddlers—advertise themselves as being "BPA-free". The presence of BPA in the linings of many canned products has been less publicized. Several manufacturers , such as Eden Organics , have voluntarily stopped lining their cans with BPA. Weruva is one of the few pet food companies to have canned food with BPA-free linings. Four Swedish reporters decided to do some informal research about BPA in canned foods. They ate nothing but canned food for two days and doctors found that their BPA levels rose between 2,800 and 4,600 percent. These levels are below what the Swedish government estimates to be safe, though what is a safe level of BPA is still being debated. Since April 2012, the Swedish government outla...

We've been hearing about the dangers of brominated flame retardants for awhile now, yet there was always the assumption that they served some purpose. Nicholas Kristoff's column in the 5/20/12 New York Times, " Are You Safe on that Sofa? " tells us the truth about these chemicals and how they became so widely used. In his words : It turns out that our furniture first became full of flame retardants because of the tobacco industry , according to internal cigarette company documents examined by The Tribune. A generation ago, tobacco companies were facing growing pressure to produce fire-safe cigarettes, because so many house fires started with smoldering cigarettes. So tobacco companies mounted a surreptitious campaign for flame retardant furniture, rather than safe cigarettes, as the best way to reduce house fires. The documents show that cigarette lobbyists secretly organized the National Association of State Fire Marshals and then guided its agenda so that it pushed...

Sandra Steingraber is one of my heroes. A bladder cancer survivor at 20 years of age, she went on to get a PhD in biology and devote herself to environmental work. She writes poetry, too, and lives in upstate NY with her family. If you haven't read Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment , I highly recommend it. We just learned that Dr. Steingraber won the Heinz Award: an unrestricted $100,000 cash prize. She has announced that she will use her award to fight hydrofracking. Read her own words about this decision.

Most people have heard of BPA-free plastic, but a recent study has found that nearly all plastic , even that which claims to be BPA-free, releases chemicals that have estrogenic activity (EA) and cause hormone distruption. Their results found that: "Almost all commercially available plastic products we sampled—independent of the type of resin, product, or retail source—leached chemicals having reliably detectable EA, including those advertised as BPA free. In some cases, BPA-free products released chemicals having more EA than did BPA-containing products." They noted that: "Chemicals having estrogenic activity (EA) reportedly cause many adverse health effects, especially at low (picomolar to nanomolar) doses in fetal and juvenile mammals." Their conclusion indicates that the industry does have access to additives that have no detectable EA and have similar costs. If these were used by the plastics industry, we could: "eliminate a potential health risk po...