A  Message from
Molly Greacen, Licensed Acupuncturist and Herbalist, Dipl Ac, CH
www.womanmedicine.com
Creating abundance through gardens, community, creativity, and safeguarding our food.   July, 2011

 Greetings!

Summertime and the livin' is easy.......

I think about how abundant the world is every time I go out my back door to pick some yummy vegetables for a meal. Being in the garden is a great antidote for me to the anxiety and hysteria coming out of Washington D.C. these days. Three years ago I had this garden built amid the crushing anxiety of the financial meltdown from Wall Street, because I truly believe that our security and richness comes from growing food, creating community, and manifesting this abundance in our back yards and local communities.  That spring, members of my North Boulder neighborhood got together and built a community garden, and it is still thriving.  Our neighborhood has blossomed into a fun and thriving community.

Years ago I read a book called the Fifth Sacred Thing (by Starhawk), and her vision of the future was very inspiring to me - a society which came together and created beauty and abundance and peace, despite destruction of the old ways of living. That vision has stayed with me for over 25 years. I highly recommend you read it.

We are experiencing real and fundamental changes these days economically, socially, climate, government, etc.
Let's focus on creating abundance through art, music, gardens, sharing meals with friends, envisioning new and better ways of living, rather than on scarcity or the endless bickering in Washington.

Below, I discuss some ways to choose healthy foods, as well as links to local and national groups that are providing tools for creating a new world.  We can't just leave it up to our kids to come up with all the ideas!!!  I also have a 1/2 off coupon for acupuncture visits.

I would love to hear back from you with your comments.  

  • Warmly,
    Molly Greacen 
     
  • garden
     

    News From Transitions Colorado (www.transitioncolorado.org

     

    Transition Colorado's 2011 EAT LOCAL! Week celebrates the delights and benefits of locally grown and locally processed food, featuring local family farms and farmers' markets, along with the outstanding restaurants, grocers, and organizations which support them. Please join us for nine days of inspiring and informative events-and an abundance of fresh, delicious local food!

     

    EAT LOCAL! Week - Keynote Presentation

    "Local Food to the Rescue"

    with Joel Salatin

    Presented by Transition Colorado, an evening with Joel Salatin, the world's most recognized "beyond organic" and strictly local, clean food farmer. Prolific author and inspiring speaker, who with his family owns Polyface Farm in Virginia, and is featured prominently in the New York Times bestseller, The Omnivore's Dilemma

    and the Oscar-nominated documentary, Food Inc. as well as

    Fresh: The Movie . In this unforgettable presentation, Joel will reveal the astonishingly obvious steps we all must take towards a food future that is beyond sustainable.

    Monday, August 29 at 7:30pm Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder

    ADMISSION $20. Tickets available through the Chautauqua event site or call (303) 442-3283.

     

    EAT LOCAL! WEEK - Major Events

    All events are FREE unless otherwise indicated.


    Saturday, August 27 at Boulder County Farmers' Markets
    Come to the Farmers' Market for a harvest-gathering celebration of those who support local organic food, offering culinary pleasure with awareness and fun! Here you can see demos and enjoy samples from some of Boulder Country's finest farmers, chefs, culinary artists, and food educators.

    Tour de Coops
    Sunday, August 28 and Sunday, September 4, county-wide
    Take a self-guided tour of backyard chicken coops, urban farms, and community gardens-and get to know the people behind them. Meet and learn from local beekeepers, goatkeepers, and cultivators of delightful culinary gardens, along with those who are exploring newer forms of food production such as hydroponics and aquaponics.

    Bicycle Tour de Farms
    Sunday, August 28 and Sunday September 3, county-wide
    Join Slow Food Boulder County and local foodies on a leisurely bike ride to discover rural and urban agriculture sites emerging within Boulder County. See innovative approaches to season extension and newer forms of food production.

    "Local Food to the Rescue" with Joel Salatin
    Monday, August 29 at the Chautauqua Auditorium
    Meet Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, the world's most-recognized beyond organic and stricly local, clean food farmer, prolific author and inspiring speaker, the ethical farmer in the critically-acclaimed Academy Award nominated documentary, Food Inc. Co-produced by Chautauqua. Admission: $20 Tickets available through the Chautauqua event site or call (303) 442-3283.

    EAT LOCAL! Brown Bag Lunch Panel Series
    Noon-1:30pm daily from August 29 to September 2 (locations TBA)
    Hear from and interact with some of the people who are at the front lines of the revitalization of local food and agriculture. These local heroeswill share their views, answer questions, and engage in lively discussion of some of the issues and challenges. Topics include:
    • Local food for local health RSVP 
    • So you want to be a farmer? Agriculture-supported community in Boulder County RSVP 
    • Spotlight on county commissioner candidates RSVP 
    • The farm-to-school challenge RSVP 
    • Building the Boulder County local food brand RSVP 
    "Building the Local Food Economy" with Michael Shuman
    Wednesday, August 31 at 7pm at the Millennium Harvest House
    Economist and author Michael Shuman will reveal the first results of a major economic study investigating the potential impacts of 25% food localization in Boulder County and the state of Colorado. Learn how investment in our local foodshed can substantially increase both demand for and supply of local food, create thousands of new jobs in Colorado, generate hundreds of new businesses, and produce millions in revenue to support the local economy. The economic impact in Boulder county could be significant. Meet local food innovators whose examples inspire a strategic plan for achieving food localization.

    "The Local Food Shift Meets Slow Money" with with Woody Tasch
    Thursday, September 1 at 7pm at the Millennium Harvest House
    This event is designed to spark conversations and connections amongst local eaters, food and farming entrepreneurs, investors, intermediaries, and food activists. Meet the founder of Slow Money, Woody Tasch, and learn about this revolutionary approach to shifting local dollars into the local food and farming enterprises that deserve our patronage.
     
    PROTECTING OUR FOOD

    Yesterday, the Daily Camera Newspaper featured some articles on GMO's (Genetically Modified foods), which I was very happy to see.  I wanted to talk about this problems, and how it is impacting our health and especially our children. 

    Gentically modified foods are playing havoc with our immune systems, AND are routinely fed to animals that we eat.  These food products have neurotoxins that have been genetically put into the DNA.  They show up in most of the foods that are purchased across our country,  since our government has been bought by Monsanto, DuPont, and Bayer.  (Previously employed by Monsanto, some of these folks now work for the FDA, not to mention the billions paid by lobbiests to politicians.) By law, food companies in the United States do not have to label food products that contain GMO's, (in contrast with Europe where they are strictly banned or have to (by law)  label foods that contain GMO's.) Nowadays,  80% of corn, soybeans, cotton, conola oil and sugar beets are now genetically modified, which is really shocking.  (This included all those foods sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.) 
      I recommend my patients only purchase products that say "certified organic" or "no GMOs".


    Steps You Can Take to Protect Your Family:  

    Thank you to allergykids.com website

    1.  Reduce your family's exposure to processed foods.  Eat food with ingredients that your grandmother wold have used.
    2. Purchase organic eggs, as they are not from chickens fed corn engineered to produce its own insectisides.
    3. Cook with olive oil instead of butter, margarine or vegetable oil.
    4. Avoid conventional soy and corn products (vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup) since most are genetically engineered.
    5. Look for meat and poultry that not injected with antibiotics and additional hormones.
    6. As recommended by the British Dietetic Association, avoid exposing infants under the age of 12 months to conventional soy.
    7. Consumer organic foods during pregnancy in order to reduce your exposure to pesticides (recently linked to autism and gestational diabetes.
    8. Look for  rBGH free milk.  RBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) is a genetically engineered, synthetic chemical hormone that is not allowed in milk in most developed countries given its link to breast and prostate cancers.
    9. When discussing vaccines with your child's pediatrician, especially vaccines grown in eggs, request the informational leaflets that accompany the vaccines as they discuss autoimmune conditions like food allergies in detail  
       

     

     
    In This Issue
    Upcoming Transitions Colorado "Eat Locally Week"
    Protecting Our Food

    Message




    Molly offers a free 15 minute consultation by phone or in person.
     Feel free to contact her at:

    Molly Greacen,
     Lic Ac ,Dipl Ac, CH

    3625 Conifer Court,
     Boulder, CO 80304

    303-546-0987
    mollygreacen@
    womanmedicine
    .com



    Quick Links


    Find me on Facebook

    Join Mailing List

    Go to my website for
     more articles on

    infertility, women's
     health and various subjects - www.womanmedicine.com

    To unsubscribe, please click at the bottom of this page "SafeUnsubscribe."
     
    
    Save
    50%
    Special offer to new and old patients who have not been in for the past 6 months, 50% off your first visit. 
    Offer Expires:October 1, 2011.