by oceandesetoiles

If you’re interested in purchasing organic foods, and green clothing, and dealing with green businesses, it’s important to do research into the providers of these items to ensure you’re getting the environmentally friendly products that you think you are.

Advertisers have their best success with the organic food market. Did you know that the phrase “all natural ingredients” has no legal meaning?  Organic labeling can be  very deceiving  if you  do not understand the meaning.

When you check the organic labels on your food packages, be aware of what they mean.

• “100 percent organic” means the products are completely organic, or made of all organic ingredients.
• “Organic” means the products that are at least 95 percent organic.
• “Made with organic ingredients” means these are products that contain at least 70 percent organic ingredients. The organic seal can’t be used on these packages.
• “All natural”  has no legal meaning.

What about organic labels on poultry?

• “100% organic” means the chicken was raised without antibiotics and hormones, or fed arsenic, which for some reason is fed to conventional chickens.
• “Pasture-raised” does not guarantee that a farmer does not use chemicals, it merely means the chickens ate what they found in their pastures, grain, grass, grubs and so on.
• “Free range/cage free” means next to nothing. Unless you’re able to visit a farm and see that the chickens do have such freedom, regard these labels with caution. The USDA has a loophole in their law which allows farmers to “temporarily confine” poultry, meaning that even chicken labeled as free range may have only see the light of day from inside a cage.
• “All natural” means no added colorings, artificial flavorings or preservatives are used once the chicken has been harvested, but says nothing about what they were fed prior to that .

Organic Labels for beef are similar.

• “USDA Organic Beef” can be fed grass or grain, but they cannot be given growth hormones or antibiotics. Nor can they be fed genetically modified soy or corn.
• “Grass Fed Beef” may eat grass or hay, but no corn or grains. However, they can be given antibiotics and hormones.
• Natural Beef – Has no added colorings, artificial flavorings, or preservatives. However, the cow could have fed on a diet of growth hormone, and antibiotics.

It is the business of advertisers to sell the consumers product, and they do it in a variety of ways, including deceiving the consumer – entirely legally. It all comes down to words and how the are used on organic labels .

Technorati Tags: artificial flavorings, organic beef, organic foods, organic ingredients, organic labels

If you are concerned about the environment and how you can make a difference, there are many things that you can do today to reduce your carbon footprint and to help save the environment. One thing that is easy to do is to start using clothes lines to line dry your clothes instead of using a dryer. This is one thing that many people never even think

by rosswebsdale

of these days. Unfortunately most households in the United States don’t line dry clothing for a variety of reasons. This can include no room for a clothesline, inability to have one because of a neighborhood association, and more. If you really want to work on saving energy and improving the environment, this is something that you should definitely give a try.

The Benefits

There are definitely a variety of great benefits that you can enjoy when you decide to use a clothes line to line dry your clothing. One of the main benefits is that it is cheaper than purchasing a clothes dryer. Clothes lines are not that expensive to purchase, especially when you consider what you’ll pay for a dryer. Not only will save you on the dryer, but you’ll save on energy. You won’t have to keep paying for the energy to run that clothes dryer. The power of the sun and wind to dry clothing is free. It is better for the environment as well. There are not any greenhouse gas emissions from using a clothesline like there is with a dryer.

Another great benefit of using a clothes line to dry your clothing is that the sun can kill off any bacteria that may still be on your clothing. Also, instead of having to use chemicals to get that great smell in your clothing, line drying outside will provide you with that fresh smell through all your clothes for free.

Various Clothes Lines Available

There are a variety of different types of clothes lines that are available today. In fact, you can find them for use indoors and outdoors as well. One type of clothesline is called the rotary hoist, which is a rotary line that lets you easily hang out a whole lot of clothing at once. Many actually collapse when you aren’t using them. There are retracting clothes lines as well. The line is stored in a box that is easily mounted, and you only pull out the line when needed. There are easy folding frame clothes lines that are easy for drying clothing indoors and they won’t take up space when you are not using them.

The Cost of Energy

When you consider the cost of energy, you will definitely find a great savings by line drying clothes instead of using a clothes dryer. Over its lifetime usually a clothes dryer will cost you $1500 or more in electricity. They really hog electricity, which is not good on your budget or the environment.

This is just one more thing that you can do to help the environment today. Add it to other small things and you can make a difference in the environment. So why not give the dryer a break and start using a clothes line to line dry clothing instead.

Technorati Tags: carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions, power of the sun, saving energy