Green Options

If your life has not been touched by a child with autism, you friend’s probably has.  Autism rates are on the rise leaving parents, doctors, and scientists scrambling to find a reason.

Vaccines are often blamed, as the increase in the number of childhood inoculations seems to correspond with the increase in autism; however, a new theory is being proposed.  “Extreme Male Theory” blames endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) for autism.

San Francisco’s zany Bay to Breakers race brings out not only world class runners but crazy costumes as well. Some companies took advantage of the crazy and healthy atmosphere to promote various items (energy drinks, anti pain patches) but we had to question the Foster Farms “Say No to Plumping” race team.

Sure, everyone seemed to enjoy having their photo taken with the plump Foster Farms chickens but the brightly colored 16-person Foster Farms race team seemed bent on raising awareness of a little-known food fact: “plumped” or saltwater-injected chicken that costs consumers their health and money.

I’m sitting in my backyard, surrounded by chickens and children. A couple of dogs periodically pester both species of livestock. (Yes, I did just call my child flock “livestock.”) I’m waiting on the first egg of the day, a pink speckled one from my oldest Americana hen.

This backyard chicken experiment is new to my family, only a 6-month-old endeavor. We wanted our children to know where food comes from. We wanted to know that the eggs we ate were from happy chickens.

But as the number of small chicken “farmers” pop up in cities, suburbs, and rural areas alike, our collective grand experiment may be in peril.

The U.S. Geological Survey says it’s getting closer to understanding why so many male smallmouth bass in the Potomoc River basin show female egg cells in their testes. The phenomenon is greatest in areas with the highest concentration of people and intensive agricultural development. Researchers are checking if hormones in wastewater and endocrine-disrupting chemicals in farm run-off are to blame.

Image courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [...]