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‘Organic cheaters’ exposed

Not all organic personal care products are what they seem. Natural Health Ranger, Mike Adams, has brought us news from America about a protest which hopes to bring change to the way ‘organic’ personal care products are labelled,

The American based Organic Consumer’s Association (OCA) held the protest outside the largest annual trade fair of the natural and organic products industry. The purpose? To expose dishonest or misleading ‘organic’ brands.

Members of the OCA picketed the Expo, mocking mislabelled ‘organic’ products with creative graphics, while distributing leaflets to educate the public about the lack of regulation in the organic personal care marketplace. Mike filmed the protest and put it on YouTube.

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Safer soap campaign

Hand sanitisers suddenly seem to be everywhere. It’s an understandable reaction to the swine flue epidemic that was grabbing all the headlines before the winter snows took over the front pages.

Both our local GP surgery and dental surgery have cleared out all the old magazines from their waiting rooms, replacing them with a box of paper tissues and a hand-pump of some chemical gunk which we’re encouraged to spread over our hands.

As someone who is concerned with the number and range of chemically-suspect lotions and potions advertised these days, I’m always reluctant to accept the marketeers’ claims at face-value. ‘Catch it, bin it and kill it’ shout the TV campaigns and posters, encouraging us not to spread our germs. Fair enough – I have no argument with that very sensible advice.

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Having the best job in the world

I was at a primary school concert earlier this week to hear our youngest daughter playing her clarinet. The band leader, Paul Wilson, is totally inspirational. The sound these young children produce is quite spectacular, and considering their age, really quite magical! Britain’s got talent has got nothing on this young band!

At the end of the concert, Paul, with tears in his eyes, told the audience, with absolute sincerity: “I have the best job in the world.” The poignancy of his words made me think how wonderful it would be if we all believed that we have the best job in the world.

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Campaign to save the honey bees

I was watering the garden plants last weekend and was really pleased to see bees gathering pollen on a thyme bush – what seems like an increasingly rare sight these days.

At this time of year I’d normally be reminding my daughters not to run barefoot on the grass because of the number of bees gathering pollen in the clover. But not any more. Rarely is there a single bee to be seen anywhere in the garden – let alone to be stepped on!

So what has happened to the bees? Why have they become such a rare sight?

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