The pc number on your fruits and vegetables...

A friend of mine told me that you can tell how fruit and vegetables are grown by looking at their pc number. I found a good article over on this blog here.

If the number starts with 9 it's organic.

If the number is four digits most of them start with 4 then the product is grown the conventional way.

If the pc number starts with an 8, it means it has been chemically modified.

Appleton, Wisconsin, Central Alternative High School

I saw some information about this school on the video I watched. They took out candy and soda machines, as well as making more healthy and well balanced meals. It made a huge difference in the kids. Behavior problems were way down and grades were up. It was a pretty awesome experiment. You can find more information at this site here.

What's a CSA?

What is a CSA? A CSA is a community supported agriculture program. It is a program that you sign up for like a membership and you get fresh vegetables weekly. It's great for the local farmers and great for you. You can find more information here on the Local Harvest site. It tells you all about what a CSA is and where you can find one in your area by just putting in your zipcode.

No Eat Not Food, The search for intelligent food on planet earth

I ask at the local library for a suggestion for a children's nutrition book. I was looking for a book on nutrition for kids and ended up with a book that is for kids about nutrition. I checked out the book "No Eat Not Food, The search for intelligent food on planet earth" by Rick Sanger. It was a very cute book about and alien bug that was in search of organic food. He landed in some kids backyard and was searching for food. They offered the alien bug some chips and then a candy bar and the alien bug said"Not food, no eat not food."

The alien left and the kids followed it to the grocery store where it pick up a tomato off the shelf and took a bite. The alien bug was not impressed and this time said, "food plus not food, must find where food from?" The alien then disappeared into an invisible elevator(yes, it is a kids book) and the children followed him. They eventually ended up at the farm where the tomatoes are grown that the alien bug found at the grocery store.

Then another girl appeared at the farm, who turned out to be the alien bug's friend. Her name was Lulu and she went on to explain about the farm they were at. She told the kids about why the tomatoes that are grown on this farm are not good for you because of the fertilizers they use, the pesticides, and how they are bad for you and bad for the environment.

Lulu talks about organic farming and how it is good for the future of farming too. I enjoyed this story and I learned some new things about where most of are food comes from. If you are looking to share this story with your children, I would recommend 8 and up. If you would like some more information about this book, you can find it here on amazon. Hope you get a chance to read it.

I was searching for a food pyramid for kids and stumbled onto the United States Department of Agriculture's site. I found some handouts that would be great to print and give to families looking for more information about nutrition for kids. You can find there site here.

I watched a video the video Hidden Dangers in Kid's Food. It was very informative. It was about genetically modified food. Genetically modified food(GM) is food that has an altered DNA. From what I understood from the video is that GM food is bad, especially for children. When children are exposed to GM food they are more susceptible to toxins, nutritional problems, allergies, and potential problems with milk.
The four major GM food crops are soy, corn, cotton(for cotton seed oil), and canola. In the video they mentioned that the easiest way to stay away from GM food is to stay away from processed food. A lot of processed food is GM.

Here are some links to YouTube where you can watch parts of Hidden Dangers in Kid's Food-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVH9x4s-5Pc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdHZl_U0764
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfTnv8tsSzk
I recommend watching this!