This is How the Urban Gardening Movement Will Replace Welfare

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A recent study was conducted, state by state, of the monetary value of welfare benefits for a mother with two children. They found that in New York benefits would be around $38,000, the seventh highest in the nation.

Image: Harvesting Earth Urban Garden

The study explains the comparison of such an amount, “While that might not sound overly generous, remember that welfare benefits aren’t taxed, while wages are. So someone in New York would have to earn more than $21 per hour to be better off than they would be on welfare. That’s more than the average statewide entry-level salary for a teacher.

Plus, going to work means added costs such as paying for child care, transportation and clothing. Not to mention that, even if it’s not a money-loser, a person moving from welfare to work will see some form of loss — namely, less time for leisure as opposed to work.”

Obviously people apply for welfare benefits because they have come across hard times. However the incentive created by this particular program has some daunting implications. It seems that this once generous program started in the 30’s has turned into an unsustainable model of redistribution. What is to happen when the state can no longer afford to pay out these benefits?  The terminal characteristics of the current system happen to be a mathematical certainty. What will the tens of millions of welfare recipients do when this unsustainable model reaches its precipice of total collapse?

It is evident that the current system is broken and rife with negative incentive. So what is the answer? Should we try to petition the government for welfare reform? Good luck with that! Taking a proactive approach in your community is far more effective than petitioning bureaucrats with the sole intention of re-election.

This proactive approach is starting to pop-up around the country. Once we look at what people actually need to survive the choice on how to help them is quite evident. People need two basic things and they are food and shelter. Community gardens are a particularly effective method of providing the former.

Urban gardening is spreading and with good reason. Not only are food deserts a large problem in urban areas, but there also happens to be large areas of wasted land with garden potential. A  recent article in The Smithsonian highlighted the ‘Guerrilla Gardening’ efforts of a man named Ron Finley.  About three years ago, South Los Angeles resident Finley got fed up with having to drive more than half an hour to find a ripe, pesticide-free tomato. So he decided to plant a vegetable garden in the space between the sidewalk and street outside of his home, located in the working-class neighborhood where he grew up, surrounded by fast food restaurants, liquor stores and other not-so-healthy options. This tactic is spreading, and fast.

A community effort to produce food is the first major step to reducing state dependency. A community coming together to grow their own food generates the opposite incentive that the current welfare system creates. Instead of stoking dependency, people are empowered. Tending to a productive garden has been shown to increase the sense of well-being, confidence, and overall health; not to mention that it feeds you too!
So, next time you hear people talking about how the Democrats want this or the Republicans want this, offer a real solution. Grow your own sustenance, and truly give the power back to the people!

by Matt Agorist

Source: RealFarmacy.com

Anti-inflammatory Ginger Peach Smoothie Benefits and Recipe

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Peach season is coming up, so what could possibly taste better than some fresh peaches? They have such a wonderful flavor I almost feel spoiled eating them. You can even freeze the peaches before hand if you please and make this smoothie have a colder touch to it.

Peaches are rich in many vital minerals such as potassium and iron. Iron is required for red blood cell formation. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that help regulate heart rate and blood pressure.

Pineapples contain bromelain enzyme which is a powerful anti-inflammatory (read all about it here). This famous pain relieving enzyme has been synthesized and isolated into supplements to treat inflammation and pain naturally. Ginger contains very powerful anti-inflammatory compounds called gingerols. These substances are believed to explain why so many people with osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis experience reductions in their pain levels and improvements in their mobility when they consume ginger regularly.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups ripe pineapple
- 1 large piece ginger (I use around 3-4 inches)
- 4 ripe peaches, pits removed
- 1 cup young thai coconut water (you can use the coconut meat too if you are using an actual coconut)

Put the ingredients into a blender and pulse blend for 15-30 seconds! Enjoy!

Source: Live Love Fruit

West Coast Getting Drilled with Radiation From Fukushima

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Image: Raw For Beauty

While many people assume that the ocean will dilute the Fukushima radiation, a previously-secret 1955 U.S. government report concluded that the ocean may not adequately dilute radiation from nuclear accidents, and there could be “pockets” and “streams” of highly-concentrated radiation.

The University of Hawaii’s International Pacific Research Center created a graphic showing the projected dispersion of debris from Japan:

Last year, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and 3 scientists from the GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences showed that radiation on the West Coast of North America could end up being 10 times higher than in Japan:

After 10 years the concentrations become nearly homogeneous over the whole Pacific, with higher values in the east, extending along the North American coast with a maximum (~1 × 10−4) off Baja California. 

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With caution given to the various idealizations (unknown actual oceanic state during release, unknown release area, no biological effects included, see section 3.4), the following conclusions may be drawn. (i) Dilution due to swift horizontal and vertical dispersion in the vicinity of the energetic Kuroshio regime leads to a rapid decrease of radioactivity levels during the first 2 years, with a decline of near-surface peak concentrations to values around 10 Bq m−3 (based on a total input of 10 PBq). The strong lateral dispersion, related to the vigorous eddy fields in the mid-latitude western Pacific, appears significantly under-estimated in the non-eddying (0.5°) model version. (ii) The subsequent pace of dilution is strongly reduced, owing to the eastward advection of the main tracer cloud towards the much less energetic areas of the central and eastern North Pacific. (iii) The magnitude of additional peak radioactivity should drop to values comparable to the pre-Fukushima levels after 6–9 years (i.e. total peak concentrations would then have declined below twice pre-Fukushima levels). (iv) By then the tracer cloud will span almost the entire North Pacific, with peak concentrations off the North American coast an order-of-magnitude higher than in the western Pacific.

The half life of cesium-137 is so long that it produces more damage to human. Figure 4 gives the examples of the distribution of the impact strength of Cesium-137 at year 1.5 (panel (a)), year 3.5 (panel (b)), and year 4 (panel (c)).

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It is worth noting that due to the current near the shore cannot be well reconstructed by the global ocean reanalysis, some nuclear pollutant particulate tracers may come to rest in near shore area, which may result in additional uncertainty in the estimation of the impact strength.

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Since the major transport mechanism of nuclear pollutants for the west coast of America is the Kuroshio-extension currents, after four years, the impact strength of Cesium-137 in the west coast area of America is as high as 4%.

Source: Raw For Beauty

This is how you can tell if your food is GMO

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Non-GMO advocate Jeffrey Smith helps you figure out if the products you are buying are genetically modified or not. Few products are labeled so it’s hard to tell on your own.

Sources: IHEALTHTUBE.COM

Raw For Beauty