The World Health Organization recommends that children be exclusively fed breast milk for their first 6 months and continue breastfeeding while complimenting with other foods for up to 2 years. However, less than 40% of infants on the planet are exclusively breastfed for their first 6 months. In all countries in the world it is cheaper to breastfeed than buy formula, yet American low-income families are 40% more likely to feed their children formula instead. When a family's income averages the equivalent of $300 per month, formula for 1 infant could consume as much as 45% of living costs.

In addition to saving close to $1,600 per year, women who breastfeed have a lower risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer and are able to return to their pre-pregnancy weights faster. Breast milk also contains antibodies that help prevent pneumonia and diarrhea, the 2 primary causes of child mortality. Adults who were breastfed as babies have proven to have lower blood pressure and cholesterol as well as lower rates of obesity and type-2 diabetes.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is an organic compound commonly found in the lining or infant formula and baby bottles and is so common that trace amounts can be found in the urine of 92% of Americans. BPA acts as an estrogen mimic and may be partially responsible for the early onset of puberty in youths, obesity in adults, diabetes and for average sperm counts in men declining by nearly 50% since 1960. Canada banned products with BPA in 2008 after concern over its adverse effects on infants and children.

* * *

Crotch-less pants traditionally worn by Chinese infants are slowly making way for China's $200 million a year disposable diaper market. China's landfills are now piled with more than 1 billion used diapers each year, a number that is expected to grow by 50% year on year. By comparison, Americans are responsible for throwing away 18 billion disposable diapers each year. End to end, that is enough to wrap the equator of the Earth in a 3 meter-wide diaper.

Combined, China and the USA account for nearly 100,000 metric tons of petroleum plastics and 770,000 metric tons of paper pulp that go into landfills each year from disposable diaper consumption (in addition to numerous chemical dyes, adhesives, sanitizers and absorbents that leach into soils.) Nearly 4% of all diaper waste in America is fecal matter. Therefore, over 33,000 metric tons of baby fecal matter goes into landfills each year, often in an anaerobic environment that can be a breeding ground for disease. American children poop enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 4 weeks yet disposable diapers make it so that very little ever finds its way into proper sewage treatment centers.

American children raised on disposable diapers consume approximately 7000 diapers in their first few years. With reusable cloth diapers, between 20 and 100 are enough depending on the quality of the make and the amount of times laundry is done each week. Reusable cloth diapers can save parents as much as $2000 per year. However, a study done by the Environment Agency of England found that the total carbon footprint in the production and consumption of each disposable diaper is 550 kilograms of CO2. For reusable cloth diapers CO2 consumption is actually higher at 570 kilograms when accounting for typical washer and dryer use. If parents wash in full loads at temperatures less than 60 degrees Celsius and line dry, CO2 consumption can drop to 340 kilograms per reusable cloth diaper.



Sources:

Breastfeeding Basics. Breastfeeding Benefits and Barriers: Economics. January, 2010.
http://www.breastfeedingbasics.org/cgi-bin/deliver.cgi/content/Introduction/adm_economics.html.

Center for Disease Control. Provisional Exclusive Breastfeeding Rates by Socio-demographic Factors, Among Children Born in 2006. January, 2010.
http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/data/NIS_data/2006/socio-demographic.htm

World Health Organization. 10 Facts on Breastfeeding. July, 2009.
http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/breastfeeding/en/.

Patisaul, Heather. Assessing Risks from Bisphenol A. Scientific American. Issue: January-February, 2010.

Grady, Denise. F.D.A. Concerned About Substance in Food Packaging. New York Times. January 15, 2010.

Environment Agency. An Updated Lifecycle Assessment Study For Disposable and Reusable Nappies. January, 2010.
http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=WR0705_7589_FRP.pdf.

China Daily. Open-Crotch Pants Make Way for Disposable Diapers. July 16, 2004. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-07/16/content_349150.htm.

Clean Air Council. Waste Facts and Figures. December, 2009. http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html.

California Energy Commission. Consumer Energy Center: Clothes Dryers. December, 2009. http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/home/appliances/dryers.html

Nearly 70 percent of world-wide water consumption goes to agriculture while 20 percent goes to industry and 10 percent to home use.

* * * * *

At present, 1 in 3 people on the planet are facing water shortages. And it is estimated that by 2030, water demands will grow by 1 fourth. By that year, nearly 50 percent of the world's population will be facing severe water shortages.

The United Nations estimates that it would require an additional $30 billion per year to provide clean and safe drinking water to every human on the planet. In 2007, humans spent more than 3 times that on bottled water. The US Government's $787 billion stimulus package would be enough to provide clean and safe drinking water to all of the planet's human occupants for over 26 years.

It has been proven over and again that buying a small home filtration device for as low as $13 can provide tap water that is as clean and safe, and often cleaner and safer, than bottled water—even those from Fiji and France. Instead, water has been privatized and is now a $400 billion industry, making it the third largest industry behind electricity and oil.

US Americans consumed over 30 billion plastic bottles in 2005. That is close to 1000 per second. Only 12 percent of those petroleum-based bottles are recycled. Nearly 50 million barrels of oil are used by plastic bottle producers each year. That is enough oil to fill 3,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools. One small, inexpensive home filtration device can provide nearly 200 liters of clean, healthy water before the filtration cartridge needs changing. Therefore, using one filtration cartridge can prevent 400 small plastic bottles from entering production.

Tap water from home filtration devices costs nearly 4 cents per liter. A 1-liter bottle of Fiji water costs $3.20. That is a difference of 8,000 percent. The environmental consequences are also quite severe as the Fiji production plant runs on diesel fuel 24 hours a day. The plastic bottles themselves make the nearly 10,000 kilometer journey from China to Fiji before being filled with water and traveling the rest of the way to countries all over the world. In addition, it is estimated that nearly 7 liters of water is contaminated in the production of each 1-liter plastic bottle. And it is calculated that each 1-liter bottles of Fiji purchased in the US is responsible for 1/4 of a kilogram of greenhouse gas emissions.

* * * * *

The average American food product travels 2,400 kilometers before consumption. That is nearly the distance it would require to have my grandmother in Rochester, New York send some of her delicious vegetable soup to my parents in Denver, Colorado.

Over 17 percent of all energy consumption goes to agriculture, with 1 fourth of that energy going to the production, distribution, and consumption of fertilizer. In addition, US Americans consume nearly 475 million kilograms of petroleum-based pesticides per year. That is close to 1.6 kilos, or one 2-liter soda bottle, per person per year.

US Americans average 20.6 million barrels of oil per day. It is estimated that if all US Americans ate one local-grown, organic meal per day, it would save over 1.1 million barrels of oil daily. At $44.76 per barrel, that could save Americans over $18 billion per year.


Sources:

Kingsolver, Barbara, Camille Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008.

Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. New York: Penguin, 2009.

Flow: For Love of Water. Dir. Irena Salina. The Group Entertainment, 2008.

Getting Off the Bottle. Simple Not Easy. November 23, 2008.
http://suresimple.blogspot.com/2008/11/getting-off-bottle.html.

Herbst, Moira. Water Scarcity: Hidden Risks to Business. Business Week. February 26, 2009.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2009/db20090226_538819.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis

Trees on Tap. Nature Inc. BBC. 2008.
http://www.natureinc.org/trees.htm

Petroleum Basic Statistics. Energy Information Administration. 2007.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html

Fiji Water. Wikipedia. March, 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIJI_Water

An estimated 79 percent of occupied housing units have clothes dryers. Dryers vary between 1800 and 5000 watts and are estimated to account for 10-15 percent of the average American household electric bill. Choosing to hang dry your clothes instead of using the dryer can increase the life of your clothes up to 4 times and can save up to 2220 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

* * * * *

Close to 90 percent of energy used in laundry machines goes to heating water. Therefore, washing clothes in cold water not only preserves the life of clothes, but can save up to $75 per year on household electric bills and close to 90 pounds per month of carbon dioxide emissions. If all Americans did this, it would be the same as removing 10 million cars from the road. In addition to their electricity consumption, washing machines also account for approximately 21.7 percent of household water use.

Phosphates are a major cause of water pollution that some claim is responsible for over 40 percent of human and animal disease. Though phosphates were banned from laundry detergents in the USA, it is still possible to buy boxes of Tide in certain states with as much as 10 percent phosphorus. In the developing world, phosphates make up as much as 35 percent of laundry detergents; and runoff from these pollutants are responsible for the algae blooms that are suffocating our oceans, lakes and rivers.

China's home appliance giant, Haier, has just released the WasH2O washing machine for about $957. It is the first washing machine of its kind that not only cuts water use by over 50 percent and electricity use by up to 60 percent; but it also eliminates the need for laundry detergent by breaking apart water molecules, thus activating the OH- ions to attract and retain stains and oils.

According to the US Department of Energy, the average American does 148 loads of laundry per year. One 100 ounce bottle of Tide liquid detergent can wash 32 loads and costs $15.10. Therefore it would take almost 5 bottles of Tide per year per person to wash 1 year's worth of clothes. So every American would save enough money from not using laundry detergent to buy a brand new WasH2O washing machine every 13 years or so. However, being that the American household averages 2.64 people and 1 laundry machine, the average household would save enough in laundry detergent expenses to pay off the WasH2O every 5 years.

* * * * *

Nearly all dishwashing detergents have phosphates, though some states are trying to reduce the legal amount of phosphates to 0.5 percent.

In one day, I use an average of 3 plates, 1 bowl, 4 pieces of silverware, 4 glasses, 1 pan, 1 pot, and 2 cooking utensils. For each piece it takes me an average of 4 seconds to rinse and put into the dishwashing machine. So on average, I spend about 1 minute and 4 seconds per day preparing eating utensils for the dishwashing machine. I run an average of 1 load of dishes every week. Putting soap in and running the machine takes me about 7 seconds, thus adding 1 second to my average day of dish duty.

If I rinse every dish and eating utensil, wash with soap by hand, rinse again, and put on the drying rack, my time spent per dish and eating utensil rises from 4 seconds to 8 seconds. So now it takes me 2 minutes and 8 seconds every day to wash my dishes, costing me 1 minute and 3 seconds more per day than using a dishwashing machine. That is just over 6 hours per year.

If the average American washed their dishes by hand, they would save close to $40 per year. Being that it takes about 6 hours per year extra to wash dishes by hand, then it is the same as getting paid $6.66 per hour for your labor. In addition, the average electric dishwasher costs about $400. If the average machine lasts ten years, then washing your dishes without a dishwasher saves you an extra $40 per year that would have been spent on a dishwasher. You just got a 100 percent raise.



Sources:

How to Green Your Dirty Laundry. Greener Penny. August 24, 2008.
http://greenerpenny.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-green-your-dirty-laundry.html.

Haier WasH2O Innovative Washing Machine. Product Reviews. September, 2008.
http://www.product-reviews.net/2007/08/01/haier-wash20-innovative-washing-machine-no-detergent-or-soap-needed/.

Knud-Hansen. Historical Perspective of the Phosphate Detergent Conflict. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado. February, 1994.
http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/full_text_search/AllCRCDocs/94-54.htm.

Phosphorus Pollution. State Environmental Resource Center. October, 2008.
http://www.serconline.org/phosphorus/background.html.

Detergents Under Scrutiny. India Together. October 4, 2008.
http://www.indiatogether.org/environment/articles/tlink-1002.htm.

Project Laundry List. September, 2008.
http://www.laundrylist.org/index.php/faq/35-general-laundry-questions/101-kwh-year-dryer-average.

Carbon Conscious Consumer. September, 2008.
http://c3.newdream.org/.

Hodum, Ryan. Kunming Heats Up as China's "Solar City." World Watch. June 5, 2007.
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5105.

Corn, a species of domesticated grass, covers a total area in the USA roughly 2 times the size of New York State. In the USA, it typically costs roughly 2.5 dollars to grow 1 bushel of corn that sells for 1.45 dollars. The deficit of 1.05 dollars plus profits is paid for with government subsidies.

More than 40 percent of the world's corn is grown in the USA, and more than 50 percent of the corn grown in the USA has been genetically modified. Moreover, when you add together fertilizers, pesticides, production and transportation, it takes more than 1 calorie of fossil fuel energy to produce 1 calorie of processable corn. In fact, 1 fifth of America's petroleum consumption goes to the production and transportation of food.

* * * * *

It is estimated that this year's corn harvest in the USA will amount to roughly 12.3 billion bushels. There are about 90 ears of corn in the average bushel. That means that this years harvest will result in approximately 1.1 trillion ears of corn. That is enough to supply every American with 10 ears of corn every day for a year.

Eating the kernels off of one ear of corn accounts for the intake of roughly 132 calories. The recommended daily calorie intake varies between 1800 and 3000 depending upon height, weight, and activeness. So if the average recommended calorie intake is around 2400 calories per day, it would take about 18 ears of corn each day to have sufficient energy.

Livestock in America consumes 60 percent of America's corn. That means that every year, 660 billion ears of corn go to cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, catfish, and—thanks to some genetic engineering—even salmon. If 18 ears of corn can sustain a human's necessary calorie intake for a day, then the corn consumed by livestock alone could support 100 million people per year. In other words, American livestock eat enough corn to sustain 1.5 percent of the world's total human population.

It takes roughly 10 pounds of corn to grow 1 pound of beef. Because of the fact that cows cannot naturally digest corn, 70 percent of America's total antibiotics go to fighting stomach ulcers and other diseases in cattle. Moreover, if you total the amount of petroleum used to grow and transport the corn consumed by 1 cow from birth to the time of its slaughter, it will have consumed over 1 barrel of petroleum.

The waste from 1 cow is equivalent to that of 17 humans. There are roughly100 million cattle in the USA. That means that the waste from the American cattle population accounts for nearly 6 times that of the American human population. And on top of that, cattle account for roughly 26 percent of all methane emissions in the USA. That is just under that of landfills at 34 percent, and over that of natural gas and oil systems at 22%.

Since the world's cattle population is near 1.3 billion, there is over 3 times more cow feces added to the planet daily than human feces.

* * * * *

About 20 percent of corn is processed as ethanol. That is expected to rise to above 30 percent by 2015.

About 10 percent of corn grown in the USA is processed into corn syrup. Corn syrup is about 20 percent cheaper than other sources of sugar. In 30 years, the demand for corn syrup has grown by 30 percent while the demand for sugar has dropped.

Americans consume an average of 42 pounds of high fructose corn syrup each per year, which is a great contribution to the nation's obesity crisis. Over 70 percent of corn syrup ends up as a beverage sweetener.

Last year, 139 million gallons of soda were consumed in Brooklyn, New York. There are about 2.5 million people in Brooklyn, NY; which means that Brooklyners average about 56 gallons of soda each per year, or 1.5 cans of soda per day. 1 sweetened soda per day doubles the amount of risk for diabetes. It is a fact that1 in 8 New Yorkers now has diabetes.



Sources:

Cheney, Ian and Curtis Ellis. King Corn. Dir. Aaron Woolf. 2007

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma. New York: The Penguin Press, 2006.

Yousfi, Jennifer. Corn Price Report. Money Morning. August, 2008. http://www.moneymorning.com/money-morning-corn-price-report/.

Mangino, Joe. US EPA Cattle Enteric Fermentation Model (CEFM). Environmental Protection Agency. April 30, 2003.
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/conference/ei12/green/present/mangino.pdf.

Maize. Wikipedia. August, 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize.

Voiland, Adam. Health Reasons to Cut Back on Corn Consumption. US News and World Report. December 17, 2007.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/50-ways-to-improve-your-life/2007/12/17/health-reasons-to-cut-back-on-corn-consumption.html.

STONE:
The world produces about 2.1 billion metric tons of cement every year and is the second most widely used substance on the planet after water. The amount of cement produced yearly weighs more than 5 times the cumulative weight of the entire living human population on the planet.

Cement starts out as limestone and clay which is pulverized and heated (usually via coal combustion) in kilns to 1,500 degrees Celsius. This process alone is responsible for 5% of global carbon dioxide emissions. It is estimated that total global carbon dioxide emissions are approaching 27 billion metric tons per year. Therefore, cement production is responsible for approximately 1.35 billion metric tons yearly. Moreover, that means that each metric ton of cement produced emits approximately 640 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

China's consumption of concrete accounts for nearly 45% of the world's total consumption. Roughly 14% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions come from China. And due to China's use of cheap, outdated kilns, the country's cement plants are responsible for up to 8% of its total carbon dioxide output. In addition, cement production facilities in China are responsible for over 40% of the country's total industrial particulate emissions.

Recycling concrete from demolition sites by pulverizing it and adding it to new cement can save transportation costs for removal by as much as 25 cents per ton per mile and landfill disposal costs as high as $100 per ton.

STEEL:
There was 1.3 billion metric tons of crude steel produced in 2007. That is more than 3 times the cumulative weight of the entire living human population on the planet. World steel production results in about 5% (1.35 billion metric tons) of the world's yearly carbon dioxide emissions. That means that each ton of steel produced is responsible for over 1 ton of carbon dioxide.

China is responsible for about 34% of the world's crude steel production and 47% of pig iron (raw iron) production.

About 75% of production energy is saved by recycling steel rather than refining from iron ore. Moreover, recycling one metric ton of steel saves about 1,100 kilograms of iron ore, 630 kilograms of coal, and 55 kilograms of limestone. Steel has long been the most recycled material on the planet, and in fact, nearly 95% of structural steel is of recycled origin.

WOOD:
Rainforest depletion accounts for 20 percent of the world's total carbon dioxide emissions. This is because 5.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide would have been photosynthesized into oxygen if those forests still existed.



Sources:

China to Dominate Cement Use in 2007. Concrete Monthly. January, 2007.
http://www.concretemonthly.com/monthly/art.php?2596.

Cho, Jung Myung and Suzanne Giannini-Spohn. A China Environmental Health Research Brief: Environmental and Health Threats from Cement Production in China. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. August 30, 2007.
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.print&news_id=274782&stoplayout=true.

Choi, Charles Q. Concrete Proposal to Cut Carbon Dioxide Emissions. Live Science. January 29, 2007.
http://www.livescience.com/environment/070129_clean_concrete.html.

Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate: Steel Task Force Summary of Action Plan and Projects. U.S. Department of State. October 31, 2006.
http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/fs/2006/75371.htm.

International Energy Outlook 2007. Energy Information Administration. May, 2008.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/emissions.html.

Recycling Concrete. Concrete Network. March, 2007.
http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/demolition/recycling_concrete.htm.

World Steel Review. ISSB. February, 2008.
http://www.steelonthenet.com/ISSB/Review-02-08.pdf.

Iron and Steel. U.S. Geological Survey. January, 2007.
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/iron_&_steel/festemcs07.pdf.

China Accounts For 33.79% of World's Crude Steel Output and 46.6% of Pig Iron Output. Economic Information and Agency. March 19, 2007.
http://www.tdctrade.com/report/indprof/indprof_070304.htm.

Steel. Wikipedia. March, 2007.
http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel.

Price, Lynn, Dian Phylipsen, and Ernst Worrell. Energy Use and Carbon Dioxide in the Steel Sector in Key Developing Countries. Energy Analysis Department. April, 2001.
http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/783473-fcGKaj/webviewable/783473.PDF.

So Hard to See the Wood for the Trees. The Economist. December 22, 2007. Pp. 98.

Concrete Proposals Needed. The Economist. December 22, 2007. Pp. 100.

Americans spend about 90 percent of their food budget on processed foods. That is nearly 9 percent of their total income.

* * * * *

Flamin' Hot Crunchy Cheese Cheetos =

Corn meal enriched (corn meal, ferrous sulfate, niacin, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid). Nearly 1/3 of all corn crops in America have been genetically modified.

+Salt: High salt intake is a major cause of cardiovascular disease and increases the risks of heart attack and stroke. One serving size of this packaged food contains 9% of daily sodium intake.

+Sugar: Promotes obesity, tooth decay, and heart disease in people with high triglycerides.

+Food starch modified: May contain gluten. May cause diarrhea in infants. Most likely genetically modified.

+Monosodium glutamate (MSG): Shown to destroy the nerve cells in the brains of laboratory mice. May cause allergic reactions ranging from migraines, seizures and other nervous system disorders. Also known for the emissions of toxins made during its production that can pollute ground and drinking water.

+Yeast extract autolyzed: Often contains MSG.

+Colors artificial include (red 40 lake, yellow 6 lake, yellow 6, yellow 5). Red 40 lake is an artificial color that many tests have show to be harmful. It has been banned in Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and Norway. Yellow 6 has been proven to increase the incidence of tumors of the adrenal gland and kidney in lab animals, and has multiple known carcinogens, and has therefore been banned in Norway. Yellow 5 is a coal-tar derivative that is reputed to be a catalyst in ADD, asthma, migraines, thyroid cancer, and lupis.

+Soybean oil partially hydrogenated: Contains trans fatty acids that enter cell membranes, block normal cell function, and cause a rise in blood pressure.

+Cottonseed oil partially hydrogenated: Contains trans fatty acids that enter cell membranes, block normal cell function, and cause a rise in blood pressure.

+Soy protein hydrolyzed: Often contains MSG.

+Corn syrup solids: Considered to be a contributor to obesity.

+Natural flavors: FDA does not require listing ingredients that fall under the FDA's list of natural flavors even though some products may contain hundreds of compounds and chemicals and may even include substances that many people have allergies to like MSG or HVP.

+Disodium inosinate: May be prepared from meat or sardines. May trigger gout and is not permitted in foods for infants and young children.

+Disodium guanylate: May be prepared from yeast or sardines. May trigger gout and is not permitted in foods for infants and young children.

+Sodium caseinate: May contain MSG.

+Other Ingredients Generally Recognized as Safe for Consumption: maltodextrin, cheese cheddar (milk cultured, salt, enzymes), vegetable oil contains one or more of the following (corn oil, soybean oil (or), sunflower oil), sodium diacetate, disodium phosphate, disodium phosphate, sodium citrate, whey, onion powder, whey protein concentrate, buttermilk solids, garlic powder, lactic acid, milk non-fat solids, carrageenan.


Diet Mountain Dew =

Carbonated water: Studies suggest that the rise in esophageal cancer in the US is associated with the rise in consumption of carbonated beverages.

+Nutrasweet brand of aspartame: Tests on lab animals have shown a connection between low doses of aspartame and leukemia, lymphoma, and brain tumors. Lifetime consumption of aspartame is likely carcinogenic and the cause of multiple neurological disorders. Originally considered unfit for consumption by the FDA, Nutrasweet hired Donald Rumsfeld to pressure the legalization of the product.

+Potassium benzoate: Known to cause headaches, intestinal upset, hyperactivity in children, and may cause asthmatics to react badly.

+Caffeine: Increases the risk of miscarriages in pregnant women and inhibits fetal growth. Consumption of more than 2 servings a day may increase the risk of osteoporosis.

+Natural flavors: FDA does not require listing ingredients that fall under the FDA's list of natural flavors even though some products may contain hundreds of compounds and chemicals and may even include substances that many people have allergies to like MSG or HVP.

+Brominated vegetable oil: Leaves small residues in body fat that may be carcinogenic. Banned in the UK, Canada, and California has declared that baked goods containing more than a certain level of the chemical must bear a cancer warning on the label.

+Yellow 5: A coal-tar derivative that is reputed to be a catalyst in ADD, asthma, migranes, thyroid cancer, and lupis.

+Other Ingredients Generally Recognized as Safe for Consumption: Orange juice concentrated, Citric acid, Citrus pectin, Potassium citrate, Gum arabic, Erythorbic acid.



Sources:

Diet Mountain Dew Information. Food Facts.com. January, 2008.
http://www.foodfacts.com/members/item_info.cfm?id=23582.

Cheetos Item Information. Food Facts.com. January, 2008.
http://www.foodfacts.com/members/item_info.cfm?id=30970.

McDonald's French Fries Item Information. Food Facts.com. January 2008.
http://www.foodfacts.com/members/item_info.cfm?id=5734.

Pizza Hut Ingredient Statements. Pizza Hut. January, 2008.
http://www.pizzahut.com/Files/PDF/ph_ingredients.pdf.

Food Additives. Center for Science in the Public Interest. January, 2008.
http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm.

Rumsfeld Nutrasweet Folleys Now Hurt US Troops. Mercola.com. December 10, 2004.
http://www.mercola.com/blog/2004/dec/10/rumsfeld_nutrasweet_folleys_now_hurt_us_troops.

Americans Spend Less Than 10 Percent of Disposable Income on Food. Salem-News.com. February 3, 2008.
http://salem-news.com/articles/july192006/food_prices_71906.php.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Perrenial, 2002.

It's time for environmentalists to take an interest in economics; and for economists to take an interest in the environment.

This year alone, Americans will throw away over 100 billion plastic bags. Nearly all plastic bags are made from polyethylene (a petroleum bi-product) and to make 100 billion plastic bags takes nearly 12 million barrels of oil. 12 million barrels of oil can be refined to nearly 240 million gallons of gasoline. And polyethylene bags take nearly 1000 years to break down into their toxic components. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, there is an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean on the planet. Paper bags take over 4 times as much energy to produce as plastic bags and require about 85 times as much energy to recycle.

At a cost of over 1 penny per bag, Americans are wasting over $1 billion dollars per year. Buying reusable shopping bags eliminates this economic and environmental calamity with a one-time cost of anywhere from $2 for cheap bags to designer bags costing as much as $900 dollars. PlanetFlahive.com is selling hemp shopping bags for $18. Hemp produces about 3 times as much fiber per acre as cotton without the use of pesticides; and while cotton is known for stripping the land of nutrients, hemp naturally fertilizes the soil for future crops. In addition, the cultivation of hemp takes about 100 days whereas cotton trees take between 50 and 70 years to reach full maturity.

Using trash cans unlined with plastic bags take only 1 minute to wash out after dumping!

* * * * *

Salvador's Coffee House in southwest China uses 38, 30-watt incandescent light bulbs in its daily operations. These light bulbs cost about 1 RMB ($.13) each and last for an average of 3 weeks. 5 of the 38 lights are on for an average of 5 hours, using about 750 watt-hours per day. The other 33 lights are on for an average of 16 hours, using about 15,840 watt-hours per day. So in total, these lights use about 16,590 watt-hours, or 16.59 kilowatt-hours (kWh), per day. At .63 RMB per kWh, lighting the 38 bulbs costs about 10.5 RMB per day, 314 RMB per month, 3,800 RMB ($506) per year. 5-watt compact florescent lights (CFLs) cost about 10 RMB ($1.33) each, can last as long as 7 years, and can replace the 38 incandescent bulbs producing nearly the same luminescence and quality of light. By doing so, the daily electricity consumed by these 38 bulbs is cut down to about 2.77 kWh per day, cutting the daily costs down to 1.74 RMB. This saves our business 3,165 RMB ($422) per year.

According to the American Lighting Association, lights account for 25 percent of household electric bills. This year, Ireland became the 1st country in history to pass legislation banning the normal incandescent light bulb, thus promoting the longer-lasting, energy-efficient fluorescents.

* * * * *

Starbucks goes through over 2.3 billion paper cups per year. The average paper cup with lid, graphics, and stirrer comes to about $0.15 per cup. For those who drink a cup a day, they will burn through over $50 per year on non-biodegradable waste. In 2003, Starbucks began offering a 10 cent discount to those who bring their own mugs or take-away reusable cups. This encouraged about 13.5 million customers to bring in their own mugs, thus saving about 586,800 pounds of paper from going to US landfills. Starbucks could save an estimated $1 million per year in packaging costs by encouraging the use of reusable cups and plates.

* * * * *

The average bite of food in America has traveled nearly 1,500 miles. Most foods are transported in semi-tractor trailers that have a maximum capacity of 40,000 pounds according to US law. 40,000 pounds of food is 640,000 bites assuming 1 bite to be equivalent to 1 ounce. A semi-tractor trailer gets an average of about 5.5 miles per gallon, fully loaded. Traveling 1,500 miles at full capacity would burn about 272 gallons of diesel (roughly 34,900 ounces). So that means that every 18 bites of food are chased down with a shot of diesel. At 3.3 dollars per gallon of diesel, shopping locally can save American consumers about 1 penny for every 7 bites.

* * * * *

In a small town in Sicily, refuse disposal has recently shifted from small garbage trucks, which cost around $150,000, to donkey-carts, which cost $1,000. Whereas operational costs for the trucks cost around $12,000 per year, it only costs $3,000 per year to feed the donkey. To equal the amount of exhaust created from 1 garbage truck, 1 donkey would have to have some serious digestive issues.



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BBC News. December 7.

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Weekly Retail On-Highway Diesel Prices. Energy Information Administration. December 17, 2007.
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The Throwaway Generation: 25 Billion Styrofoam Cups a Year. The Environmental Magazine. November-December, 2005.
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A study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that of 2.4 billion drugs prescribed to patients in 2005, 118 million were antidepressants. That makes it the number 1 prescribed drug in the USA followed secondly by high blood pressure drugs with 113 million prescriptions. So nearly 10% of all prescribed drugs in the USA are meant for the treatment of overweight and unhappy people.

* * * * *

According to a 2000 report by the World Health Organization, the USA ranks 37th of 191 WHO member nations for quality of health care. That is well behind all Western European countries as well as Canada and only 2 ahead of Cuba, countries that all have universal health care plans. Meanwhile, the United States remains the sole profit-oriented health care system among western industrialized nations with an average of 55.1% of health care coming from private expenditures. That ranking is in the company of other nations like Chad at 58.1%, El Salvador at 55.3%, Uzbekistan at 54.5%, and Syria at 54.2%.

An average of $5,274 per US American per year is spent on health care (other estimates reach as high as $7,129). All countries with universal health care programs, other than Monaco, spend less than $3500 per person per year (which includes out of pocket tax money that goes to the governmental health care programs.) Switzerland tops the list at $3,446. Canada is at $2,931. And Cuba is all the way down at $236—impressive for a country that offers free universal health care to all citizens regardless of income, has an infant mortality rate slightly lower and a life expectancy slightly higher than the USA, and yet is only 2 countries behind the USA on the WHO's rankings for quality of health care.

Because government spending already accounts for 44.9% of health care spending in the USA, $2,906 is left for the people to cover on their own. So, in essence, the government is still short $872 billion for a comprehensive health care plan that would cover all US citizens regardless of pre-existing conditions and severity of illness or injury.

If US American's could cut medical spending to the same rates as Canada, it would save the people $703 billion per year, only $169 billion short of what would be needed for the government to support a universal health care program. In 2006, the top 9 US drug companies acquired $220.5 billion in revenue with estimated profit margins between 15 and 20 percent, or between $30 billion and $40 billion. Health insurance companies had revenues close to $287 billion with a profit margin of 3.9 percent, or $11 billion.

The White House's 2006 defense budget was $419.3 billion, close to 20% of the total US federal budget. About $9 billion has been spent per month in Iraq resulting in the elimination of over 74,500 humans who will no longer need health care.

* * * * *

China's rural population numbers nearly 900 million. Only about 7 percent of rural residents have insurance, while urbanites number over 50 percent. That means that only 263 million of China's estimated 1.3 billion have health insurance.

With the dismantling of China's commune system in 1978, China began its move from public to private, profit-oriented health care which favored the rich urban areas with quality health care while leaving the rural population behind. By 1999, local governments began to enforce regulations on the growing profit margins for routine checkups and surgeries. However, hospitals were allowed profit margins of 15 percent and greater for experimental drugs and treatments, thus doctors often administered unnecessary expensive and experimental drugs and treatments to increase hospital profits. Today these issues have been intensified by experimental drug companies offering doctors monetary incentives to sell their drugs in addition to the fact that nearly 1/3 of drugs administered in rural areas are counterfeit.

Yearly income among China's rural residents is estimated at about $316 per person. Per capita spending on health care is $261 per person, or 83 percent of their income, so that combined with corruption among rural hospitals and the fact that most good doctors follow the money to the cities, most will avoid seeking medical help even for the most serious of diseases or injuries. The outcome is that China has and infant mortality rate about 4 times greater than the USA and an average life span about 5 years shorter.

* * * * *

China Life, China's primary life insurance company, has grown to be the number 2 largest insurance company in the world with a market value of $129 billion.


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