This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of PBM Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

When it comes to caring for and feeding our little ones, I will always choose the best quality that I can find. Of course, although this is my top priority, I will look for the best prices as long as it does not compromise the quality of the product. And since I look for Organic products, I am quite pleased to note that PBM Products recently introduced the first nationally distributed, organic infant formula with DHA and ARA produced without pesticides, added growth hormones, and antibiotics. This means that the milk in this organic baby formula comes from cows that are fed organic feed, raised with access to the outdoors, and raised without antibiotics or growth hormones.

I find it interesting to note that PBM recently won a $13.5 million false advertising judgment against Mead Johnson. According to a News release, PBM’s lawsuit claimed that Mead Johnson engaged in false and misleading campaigns against PBM’s competing store-brand of infant formulas, suggesting they do not provide the same nutrition as Mead Johnson’s brands. PBM’s store-brand infant formulas cost up to 50 percent less than Enfamil® LIPIL®. U.S. District Court Judge James R. Spencer supported a November 10 jury verdict and in his written ruling permanently enjoined Mead Johnson from making future false advertising claims against PBM and store-brand infant formulas.

“This decision by a jury of the people confirms that Mead Johnson’s ads have been false in suggesting that there is a nutritional difference between our store-brand formula products and their products, when in fact the only major difference is price,” said PBM CEO Paul B. Manning. “Despite Mead Johnson’s scare tactics, parents are assured that PBM’s formula products are as high quality and nutritious as Mead Johnson’s.”

Truth be told, the high cost of baby formula can put quite a dent in our pocketbooks, and we can save hundreds of dollars in a single year, without compromising the quality of our babies nutrition. PBM’s store-brand formulas (including those sold at leading retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, and many others) cost up to 50% less than Enfamil® LIPIL® and allow parents to save as much as $600 per year on their formula purchases. This is certainly nothing to sneeze at!

Personally, as a parent and grandparent, I find this is really great news, and would be happy to pass this along to family and friends!

Whenever I catch wind of a new and untested vaccine, it makes me very suspicious. And when I learn that this supposedly safe vaccine is really more dangerous than the virus itself, and is in all probability genetically engineered in a lab, I tend to sit up and take notice. I’ve checked out the information available, and I am not in the least bit comfortable with allowing this shot of poison for myself, let alone my children and loved ones. Even more alarming is the rumors flying around stating that this dangerous swine flu vaccine may become mandatory!

Nature brings us everything we need to maintain healthy bodies, and to build immunities to negative influences which attack us through dis-ease. When man introduces new strains of viruses that seem to affect humans with certain genetic make-ups, it makes me wonder at the purpose behind this vile endeavor. I do not believe for one instant that this pandemic is of a natural occurance, nor is it evolved of a natural source through animals. It is not yet clear to me the reasons behind this spread of a man-made cross between the swine flu and something much more dangerous and insinuating, yet I am not fool enough to take this worldwide pandemic at face value.

Be sure to educate yourselves before allowing this untested and hastily approved vaccine to be used on your children, or yourselves. To allow yourself to be forced into an action, which in the end you may find yourself begging for the cure, goes against your own basic freedoms. Look to the source, because I am on that very path, and if the information I am discovering has even a grain of truth to it, the vaccine may cause this supposed swine flu virus to mutate into something much more dangerous than the virus itself.

Visit Organic Consumer Association to protest and take action to stop forced vaccinations on our children.

Learn about the Dangers of Swine Flu Vaccinations and the adjuvants within the vaccines – in particular squalene which was in all probability responsible for the Gulf War syndrome, and how this will affect us.

Do your research. Find out the truth, and act on it by letting others know. There are hidden factors in all of this that the general public is totally unnaware of. We need to wake up, before it is too late and we will all have to suffer the consequences, through the loss and suffering of our loved ones.

Vaccines are NOT safe! – Vaccine Nation (Trailer)

I am always a bit wary when I hear of new moves to create a supposed act of safety in regards to food regulations. Usually this is an action designed to lull people into believing a real solution to a problem is being implemented, when in reality those in power have no true wish to solve the probem in the first place. Controlling powers know exactly what they are doing through the current lack of consumer safety, yet most people simply are not aware of the true agenda therein.

I will, however, pass along an article written by Alexis Baden-Mayer Organic Consumers Association, June 23, 2009 relating to OCA’s position on the New House Food Safety Bill, for those interested in their take on the matter…

Straight to the Source

There’s been a lot of buzz on the web about the new Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (HR 2749). Many of our supporters have called or emailed us to find our stance on the issue.

Although the Organic Consumers Association is fairly satisfied that the bill is intended to protect organic farmers from being negatively impacted by new food safety regulations (Sec. 419A directs the USDA to “take into consideration, consistent with ensuring enforceable public health protection, the impact on small-scale and diversified farms, and on wildlife habitat, conservation practices, watershed-protection efforts, and organic production methods”), unfortunately the bill does not address the underlying causes of America’s persistent and evermore serious food safety crisis: factory farms and chemical-intensive agriculture. When addressing the concerns of E.coli or salmonella, the bill focuses on fresh vegetables and fruits rather than CAFOs or intensive confinement factory farms, in effect treating the symptom and not the disease.

A close look at the nation’s food poisoning epidemics over the past decade reveal that the overwhelming majority of fruit and vegetable contamination incidents are a direct result of water and soil pollution from large factory farms. The OCA believes that HR 2749 should be amended to address factory farming:

1. Animals should never be fed blood, manure or slaughterhouse waste.

2. Cows need to eat grass.

3. Animals need to be spread out on enough land to absorb their waste.

4. CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) pose unacceptable risks to human health, such as antibiotic resistance, incubate dangerous viruses and pathogens, such as the Swine Flu and Bird Flu, contaminate the environment, institutionalize animal cruelty, and need to be phased out and shut down.

In addition, we share the concerns of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund and support the amendments suggested by the Maine Organic Farmers And Gardeners Association. We also agree with the Wild Farm Alliance, especially their position paper, Food Safety Requires a Healthy Environment: Policy Recommendations for E. coli O157.

The dangers to food safety of factory farms, also known as Confined Animal Feeding Operations, are well documented by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the National Resources Defense Council and Food & Water Watch.

In addition to factory farm runoff, vegetables can also become contaminated is through the use of untreated animal manure or biosolids (the fertilizer industry’s name for sewage sludge/human waste). Organic regulations ban sewage sludge and have rules for the use of manure that prevent contamination.

Certified organic farmers must maintain a farm plan detailing the methods used to build soil fertility, including the application of manure. Organic rules require raw animal manure to be composted if it is to be applied to land used for a crop intended for human consumption. Well-composted manure reduces the incidence of E. coli. Manure must be applied to the land at least 120 days prior to harvest if the edible part crops come in contact with soil, and at least 90 days prior to harvest of edible parts that do not come into contact with soil. Longer periods can be required by certifiers if soil or other conditions warrant. No other agricultural regulation in the United States imposes such strict control on the use of manure.

For more information on this and other important Organic News you may wish to visit Organic Consumer’s Association.

The label cruelty free does not mean that a product actually is. There is no legislation that deals with the labelling of beauty and health products. This means, for example, that a product can be labelled cruelty free even if the company tested every one of the ingredients on animals but didn’t test the finished product. Cruelty free products can also contain animal products or use ingredients that were animal tested by other companies.

Vegan products contain no animal ingredients and are usually strict and specific about animal testing and using animal tested ingredients on their labels.
..There is a significant difference between a cruelty-free label and a vegan label. Vegan products adhere to cruelty-free standards, but in addition, these products don’t contain any animal ingredients or animal byproducts. Many conventional beauty products, particularly cosmetics and shampoos, contain ingredients that are derived from animals or animal byproducts

If you’re concerned that your beauty products aren’t vegan and a telephone call to the company doesn’t reveal whether an ingredient is animal-derived or not, PETA’s Wesley suggests contacting an animal protection organization. They’ll be able to provide you with the detailed ingredient information that makeup labels do not provide.

Here is a listing of some surprising animal ingredients to look for on cosmetic labels and some greener alternatives

Ingredient: Allantoin
Source/Use: Found in cows and other mammals and used as a healing agent in many cosmetic creams and lotions
Alternative: Allantoin is also found in many plants, particularly the extract of comfrey root.

Ingredient: Beeswax
Source/Use: Wax from virgin bees is used as a sealant in lipsticks, mascaras, eye creams, lip balms and nail whiteners
Alternative: Paraffin, vegetable oils and fats.

Ingredient: Boar bristles
Source/Use: Hair from boars commonly used in makeup brushes and toothbrushes
Alternative: Nylon or vegetable fibers.

Ingredient: Biotin
Source/Use: Found in all living cells and used in cosmetics and shampoos
Alternative: Plant sources.

Ingredient: Stearyl alcohol or sterols
Source/Use: A mixture of solid alcohols that may sometimes be prepared from sperm whale oil and is used in skin creams, hair rinses and some shampoos
Alternative: Vegetable stearic acid

Ingredient: Fish liver oil
Source/Use: A source of vitamin A sometimes used in cosmetics and hair dyes
Alternative: Vitamin A derivatives from carotene (carrots) or synthetic sources

Ingredient: Mink oil
Source/Use: An emollient used for its moisturizing properties in cosmetics and skin creams
Alternative: Vegetable/natural oils such as avocado, almond and jojoba

Ingredient: Silk/silk powder
Source/Use: The tiny fibers made by silk worms to form a cocoon — used as a coloring ingredient ion face powders and soaps
Alternative: Milkweed seed-pod fibers or synthetic silks

Ingredient: RNA (Ribonucleic Acid)
Source/Use: Slaughterhouse waste that is commonly used in many protein-enriched shampoos and conditioners
Alternative: Plant cells

Ingredient: Sponge (luna and sea)
Source/Use: A sea animal that looks like a plant and is used as an ingredient for sponges and loofahs
Alternative: synthetic sponges

Ingredient: Stearic acid
Source/Use: Fat extracted from cows, sheep and pigs and used as a lubricant in deodorant, hair spray, shampoo and soap
Alternative: Vegetable fats or coconut

I am willing to sacrifice one of my most favourite indulgences of sipping on a delicious white chocolate mocha from Starbucks in favor of supporting small-scale coffe farmers struggling to support their families under deplorable conditions. Truly it has been a while since my last sweet cup, so I do not feel guilty knowing they are refusing to step up. Yet I am concerned enough about the situation to spread the word to folks willing to sign the petition.

According to the Organic Consumers Association, despite close to ten years of consumer and farmer demands, Starbucks has refused to increase their purchase of certified Fair Trade and Organic coffee to a respectable level. To date, only 6% of Starbucks’ coffee is certified Fair Trade. High quality certified Fair Trade and Organic coffee is readily availlable and represents a concrete way to support small-scale coffee farmers abroad.

Instead of committing to an accountable and respected third-party certifying system, Starbucks has created in internal “corporate responsibility” model that is expensive for coffee farmers, non-transparent and strictly voluntary. Starbucks’ has yet to fully committ to incoporating corporate accountable practices into their business model.

Starbucks calls its coffee worker-friendly — but in Ethiopia, a day’s pay is a dollar. For more information please visit Investigative Report: Promises and poverty

It is time to turn the heat up on Starbucks. Take action today! Sign OCA’s 2008 petition to Starbucks demanding that all espresso drinks be both 100% certified Organic and Fair Trade.

Take a few moments to visit Organic Consumers Association to learn more about this and other concerns that we, as responsible and caring consumers, need to be aware of. This is our planet, and we truly need to take steps to care for the earth and ALL the people who inhabit this world.

I have a very important message to pass along. I would strongly urge you to pay close attention, and also encourage you to check those labels! Educate yourself on what is in the products you allow your family and loved ones to use on a daily basis.

CONSUMER ALERT:

CANCER-CAUSING INGREDIENT FOUND IN LEADING “ORGANIC” & “NATURAL” PERSONAL CARE PRODCUTS

A newly released study commissioned by the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and overseen by environmental health consumer advocate David Steinman (author of The Safe Shopper’s Bible), revealed the presence of the undisclosed carcinogenic contaminant 1,4-Dioxane in leading shampoos, body washes, lotions and other personal care and household cleaning products claiming to be “natural” or “organic”. The study results, to be released this weekend at the Natural Products Expo in California, are already sending shockwaves through the “organic” and “natural” body care industry.

Today I am featuring a fellow blogger dedicated to educating the public of the dangers of toxic substances in our environment. Mark Sadaka of PharmaWatchDog has a Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University, as well as a Master of Science in Public Health degree from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine with specialization in environmental toxicology and risk assessment. I believe Mr. Sadaka is very well educated in his chosen field, and after a tragic personal loss he is truly serious about getting the word out to the people.

Mr. Sadaka earned his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis where he served as an Editor of the Journal of Law and Policy Law Review. He has a solid commitment to defending those who cannot defend themselves against companies with nearly unlimited resources. Please take the time to visit PharmaWatchDog.com and find out about the truth concerning toxic substances and the dangers to public health. We are poisoning ourselves and we owe it to our loved ones, and ourselves, to discover how we can prevent further tragedies in our lives and live toxin free.

I am adding PharmaWatchDog.com to my blogroll, and hope my blogging friends will do so as well, and help spread the word.