11 minute read
COMMUNITY EARTH
Green Ossining’s 10th annual Earth Day Festival, set for April 17 through 25, will be a weeklong celebration of activities, partnerships and offers. Determined to not let another year escape, the group has pivoted from its usual large-scale in-person event format and is offering “something for everyone” with more than 60 activities— including weeklong offers, opportunities at a set date and time, small socially-distanced gatherings and special online entertainment and educational experiences.
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Opportunities for engagement include a community-wide cleanup, a petting zoo, special events at local farms, classes in cooking and eating healthier, hands-on kids’ activities, the sale of fair-trade and local artisan goods, New York farm beer tastings, composting classes, tree plantings in parks, and live music events. Many local brick-and-mortar businesses will participate with special offers, as supporting a local economy is a facet of a sustainable future.
“While the pandemic has tested our resilience on so many levels, record numbers of people turned to the great outdoors and spent time taking in the gifts that only our natural world could offer,” says Suzie Ross, chairperson and founding member of Green Ossining. “Parallel to continued interest in the outdoors, humancaused planetary warming continues to hasten the instability of the global and local climate. It is imperative that communities also understand what is at stake, the urgency of action, and both the necessity and importance of individual participation. We have all spent the past year being incredibly creative, and we’re grateful for an opportunity to envision a meaningful and safe Earth Week celebration with all of you in 2021.”
The festival is being hosted and organized by Green Ossining with the assistance of the Town and Village of Ossining. Town Supervisor Dana Levenberg says a socially distanced approach to the festival, which considers public health, mirrors the goal of all the sustainability initiatives highlighted throughout the week.
“They will not only benefit the long-term health of our environment, but our bodies and minds as well,” she says. “Big thanks to the Green Ossining team for continuing to push us all to take personal responsibility for our earth, during Earth Week and every week.”
Founded in 2009, Green Ossining is a communitybased environmental resource organization with a mission to promote environmental sustainability throughout the community and develop practical methods that protect its natural resources. With a goal to create a forum for those who are concerned about the environment, its objectives are to explore, identify and prioritize sensible “green” methods and practices.
For more information, including updates about special events happening throughout the week, follow Green Ossining on Instagram or Facebook or visit GreenOssining.org/earth-day-festival/. See ad back cover.
On April 24, The World Peace Sanctuary, in Wassaic, is hosting an Earth Day celebration featuring a prayer ceremony, a bringyour-own picnic lunch, a drum circle and two donation-based Walking the Trail workshops. “Our guide, Michael Michael Gulbrandsen Gulbrandsen, is a listener of nature’s whispers. He instructs people how to connect to nature and its inhabitants by walking the trail,” says Ann Marie Robustelli, executive assistant of the World Peace Prayer Society.
The day will begin at 10 a.m. with a Morning Tranquility Walk. Participants will learn techniques for receiving healing from and connecting to nature. The noon picnic lunch will be followed by a world peace prayer ceremony at 1 p.m., and then an Afternoon Fairy Walk at 1:30 p.m.
“We’ll walk the trail in the forest to see signs of the divine dancing of the magical creatures of the forest and connect with them,” Gulbrandsen says. “In this workshop we will discover ideal locations for fairy houses, place a decorated doorway and then enhance the area around it with nature.” Materials will be provided.
Space is limited in the Walking the Trail workshops. The suggested donation for each is $20.
The day’s events will conclude at 4 p.m. with Nature’s Sound Circle. Participants will gather in an outdoor circle “to build community and reconnect with the land and the spirits of the place,” Gulbrandsen says. “Listen to the sound of the drum as it beats, shake a turtle rattle, and then the howl of a wolf is heard. Join in or just enjoy the energy.” Donations are welcome.
The sanctuary grounds are open from dawn to dusk. Covid precautions, including masks and social distancing, will be in place for all Earth Day events. There is a portable toilet on the grounds.
“Join us this year as we celebrate our connection to the earth,” Robustelli says. “This connection that we have to nature, plants and the land is The World Peace Sanctuary important to our health and all that we are.” Location: World Peace Sanctuary, 26 Benton Rd., Wassaic, NY. For reservations or more information, contact Ann Marie Robustelli at 845.337.2599 or annmarie@worldpeace.org, or visit WorldPeace.org/sanctuary/. The Bedford 2030 Earth Day Festival
Bedford 2030 Earth Day Festival
The Bedford 2030 Earth Day Festival, cohosted by Bedford 2030 and Healthy Yards, will take place May 2 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Bedford Hills Train Station. Visitors to this free, family-friendly event can shop for plant and garden items while enjoying live music.
“The annual Earth Day Festival is a wonderful opportunity to bring our community together and share ways to take climate action now. We’ll have a plant swap, native pollinator plant packs for sale, kids’ activities and lots of great partners tabling with information on healthy yard practices and sustainable solutions,” says Erin Glocke, community engagement manager at Bedford 2030. “We have several protocols in place this year to ensure everyone’s safety, so we are excited to welcome our community back for an afternoon of fun, celebrating our planet, and committing to making it a healthier, greener place for all.”
There will also be native plants and trees, compost made from Bedford food scraps, composting materials, and Hilltop Hanover vegetables for sale.
Nonprofits or environmentally friendly businesses that want a table at the festival, or anyone interested in volunteering (including students needing community service credit), can sign up at HealthyYards.org/ earthdaysignup/.
Social distancing and masks will be required. There will be free parking in the train station parking lot.
Location: Bedford Hills Train Station, 46 Depot Plaza, Bedford Hills, NY. For questions or information, email info@healthyyards.org or visit Bedford2030.org.
Drink Beet Juice to Lower Blood Pressure
Hypertension is a global disease that particularly affects people in lowincome communities, but a new study by the UK University of Nottingham suggests that beetroot juice may be a practical solution for people with high blood pressure that have little access to diagnostic help or money for medication. Researchers divided 47 people between 50 and 70 years of age in Tanzania into three groups. For 60 days, one group drank nitrate-rich beetroot juice and folic acid; another was given nitrate-rich beetroot juice and a placebo; and the third drank nitratedepleted beetroot juice. The researchers found that systolic blood pressure dropped by 10.8 millimeters (mm) Hg (mercury) in the nitrate-rich plus folic acid group and 6.1 mm Hg in the nitrate-rich and placebo group. Studies have shown that the high level of nitrates in beets is converted by the digestive system into nitric oxide, which relaxes and widens blood vessels.
B12 and Prenatal Supplements Gain Official Nod
In updated 2020-2025 dietary guidelines, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have endorsed the specific use of certain supplements, noting that under-consumption of some nutrients among Americans is linked to health concerns. The guidelines advise that infants being fed breast milk exclusively or partially should be given a vitamin D supplement of 400 IU per day beginning soon after birth and perhaps continuing for more than a year. Women that are pregnant or planning to become pregnant should take a daily prenatal vitamin and mineral supplement. Pregnant or lactating women that follow a vegetarian or vegan diet are advised to talk to their healthcare provider about supplementation to ensure that they get adequate amounts of iron, vitamin B12, choline, zinc, iodine and omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The guidelines also state that some older adults may require vitamin B12 supplements, noting concerns over the amount of the vitamin absorbed from food.
Keep Off Junk Foods for Cognitive Wellness
New research from Rush Medical College, in Chicago, shows that regularly cheating on a healthy diet undermines its cognitive benefits. For 19 years, researchers followed 5,001 adults over age 65 that were asked to eat the Mediterranean diet, with its emphasis on daily servings of fruit, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, fish, potatoes and unrefined cereals, plus moderate wine consumption. Every three years, their cognitive abilities were tested and their diets reviewed, including how often they ate a Western diet of fried foods, sweets, refined grains, red meat and processed meats. After almost two decades, those that adhered most faithfully to the Mediterranean diet were cognitively 5.8 years younger than those that followed it the least.
Group Hug
Nations Band Together to Preserve One-Third of the Planet
While human activity has transformed 75 saac benhesed/Unsplash.com percent of the Earth’s surface and 66 percent of ocean ecosystems, the
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services determined in a 2019 assessment that approximately 1 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, some in mere decades. In response to the crisis, more than 50 countries representing 30 percent of the world’s land-based biodiversity, 25 percent of its land-based carbon sinks, 28 percent of important areas of marine biodiversity and more than 30 percent of ocean carbon sinks have united as the High
Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC 30x30), avowing to preserve 30 percent of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030.
The group announced its goal at the One Planet Summit for Biodiversity in January, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, along with the World Bank and the United
Nations. “We call on all nations to join us,” Macron said in the video launching of the plan. Biologist E.O. Wilson has called for the “conservation moonshot” of protecting half of the land and the sea. Goals include preventing biodiversity loss, solving the climate crisis and preventing pandemics.
Honest Ingredients
Protecting the Organic Marketplace
Global sales of organic products totaled $90 billion in 2017 according to the 2018 edition of the study The World of Organic Agriculture, published by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture and Organics International. In the U.S., the figure is $50 billion, or 5 percent of all grocery store sales. Demand for organic products is increasing, more farmers cultivate organically, more land is certified organic and 178 countries report organic farming activities.
The challenge is to safeguard organic standards from large corporations that buy up organic brands and try to weaken U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requirements. This has led to an erosion of both organic standards and consumer trust in the organic labeling of products such as eggs, milk and grains.
To restore public trust, the Organic Consumers Association is committed to exposing the fraudulent players in the organic industry while fighting for stronger organic protections. At one time, states could develop their own rules for organic food production and processing. But in 1990, Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act, which created the National Organic Program and the National Organic Standards Board. Foods labeled USDA Organic are the gold standard for health and sustainability.
Silver Lining
Discarded Safety Gear Used to Build Highways
With the plethora of used, disposable face masks accumulating worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, avenues of incorporating them into the recycling stream are underway. An estimated 6.8 billion disposable masks are used around the world each day. Researchers at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia, have formulated a new road-making material comprised of a mix of shredded single-use face masks and processed building rubble designed to meet civil engineering safety standards.
Their study in the journal Science of the Total Environment shows that using the recycled face mask material to make one kilometer of a two-lane road would use up about 3 million masks, preventing 93 tons of waste from going to landfills. Roads are made of four layers—a subgrade, base, sub-base and asphalt on top. All the layers must be both strong and flexible to withstand the pressures of heavy vehicles and prevent cracking. Processed building rubble, or recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), can be used on its own for the three base layers, and adding shredded face masks to RCA enhances the material while addressing environmental challenges.
