Educational and Community Outreach Initiatives
Learn ways you can lighten your carbon footprint and lighten your family's load. By simplifying your home, your career, your commute, your activities, you will find that you have more time for your family, and more time for yourself. Too much "stuff" has overloaded our culture into believing that we need more, and so we consume more and have more debt. Determine what is most important to you, what makes you smile, what fills your cup, and figure out what does this for your whole family. You may just realize that you need a whole lot less stuff, a whole lot less house, and a whole lot less stress. By simplifying your lifestyle, you will have more time to connect with your family, and also help Mama Earth take a deep breath as there is less burden on her resources. There are many ways to live more sustainably. You can recycle, compost, repurpose, use reusable shopping bags, go plastic free, drive less or use alternative fuels, eat local and organic, and support sustainable farming and business practices. Join us for a workshop on Simple and Sustainable Living and learn ways to slow down to enjoy life instead of racing through it in order to keep up with all that stuff.
Non-GMO Family Awareness Campaign
GMOs - or Genetically Modified Organisms - are created by splicing genes to produce unnatural plant species. Most GMOs are engineered to withstand herbicides or produce their own insecticides, and have been linked with a number of health problems and environmental damage. In the U.S., GMOs are in as much as 80% of conventional processed food, and in nearly 50 other countries, GMOs are restricted or outright banned. We think families have a right to know this information, and a right to say no to foods with GMOs in them. That's why we marched 313 miles with the Right2Know March last fall to increase awareness and demand labeling on all GMOs in the U.S. And, that is why we want to continue marching for your right to know what is in your food and to prevent our children from becoming unsuspecting science experiments. The Non-GMO Project is the only U.S. third party verification for providing non-GMO choices. Look for their label so you know you are choosing non-GMO. And, join us in supporting the Non-GMO Family Awareness Campaign so we can connect with families in helping us all have safer food options! Learn more about our Non-GMO Family Awareness Campaign >
Zero Waste Family Project
We all know that you are what you eat, and that what goes into your body must come out, for better or worse, right? Well, the same goes for your consumption and what goes into your home and what comes out. The best way to lighten your carbon footprint is to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Take those steps first. If you are already doing that, try composting so that you have no food waste at all, so that it goes back into the earth the way Mama Earth intended it to. If you already compost, there is one more step you can take to reduce and even eliminate having any waste. Whatever you cannot repurpose, reuse, recycle, or compost, you can bottle brick. You take your waste and stuff it into a plastic bottle. Stuffed tight and full, these bottles become hard, sturdy building materials for park benches, walls, and schools. Want to learn more, join us in signing up for the Zero Waste Family Project and take a step toward reducing and even eliminating your trash. Learn more about our Zero Waste Family Project >
Alternative Fuels and Biodiesel Connection Project
With the price of gas always fluctuating based on politics or how big oil is feeling that day, we want people to know that there are alternatives. The movie Who Killed the Electric Car wasn't fiction, you know. It was big oil again calling the shots. So, we want to share what we have learned about running the Eco Womb Tour Bus on waste vegetable oil, and connect you with the businesses that are working hard to provide alternative fuels. Nowadays, biodiesel companies are using waste veggie to create biodiesel, and even working with local farmers to provide cooking oil to local restaurants, then collecting that oil and turning it into biodiesel to go back to those farms to run their machinery. Full circle local sustainability at it's best! There are also many colleges and universities that are making their own biodiesel and working toward a future where we aren't as dependent on big oil here or abroad. Help us connect students, farmers, restaurants, and biodiesel companies with your support of the Biodiesel Connection Project so that we can all work together in promoting and providing alternative fuels.
Natural and Eco-Safe Parenting
Connection has been sort of the Eco Womb theme for the year, setting our intentions as a family to better connect with each other, with ourselves, with community, and with our planet. And, as a mama, no matter what I am doing, each day revolves around my connection with my kids. Natural parenting to us is simply connecting with our kids, trusting our intuition, and being close to their needs so they grow in their independence when they are ready. We support natural child birth, wearing your baby, cloth diapering, family sleeping, child-led weaning, life learning, and organic foods. Eco-safe parenting to us has been trusting that intuition again to only bring things in our home and provide for our kids what is natural and safe. The original idea for Eco Womb was to create a safe home environment for our babes as they transitioned from womb to arms. And, as we discovered more and more chemical sensitivities and food intolerances, we realized that it was vital as a family to create the most natural and eco-safe environment for our family as we could. Join us for a workshop on Natural and Eco-Safe Parenting and learn more ways you can connect naturally with your children and keep your family safe!
Voting with your Forks and your Dollars
It all seems so overwhelming, huh? Corporate control of our economy, environment, and food supply. Taking steps to "go green" or "eat organic" when you can barely make it from paycheck to paycheck. We know, we have been there. And, it has taken us several thousand little baby steps, and several years of doing it to get to this point of truly living simply and sustainably, using alternative fuels and renewable energy, buying exclusively organic and Non-GMO, and going "zero waste" with our family. And, we are still taking steps. But, the best thing you can do to take those steps is to vote with your forks and your dollars. Yes, politicians are run by corporations and in order to really make change you have to go to the source. Don't get us wrong, voting and becoming involved in the legislative process is helpful. But, when you have corporate-run lobbyists seeding out billions to those who are supposedly running this country and making laws that impact our economy, environment, and our food supply, well, you pretty much have a corporate-run country. By not giving those corporations your money, you are taking huge steps in creating change in how our system is run. For example, Monsanto is a chemical turned seed company who is the number one producer of GMOs in the world and is wreaking havoc on our soil, food, farmers and local economies. The Head of the FDA is the former Vice-President of Monsanto. 80% of the food you buy in your local grocery store is GMO and most likely a result of Monsanto. Stop buying GMOs, stop giving Monsanto money, stop the warped political support of allowing control of our food supply and causing harm to our environment and health. I know this one can get pretty touchy, but support our Voting with your Forks and your Dollars campaign and we will help you connect the dots so you see where your money is going. It does matter. And, you do have choices in how you spend your money. We have not been in a Wal-Mart in eight years, we withdrew all of our money from Bank of America and now use a local bank, and yes, we buy all organic and non-GMO. We do not have a lot of money, but we also do not own a lot of stuff, and everything we buy is thought out and planned. You can become a conscious consumer, too. Let us show you how.