This weekend, I want to let someone else do the talking. Birke Baehr is an 11-year old kid, but he’s got the wisdom of a 40-year old and he wants to tell you what he thinks about our current food system. This is a short video, about 5 minutes, and its well worth the watch!!
I particularly love his quote that you can either pay for good food now or pay for hospital bills later. I plan to do some more talking about the food system in future posts, but if you’re interested in learning more, you could check out some of my past posts on food issues. I also want to share with you an update on the issue of triclosan – the environmentally toxic anti-bacterial agent that I wrote about back in April. A new study has been released showing that triclosan impairs muscle function in animals and human tissue. The evidence supporting the restriction of triclosan just keeps piling up but governments aren’t moving very quickly. If you are purchasing household sanitation products, remember not to buy anti-bacterial or anti-microbial products – they are no better than soap and water.
Last week’s articles were featured in a number of carnivals and link roundups this week:
Ethical Mutual Funds – A Better Way to Invest? was featured in:
- Finance Carnival, hosted by Wealth Artisan
- Carnival of Money Pros, hosted by Aaron Hung
- Yakezie Carnival, hosted by The College Investor
Investing to Save the World was featured in:
- Carnival of Financial Planning, hosted by Cult of Money
- Personal Finance Happy Hour, hosted by Canadian Personal Finance
- Personal Finance Week in Review, hosted by One Smart Dollar
- Favorite Blog Posts, hosted by Modest Money
- Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted by Investing Answers
- Carnival of Financial Camaraderie, hosted by My University Money
- Favorite Posts of the Week, hosted by The Outlier Model
- Ed Rempel at Million Dollar Journey evaluates whether or not equities are dying…again. An interesting read for you investing junkies
- Staying on the investment track, My Own Advisor asks how many dividend stocks are enough for a self-directed portfolio. I’m looking to start doing some more hands-on investing in the future, and this is something that I have definitely been asking myself.
- Speaking of local food, Marie at Prairie Eco-Thrifter outlines her attempt to grow fruit in her backyard and how the squirrels are spoiling her efforts. I sympathize completely - squirrels are among my worst enemies.
- See Debt Run raised some interesting strategies to deal with that one question that gets asked in every job interview – “Do you have any questions?”. A worthy read for those on the job market.
- Teacher Man at Young and Thrifty looks at the cost of owning and maintaining a family cottage. As we get down to the end of summer, I’m sure we’ll be soaking up the last chances to go to the cottage and asking ourselves again in the Fall if its really worth the cost of not using it all winter.
- Steve Zussino at Sustainable Personal Finance reminds us that keeping an old refrigerator may be costing more money than its worth. I know beer tastes better cold, but its not worth the premium!
- Big Cajun Man at the Canadian Personal Finance Blog voices his frustration with Telus and their cell phone department. All the big three, Robellus as I call them, will gouge you for every penny they can unless you know how to work the system.
- and lastly, Jeremy at Modest Money looks at the pros and cons of switching careers. I’m in the middle of a career change and its a scary thing to do, but if you believe in yourself, it will work out in the end!
Did you watch the video? What do you think of Birke’s ideas and thoughts?
About two months ago, I wrote an article about 
My fiancee and I are having a green wedding. That means that we’re making conscious choices about the environmental impacts of every wedding-related decision we make, including what we provide to our guests. We decided not to provide soft drinks, but rather to provide a selection of healthier, organic juices. We went to the grocery store and found ourselves in a classic environmental dilemma, much like the ketchup bottle situation that Rick Smith found himself in when writing 
Go into your bathroom and look at the ingredients on every cosmetic or personal care product. Unless you are an avid purchaser of eco and/or health friendly products, I guarantee that almost all of them will list either Fragrance or Parfum as an ingredient. But what exactly is fragrance or parfum? The sad reality is that you might not want to know the answer.
Right now, oil is the hot commodity. But it might not always be that way. Whether or not we have hit peak oil, it’s a finite resource and it won’t last forever. And then the real resource war will start. Because, you see, humans can survive without oil. Our ancestors did so for thousands of years. What humans cannot survive without is water. And water, like oil, is a finite resource. Look around you, and it might seem like there is plenty of water. We live around lakes, rivers, streams and creeks. You probably have a decorative fountain or pool not far away. Water freely flows out of our taps and into our toilets. Well, not literally out of course, that water comes at a cost, both financial and environmental.