Letter From The Publisher
April is here and everyone’s talking about the economy. But this year, it isn’t Tax Day they’re talking about. Current economic challenges trump any usual discussions of April 15th tax woes. If you’ve been dreaming about your own personal bailout pulling up in front of your apartment, with a Smart car full of cash, wake up and smell the trade-free coffee.
You might want to start dreaming about an economic possibility more rooted in practical sustainability…Welcome to the new Green Economy. It’s full of promise on many levels and looks to be an essential part of our future. Read about the many new job possibilities in Welcome to Green Collar America, on page 18.
Chef and Food Network star, Tyler Florence, is featured on our cover this month. Learn how Tyler insists on using organic and local-sourced foods to feed his own family (page 12).
Now that the weather is warming up, many of us will turn to getting back in shape after the long winter. Functional Fitness (page 14) promotes a new way of looking at exercise that enhances our everyday lives.
Natural Heroes, on page 26, profiles Scott Harrison, a New Yorker whose work in creating charity: water is bringing relief to water-challenged people around the world.
Also get a preview of the informative and entertaining exhibit, Climate Change, at the American Museum of Natural History (page 24).
This month Green Girl (page 17) adjusts to a new downsized but green life, taking a spring walk in Central Park that sends her directly to The Plaza for organic vodka. Emotional Fitness (page 16) is a personal journey that points to the winding tracks many of us travel in our emotional growth and development.
For those who have tired of spending quality time watching Animal Planet with your pets, check out Pets in the City, on page 8. This month features alternative activities you can do right along with your pets, including a yoga class for dogs and a “Barking Beauty Pageant.”
Local Greens, on page 28, introduces many of us to Community Shared Agriculture (CSA). It’s a great way to support local farmers and own a piece of the farm’s best summer crops, without having to pull any weeds or spread any manure.
All of which still sounds like more fun than talking about Tax Day. April marks the beginning of baseball season. This year, New Yorkers have two new stadiums to sample. I vote for the Mets. Their Citi Field is green!
Tom Citrano, Publisher
Popularity: 5% [?]
Conscious Eating LOCAL greens
Buy Direct from Farmers Through Community Supported Agriculture
by Robin Mattson
What had to be one of the longest winters in Manhattan is finally over. Green sprouts are popping out of the earth in container gardens, window boxes and herb gardens all over the city. Although I wish I had room for a proper vegetable garden, like the one my father used to grow in California, when I was growing up, I long ago embraced the fact that it wasn’t going to happen in New York.
Popularity: unranked [?]
WELCOME TO Green Collar AMERICA
A WORKABLE WAY TO NEW JOBS AND 
SUSTAINED RECOVERY
by Brita Belli
Illustrations by Joe Weissmann
Yes, the traditional American economic picture is bleak, with every major sector—retail, banking, automotive and construction—reporting record job losses.Twenty-two of the 30 companies comprising the Dow Jones industrial average have reported job losses since the economy began crumbling in October 2008, including industries that many experts thought were strong enough to weather the storm; even construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar announced 20,000 jobs would be cut on January 27, and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced 8,000 job cuts the same day.
That month, the nationwide unemployment rate reached 7.6 percent, its highest level since the 1980s recession.But, the previously nascent green economy is taking shape, bringing with it the promise of new jobs.
Popularity: 39% [?]
WiseWords A Conversation with Bill McKibben
by S. Alison Chabonais
Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books on the environment and culture, most recently, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. He explains how vibrant local economies are getting it right and showing us the way to a saner, human-scale world. McKibben also is co-founder of 350.org, the first global grassroots movement to deal with climate change.
Q. In Deep Economy, you note that America’s “more is better” mantra of economic progress is no longer making us wealthier, but instead, less happy, less healthy and more insecure.
Why is this?
Up to a certain point, accumulation does make you happier. Visit, say, rural China; there, people live in extreme poverty, often with six or seven people in a room. When you make some money, perhaps working at a factory, you can heat your hut in the winter. You can add another room for you, your wife and your kid. You get some relative privacy for the first time in your life, worth a great deal in terms of increased happiness.
But, past a certain point—which economists around the world have estimated at roughly $10,000 a year in average income, or $40,000 for a family of four in this country—that equation starts to fall apart. Americans, for example, have been using their money to build massive houses, where everyone has their own room and electronic screen. We barely see our families, much less our neighbors. The average American today has half as many close friends as the average American of 1950.
Q. What else have we sacrificed by buying into advertisers’ push to
accumulate more stuff?
Where to start? Health, maybe. The average American is badly overweight, largely because of the intake of relatively expensive processed commercial foods, which we often rely on because we spend so much time at our jobs, earning the money we need to support a consumer way of life. Or, consider leisure. The average European works about seven fewer weeks a year than we do. Yes, they consequently have less disposable income, but far more time with family and friends. Not surprisingly, Europeans generally report being happier with their lives than we are, concludes prominent British economist Richard Layard, in Happiness: Lessons from a New Science.
Q. Deep Economy makes a convincing case that rebuilding community-oriented neighborhoods and sustainable local economies delivers a better
quality of life; so, where do we start? Probably the simplest place is with localizing food supplies. Because that’s a consumer decision we make three times a day, we can convert at our own pace. I once spent a year eating nothing but local foods. I met many of my neighbors for the first time—all the farmers who were growing my food.
Neighborliness is a common outcome; in one study cited by Christopher Cook in Diet for a Dead Planet, sociologists followed shoppers, first around the supermarket, and then around the farmers’ market; the average shopper engaged in ten times more conversations at the farmers’ market. They weren’t just acquiring their weekly calories, they were rebuilding broken communities.
Q. Realistically, which other vital areas of community life can we make sustainable soon? We can do much more for ourselves. In communications: A few giant conglomerates own most radio stations in this country; now, a low-power FM movement is erecting community stations across America. In education: We know that the best education comes in small classrooms and small schools; it’s time to start deconsolidating. In government: In Vermont, where I live, we rely on town meetings; everyone in town gets together once a year and hashes out the budget, and it works Individuals’ long-term survival depends on having a strong working community. By patronizing local businesses, they remain a hardy support network in tough times.
Q. In speaking of the environmental fallout due to escalating consumption, you observe that, “If the rich countries can’t change course, then the poor countries won’t.” What will it take to make the transition to a different lifestyle tolerable? Global warming makes it clear that we’re all in this together. The only way we’ll get out of this fix is if we work cooperatively.That’s why we’re accelerating a huge global organizing drive for 350.org. 350 is the amount of carbon dioxide, in parts per million, that climatologists now deem the safe maximum for our atmosphere.
At 387, we’re already past that total, turning the global climate issue from a problem into an emergency. We need Natural Awakenings readers to join us October 24, 2009, in organizing and attending rallies and events around the planet to draw attention to that number and its meaning. Together, we can reach out beyond individualism, toward survival of the community of humankind.
For more information visit BillMcKibben.com.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Natural Heroes Scott Harrison: Quenching the Thirst of Those in Need
This month’s Natural Hero, Scott Harrison, is the founder of charity: water. He is a New York resident whose work takes him around the world, bringing life-giving water to deprived people everywhere.
What is charity: water? We’re a New York City-based nonprofit, dedicated to providing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations around the world. We give away 100 percent of the money we raise publicly.
Every penny goes directly to fund the water projects in the field. Photos of all our projects are available on our website and publicly through GPS coordinates on GoogleEarth.com, to promote transparency. It’s been a quick start for us. In two-and-a-half years, we’ve raised $9 million and funded 1,240 water projects, which will give 650,000 people clean water.What brought you to your work with charity: water?
I lived a very selfish 10 years in New York City, promoting nightclubs and fashion parties. Then, as the result of a faith experience I had when I was 28, during a particularly decadent vacation in South America, I decided to throw my old life away and dedicate myself to serving God and the poor.I found an opportunity to serve on a hospital ship in Liberia, West Africa, leaving behind a life of $15 cocktails and $350 bottles of vodka.
On my third day in Africa, I saw 7,000 people standing in line outside a stadium, waiting for their chance to get medical help. We couldn’t possibly help more than 2,000. I started crying that day, and inside I guess I never stopped. I learned that unsafe water and lack of sanitation causes 80 percent of the disease in the world. So, 10 years of nightlife, two years of volunteering and not wanting to turn my back on these problems, these people in crisis—that’s what led me to start charity: water. It’s my life’s work.It’s relatively easy to determine need.
How do you target priorities?
There are approximately one billion people on the planet today without access to clean water. We focus on helping them, what we call the bottom billion. These people live in Africa, India, Bangladesh, Southeast Asia and Central and South America. We look for opportunities of great need in these countries and team up with local, “on the ground,” organizations to drill wells, protect the springs and construct rainwater harvesting solutions. We have 18 partners in our efforts in these countries. They define local need through triage.
I just returned from Ethiopia. Women there set out at 5 a.m. to walk five hours to rivers, where they dig water out of muddy riverbanks and then carry 40 pounds of that dirty water on their heads back another five hours to their villages. It’s not a choice. It’s all they have.
The billion people we are trying to serve don’t even have five gallons of clean water every day. The goal is to give every person five gallons of clean water each day. The average American uses 150 gallons of clean water a day. But, it’s not as simple as us turning off the tap in New York and someone in Africa getting clean water.
Have global warming and other environmental changes affected the water crisis?
Yes, global warming affects the poor more than anyone else. People everywhere are dependent on rain for crops, and those rains don’t come exactly when they used to any more. Sometimes, they don’t come at all. Growing food and eating can become extremely challenging.
We’re facing water shortages, even in the United States. When they designed the Hoover Dam, they never thought the water level would recede by half. That’s about to happen, and the engineers are planning to move the water intake valves to the bottom of the dam.That’s the irony. We’re good here at pulling water from the ground for manufacturing and bottled water, but Third World countries don’t have that technology. Many of them are sitting on untapped sources that could keep them alive. They just don’t have the money or technology to access it.
What impact have current challenges in the economy had on your fundraising?
At this point, more than 50,000 people have supported charity: water with donations. That’s not a small group of people. We focus on small donations; small amounts of money that people still have to give. Twenty dollars can help one person get clean water. Five thousand dollars can bring clean water to an entire village.
It’s a fine line to walk. There’s no comparison between the suffering and hardship we see around the world and what most Americans experience. Sure, people here are losing their jobs and cars and homes; it’s a terrible situation. But, those bottom billion people in the world, who don’t have clean water, would trade places in a heartbeat for the life we have here.
Are you lobbying for government support of your work? There are a bunch of organizations already working on that end of the problem who are better suited to spending their time in D.C. We’re a practical, grassroots organization. As a rule, we don’t like sitting through long meetings talking about policy and what we’re going to do. We just like doing it. I don’t think anyone in our group would have the patience for dealing with the bureaucracy our government has become.
Has the situation improved since you started your work or are you, literally, just treading water?
It’s getting better. The United Nations has released figures that show the number of people without water is now at 900 million. That’s 200 million below the figure of 1.1 billion previously documented. So, the collective work of all the governments and rescue groups appears to be moving in the right direction.
Does charity: water have a master plan?In five years, we’d like to be solving 1 percent of the problem each year. We’ll need $150 million every year to accomplish that goal. We can no longer count on corporate donations or government grants to fund this work. It’s going to take millions of people around the world to give whatever small amounts they have to make it happen.Does Scott Harrison have a master plan?I’m going to be doing this as long as I live.
For more information about charity: water, or to make a contribution, visit CharityWater.org. If you have a “Natural Hero” in your life, go to NaturalHeroes@NuGreenCity.com and tell us about that special someone you know who’s making our planet a better place to live.
Popularity: unranked [?]
CommunitySpotlight TriBeCa Med Spa
STYLISH NEIGHBORHOOD DESTINATION IS TOP U.S. MEDICAL SPA
TriBeCa MedSpa, located in New York City’s trendy TriBeCa neighborhood, is the top Medical Spa in the United States, according to a Day Spa Magazine survey. The designer-elegant facility includes four treatment rooms, an injectable room and a relaxing tranquility area and offers a renowned high level of care for an appreciative clientele.
TriBeCa MedSpa’s medical director is the renowned Dr. Gerald Ginsberg, New York Magazine’s top plastic surgeon. Dr. Ginsberg leads a team of medical professionals who have been featured as “Botox Strategists” and “Aesthetic Geniuses” in the New York Times, Entertainment Tonight, Essence, Vogue, InStyle, London Financial Times and many other major publications.
Michele Rivard is another highly-respected member of the TriBeCa MedSpa team. Her loyal and devoted clientele have nicknamed Michele “The Botox Strategist” for her extensive knowledge in facial anatomy, which she uses to enhance a client’s natural beauty A VISIA Skin Analysis is given to each client at TriBeCa MedSpa to help determine a personalized program for skin correction and renewal. This machine takes multiple pictures of the skin to reveal bacteria level, wrinkles, uneven texture, and sun damage below the skin’s surface. The VISIA Skin Analysis System also has the ability to show a picture of what the client could look like in seven years, and can even show a picture of the client with the clock turned back seven years on the aging process.
Whether you are concerned about fine lines, wrinkles, acne, sagging skin, uneven texture, leg or facial veins, brown spots, or unwanted hair, TriBeCa MedSpa will provide an optimal rejuvenation option to match your unique needs. Treatments include medical aesthetic services, advanced laser treatments, antifungal foot treatments, and collagen replacement. 
The TriBeCa MedSpa service menu also includes:
Titan Skin Tightening
Laser Hair Removal
Botox
Medical Grade Facials
Dermal Fillers
Vibra Dermabrasion
Chemical Peels
Sun Damage/
Brown Spot Treatment
Fraxel Skin Resurfacing
Laser Skin Rejuvenation
Acne Corrective Treatment
Medical Pedicure
Vein Therapy
VISIA Skin Analysis
The TriBeCa MedSpa product philosophy is pure and simple and includes cosmeceuticals, mineral make-up and nutraceuticals. The Spa features Camille of NY Cosmeceuticals, formulated using no more than five simple ingredients, and contain no harmful chemical additives such as waxes, silicones, or fragrances. Color by Camille Mineral Make-Up is a pure and true mineral make-up containing a natural SPF and antimicrobial and antibacterial properties to protect, hydrate, clear up acne and clean the skin all day long.
TriBeCa MedSpa believes beautiful skin comes from the inside out and therefore provides pharmaceutical-grade vitamins such as fish oil, antioxidants, hyaluronic acids, multi-vitamins and other essential nutrients for a bi-directional approach to naturally support healthy-looking skin. TriBeCa MedSpa takes pride in their acclaimed customer service which ensures every client feels welcome, comfortable and at home. They have a vested respect and understanding of skincare, and are committed to making you look as beautiful outside as you feel inside.
TriBeCa MedSpa is located at 114 Hudson Street, NY, NY 10013. For more information about their products and services, call 212-925-9500 or visit online at TriBeCaMedSpa.com
Popularity: unranked [?]
Globalbrief Ballad of Thoreau
Earth Day on Walden Pond
Earth Day Network is joining with playwright Michael Johnathon in exploring the vital role we each play in protecting the Earth by living more simply and preserving natural environments in our home communities. Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau will stream online via EarthDayTV.net and be broadcast over public TV and radio and in theaters on Earth Day, April 22. To date, 7,200 schools and community theatres have performed the play in 35 countries, bringing to life the lessons of Henry David Thoreau, father of the environmental movement in America.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Healthbriefs
PECTIN POWER
Scientists have found a possible new explanation for why people who eat more fruits and vegetables have higher resistance to the spread of cancer. The answer lies in a simple fiber, called pectin. Pectin, found in all fruits and vegetables and known for its jam-jelling qualities,
appears to bind to and inhibit galectin 3, a protein in the body that plays a role in all stages of cancer progression.
Source: Norwich BioScience Institutes, 2008
Sleeping on It Helps Us Learn
Sleep helps the human mind learn complicated skills and recover learning we thought we had forgotten from the previous day, concludes a new study by the University of Chicago. Howard Nusbaum, professor of psychology at the university, explains that “Sleep consolidates learning by restoring what was lost over the course of a day and by protecting what was learned against subsequent loss.
Researchers tested their theory by asking 200 college students to learn a new video game containing a rich, multisensory virtual environment, in which players had to use both hands to deal with continually changing visual and auditory signals. The volunteers, most of whom had no previous gaming experience, were divided into three groups, each trained and tested at different times of the day. The groups that were allowed to get a good night’s sleep before being tested again the next morning achieved the highest performance scores.
CONQUERING CRAVINGS
Cravings for sweets can thwart any diet, but new research suggests that we can get cravings under control by taking a short, brisk walk. Walking, like any other exercise, has been shown helpful to people trying to manage dependencies like alcohol and nicotine, and the same seems to hold true for food cravings.
Source: University of Exeter, 2008
Popularity: 10% [?]
Newsbriefs Life Coach Offers Complimentary Spring Sessions
Elizabeth Cassidy, founder of Branching Out Life Coaching, is offering a spring special for new clients: purchase three coaching sessions and receive the fourth one free. She is also offering a complimentary 30-minute consultation. The offers are valid through May 31.
“I believe there are creative solutions for life’s challenges,” says Cassidy. She says life coaching can help clients reach their financial goals, release obstacles, gain clarity, and learn how to bring more balance to their lives.
Consultations can be done in person or over the phone. “Taking your life to new heights is just a phone call away,” says Cassidy, who has been featured in Newsday and The Huffington Post.
To contact Cassidy, call 516-629-6838 or email BranchOutLife@optonline.net. Visit BranchingOutLifeCoaching.com. See ad, page 17.
Therapist Uses New Therapy to Help People in Transition
Gretchen Langner, of New York City Therapists, specializes in Somatic Experiencing (SE). SE mobilizes stuck energy and eventually retrains the body-mind system by creating new ideas, beliefs and understanding.
“We have not been taught how to be aware of our bodies and how to calm ourselves when under stress,” says Langner.
“SE teaches you how to become your own expert in calming your system. It helps us with an array of problems, from processing old trauma or hurt to making major life decisions, getting through transitions and dealing with stress.”
SE therapy can be used for any problem where there is a need for changing perspectives and behavior. “I am also using the technique to help people with addictions, and those who are making big life transitions and choices,” says Langner.
Gretchen Langner’s office is located at 120 Riverside Drive, Suite 2W, in Manhattan. For more information, call 212-561-1970 or visit NYCTherapists.com. See ad, page 9.
Art Therapy Heals Childhood’s Traumatic Wounds
Bruce Perry, M.D., senior fellow for the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas, has discovered that children who have experienced emotional trauma will have smaller brains, and that the brain will not develop normally. Dr. Perry maintains that creative arts may aid in healing and balancing the child’s physical body and brain, which will support overall healing.
Julia Carroll teaches psychology at the University of Houston and is the author of Healed by Light: Professional Art Therapy. “Art therapy 
provides another voice when traumatic experiences have ‘frozen’ the physical voice,” she advises. “Drawing memories will reveal issues that, in talk therapy, could take months, or even years, to discover.”
Art therapy with a certified art therapist provides a safe arena in which the client can “speak.” Often, after a drawing is complete, the client feels more free to talk. “Sometimes, he or she will exhibit surprise at what they have drawn,” says Carroll, “and what they can now say about their past. So, certified art therapy can be a technique for self-examination and a means to uncover events that have been hidden for a lifetime.”
Julia Carroll’s book can be purchased at Amazon.com. A portion of the proceeds go to Oprah’s Angel Network and The PRASAD Project. Her website is JuliaCarroll1.com. See ad, page 7.
Rest Easy on a Healthy Mattress
The new Essentia brand of non-toxic memory foam mattresses is now available at showrooms in Fishkill, New York, and the Danbury Fair Mall, in Connecticut. Interested individuals can also check out the new mattresses at the Go-Green Expo, April 18-19, at the New York Hilton at 53rd and 6th avenues.
Unlike most other brands, Essentia mattresses are free of petroleum-based polyurethane and VOCs. According to Essentia Founder Jack Dell Accio, “Our handcrafted mattresses exceed most others in comfort, pressure relief and support. They are hypoallergenic and bed bug-resistant.” For those who order online, Essentia’s eco-friendly small package design allows for easy UPS shipping, too.
Shop online at EssentiaDirect.com or call 888-897-2202 for more information or directions. See ad, back cover.
An Earth-Friendly Moving Company
Based in Manhattan, Serenity Movers is an environmentally friendly, full-service, family-owned moving company. This spring, Serenity plans to begin using large, commercial plastic containers instead of cardboard boxes to help move customers’ belongings. The company is trying to avoid one-time-use paper products—even if they are made from recycled paper or cardboard—and the plastic containers can be reused numerous times.
Serenity Movers, in business since 1999, employs other Earth-friendly practices: They use only biodiesel fuels in their truck fleet, buy only green energy supplies, and use energy-saving light bulbs in their offices. The company’s main terminal is located in the Bronx, allowing them easy access to the New York City boroughs.
For more information, or to arrange a move, call 877-887-1818 or visit SerenityMovers.com. See ad, page 9.
Local Distributor Brings National Health Products to NYC Area
USANA Health Sciences creates nutritional products that nurture and protect the body’s cells against chronic degenerative diseases; their comprehensive offerings include vitamin supplements, meal replacement and weight-loss products, and a complete skin care line. Now, local associate Alison Fox is bringing these products to the New York City area.
Fox is enthusiastic about USANA’s many benefits. “What I have to offer is a product line that can reverse the degenerating process of cells, and a business opportunity in a solid company with an excellent mission—to make people healthier.”
Contact Alison Fox, USANA Health Sciences, Team Northrup, at 978-809-0760, or visit AFox.USANA.com. See ad, page 16.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Functional Fitness Exercise that translates to real life
by Lisa Marshall
So, you can bench press 200 pounds, run 10 kilometers in 45 minutes and turn heads when you slip on your Speedo. But, can you hoist your suitcase into the overhead compartment without throwing your back out, or squat to tie your toddler’s shoes without grimacing? According to advocates of “functional training”—predicted to be among the hottest fitness trends in 2009—these are the questions and answers that really matter.
Popularity: 5% [?]