INDEPENDENT MEDIA by Steve Anderson Jeff Howe, who coined the term “crowdsourcing,” defines it as “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent – usually an employee – and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call.” When Vancouverites gathered for the...

Nov 5, 2010

ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot The conclusion of another fast-paced year approaches, one in which I have been immersed in discussions about food security issues and also witnessed many inspiring initiatives to jumpstart a local food revolution. It’s no wonder so many British Columbians are concerned about food security; you only have to read the...

Nov 5, 2010

UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young You are responsible for your life. You can’t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on. – Oprah Winfrey Life is such an interesting journey and part of being human is the attempt to understand the meaning of it all. The meaning we ascribe to our experiences depends...

Nov 5, 2010

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead The face of the financial crisis has taken many forms, from people lining up outside banks desperate to get at their savings to the dilapidation of newly built suburban homes that have been foreclosed on. Inside Job, a punch-packing documentary by Charles Ferguson, the director who previously picked through the wreckage of...

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki with Faisal Moola Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, after oil. And as with oil, the massive scale of production necessary to meet our insatiable demand for coffee results in an enormous ecological footprint. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, more than seven million tonnes of coffee will...

Nov 5, 2010

Consumers are paying more for food at the grocery store with a sizeable percentage going to processors, marketers and other middlemen. That’s the finding of a study commissioned by three Prairie farm organizations: Keystone Agricultural Producers of Manitoba, Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan and Wild Rose Agricultural Producers of...

Nov 5, 2010

by James Clark Eighteen months ago, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney blocked then-British MP George Galloway from Canada, labelling him a terror supporter and a national security risk. At the time, Galloway was scheduled to appear in four Canadian cities on a speaking tour called “Resisting War: From Gaza to...

Nov 5, 2010

by Terry Boehm The fourth round of negotiations over a new trade agreement between Canada and Europe – CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) – took place in Ottawa last month and yet few Canadians have even heard of this trade deal. Many Canadians might expect a trade deal with Europe to be a progressive step forward, but, in this case,...

by Bruce Burnett Your cell phone won’t stop ringing and those emails, each demanding an immediate response, keep piling up. You become an adrenaline and cortisol factory and that malevolent duo of stress hormones is further fuelled by that double-double you gulped in the car. “The brain is a wonderful organ,” wrote American poet Robert Frost....

Nov 5, 2010

  Your life depends on Omega-3s Omega-3s are one of the most researched supplements in the world, with numerous studies indicating their function and importance in cholesterol management, joint pain, skin health, cognitive function, vision, mood regulation, hormonal health, immune system functioning, digestion and… the list goes on. There are 3 main...

Nov 5, 2010

Celebrate your health – naturally Consumer interest in learning how to promote and maintain health naturally is at an all-time high. At the same time, scientific research in the area of the benefits of using natural health and organic products has also grown exponentially. National Health Food Month is an annual initiative of the Canadian Health Food...

Nov 5, 2010

by Ruth Welburn For years, healthcare professionals considered fever to be undesirable and diligently sought to reduce it. This led to the ubiquitous and indiscriminate use of fever reducing medications in hospitals and at home. But is fever a bad thing? Could Nature have been right after all? Is there a benefit to be gained from the very symptoms we seek to...

What good can it do? DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels Test early, test often. That’s the mantra of doctors and disease groups who believe finding disease early is essential to a long and healthy life. Believing that an important aspect of staying healthy is eternal vigilance, they are promoting an ever-watchful eye, encouraging people to be scanned for a disease...