Never underestimate a goat, they may have cute little faces, but they serve many purposes that really contribute to our environment, the recent wildfires (or better continual) in California struck my attention in regards to goats being in the news. I looked into this further and was provided with a lot of information that these little petting zoo animals are capable of. Goats are members of a diverse group of mammals called ungulates. They have never been known for winning any intelligence prizes in the animal kingdom. Researchers recently published a new paper called Frontiers in Zoology, which points out that these funny hoofed eating machines have a pretty high IQ. The strike against them is that they have been domesticated, thereby lacking their social intricacies and foraging skills due to no need, easy meal tickets provided.

In California, about 6000 wildfires sweep annually, causing damage to homes and land in large scale. When the rain stops in April, vegetation turns crisp and brown, the tiniest spark can set off a major fire. Chemicals are not an option because of leaking poison into the earth and large equipment to hinder the fire is way too expensive. Here comes in the new “kids” on the block at dinner, chomping, chomping eating their fill of this dry vegetation. Goats, several hundred of them , while they are simply just enjoying a meal, in turn, they are protecting the people of California form dry-season nightmare the blazing fast-spreading wild land fire. Five years ago local veterinarians started to introduce the goats to the area, these animals are good for this sort of fuel management because they are primarily browsers. Goats rather eat brush than grass. They eat 25 percent of their body weight each day and are definitely eco-friendly.

Reality is goats help prevent forest fires, or at best slow a fire down by eating the dry stuff before the fire season starts. The goats have really kept brush under control and added benefits of truckloads of junk, bottles, cans, paper, you name it. Another good thing they do is weed control. Same concept applies to weed control, less chemicals and cheaper option, due to the goats preferring to eat brush or weeds. For this, goats must be stocked and taken care of to meet their nutritional needs and control their movement. Goats serve as a compliment to beef cattle or horse operation. However, the trick is that goats learn their eating habits from their mothers, and some do have a preference for grass. Stockers of goat herds must purchase their animals being raised by brush – eating mothers. Goats also are excellent crawlers, climbers and jumpers. Unless well – contained , they more than likely will pull a “Houdini” and get away. They need to be fenced and carefully guarded. Yet even with all this, less expensive than other methods worse for the environment and pocketbook.

Goats have been chosen to help out in many different environmental situations. In Lehigh Valley, PA, the goats are used to rid Hawk Mountain of a noxious weed called Japanese stilt grass. This is part of a larger scale five year invasive plant management study at Hawk Mountain. In other parts of the United States goats have also been leased to clean vegetation and control invasive plants. In 2013, San Francisco Airport hired goat farmers to clear airport land without having endangered snakes and frogs. In Detroit, goats have been used to maintain abandoned lots in the bankrupt city.

There are many natural ways that we can thrive without harming our environment. Goats are just one positive way. They can be utilized as an effective bio-control agent to reduce weed populations to economically acceptable levels. The fires also can turn the other way thanks to our little “kids”.

Written By:   Mary Ann Scorza

I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to notice that, when it comes to ferreting out genetically modified food ingredients and additives, it’s not always enough to simply read the labeling on the packages -- you also have to learn how to read between the lines.  Here are the last of Althealthworks.com's six common foods that shouldn’t harbor GMO ingredients but, unfortunately, likely do.

5.  Olive oil -- The health benefits of the olive oil-centric Mediterranean diet have been touted for decades, and olive oil is among the healthiest oils available, provided that it isn’t used for cooking at high temperatures.  In fact, a recent study conducted by an international team of researchers has determined that consuming extra virgin olive oil (olive oil that has been extracted by physical, rather than chemical means; oils labeled “cold-pressed" have also been extracted without the use of heat) may reduce the damage to DNA caused by ingesting genetically modified soybean products.  But, while the olives themselves have not been genetically modified, most olive oils produced in the United States have been surreptitiously mixed with other “junk" oils such as canola and soy, and we already know what that means.  Again, you’ll need to do your research to avoid GMOs look for olive oil imported from Italy (where the penalties for planting GMO crops include jail) or Tunisia, or buy only American oils that are completely organic.  

6.  Sodas that advertise “real sugar" -- Have you noticed the recent commercials for Pepsi bragging that they’ve eliminated high fructose corn syrup from their sodas and gone back to using real sugar?  Not so fast; what Pepsi and other “real sugar" soda manufacturers are putting into their recipes now is genetically modified beet sugar which, you’ll recall, has been engineered to withstand mega-doses of carcinogenic herbicides and pesticides.  Yes, Pepsi and Coke are unhealthy drinks to begin with, but this “real sugar" marketing campaign is nothing if not deceptive.  When questioned by a customer about whether their new “Natural" Sierra Mist soda contains GMO sugar, PepsiCo replied with the non-answer that they “could not verify whether the sugar is GMO or not."  Please, do they honestly expect consumers to believe that?  

Besides diligently reading labels, another suggestion made by Althealthworks.com -- and one that I roundly endorse -- is this:  if you happen to discover that a product you’ve been buying and enjoying for years is now tainted by GMO ingredients, contact the manufacturer and let them know just how displeased you are.  You might also add that you won’t be buying their product(s) again as long as they continue to use GMOs.  To paraphrase an old saying, the only way to a corporation’s consciousness is through its wallet!

By now, those of us who rail against Monsanto and other GMO-purveyors while taking careful notice of the sources and contents of the food we eat are well aware that many prepared food products, especially those made with soy, corn and dairy, are likely to contain genetically-modified ingredients. What you may not know is that GMOs have insidiously invaded many common food items that most of us have been buying and using all our lives, without any notice or warning (because, as we know, there is no GMO labeling whatsoever in effect in the United States right now). The ingredients of these products have either been altered over time to include GMOs, or are concealed by packaging and labeling designed to mislead the public about the items’ true content. According to the website Althealthworks.com, none of the six common food products listed below should logically contain any GMOs, but they often do. You probably have most, if not all, of them in your pantry or refrigerator.

1. Granola bars – Originally marketed in the 1970s as a “healthy” item, commercial granola bars have long been known to contain large amounts of added sugar, which certainly cancelled out any health benefit they might have had. Today, unless you’re making your own granola bars from organic ingredients or buying the more expensive organic brands, there’s a strong likelihood that the granola bars your family eats also contain ingredients that have been genetically modified. Nature Valley, a heavily-advertised brand owned by General Mills, and Nutrigrain Bars, an equally promoted Kellogg’s product, both contain the same GMO grains that are also used in these companies’ cereal brands (which have shown declining sales in recent months as more and more consumers steer away from Frankenfoods). Of course, they also still contain sugar, and, frighteningly-enough, most of the sugar beets now grown in this country are genetically-modified to withstand repeated applications of Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. Yum!

2. Ketchup – That ubiquitous Heinz ketchup bottle has been around since its introduction back in1876, and tomato ketchup is the largest-selling product the H.J. Heinz Company has ever produced (Del Monte, which today produces roughly 10% of the ketchup sold in the U.S., marketed its brand of tomato condiment as “catsup” from the early 1900s until 1988, when it capitulated and changed the spelling to match that of market leaders Heinz and Hunt’s). While often labeled as “natural,” commercial ketchups are more likely than not to contain genetically-modified sweeteners. Heinz “All-Natural” ketchup may have abolished the high-fructose corn syrup it once contained, but has replaced it with sugar produced from those Roundup-ready sugar beets.

Keep studying the labels; we’ll discuss more hidden GMO foods next time.

Bottled water is big business in this country. Given our current societal focus on health-consciousness and the national push to combat childhood obesity, it is also a rapidly-expanding industry as more and more people substitute bottles of water for the sodas and other sugary drinks they once selected. As with any lucrative business, there are many players; some are more ethical than others, and a few are apparently just out to capitalize on the trend and rake in the cash. This series has focused on comparing several randomly-selected brands of bottled water which, at first blush, one might think are all pretty much the same; after all, they’re all just spring water, aren’t they?

Short answer: no. Although my research was anything but scientific and my six sample bottled-water brands were determined by the contents of my recycling bin, what I found was that reading labels is crucially important even when the product is plain old water! Some brands are really spring water, but others actually contain treated tap water, just like the stuff that you can get from your faucet without the added expense. Dasani (a product of the Coca Cola Company) and Nestle Pure Life each add several chemicals to their bottled tap water, claiming they enhance the flavor. Personally, I dislike the taste of Dasani and never cared much for Pure Life either; the knowledge that they contain potentially-dangerous chemicals such as potassium chloride and magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts) is enough to keep me from ever drinking either of them again.

Acadia Natural Spring Water, the store-brand sold by Stop & Shop, claims to be water sourced from protected springs in Pennsylvania. Although all water has some mineral content, and the term “natural” is not regulated by the FDA, samples of Acadia were found to be identical to the treated tap water from the areas where Acadia is bottled. To me, that finding raises red flags. Poland Spring, another Nestle product, has only one ingredient: “100% natural spring water.” Still, there have been lawsuits claiming that the Poland Spring water has, in some cases, been adulterated (after all, it is made by Nestle). I do enjoy drinking Poland Spring, and will continue to do so unless I learn of a compelling reason to stop. Fiji Water comes from an artesian aquifer in Fiji, it is alkaline (a health benefit in my book) and it tastes delicious. For me, the sole drawback to the Fiji brand is its hefty price.

For my money, the winner of this bottled water comparison is Nirvana Natural Spring Water. It rises to the surface naturally from springs in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, is not shipped in tankers to outside locations for processing and bottling, has no added chemicals, is reasonably priced and tastes good. What more could you want? In conclusion: all bottled waters are not created equal. Always read the labels before you buy.