Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati

The Missing Children You Won’t See on Milk Cartons

March 7, 2014 ethics
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We were driving down a long dusty highway, just after crossing from Texas into New Mexico. There wasn’t much to see at first; it was an expansive brown and sporadically industrialized desert speckled with patches of irrigated green… But then, in amongst the industrial buildings, contrasting figures of black and white came into view. A […]

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Commerical Fishing: Methods Behind the Madness

February 19, 2014 ethics
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  “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Teresa What did the seas look like 100 years ago? 200 years ago? These were the questions that floated through my mind as I snorkeled off […]

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Turmeric: Anti-Inflammatory, Anti-Cancer and More

February 13, 2014 food & recipes
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Turmeric is one of my favorite spices. I honestly think it makes pretty much any savory dish better, from carrot salad to egg-less omelets; a nice sprinkle of turmeric goes a long way. Turmeric powder (the form most of us are familiar with) is made from the dried root of the Curcuma longa plant. Vitamins, […]

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8 Surprising Facts About Cinnamon

December 14, 2013 food & recipes
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Cinnamon* has long been enjoyed both as a culinary spice and natural medicine. *It is important to note that that the common type of cinnamon sold in grocery stores is not “true cinnamon” Ceylon cinnamon, which is the cinnamon referred to in most health studies. This is important because the type of cinnamon sold in […]

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Belly Rubs and Bucket Lists

December 7, 2013 ethics
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I think everyone has a mental bucket list. In years past I checked things off my own like sky diving, backpacking around Europe and volunteering on an organic farm, but it took me until this year to complete one of my top entries: scratching a pig’s belly. I don’t know exactly how or when this […]

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Apples to Fight Cancer?

November 6, 2013 food & recipes
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Over the last decade, a host of studies have been done on the anti-cancer properties of apples. Many of these studies have made headlines by producing surprising and favorable results. Although most of the studies done thus far have focused on specific chemical compounds or nutrients in apples, when we look at the nutrients studied […]

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Kaiser Permanente Endorses Plant-Based Diets

October 31, 2013 food & recipes
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It’s hard to believe, but Kaiser Permanente has endorsed a plant-based diet! Why does this matter?

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10+ Health Benefits of Pumpkin Seeds

October 25, 2013 food & recipes
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October, November and December are all prime pumpkin months in the U.S. and soon enough, people will be carving up pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns, homemade pies and pumpkin bakes! But before you prepare your pumpkin as a decoration, dessert or dinner, remember to save your seeds. If you simply scoop out and compost your pumpkin/squash seeds […]

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Scientist Proclaims, ‘Dogs Are People, Too’

October 16, 2013 ethics
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Recently the New York Times published an article by Gregory Berns, a professor of neuroeconomics at Emory University. The article was titled “Dogs Are People, Too” and addressed the research that Berns and his colleagues have been conducting over the past two years. In the study that Berns referenced, dogs were basically trained to get […]

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An Experiment in Sharing: Seattle Food Forest

October 11, 2013 the environment
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Seattleites in the Beacon Hill neighborhood are participating in a social experiment. Can planting a shared food forest help bring the community together to grow food, rehabilitate the local ecosystem, improve public health and educate people about the environmental impact of food production? The Beacon Food Forest is currently being cultivated on seven acres of […]

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