By now, you have probably heard of at least one friend or friend’s children who are allergic to gluten. There are gluten-free breads on the shelves of most major grocery stores, and gluten-free baked goods everywhere you turn. Celiac disease is the most common proponent of a gluten allergy in adults, and there are more people diagnosed with it every day.

It can be hard to live with such an allergy. Kids, especially, are used to their breaded meats like chicken fingers, and to go without them can be tough. Here are a few alternatives.

Kinnikinnick Panko-Style Bread Crumbs
These gluten-free bread crumbs make tasty fried chicken, chicken fingers, and replace shake-and-bake chicken.

Gluten-Free Bread Recipes
These recipes give you lots to choose from in order to make gluten free bread. While they serve a purpose, purchased gluten-free breads can get expensive for the family on a budget, and making your own is a satisfying alternative.

Gluten Free Bakery – Panne Rizo
This bakery takes things a step further and has a completely gluten free establishment. You’ll find these in most major cities now; this one is in Vancouver.

Tracy Worcester, a Brit on a mission to save rural England, ended up traveling to the US to show Britons just how deplorable pig factory farming is. This video will have you buying organically raised pork if Fast Food Nation already didn’t.

Part 1 starts above; Parts 2 and 3 are below in sequential order.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In what was arguably one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen, dolphin activists, including the guy who introduced “Flipper” to the world, navigate a bizzare political and social web in order to unravel the realities of dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. For their efforts, which included planting hidden cameras in various coves in and around Taiji at risk of their very lives, they won an Oscar on Sunday.

Taiji, the quiet fishing village that the events of the film largely took place in, is as indifferent to the Oscar as they were to the film itself. Some officials however, are angry and have implied that the producers should have declined the award.

Ever since I found out about the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico which can be directly attributed to pesticide runoff from cotton crops, I’ve been searching for ways to make my life less of a place for bleached, non-organic cotton to hang out. So far I’ve crossed off socks, towels, bedding, and other cotton items from my list. But this morning, I realized I’d left one essential item off; Q-Tips.

Organic Essentials
At $4.49, they aren’t that far away in price from their non-organic counterparts. Buy some other things from the store and the shipping won’t be too killer. There’s a lot there to choose from!

Grassroots Toronto
If you are in Toronto, stop by this awesome store at its original location on the Danforth or its not so new Annex branch. You can also buy these organic cotton swabs online.

Maxim Organic Cotton Swabs
This site lets you buy bulk lots, so you can split an order with friends.

Need another reason to bring your bags to the grocery store? Check out the newest PSA from Rise Above Plastics. This organization’s mission is to promote awareness of the pollution that plastic use causes and to discourage individuals from purchasing plastics where other alternatives are available.

If you want to raise awareness and help their cause at the same time, check out their store, where they sell shopping bags, metal water bottles, and clothing.

Also, I have to say that the music they play on their site is incredible! I’ll have to check out more of this Micah Wolf guy.

Once upon a time, food chemists and marketers somewhere in the bowels of Kraft’s evil lair created a divine concoction composed of 1% cheese product, orange food colouring, elbow pasta and instructions that a drunk college student could follow. And it was good. Over a decade past the death of my university years, I still enjoy mac & cheese for lunch. When I saw organic macaroni & cheese on sale at my grocery store, I decided to give it a try. Even though they are tasty, I know deep in my heart that those chemicals that go into Kraft Dinner can’t be all that awesome for you.

I picked up Life Choices Organic Macaroni and Cheese, a name that I sniggered at a little since I wondered what they were trying to say with it. This product will erase all of those bad life choices you made with a good life choice? Well, it convinced me. Any help will do.

Cooking the macaroni, unsurprisingly, was the same as cooking the same thing from Kraft. The only roadblock I ran into was that the mixture did not seem to stir in as easily as its Kraft counterpart, something which was easily remedied with some elbow grease.

The taste? Honestly, it didn’t have the sharp cheddar taste of Kraft Dinner, but I thought it came in at a close enough second to end up on my future grocery list. Maybe not in the place of Kraft Dinner, but as a supplement to it. Actually, mixing two boxes half and half if you are making it for two is not a bad idea.

According to an internal document obtained by Canwest News Service, Canadian Environment Minister has a policy of non-response when it comes to criticism by bloggers and the press of the lack of environment initiatives in the recent federal budget.

The “push-back” press initiative is considered a “tool” by Prentice to spin the lack of environment funding into a positive message. The Conservative government has been criticized both globally and at home for its lack of action on environmental issues, and the lack of money earmarked for climate change and environmental issues in the recent budget is simply another black mark in its regime. The Tory government is known on the whole to be non-responsive to criticism and to reward media outlets that show them in a good light, while penalizing those that show their policies in a more even-handed or negative light.

Prentice practiced similar evasive manouevres in dealing with criticism by bloggers over a proposed “crackdown” on copyright law in Canada, legislation that was not allowed to be pushed through once a public light was shone on it.

Craft brewery owners have been exploring the organic market for about a decade now, and craft beer drinkers generally agree that organic beer tastes better. So what goes into it?

Barley and hops are the two main ingredients in beer, and are usually riddled with pesticides and fungicides. Organic barley and hops are the first priority in any organic beer. Beers that just contain these without processing them organically generally have “made with organic ingredients” or similar on the label. A “certified organic” beer is processed without chemicals. If you are in Canada, and you want to get your organic beer on, here are a few brands to look for.

NatureLand Organic, BC
Crafted by Pacific Western Brewery, this is Canada’s first organic beer.

Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company, Vankleek Hill, Ontario
Based out of the tiny Eastern Ontario hamlet of Vankleek Hill, this brewery prides itself on using organic malts.

Mill Street Organic Lager, Toronto, Ontario
What is the best thing about being Canadian brewery of the year? Having on offer Ontario’s first certified organic beer, that’s what. Based in Toronto’s historic Distillery district, Mill Street also offers a coffee porter.

Laurelwood Public House & Brewery, Oregon
Treehugger porter is just one of the organic beers on offer for this brewery in Oregon.

Derek Hatfield hopes to sail a very eco-friendly boat relying solely on wind and solar power for the VELUX 5 Oceans race, The Ultimate Solo Challenge.

The idea for the race is to sail around the world using no fuel. The class of boats are called ECO 60’s which are older boats being reused rather than building new boats. All the power requirements for the race are generated through solar power or wind.

Hatfield was the first Canadian to sail around the world, and he already has 20 to 25 boats tricked out with wind and solar power. Diesel fuel will only be available on board for emergency situations where the battery banks may run out.

In the northern ocean, the solar power is more efficient, while in the southern ocean, the wind power is the main driver. Each supplements the other as well. Derek wants to use no fuel at all, and states that it has been proven in the last few years that fuel is not even necessary. He states that he is taking ten gallons and hopes to come back with it.

Derek talks about these issues and more in his interview with the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet.

First, LOL @ “green friendly” in the video. Second, these sweet headphones are packaged in a recycled fibre pouch and no heinous moulded plastic packaging. They are also good for smaller ears and very comfy. The wood used is sourced from sustainable sources and the company, Thinksound, is working on getting their Forest Service Council certification.