We here at i’m organic are excited for Earth Day on April 22, 2010! It’s a great day for the entire world to focus on supporting our planet. We encourage you all to join the millions of others around the world to make your community and the world cleaner and more sustainable this Earth Day. This April, millions of people all over the world will come together in celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Participate in Earth Day 2010 and help raise awareness of environmental concerns.

Even the littlest things can have a big impact on our Earth. There are many fun and easy thing you can do to participate in Earth Day this year. Organizing a recycling drive or starting a community garden in your neighborhood are good ways to get the whole community involved in Earth Day this year. Your involvement in Earth Day doesn’t have to be huge – by simply replacing the light bulbs in your house with energy-efficient lighting, you will help conserve energy. Car pooling, taking the bus, or riding a bike are all good ways to help cut down on air pollution and carbon emission. Even simply purchasing a reusable grocery bag or water bottle, take action today and start planning your Earth Day 2010 event to create a global green economy. Pledge to make a difference in your own unique way on Earth Day 2010!

In honor of this momentous anniversary, i’m organic created an i’m organic Earth Day shirt. Tell the world, “I’m Organic on Earth Day…and every other day” with our 100% certified organic cotton special edition 40th anniversary Earth Day shirt. And why stop after Earth Day,? Make a lifelong commitment to greener living by making simple eco-friendly changes like using 100% organic products to cut down on waste and pollution.

Join the Billion Acts of Green campaign and make a personal pledge to help create a greener world this Earth Day!

During 6 years traveling and living in the developing world engaging in human relief work, Timothy Young, President of Food For Thought, became intimately acquainted with the impoverishing economic regime that exists to supply the first world with food from less developed nations. Awareness of the true costs of having year-round access to coffee, pea pods and bananas changed his view of the world convincing him to pursue a life path that did not support that global food system.

As a result, Food For Thought, founded in 1996, was started in his recycled green built home on a 1901 Detroit Jewel stove crafting organic preserves in a copper kettle. His wife, Kathleen, soon joined and 11 years later the business is housed in a green building he built next to their home with 10 very devoted staff members, two children, enviable compost piles, solar panels and much larger copper kettles.

This little company nestled on an organic farm in northern Michigan is now proud to announce that they are launching their line of gourmet organic preserves as the first in the nation certified Fair Trade. Check out Food For Thought’s revolutionary products!

The first environment we live in is the one created by our mothers in the womb. We are all aware of the dangers of smoking, drinking or abusing drugs while pregnant. But what about pesticides used to grow the vegetables you eat or chemicals you breathe in when you paint the baby’s room?

Close friends, Lexy Zissu and Deirdre Dolan were already leading organic lifestyles in terms of the foods they ate when they both began trying to become pregnant. Lexy had been purchasing organic foods as a member of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture farm) for over five years, and Deirdre had embraced the benefits of organic diet long before she decided to become a Mom.

It didn’t take long for Lexy and Deirdre to begin considering the other possible dangers they would be exposing their little ones while pregnant, despite organic foods. This inspired the two journalists to go completely organic.

When they had trouble finding many organic products, Lexy and Deirdre discovered there was no real comprehensive resource for locating organic products; like interior paint, cosmetics and carpeting, for instance. Their solution? Write the book.

The two authored The Complete Organic Pregnancy (Harper Collins Books), a thoroughly-researched guide for parents-to-be who want to create a completely organic environment for their newborn (while he’s in the womb and after he’s born). The book details the benefits of following an organic, whole food diet while trying to conceive and while pregnant, but takes readers to the next step of an organic lifestyle: eliminating harmful toxins and simplifying your surroundings.

What may seem like an incredibly daunting task, transforming your home and body into organic environments can be done relatively quickly if you know where to go for hard-to-find products. This is one of the most helpful aspects of the book – it tells you why “going organic” is a good idea, and then tells you where to find everything you need to do it.

You can’t take too much time, though. “You only have nine months to prepare that little brain,” said Lexy.

Her best piece of advice for parents-to-be who want to take the first step at going organic? Don’t change anything! And by that she means renovation. It seems natural to fix up baby’s room, but a multitude of toxins are released when you make home improvements or changes. Even something as innocent as a fresh coat of paint can be harmful.

Lexy and Deirdre are working on a more general organic guide for people who aren’t necessarily trying to become or are already pregnant. It’s a natural transition, since they both welcomed their little girls into the world within the last year. Lexy’s daughter Aili is 10 months old, and Deirdre’s daughter Saoirse Burlingame just turned four weeks.

Get your copy of “The Complete Organic Pregnancy” Here!

Erika Fowler-Decatur and her husband, Michael, returned to Ithaca, New York, from California to raise their son, Cid, near family. An art historian and avid supporter of arts education, Erika intended to open a small gallery in the area. When it appeared as though the community was not large enough to support a traditional art gallery, Erika found a way to combine what she considers to be two of life’s greatest gifts: fine art and fine chocolate.

Art Bars from Erika’s Ithaca Fine Chocolates are made from organic and fair trade certified ingredients. Developing a chocolate bar that met Erika’s high standard for quality was a challenge. She tried making them herself, and though the chocolate tasted great, its appearance wasn’t up to par. She was able to locate a Swiss chocolatier whose product was a match for her vision.

“I didn’t want to support my own cause of the arts at the expense of cocoa farmers and the delicate ecosystem,” Erika explained.

Though the chocolate itself is something to savor, it’s the other special ingredient that makes Art Bars unique: fine art. Each bar contains a collectible card featuring the artwork of one of a diverse group of adult and child artists. The collection is changed annually through an art submission process.

“Art Bars give people an opportunity to slow down and enjoy some exquisite chocolate as well as an inspired moment art contemplation,” said Erika. The mission behind Art Bars is to increase art awareness and support for art education, which is why 10% of Art Bars’ proceeds goes to local and global art education programs.

The intention of including the miniature art reproductions is to increase exposure for the artists featured. People interested in purchasing full-size works can contact Erika, who connects them to the artist. Erika takes no commission. She hopes that through increased exposure, these artists can eventually quit their day jobs and concentrate fully on their art.

In addition to its commitment to supporting art education, Ithaca Fine Chocolates is a socially and environmentally-conscious company. Erika became more attuned to organic products and the health of the environment after the birth of her son six years ago.

“As a parent, it’s extremely important that the food our children consumed isn’t laced with chemicals and that they have a healthy planet to grow up on,” said Erika of her family’s organic/natural lifestyle. The family welcomed daughter Elle to the world ten months ago.

Ithaca Fine Chocolates Art Bars are sold in 46 states and are available for purchase online. The company’s “virtual” store front saves on overhead and waste. “We reuse, reduce and recycle at home and in the business,” said Erika.

Erika hopes to eventually found a granting process to fund art education programs, and expand the Art Bar “call for artists” so that more artists can be featured. Visit Ithaca Fine Chocolates at www.IthacaFineChocolates.com.

The trend to “go organic” is gaining steam. With more and more organic products becoming available in mainstream grocery stores every day, an increasing number of people (30% since 2000) are leaning toward a more organic lifestyle and discovering what a difference it can make in their lives, and their health.

The benefits of organic foods and natural living are not new to Ocean Robbins. Ocean was born in a one-room cabin three miles from the closest neighbor. His parents, John and Deo Robbins, grew their own food and raised the family on less than $500 a year.

“Though we were probably considered “monetarily” poor, we were abundantly rich in our surroundings – clean air, clean water, and a beautiful forest,” says Ocean.

Ocean recalls his father quoting Henry David Thoreau: “I make myself rich by making my wants few.” The family’s diet was completely plant-based, and since organic cotton was hard to come by in rural Canada in the 1970s, the Robbins reused and recycled everything they could.

When he was ten years old, Ocean and his parents moved to California, as his father John began writing his international best seller, Diet for a New America (one of many revolutionary books to come from the former Baskin-Robbins heir).

The transition from living deep in the Canadian forest to California was challenging for Ocean. When he discovered just how differently the rest of the world was living, he was inspired to begin his own work to impact the world and change people’s lives.

“There was no way for me to be truly happy knowing so many people were living in misery,” said Ocean.

At 16, Ocean founded YES! (Youth for Environmental Sanity). The organization’s mission is to educate, inspire and empower young people to join forces for a thriving, just and sustainable way of life for all. Now in its 16th year, YES! is going strong, operating from the Robbins’ eco-friendly home and offices in Soquel, California.

“It’s important that we walk the talk,” Ocean says. The Robbins’ home, which is shared by Ocean, his wife Michele and their twin sons, Bodhi and River, and Ocean’s parents, is a shining example of how one can live without dependency on electricity or other fuels. The home and offices are powered by Siemens Solar panels and Trace Engineering invertors that provide reliable power of consistently high quality.

Energy efficient appliances, such as a Sun Frost refrigerator, preserve energy and the family farm provides a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Bodhi and River are eager to get their little hands dirty harvesting zucchini or berries and are learning how foods are grown and how to live off the land in an eco-friendly manner; the same way Ocean was raised. Clothing is made from organic cotton, and though they try to grow the majority of their food, Ocean is a strong supporter of local growers and farmers markets.

Ocean and Michele both work for YES!, with Michele as the organization’s president. The Robbins and YES! staff spend a great deal of time planning and organizing the YES! Jams, which connect, inspire and empower young visionaries on a global level by bringing together groups of thirty diverse young leaders for week-long Jams to facilitate networking, skills sharing and community-building. You can learn more about YES! at www.YesWorld.org.

***5% of your purchase through November 21st will be donated to YES!

Meet Fernando and Susan Cardoza, owners of The Green Bough in Irwin, PA, near Pittsburgh. Over twenty years ago, Fernando and Susan asked the question, “Who are we authentically?” Though the answer is still in the process of becoming, they are sure it has something to do with being organic. For Susan and Fernando, being organic includes more than a practice of eating or buying organic, it embraces a way of living, an attitude, a whole awareness. You can hear it in the clarity of their voices, their passionate commitment to organic living, and in the measured space between one partner speaking and the other.

“Why are we here?” They wondered. To connect to ourselves and each other and the earth. Susan explains, “When we disconnect we create problems and this becomes reflected in our bodies. Living organically, conversely, enables us to reach our full human potential, not just as individuals but globally.” They say eating organic helps them feel better, more energized, less stressed. If we are indeed what we eat, then eating organic foods reduces the toxicity in our bodies in a noticeable way. To the unconverted, Susan says, “Once you feel it in your body, you know. You don’t need explanations or justifications.”

Susan and Fernando have evolved as organic people throughout the last twenty years. Coming to organic choices from health concerns for their children, they sought a higher quality of life as a family. Over the years, they have seen the shift in the public awareness. What was once the cordoned off corner of hippie-dom now emerges as the normal thing to do. Susan and Fernando stumbled onto new things over the years, finding individuals and resources to help along the way. While simultaneously getting into organic foods, home care, and organic health care, the process of discovering what worked took many years and open, warm dialogue with their physician. Along their journey Susan and Fernando connected with a community of shared interest ad overpowering support.

Most people have some issues within our culture that drives them to look for safe spaces for de-stressing. Fernando says, “Many people seek an energy or frequency that resonates with being organic. People evolve through a gradual process of incorporating more and more aspects that make sense to them.”

Wanting to share the graceful reach of community around mind, body, and spirit, Susan and Fernando created The Green Bough—a replicable holistic community building enterprise. The Green Bough commits to environmental practices too. Just one more way to holistically approach the organic lifestyle. Additionally, they created Holistic Pittsburgh, a Full-Service Web Portal for the Holistic Community in the Southwestern PA Region.

Together, Fernando and Susan want to promote an affirming message about the organic lifestyle. Activism as a positive affirmation with authenticity and integrity. Susan explains, “When we are authentically ourselves, we are organic. We are fully integrated.”

***The Cardozas are this month’s featured I’m Organic Story. 5% of sales from Sept. 27th- Oct. 24th, 2006 will be donated to The Organic Consumers Association.

Janelle and Dean Slavick live in Concord, Ohio with their daughter Makella and son Jake. Makella just left for her freshman year of college. Before she left, Makella told Janelle, “Mom, I had a magical childhood!”

What brought about such an expression of joy and gratitude? The story begins years earlier. Janelle studied education at Bowling Green State University. During her studies, she discovered one single paragraph about Montessori education. That paragraph directed the course of her life. Janelle says, “It grabbed my heart!” She decided then that when she had kids of her own, she would take them to a Montessori school.

And indeed she has. Furthermore, while her kids were in school, Janelle also returned to education for a master’s degree so she could teach Montessori. Makella and Jake attended the Hershey Montessori School. The Montessori program emphasizes hands-on developmentally appropriate learning. It is based on the work of Maria Montessori, the first female physician in Italy. Maria Montessori studied how children learn and developed a comprehensive and child-centered approach to education. The Association Montessori International describes Erdkinder (German for Land-Children):

Dr. Montessori recommended that the adolescent should spend a period of time in the country away from the environment of the family. This would provide an opportunity to study civilisation through its origin in agriculture. She suggested they should live in a hostel which they would learn to manage and open a shop where sale of produce would bring in the fundamental mechanics of society, production and exchange on which economic life is based.

They do just that at the Huntsburg campus. Children 12-15 years old connect with the land and grow their own food organically. The school strives to be self-sufficient. They eat what they grow and sell at a local market as well–all part of the learning experience. They even collect maple syrup. The children run the household including managing preparation of three meals a day for about 50 people. Children learn math through measuring food in the meals they prepare and following instructions or geometry through managing the fields. They learn economics through sales. They even did an archeological dig to uncover an old homestead on the property. This is land-based curriculum. Teach through the experience of the land.

Organic food. Organic processes for education. It all makes sense to Janelle, “Our children are living messages we send to a time and a place we will never see. With their ‘children of the Earth’ foundation and their organic experiences and choices, my children can take this message of being care-takers of the Earth with them to that time and place.”

Janelle and Dean continue the holistic approach at home with their own small orchard growing apricots, apples, and plums. People in the neighborhood take strolls down their street or ride bicycles around. Everyone knows they are welcome to take some fruit. They aren’t sprayed with pesticides. You can eat them straight from the trees. Sounds magical to me too.

*As part of our I’m Organic Stories Project, 5% of your purchase from Sept. 6-30th will be donated to Hershey Montessori School.