This September in Toronto the 22nd Annual Vegetarian Food Fair will be going on at the Harbourfront Center. The festival goes on from Friday the 8th to Sunday the 10th and is North Americas Largest annual event for veggies! There willl be over 100 exhibitions, cooking demos, free food samples (WOOHOO) music and performing arts too! If your in the T-dot I recommend you go check it out. Any event based on yummy, healthy, sustainable food has got to be good!
Category: Health
Migratory Birds Not Spreading Bird Flu
Some good news about the H5N1 bird flu: it can’t be spread by a lot of birds. This information can change, but I hope that this is a fact.
Migratory birds would obviously spread the virus faster than birds that like to stay at home.
”There has never been any conclusive, properly documented evidence that wild birds are carriers of the virus,” Richard Thomas, editor of ‘World Birdwatch,’ said in an e-mail interview. ”Tens of thousands of healthy, wild, migrant waterfowl in Hong Kong have been tested over the last decade, yet there is not a single positive-for-H5N1 amongst them.”
South Africa to Speak Truth About HIV/AIDS
This August we have spoken a lot about HIV and AIDS, which means that some good news is happening. Here’s some more goodness: South Africa is going to actually suggest real solutions to preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS.
South Africa has been criticized for suggesting bizarre “natural” cures for HIV, which are clearly not cures at all. Well, activists have demanded change and it looks like change will come.
SICKO!
Documentary film maker Michael Moore is at it again with a new film hitting theaters in the coming year. It is titled “Sicko” and the film focuses on the American health care system.
A quote from his website:
“Back in February, I asked if people would send me letters describing their experiences with our health care system. I received over 19,000 of them. It was truly overwhelming as we literally took a month and read them all. To read about the misery people are put through on a daily basis by our profit-based system was both moving and revolting. That’s all I will say right now.”
It is always good when people care to speak out about the general well being of the public, however Michael Moore has also been subject to a fair share of critisism…many people have disregarded his films as extremist or incredibly one sided. Others argue that Michael Moore is extremely effective at getting his point across. One thing is for sure, the guy knows how to pack a movie theater.
The film Sicko will be released sometime in 2007. As for the past month Micheal has been keeping himself extra busy holding his second annual Traverse City Film Festival this which saw 50,000 festival goers last year. He hosts the festival as a venue for talented filmakers who’s films have gone undistributed despite the fact that they are undoubtedly deserving.
A busy guy that Michael!
Harmless Stem Cell Cultivation
Embryonic stem cell research is, for some people, morally wrong. Well, good news! A company in the USA has discovered a technique that can generate the stem cells from embryos without harming the embryo!
Stem cell research is important because it can provide for fantastic treatments for people suffering from various ailments. This new technique will hopefully allow more research to happen.
“The technique used by the company is similar to the one already used to extract single cells from IVF embryos when they are screened for inherited disorders. Dr Lanza and his team believe that it will be possible to adapt the existing technique so that stem cells could be almost routinely extracted from human IVF embryos without harming their future health and well-being.”