To be honest, when I heard about Bee’s Wrap, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. A food storage product made of sweet-smelling, honey and cotton? How does this alternative to plastic wrap work? Did it work?
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Most of us are familiar with the water cycle and the food web, cycles in nature that move substances in a never-ending loop, each stage vital. Think of it like a clock. Each hour, each minute, belongs just where it is. But what if 2:00 disappeared? Eight o’clock wouldn’t happen at the right time and as each cycle with a missing 2:00 progressed, eventually the whole concept would be so off kilter that chaos would be a likely ending.
The Pollination Cycle
There’s another cycle out there in nature that’s just as important and garnering more attention these days and that’s the pollination cycle.
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Psst. Over here. We need to talk about those products in your nightstand: Lube. Feminine wash. Sexual well being. Actually, forget the whisper. The taboo around talking about products like lube and feminine wash is likely what’s allowed the industry to get away with using toxic chemicals for so long. So let’s raise our voices, huh?
Specifically, let’s talk about a woman who is breaking the taboos. Wendy Strgar has been making safer products for women, talking openly about healthy sex lives, and teaching women to be advocates for their sexual well being for years. Wendy Strgar - a loveologist and a pioneer in the organic personal care product industry - conceived of (pardon the pun) Good Clean Love after 16 years of marriage and the birth of her fourth child out of determination to enjoy her sex life again. She tried the big-name lubricants on the shelves, but they all left her in pain.
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In celebration of the tenth anniversary of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, the Savvy Women's Alliance recommends this book for it's summer chapter Gatherings.
Envision: you are entering your local chain grocery store. The glass doors slide open and the produce aisle greets you. On your right are avocados from Mexico, bananas from Colombia, and peppers from Israel. You walk further through the market, snatching some rice from Vietnam and beans from India that you plan to throw together into a meal that you will later wash down with Vermont milk.
Now imagine the items sourced from over 100 miles away vanishing. Bye-bye Mexican romaine lettuce and beef sourced from Brazilian cows. What would be left in your shopping cart? Would you panic?
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Do you feel overwhelmed when trying to read labels while shopping for personal care or cleaning products--or any products, for that matter? Maybe you spend inordinate amounts of time parked in the aisle turning over bottles, puzzling over words like "green," "eco," or "natural," thinking what do those words even mean, anyway?! You pull out your smartphone to check through your apps, and discover that some products aren't even on apps. You go back home and do research on your laptop. Maybe you give up - you would be far from the first.
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“I’ve always loved nature and being outdoors, and the sense that humans were doing more harm than good seeped into me like so many others and, though not an activist by any means, I began to take those many small steps to tread lightly on this Earth, live by example, and help wherever I could.
Four years ago, I became a beekeeper and the learning curve shot up. Watching and learning about my bees gave me a holistic view of our world and how one small change – good or bad – can have such a ripple effect.”
– Janice Sina, New Savvy Women's Alliance Member and Volunteer
Here’s what we’re talking about this month:
- Announcing: Talk Savvy To Me Event
- Monthly Topic: Girl Talk
- Seven New Chapter Locations
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Four Powerful Speakers. One Savvy Celebration.
June 22nd, 2017 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Simple yet spectacular, informal yet inspiring.
Join us at the destination-bookstore -An Unlikely Story- for a memorable summer evening:
- Enjoy light refreshments and a delightful setting
- Four short powerful presentations from prominent New England health advocates
- Woven into a celebration of Savvy Women's Alliance volunteers.
Open to Public | $20 Suggested Donation
Complimentary for Savvy Women's Alliance Members
An Unlikely Story, 111 South St, Plainville MA 02762
Respectfully, a fragrance-free event
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Let’s face it: women’s health issues and discussions of feminine care products are still considered taboo today, in 2017! As much progress as women have made throughout history, we still lower our voices when discussing the happenings of our vaginas in public and inconveniently lug our entire purses to the bathroom when we’re in public places and need to put in a tampon because the thought of carrying such a thing by itself is embarrassing.
(The editors will probably even use some symbolic picture instead of anatomy, and fill the subject line with non-office-offensive wording.)
We’re self-conscious, constantly aware of how our vaginas smell and feel and will buy products that promise to help us to feel and smell “cleaner,” despite a lack of evidence backing up such claims.
The truth of the matter . . .
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This month we’re talking about plastics – the obvious places we find them and the not-so-obvious. One of the sneaky places plastics are lurking is in our beauty products. Not in the packaging, but in the products themselves.
Let us introduce you to microbeads, the little balls of plastic that are known for their exfoliation and scrubbing abilities that can be found in your face and body washes, and even toothpaste.
Lindsay Dahl has been working at the forefront of environmental health campaigns since 2004 and is passionate about eliminating toxic chemicals in consumer products through policy and market shifts. She is also a blogger and self proclaimed rabble-rouser so we talked to her about why we should say “no thank you” to microbeads.
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Do you feel the pressure to do it all? When it comes to nontoxic living, do you sometimes wonder if you are doing enough? What if we added one more to the to-do list? Such as reducing plastic? The good news is there is a lot of overlap. Reducing the plastic in our routines also reduces the number of toxins we are exposed to daily.
Here are four areas in which you can challenge yourself to use less plastic. Start with one challenge or do all four!
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Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too
A Savvy Bookshelf Recommendation
Imagine living without our plastic-wrapped-everything. Imagine a world without the convenience of plastic baggies, plastic containers and plastic wrap. How about living without plastic-loaded electronics, toys, and sports equipment? One woman went beyond just imagining a plastic-free world -- she managed to kick her plastic habit, and now she has so much to teach us from her experience. Savvy is excited to have Beth join us to answer your questions in our online forum April 26-28th!
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“It wasn’t until I sat in on a Savvy Board meeting that I truly understood the complex workings of this amazing organization and the scope of their efforts. I was immediately proud to be part of something so much larger than myself…..that I believed would truly change the world.”
– Julia Condon, Founding Savvy Writer.
Spring is finally here and the Savvy Women's Alliance is looking forward to warmer weather and longer days! Here’s what we’re talking about this month:
- April Theme: Plastics
- Invite to Exclusive Member Event at the Silent Spring Institute May 11th
- New! View Chapter Locations On A Map View
- How can I be more involved with the Savvy Women’s Alliance?
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The Savvy Women's Alliance embarked on our first road trip over February. We traveled up the west coast, hosting events to connect women as our debut across California and Oregon.
Browse our photos and see some of the women who joined us - from volunteers to bloggers, to writers and movement makers.
We start the story with the live interview by Tra'Renee Chambers on KATU's Afternoon Live, who focused on budget-friendly tips.
The tour was made possible by a generous grant from the Seventh Generation Foundation.
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"It’s no secret that countless families are deluged by household clutter."
Catchy phrases called out to me as I surfed – zero waste, garbage free, plastic free – each enticing me with the hope that life would become…simpler. While ‘zero’ and ‘free’ felt heart pounding intimidating a simpler, more joyful, happier life would unfold if I could just… start to declutter the ‘things’ in my life.
This I believed as I much of time seems to be a slave to stuff.
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Moms know that sometimes it’s hard to get kids to do anything that has the tiniest hint of being a chore. With more than 220 million tons of garbage going into landfills each year it’s important to recycle what we can, but kids may need a little extra encouragement. So how do we get kids to be enthusiastic about recycling?
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