If you live in Sydney, Australia, you can give your pets the rare treat of a meal out at their very own organic food restaurant. Pet nutritionist Naoko Okamoto runs Chew Chew, which is located on Sydney’s lower north shore.

Okamoto is a big beliver in food as a cornerstone to a pet’s health. “It cannot cure cancer but it definitely helps a lot.”, she states about her natural fare. Okamoto started out with organic dog treats and biscuits, and now sports a wide menu of fare, including doggie-cinos.

In addition to the sit-down cafe restaurant, Okamoto delivers fresh meals daily for pampered pets across Sydney.

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If you needed another reason to buy that Prius, here it is: your car is less likely to be ripped off than a less fuel-efficient cousin. According to a new report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “fuel sippers” aren’t on the radar of car thieves. Rather, sporty and flashy vehicles such as Escalades and utilitarian vehicles such as pickup trucks are high on the most-thieved list this year. Does this mean a drop in insurance premiums for hybrids is on the way? Don’t hold your non-polluted breath for it, but here’s hoping.

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Stop, collaborate and listen. Well, read anyway. This article that just appeared online this morning on Business Week’s site on Jeffrey Hollender’s refusal to do business with Wal-Mart and then changing his mind has some hard lessons for green companies, the clearest one of which is that Wal-Mart has changed enough in their business practices to win over even the greenest of green companies, Seventh Generation.

This change in attitude is one that has mirrored my own in the past year. When I shop at Wal-Mart, I can buy organic food and dairy products for the same price as their conventional counterparts at another grocery store, or only just a little bit more. This leaves more money at the end of the grocery buy for stuff like fruits and vegetables, which helps me to skip the refined treats in boxes and improve my health. Once Wal-Mart can lock down a deal for organic meats (they’ve already got organic and wild-caught fish, most notably salmon) I’m 100% sold on them.

More importantly, Wal-Mart does not place organic foods in their own special section, making them easy to ignore. They place them right next to their non-organic counterparts, which normalizes the organic choice for more mainstream shoppers and gets these products into all homes, not just the ones that are looking for them. And that is a huge step up.

Add to that their green practices, their requirements for their suppliers to package their items sustainably and offer green products, and you have a former icon of corporate irresponsibility turned right around into the ideal store for the green shopper. Sure, they still have problems, but they aren’t different problems than any other major chain of stores, and they realize that fixing their way of doing business is the only way to win over resistant small communities and shoppers alike.

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Pierce Brosnan, known for being both a Bond hottie and in need of singing lessons after his role on Mamma Mia!, is currently working on an eco-friendly estate in Malibu. His new digs have enough solar panels to heat the house, outdoor pool, and guest house while still selling hydro back to the grid.

Lights will automatically turn off if no-one is in the room after five minutes, and the climate control system automatically adjusts to save as much energy as possible.

Brosnan isn’t leaving everything up to contractors, either – he has personally selected the recycled wood, low-flow toilets, and many other aspects of the new house. His neighbours on the beachfront property include Cher, Goldie Hawn, and the nefarious Mel Gibson.

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Fructose will accelerate the growth of cancer cells faster than regular sugar. A new UCLA study has done preliminary research into feeding cancer cells both fructose and glucose, with better growth results in the fructose than in glucose. This is just another reason that high fructose corn syrup is not exactly the inert stuff that the corn lobby would have you believe.

Subsidized corn production has led to cheap fructose flooding the market, making it the sweetener of choice over “real” sugar in many manufactured foods. Since the story has been published this morning, the corn lobby is actively trying to deflect criticism for pushing fructose, particularly in a string of commercials which Rick Sanchez just used in his coverage on CNN when talking about the issue.

“These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation,” Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and colleagues wrote.

“They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth.”

This not only means that cancer patients should avoid refined foods, but that all of us should avoid refined foods that contain high fructose corn syrup in order to stay healthy.

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I’m dating myself, but I remember back in the eighties when we made fun of people who ate tofu as crazy health nut hippies. Now, as if by karma, I am at least two of those things, and definitely in the hippy category. I am also in love with tofu, particularly in that oh-so-crispy format that you can order in a Japanese restaurant, but also in stir fries as a great meat replacement.

The only problem with tofu is that it is made with soy, and thanks to the omnipresent and omnipotent Monsanto, soy is one of the most common genetically engineered crops. Kind of takes the bloom off of the rose where tofu is concerned. Unless you buy organic. So without further ado, organic tofu companies that serve you non-GE goodness straight from the soybean.

Hardy’s Organic Products
This Maine company sells soy nuts and organic tofu.

Sol Cuisine
In Canada and want your organic tofu fix? No worries, this Mississauga company has got you covered.

Soyarie
If you are in the more Easterly provinces of Canada and want to get your organic tofu on, these guys are likely the ones you’ll find in health food stores.

Don’t let these choices limit you – you can find organic tofu in any larger grocery store, Whole Foods, or your local natural products or health food store.

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While proponents of Proposition 19′s attempt to legalize marijuana are hopeful, the amount of money that the campaign has on hand to promote its cause, $50,000, is not a very hopeful number. This is a very small amount of money to combat years of government propaganda on the part of the anti-marijuana lobby and will likely not change attitudes towards “the demon weed”.

What marijuana does have on its side, however, is the potential to make money. Lots of tax money, which the state of California could very much use at this point in time. According to a very low government estimate, 3.3 million Californians use marijuana in one capacity or another, and even if this use is limited to once a month per person, that is a lot of potential tax revenue.

When faced with having the local school closed rather than taxing legalized marijuana, we’re guessing that the Californian housewife will vote for Proposition 19. However, this is a very delicate time. There is nothing to say that if Prop 19 is passed that pot just won’t be banned again after the state’s debts have been paid off. Particularly if lobbies like big pharma have anything to say about the matter.

For more thought-provoking facts on the matter of Prop 19, check Alternet’s great story.

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If you would like a chance to have your climate-themed art judged by the likes of Philippe Cousteau, Chevy Chase, Jackson Brown, and Van Chase, then you should enter the CoolClimate Art Contest. Submit your entry to the contest on DeviantArt and win a feature on PlanetGreen’s show “Planet 100″ and a little bit of money besides.

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Many people are interested in getting into solar or renewable energy for either a cottage or for a main residential home. Getting started, however, is not that easy.

The first thing to do is to check your local phone book. You may be surprised at the number of local consultants that are in your area, especially if you are in a more populated section of the country. If you are in cottage country of any description, you are bound to find someone local.

Here are a few solar energy dealers I’ve gotten to know over the years as good, solid businesses that will do the best job that they can for you in helping you with your solar panel or solar water heater installation.

Sun Volts, Ontario
These guys operate out of a few different cities in Ontario, all of which can be found on their website.

Renewable Energy of Plum Hollow, Kingston
This company doesn’t have a website, but they are still the solar dealer of choice for many in the Kingston area.

Nova, Kelowna, BC
Nova’s services are not limited to Kelowna. They will ship nationally, and they are one of the more trustworthy names in the business.

Want more? Search CanSIA’s member directory for a solar dealer that will outfit you with the power of the sun. If I have not listed your favourite store, please feel free to list it in the comments section.

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At the ZDNet IT Priorities Roundtable discussion last week in Singapore, it was determined by the panelists that to not include green products in a marketing mix is a bad move on the part of tech companies. Specifically, nobody wants to hear that a product is not green, and the failure to point it out on the label can automatically make CIO’s and IT buyers think that it is not.

CIO’s also want to be told exactly how a product is green and how it can help change user behavior within their organizations and to save money.

The location of the panel discussion may very well have played into its results; Singapore is known for being one of the most environmentally forward countries in the world, in all industry sectors. The new 50-hectare CleanTech park in Singapore is just one green tech initiative on the part of the small country to green working environments and their technology.

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