Time to play "Farm" with the kids, even if your short on time and space you can make a mini container farm with your kids – remember their beaming face when they brought home the Beans they planted in class!

Visit LocalHarvest.org and click on the CSA link to find out more about "Community Supported Agriculture" where you get to buy direct from a local farmer. If you don’t have time to grow your own veggies, this is a great alternative and kids are far more likely to eat vegetables from their own "Farm" plus they are super fresh!

Over the past 10 years, studies have indicated that pesticide exposure double person’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. A new study from Duke University Medical Center and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine reported people with Parkinson’s disease were 61 percent more likely to have had direct contact with pesticides – particularly insecticides and herbicides.

The above study, was based on exposure 10 times a year, yet for the vast majority of people, we are exposed daily, often many times a day to Chemical’s, Pesticides and a host of other harmful toxins, we just don’t realize it. They have simply become part of our daily life – I’m not suggesting that every chemical is bad, but many are. Chemicals are a hidden ingredient in a multitude of products we all use, think of them like sugar in our diets, its not until you look that you see how much your exposed to.

Our food is covered in pesticides, grown on soil saturated with it, simply washing the vegetable or fruit clearly isn’t going to be enough, you cant wash off what’s on the inside.

Last year in CT many school sports fields were temporarily closed because the level of pesticides were greater than the legal allowance, when our children play on a field that is continually treated, that clearly affects their exposure.

Do you bleach everything in your house? from table tops to floors, and all the laundry? From the dogs blanket to kids cloths, bed sheets and towels – those actions alone massively increase your exposure. We all know bleach kills 99% of germs – what most of us haven’t considered is bleach is a registered caustic pesticide. By trying to create a germ free home, our skin is in contact with chemicals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are susceptible to all the side effects, Asthma, Bronchitis, and especially dangerous for anyone with a heart condition - and if you use a dishwasher, chances are your detergent is loaded with chlorine as well, so now we are breathing it in.

An EPA study showed that indoor air can be 3 – 5 times more polluted than our door air.

And speaking of outdoors:

Even our lawns: chemicals to make plants grow, chemicals for weed killers, dandelion killers, chemicals to kill bugs, grubs and anything else that crawls on the lawn. The problem is they also kill beneficial insects, birds and small animals – those same chemicals are tracked into the home on our shoes, residue gets on rugs and floors where our pets and babies play.

I know that all sounds pretty scary, but there are so many ways we can improve our own home environment, limit our exposure and still have a clean home and a green lawn! And we can educate our brand new generation, our children to help make their world a cleaner, safer place.