Tom van Oosterhout - Our Green Health

Poverty in the World and Sustainability, a Tense Relation

26/05/202126/05/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

Poverty in the world and sustainability are not on par. Sustainability plans are usually designed to manage the long-term environmental impacts of human activities. What we tend to forget is that these plans can have devastating effects on world poverty.

Economic growth, financial stability, and jobs are often believed to be essential to sustainability plans. These plans are usually aligned with the protection of ecosystems, biodiversity, and water resources on which the poorest of the world depend.

What is Permaculture Farming, and Why can it Save Biodiversity?

26/10/202117/05/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

What is permaculture farming? Although permaculture is often associated with the replication of nature, design principles are at the heart of permaculture farming. It’s one of the most challenging types of farming we know.

If only because permaculture farming contrasts highly with conventional, industrial farming in which non-renewable resources are used, air, land, and water are poisoned, biodiversity is destroyed, and the soil eroded.

Sustainable and organic farming is closely related to permaculture: the continuation of all life systems is supported (the earth component), as well as community life (the people component), and a fair share for everybody (the economic component).

Protect the 1.000.000 Endangered Species of the World

10/05/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

Endangered species of the world. Hardly a day goes by or we talk about only one endangered species of the world: humans. It’s as if the pandemic totally closed us off from the rest of the world.

Biodiversity declines at an unmatched rate. Only fundamental changes can protect the 1.000.000 endangered plant and animal species of the world. Vested interests must be overturned.

We tend to forget that the survival of species, including us humans, depends on the ecosystems in which biosystems live. The most vulnerable species are threatened the most severely. This includes all of the poorest humans who live on this planet.

The Advantages of Organic Farming Vastly Outweigh those of Conventional Farming

13/10/202105/05/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

The advantages of organic farming vastly outweigh those of conventional farming. However, the conversion from conventional to organic food production is one of the most challenging endeavors of the 21st century.

To illustrate the truth of both these arguments, I will explain what the challenges are of the conversion. I use the results from a research assignment two of my colleagues and I performed in 2002 and 2003 in The Netherlands.

A provincial board decided to join the national endeavor for an organic agricultural area of 10% in 2010. The most obvious expansion of organic agriculture in this province is that of organic dairy farming.

Go for a Green Lifestyle and Invest in Powerful Future Generations

28/04/202128/04/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

Why go for a green lifestyle and invest in future generations? Perhaps the more important question is, how to go for a green lifestyle. And why for future generations?

The answer to this second question is fairly simple. When we want to go for a green lifestyle, this can only be achieved with major disruptions to our personal lives. This is why we have to start to dream about our green future, and with this dream in mind make small steps to get there. But where do our dreams start?

How Clothing and Health are Related in Unusual Ways

04/10/202121/04/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

The opening sentence of the book Clothing and Health: An Elementary Textbook of Home Making, is: “Our clothes are important for they help to keep us well. … Sewing is an art that all girls should learn. If we know how to sew, we can keep our clothes in order and always be neat and attractive in appearance.”

The book was published in 1920 and exclusively targets girls. In 1920 in the US, women spent over a billion dollars a year on textile materials alone.

To be neat and attractive, are not the only arguments the book introduces to explain why women should know how to sew their own clothes. Arguments that still carry some weight from our perspective: to know how to sew would make women aware of the costs of clothes, and the durability, and whether the clothes are comfortable. Perhaps it’s good to add that this also applies to men.

What is Insomnia and What Causes it?

16/04/202116/04/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

What is insomnia and what causes it? Insomnia primarily discourages the recovery we need after a day’s work. For years insomnia has been understood as an unavoidable condition of growing older.

It was considered a matter of fact that a healthy sleep starts to dwindle in late middle age. From then on it should steadily erode.

Fortunately this is not true. Although, this does not mean there is no cause for some concern. There are major threats to our sleep ‘architecture’ and sleep ‘quality’, from inside and outside of our bodies. However, what is insomnia and what causes it?

Why is Eating Healthy Important and Where to Start?

12/04/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

Why is eating healthy important? In these days of confinement this question gets far more attention. That is because to sit at home all day comes with the imminent risk of over-eating and under-exercising.

It takes quite some self-discipline to eat healthily and to stay in motion when locked up inside four walls.

But what is ‘to eat healthy’? Does this mean that we have to eat healthy foods and drinks? Most dietary professionals also suggest certain food consumption behaviors. For example, we need: