On June 12, a powerful new film will hit the theaters, one that exposes the food industry. Today, a handful of corporations control our nation’s food supply.

Participant Media’s social action campaign for FOOD, INC. has several initiatives, among them: promoting the Congressional reauthorization of the Childhood Nutrition Act that will remove junk food and sugary drinks from school cafeterias and replace them with healthier choices; legislation to require chain restaurants to provide nutritional information about their menu offerings; and a downloadable high school curriculum that will help educators teach these important issues in their classrooms.

Learn more about the film and the courageous men and women who, in spite of fear of retaliation and lawsuits from giant corporations, refused to stand by and do nothing.

Read the companion book, Food Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer-And What You Can Do About It, which provides resources, tips and ways you can help make food safer.

Link: Film aims to expose dangers in U.S. food industry

Ah! June is Clean Air Month but anytime is the perfect time to look at what you can do to breathe easier and better. Here are a few ideas:

1. Drive less: Cars are a major source of air pollution. By leaving your car at home one day a week, you prevent 55 pounds of air pollution each year from being emitted into our environment.
2. Take public transit whenever possible, carpool, or telecommute and work from home.
3. Refuel in the evening and never top off: Putting gas into your vehicle releases Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) into the air. Throughout the day, these VOCs mix with oxides of nitrogen (NOx) in the air, “cook” in the summer heat, and form ground-level ozone. Refueling in the evening decreases the opportunity for VOCs to form into ozone.
4. Avoid consumer spray products: Hair spray alone contributes 12 tons of pollution per day. When selecting consumer products, consider solids, sticks, and gels instead. They are more environmentally friendly consumer choices.
5. Eat less meat: Livestock use a lot of energy — beef cattle need to eat 40 calories of food to produce 1 calorie of protein.

These suggestions come from HelptheAir.org.