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Organic grape farmers feel they are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to the current labeling of organic wines. By Brooke Rewa, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Organic shopping can be confusing. Organic wine shopping, even more so. Many of us don't have time to stop and read every ingredient on the products we are looking to purchase at the grocery store. This is why we look for known "stamps of approval." The biggest stamp we look for when shopping organic is that of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA sets very high standards for what can be labeled certified organic; which is why we as consumers trust them. They have taken these standards to new levels in the wine industry and it could be doing more harm than good for the world of organics. When perusing your local grocer for an organic wine you will find two different labels; one clearly labeled certified organic and one labeled "made with organic grapes". This is where things get confusing and where organic grape farmers get upset. In order to be labeled certified organic by the USDA wine must be made from 100% organic grapes and contain no added sulfites. Sulfites occur naturally when grapes are fermented to make wine, it is impossible for any wine to be completely sulfite-free. Wine makers have been adding sulfites for centuries. Sulfur protects wine from oxidizing, allows for a longer shelf life and prevents unwanted organisms from growing in th

By: Linsley Oaks, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant I lived in Canada as an American citizen for five years.  I spent four years outside of Montreal...

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate I believe that every home should be a sanctuary and that upon entering it one should immediately feel physically and emotionally protected. What I first noticed upon entering Jim and Nancy Chudas Green Home to select a room to design for an upcoming feature in Los Angeles Magazine was that it had all of those qualities even in the construction phase.

By Alanna Brown, a LuxEcoLiving Advocate, creator of Brown House Online, and author of Moonpennies The gatekeepers are gone. The agent, the editor, the lawyer,...

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World with contributions from environmentalist John Easterling Photo Courtesy of PBS...

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Oslo Norway, The Chuda's  for LuxEcoLiving What could be better. Two nights at...

By Nancy and James Chuda founder of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World New York City 57th and 6th Avenue, The Quin Hotel         When...

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Luxury for Less. The most beautiful authentic jewelry, custom designed, one...

By: Francine LeFrak, Founder of Same Sky, a company that handcrafts glass bead bracelets made in Rwanda and LuxEco Advocate My dream is for the empowerment of women and eradication of poverty. In 1994, 1 million people were murdered in 100 days in Rwanda. I spent eight and a half years trying to produce a film about this massacre-- I wanted to tell the story of this genocide. Ultimately, the film never got produced. I was still left with the passion to shed light on this important story. By that time, my focus had also turned to the empowerment of women and girls. It was with the mission of helping the women in Africa that Same Sky was born.

by Zhenya Gershman, Artist and Art Historian, co-Founder of Project AWE You are in an art museum.  Suddenly you feel that someone is staring at...

By F.R.E.E. Will, LuxEco Editorial Assistant, Author of In The Spice Cabinet series A member of the same family as the more known ginger plant, the rhizome, or root, of the tumeric plant has quite the storied history. Native to the Indian subcontinent tropical regions of Southeast Asia, tumeric has been used in both ancient Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for its anti-inflammatory properties and has been used for ailments ranging from jaundice to various forms of arthritis. Also well documented are the antiseptic properties of the volatile oils contained in tumeric making it quite effective in dealing with skin afflictions from minor cuts to more severe conditions like eczema and psoriasis; not to mention undeniably cheaper than the vast amounts of antiseptic sprays and creams on the market that serve the same function.

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World   We had a terrible scare!!! Journey, our 18 month old adopted yellow...

Empathy and Compassion in the Wake of Japan's Tsunami Crisis By: Marc Ian Barasch, author of The Compassionate Life and Founder/Director, Green World Campaign The aerial shots...

People spend an average of 8 hours 21 minutes sleeping a day – but spend an average of 8 hours 41 minutes on media...

By Wendy Ross Kaplan, LuxEcoLiving Advocate The term “gluten-free” is becoming more mainstream these days, when a trip to the grocery store can be rewarded with more healthy choices for shoppers. But before the 1960’s, only nutritionists and a handful of health nuts knew what gluten free meant. Nowadays, “gluten-free” has almost a cult following of otherwise regular folks seeking better health benefits and those suffering from diagnosed celiac disease, its varying manifestations and debilitating effects.

They were thought to have been extinct since the 1980's but the thumbnail sized Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly (also known as the El...

LIB Festival: Celebrating over 10 years, Greenest Festival in America covers celebratory spectacles of art, music, fashion, and design.   Who: Presented by The Do...

A hearty "Haha" or fit of laughter may just be the key to a happier and healthier life. By: Kammie Daniels LuxEco Editorial Assistant A person must smile nearly a quarter of a million times to create one wrinkle. 15 seconds of laughter alone can add two days to your life span. One hearty chuckle burns over three calories. In today’s image and age-conscious society, where children want to grow up, adults want to hit the rewind button, and those in their twenties are considered to be in the "prime of their life", modern research is revealing that laughter is much more than just funny business.

It's a safe bet to say that there aren't too many people in the world who haven't experienced the warm soothing smell of cinnamon as it slowly bakes into your grandmother's extra syrupy sweet potatoes, or as it blends with the apples and buttery crust from your mom's apple pie. What most of us, particularly in the Western World, fail to realize is that we are victims of a very cruel irony.

Text By: Kammie Daniels; Video By: Marcus Inglizian, Basil Vernon and Kammie Daniels Sitting in the lively O!Burger, looking out over the bright space filled with, among others, neighborhood hipsters, middle-aged men direct from the gym, and couples in close conversation-all customers greeted by a genuinely friendly staff- Basil and I said to one another, “I like this place already.” The food, we’re happy to report, is equally appealing. From the french fries and condiments to the burgers and fresh buns, everything is organic at O!Burger, the first burger joint in Los Angeles serving exclusively 100% certified organic food.

By Kerin Van Hoosear, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of Seasonal Cooking with Kerin Before the advent of refrigeration, seasonal living wasn’t an aspiration,...

By Margret Debanne, Art Historian and LuxEco Advocate With yesterday's naming of SANAA Partners as winner of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, Kazuyo Sejima has...

Introduction by Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Last summer, I had the privilege of interviewing Laura...

By Zhenya Gershman, Artist, Educator and LuxEco Advocate 1. The true deadly sin is not to make art 2. The only taboo in art is bad art 3....

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Santa Paula California Limoneria Ranch An Afternoon in the Orchard Celebrating Sustainable Agriculture Not...

by Linsley Oaks, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Tree houses might not just be for little Tommy anymore in the near future.  If you have 3 minutes, check...

By Nancy Chuda, Founder of LuxEco Living and Healthy Child Healthy World I hear and I forget I see and I remember I do...

By Brooke Rewa, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Move over Guiness, organic beer is taking over this St. Patrick's Day. My five picks for organic beers that even the Irish can get down with. Try Bison Brewing's Organic Chocolate Stout, Wolaver's Organic Brown Ale, Eel River's Porter, Peak Organic Brewing Company's Nut Brown Ale, Pisgah Brewing Company's Valdez,

By Stephanie Nickolson a contributing LuxEcoLiving advocate and Interior Designer How To Create Your Own Residential Oasis   It wasn't that long ago that...

Pope Francis, called the unfettered pursuit of money "the dung of the devil." Capitalism is key when it comes to Apple.

rstBrands offers a variety of sustainable handmade outdoor furniture and utilizes one of the most important sun shields in the development of their products. The patented Sunbrella fabrics who I might add made environmental responsibility a priority decades before the "green" movement.

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Santa Ynez California breakfast at The Baker's Table 3563 Numancia Street COME HUNGRY! You...

By Nancy Chuda Co-founder of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World. Recently, Jim and I payed a visit to Michael and Karin Cronan in Oakland California. After a great meal and three hours of delightful conversation, Michael handed us a gift. It came wrapped in a magnificent cardboard envelope, a serious Cronan design. We opened the meticulously wrapped present to find white linen paper with an embossed design, one that only Michael could have conceived. On the design the letters SHARE. were placed in the center of the most magnificent art work. In the giving spirit the Cronan's have brought to the world, through their genius work in branding names like Kindle, Tivo, and now Healthy Child Healthy World, we are the proud recipients of yet another one of their aspirational ideas. SHARE.

By Kerin Van Hoosear, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of Seasonal Cooking with Kerin When I jumped on the gardening bandwagon, the first things I started to grow were herbs. I had really started getting into adventurous cooking, and it only made sense to grow my own herbs. If you go to the grocery store, you’re going to wind up spending a few bucks on a couple leaves of basil. Well, I don’t have a few bucks; but I do have a minute to snip off as much basil as I want from my garden, for free. And that’s really what it’s all about: saving time and money while bringing your food to a whole fresh, new level.

By Amanda Nisenson, Opera Singer and LuxEco Advocate The night before I was born, my mother was reading an article about Beverly Sills, (May 25, 1929 – July 2, 2007) the famous opera singer who performed for huge audiences around the world. My Great Aunt used to brag about how she knew Beverly Sills growing up in Brooklyn, and how much she enjoyed being friends with “Bubbles,” as Ms. Sills was called then. The article continued to explain that this nickname was given to her because she was born with Bubbles in her mouth. The next day, June 17th was the day that I came into the world, and to my mother’s great surprise, I was born with Bubbles in my mouth. She could not believe the coincidence, and announced to the doctor that I would become a singer! Years later, shortly before Beverly Sills died, my mother had the great fortune to meet the legendary singer, and actually got the opportunity to ask in person, if she did indeed know my Great Aunt. After a questionable pause, Ms. Sills burst out laughing in recollection of this zany character from her childhood.