First on tap is the Amp Up with Avocado! Reception 5-9 p.m. Thursday Feb. 16 at the Kalanikai Bar & Grill at the Keauhou Beach Resort. The evening event is a benefit for the festival and Kona Pacific Public Charter School. Enjoy a silent auction, avocado-themed pupus, Kona Brewery beer, music and dancing for a $15 donation at the door.

Festival fun moves to Kealakekua Bay Bed and Breakfast Friday, Feb. 17 for a Farm-to-Fork Hawaii Dinner. The menu of the five-course, avocado-inspired meal is by Chef Devin Lowder of When Pigs Fly Island Charcuterie. Dessert Chef Hector Wong of My Yellow Kitchen in Honolulu will prepare a seven-layer avo dessert. Seating is limited and a portion of the $85 price benefits the festival. For reservations, phone 328-8150.

The celebration culminates Saturday, Feb. 18 with the family-friendly 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Hawai‘i Avocado Festival at the Keauhou Beach Resort. The free, community event offers a wealth of activities for attendees of all ages sprawling throughout the resort’s grounds.

Get tips on growing and grafting avocado trees, plus trees will be on sale for the home orchard. Leading the educational botanical sessions is a team of University of Hawai‘i staff: Dr. Ted Radovich, assistant specialist, Sustainable and Organic Farming Systems Laboratory; Dr. Mark Nickum, assistant professor, Sustainable Farming Systems, Tropical Fruit and Nut Crops; and Andrea Kawabata, assistant agent, coffee and orchards with UH Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Continuing the discussion from last year’s festival, Dr. Radovich will again lead a panel in deliberating the topic, “Bringing the Culture Back to Agriculture.”

Enjoy free avocado sushi rollups—while they last—by West Hawai‘i Community College culinary students and an avocado recipe contest. Chef Matt Dulin, Denver sushi guru at Elways Restaurant, is overseeing the contest with competition for Best Guacamole, Best Entrée, Best Dessert and People’s Choice. Find entry and prize details at www.avocadofestival.org.

Chef Hector Wong will demonstrate how to make a seven-tier Chocolate Oblivion Cake while using organic Hawaii Island avocado and Keauhou’s Original Hawaiian Chocolate—which is totally grown and made on the Big Isle.

Also on tap are over 80 artisan and food booths, a farmer’s market, a variety of healing arts, alterative energy demonstrations and a full lineup of performing arts headlined by Bolo and Maka. Volunteers with Kona Pacific Public Charter School are coordinating keiki activities.

This year’s original festival art is by Antoinette Sharfin, “Illuminature.” The art will be sold on organic cotton T-shirts and Sharfin will be available to sign the official commemorative festival poster that will be available for purchase.

For information, contact Randyl Rupar at 808-936-5233.

The 2012 Hawai‘i Avocado Festival is sponsored by Sanctuary of Mana Ke‘a Gardens, Hawai‘i Tropical Fruit Growers-West Hawai‘i, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Keauhou Beach Resort, Hawai‘i Health Guide, Farm to Fork,recyclehawaii.org, Divine Goods, Kona Brewing Company, Island Naturals, Kona Pacific Public Charter School and UH’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

A chance for serious mango lovers to get together and sample all the different varieties of their beloved fruit, as well as a chance for regular folks to enjoy the mangoes they love so much.

At the heart of all the day’s grafting demonstrations, farming presentations, and – why not? – belly dancing: a well known face in South Kona agriculture, Dr. Randyl Rupar.

A staunch supporter of local agriculture, we first met Randyl Rupar at an avocado festival in 2009. He was at that time as much of an enlightened – and alternative – agronomist as he is today. Rupar is the PhD. behind The Sanctuary of Mana Ke’a Gardens, the 501(c) 3 Non-profit that presented the festival.

So what kind of a year was it for mango growers? Experts say this year was a bit of a let down compared to last year.

The island has been riding a wave of mango pride for the last few years. A joyous 2010 Mango Festival celebrated the year’s fantastic harvest, perhaps the best in decades according to growers like Marg Love.

And the year before, it was this huge 7 pound mango – grown in Honomu – that narrowly missed a world record. The huge fruit was happily eaten before our camera here at Shark’s coffee shop in Hilo.

But its the yield uncertainty from year to year that goes to show diversifying your crops is the safest farming practice.

Despite having such an abundance of luscious fruit at our disposal, most of the island’s mango comes by the boat, arriving from off the island.

Ken Love, president of the statewide Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers, keeps a close eye on the numbers, as well as the causes. Love makes no mystery out of where he stands on the issue, encouraging folks to look at labels and buy local.

Its all fun and games for the folks who attended the 2011 Mango Festival, but it is a challenge for those putting it all together. The folks who push onward year after year hope for their eventual sweet reward; A strong step towards sustainability.

RF/microwave exposure leads to cancer development

It has been know for a decade that RF/microwaves from cell phones and tower transmitters cause damage in human blood cells that results in nuclei splintering off into micronuclei fragments. The development of micronuclei heralds the development of pre-cancerous conditions. Many victims of Chernobyl developed blood cell micronuclei that rapidly turned into full blown cancers.

Numerous animal studies have demonstrated that mobile phone radiation quickly causes DNA single and double strand breaks at levels well below the current federal “safe” standards. A six-year industry study showed that human blood exposure to cell phone radiation had a 300 percent increase in genetic damage in the form of micronuclei, suggesting a health threat much greater than smoking or asbestos.

Compounds from rosemary fight against mutagenic effects of radiation

In two separate studies, scientists in Spain found that nothing fights radiation damage to micronuclei like a simple garden herb known as rosemary. They noted that ionizing radiation causes the massive generation of free radicals that induce cellular DNA damage. They studied the protective effects of several compounds against gamma ray induced chromosomal damage in micronuclei testing by adding various compounds to human blood before and after irradiation. When the compounds were added after gamma-irradiation treatment, the protective effects relied not on scavenging ability, but on activity against free radicals already present in the cells, such as lipoperoxy radicals which are mainly responsible for continuous chromosomal oxidative damage.

The fact that carnosic acid and carnosol found in rosemary are fat soluble allows them to provide highly asignificant protective anti-mutagenic activity. Even the most powerful water-soluble antioxidants lack the capacity to protect against gamma ray induced damage. This study can be found in theBritish Journal of Radiology,February 2 edition.

In their second study, the generation of radiation induced cellular DNA damage to skin from free radicals was the focus. The researchers sought to demonstrate that rosmarinic acid from rosemary would act as a photo-protector both by acting as a scavenger of free radicals and as an inducer of the body’s own endogenous defense mechanisms by regulating tyrosinase activity and stimulating melanin production. They found that formulation of toxic malonyldialdehyde was delayed by the use of rosmarinic acid, and the protection factor was 3.34 times greater than for other compounds studied, as measured in micronucleus testing. In vivo testing showed the capacity of orally administered rosmarinic acid to inhibit skin alterations as a result of UV radiation exposure. This study was reported in the February edition ofFood and Chemical Toxicology.

Common food compound protects lymphocytes against radiation

In a study from India, scientists investigated the radio-protective potential of caffeic acid against gamma radiation-induced cellular changes. A dose of 66 microM of caffeic acid showed the optimum protection of micronuclei and was used to investigate the radio-protective effects of the compound. Lymphocytes were pre-incubated with caffeic acid and controls were not. All the lymphocytes were exposed to different doses of radiation. Genetic damage and biochemical changes were measured. Gamma irradiated control lymphocytes showed a radiation dose-dependent increase in genetic damage and a significant decrease in antioxidant status. Caffeic acid pretreated lymphocytes positively modulated all radiation induced changes. This study is found in the 2008Journal of Biochemical and Molecular Toxicology.

Food sources offering significant amounts of caffeic acid are apples, citrus fruits, and cruciferous vegetables.

RF/microwave radiation has the same effect on health as gamma rays

A pile of research has confirmed that non-ionizing communications radiation in the RF/microwave spectrum has the same effect on human health as ionizing gamma wave radiation from nuclear reactions. This means that Chernobyl has effectively come to America. Injuries resulting from radioactive radiation are identical with the effects of electromagnetic radiation. In the U.S., deadly high frequency radiation is now blasting from tens of thousands of cell towers and rooftop antennas all over the country. The tiny city of San Francisco, has over 2,500 licensed cell phone antennas positioned at 530 locations to nuke its citizens around the clock.

There is no safe dose of radiation

RF/microwave and gamma waves are identical in their abilities to produce gene damage and cancer at the cellular level, and there is no safe dose of either. Cell damage is not dependent on a certain level of exposure because at any time in that exposure, breaks in DNA can occur.

Communication antennas saturate the environment with multiple electromagnetic frequencies simultaneously. The response to this endless cellular jiggling is graphically described by Amy Worthington in her article on the radiation poisoning of America. “Human DNA hears this energetic cacophony loud and clear, reacting like the human ear would to high volume country music, R&B plus rock and roll screaming from the same speaker simultaneously. Irradiated cells struggle to protect themselves against the destructive dissonance by hardening their membranes. They cease to receive nourishment, stop releasing toxins, die prematurely and spill micronuclei fragments into a sort of tumor bank account.” According to an expert quoted in her article, 2000 hours of cellular phone exposure, or a latency period of about 10 years, increases the risk of brain cancer by 240 percent.

Many studies have shown that workers exposed to RF/microwave radiation routinely have inflated cancer rates, and the latency period between exposure and disease development is short. Some suspect that communications carriers exceed FCC exposure limits. Once equipment is installed and inspections are completed, it can be cranked up to create wider coverage. The FCC has sole regulatory authority over the communications industry, but has neither the money nor the employees to conduct verification testing. Even if they could do the monitoring, their guidelines are obsolete based on current scientific findings that have shown damage to human cells occurs at levels thousands of times lower than current standards permit. In other countries the allowed exposure levels are much less. Russia’s standards are 100 times more stringent than those in the U.S., because their scientists have found that human hearts, kidneys, livers and brains are damaged at much lower exposure levels.

When is comes to protecting against radiation, we are on our own

Since the beginning of the wireless revolution, there have been no federally funded studies to determine the impact of constantly escalating levels of radiation on public health. Most people remain blissfully unaware of their proximity to towers and transmitters. They are also unaware of their levels of exposure in their workplaces where wireless transmitters may be located just a few feet away from them.

Some of the symptoms of overexposure to radiation are heart palpitations, diminishing hearing ability, headaches, sleep disturbance, chronic fatigue, endocrine problems, short term memory difficulties, sleep disturbance, chronic fatigue, frequent infections, reproductive issues, and reduced cognitive ability and information processing difficulties. The development of tumors and cancer is one big indication that something is radically wrong, and thatsomethingmay be radiation poisoning.

What is a person to do about these symptoms? Right now it looks like the best defense against radiation poisoning is the same as the best defense against all diseases. This defense begins with diet and supplements. Eating a diet high in apples, citrus fruits, cruciferous vegetables, drinking red wine, and using fresh rosemary have been scientifically shown to be effective. Supplements of rosemary extract containing carnosic and rosmarinic acids are widely available. Supplements of DIM offer higher doses of one of the most potent compounds in cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli sprouts are the best source of sulphoraphane, another highly potent compound in cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli sprouts are available as supplements too. Making a pitcher of fresh vegetable juice several times a week for all family members to drink is a great way to fortify everyone against an environment that has turned against them. The juice should contain high amounts of broccoli, cabbage or other cruciferous vegetables. Adding a small slice of fresh ginger will give the juice an appealing flavor. Use only organic or fresh locally grown vegetables if they are available.

Although it may not seem like it, living without the use of wireless devices is possible. Until giant steps are taken in that direction, demanding that wireless emissions from transmitters be drastically reduced is fairly pointless. Demanding the government conduct routine compliance testing at all transmission sites and update federal radiation exposure standards is something that can be done right now.

We can break our radiation addition by giving up wireless internet systems and cell phone calls. Once knowledge is instilled about the devastating health consequences of wireless, it may no longer be fun to play wireless games and chatter on the phone while driving or shopping. If people do not buy WiMAX devices and their related services, the increased brutal bombardment of radiation it promises will be derailed.

OSHA standards say that no environment should be deliberately made hazardous. Armed with the knowledge of what radiation does to human cells, people can refuse to work or shop in environments that endanger their health. They can demand that wireless devices be removed from their children’s schools and from their work and entertainment places.

As a nation we bought into the advertisement that cell phones were necessary for an emergency. Yet the emergency happening nowisthe cell phone. What we thought would keep ourselves and our families safe now threatens to kill us. A look at our teenagers shows that convenience has been replaced by addiction. These teens rarely talk directly to each other, preferring endless communication through text messaging that is already producing teens with carpal tunnel syndrome. It really doesn’t have to be this way.

If we as a people are unable to break away from radiation addiction, Mother Nature will take control of the situation. Those lucky enough to adapt to radiation nation will survive and reproduce. Those who cannot keep up genetically will end up like the dinosaurs.

For more information see:

http://proliberty.com/observer/2007…

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Cancer…

http://www.ncrponline.org/

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/026079_radiation_exposure_rosemary.html#ixzz1WSD3OP2V