Whether you’re a busy parent herding multiple siblings through their day, or you’re expecting your very first child, Healthy Child Healthy World is doing important work to help you keep your family safe and healthy. We’ve supported this organization for many years; our co-founder, Myra Goodman, is on its advisory board.

Healthy Child Healthy World has always offered tremendously useful information on their website, and now they’ve published a great book that’s headed for the best-seller list! Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home was written by Christopher Gavigan, CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit Healthy Child Healthy World (and a father himself). Healthy Child Healthy World is dedicated to protecting children and families from harmful environmental exposures through cleaner, greener, and safer lifestyles. In addition to the book, the organization’s website is an outstanding resource that will answer all your questions about how to provide a cleaner, greener, safer home for your family.

Healthy Child Healthy World’s mission is so important and compelling that they’ve attracted supporters far and wide! With contributions from leading environmental science and public health experts (like Dr. Alan Greene, Dr. Sandra Steingraber, and Dr. Philip Landrigan) as well as many celebrity parents like Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Obama, and Tom Hanks — plus healthy lifestyle experts like Earthbound Farm’s Myra Goodman — the book provides inspiring advice for creating a healthy, nontoxic, and environmentally sound home without wreaking havoc on schedules or budgets.

“My husband and I starting farming organically on instinct — we just didn’t want to apply all those agricultural chemicals to the crops growing literally right outside our door, and we certainly didn’t want them on our food or on the food we were selling to other people,” observes Myra. “When we started our own family, the importance of organic food came into even sharper focus. Children are more vulnerable to developmental damage from pesticide residues on food. Their bodies are still growing, their metabolisms are faster, and because of their smaller size, they eat more fruits and vegetables per pound of body weight than adults do.”

“Organic food is grown using methods that protect the environment and everyone living in it,” Myra continues. “Organic farmers use no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, no genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or irradiation, and no hormones or antibiotics. And organic products have no artificial ingredients or trans fats. Organic food is more labor-intensive and expensive to produce, but it’s a vastly better value when you account for not only its superior taste and nutrition, but for organic farming’s beneficial effect on the environment and human health.” Read Myra’s contribution to the book, “Raspberries Changed My Life.”