WBZ’s Laurie Kirby profiles Cape Cod entrepreneur Sonja Sheasley on WBZ Radio Boston.

LISTEN HERE Cape Cod Entrepreneur Sonja Sheasley on WBZ Radio Boston

http://www.capecodmagazine.com/Cape-Cod-Magazine/March-2013/Domestic-Goddesses/

 1.) Someone who is passionate about Bum Boosa’s products and mission.

 2.) Someone who believes that bamboo is a sensible alternative material to tree-pulp or plastic.

Become a Bum Boodist today and save trees!

Bum Boosa® Bamboo Products is proud to be listed as a 2013 Organic Baby University Favorite!  If you are pregnant, trying to conceive, or are new Mom or Dad, we encourage you to visit their website http://organicbabyuniversity.com/ where you will find checklists and guides, webinars, coupons for safe products, blog posts, informational videos, e-books, and even a chance to test your green IQ.

Organic Baby University offers all the education and support you need to protect your new family from before conception through childhood.

Meet the CEO of Organic Baby University

Jennifer’s Story

(from http://organicbabyuniversity.com/)

I always thought I was a pretty healthy person before I became pregnant; I ate healthy foods and ate organic food occasionally. I exercised regularly, took my prenatal vitamins and generally took pretty good care of myself. But only weeks into my pregnancy I was diagnosed with an extremely rare chromosome disorder and it completely changed my life and my pregnancy. There is nothing scarier than finding out that your child may not be healthy.

I was desperate to find all the information I could to help my child have the healthiest chance in life. There are so many things as parents that we do not have control of, such as genetics and certain things in our environment. And as an example, in my case, often times it is difficult to get information on what these genetic factors really mean. My condition is estimated to only occur in 1 in 100,000 people so there was no real information to be found. However, there is a lot we can do to make serious positive impacts on our children’s health.

As I began to research the things that I DID have control over, I had no idea how many things were in my personal environment that could negatively impact me during my pregnancy and the health of my child. I had no idea that chemicals I had in my everyday products had been linked to birth defects, asthma, ADD, cancer, and even potentially autism in real legitimate scientific studies! I had always assumed if it was allowed in products that it must be safe- that the government was regulating these chemicals.

What I didn’t know at the time was that over 80,000 chemicals have been introduced to our environment and in our products in the last 50 years and less than 200 have ever been tested as safe by anyone! That just seemed crazy to me! The government just can’t keep up with it! I quickly understood that in order to protect my unborn child and my family moving forward, I needed to learn as much as I could about how what these chemicals were, where they were found, what they did to our bodies, and how to avoid them!

As I researched, the most frustrating thing was there didn’t seem to be one website that was inclusive of everything I needed to know. Nearly all websites that discussed these topics addressed just some of the chemicals, or the “main” chemicals to avoid. There were a few sites that seemed to contain most or all of the information, but you had to search all over their site reading a ton of articles…and more frustrating…is if you didn’t know what you were looking for it…how were you supposed to find it?

Pregnancy is such an exciting time for a new mom, and a stressful one! Mom’s want to do the very best they can for their babies! And most people don’t have the time like I had to spend hundreds of hours researching what to avoid, what products are truly safe, which products say they are “green” or “organic” and are misleading and harmful, and how not to have to spend a zillion dollars or a ton of time to make the necessary changes!

That is the reason Organic Baby University was born. My husband had asked me why I wasn’t sharing all of the information I had learned with other moms to be!? So now I am! I have compiled all the information I have learned from over 230 resources (and have provided references for all facts) in a fun A-Z animated, carton video format. You don’t have to search all over the internet, read tons of articles, or wonder what the next chemical is that you need to learn about or avoid! No more stress! You can watch the videos and make the easy changes and spend the rest of your time enjoying your pregnancy, knowing you have done everything you can do protect your baby. You also will have access to me and the other members if you have questions or want more in-depth discussion about how to have a more green, organic, safe pregnancy, baby and family! It is everything you need for a healthy pregnancy, baby and family in one easy stop!

-  Thank you Jennifer for all that you do at Organic Baby University!

CIFOR researcher Nick Hogarth with a farmer looking at freshly harvested sections of bamboo shoots in the pot ready to be steamed, before being fermented and dried. Photo courtesy of Hannah Brodie-Hall/CIFOR

From CIFOR Forests New Blog : http://blog.cifor.org/13644/potential-of-bamboo-to-alleviate-poverty-in-rural-china-remains-untapped-expert/#.UQVTykpddst BOGOR, Indonesia (25 January, 2013)

Easy to grow, even on steep, marginal land unsuitable for other crops, bamboo has the potential to lift people in rural communities out of poverty, but only if management techniques and trade improves, a case study in southwestern China indicates.

An estimated 2 billion people across the globe use bamboo on a daily basis to produce everything from household utensils and handicrafts, to scaffolding for construction sites, according to the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan. Increasingly, though, it also is being recognized for its beauty, durability and flexibility, turning it into a hot, internationally traded commodity, and making it a key resource for livelihood development. But in some underdeveloped regions of China, despite ideal growing conditions, local access to bamboo stock and a thriving cottage industry, the potential is not being reached. “Our research shows that smallholder cultivation of bamboo shoots can make an important contribution to household income and rural livelihoods in impoverished, mountainous regions of China that have limited off-farm income opportunities,” said Nicholas Hogarth, lead author of a recent Center for International Forestry Research report, adding that the 12 villages surveyed in Guangxi had little or no knowledge about proven scientific techniques to optimise productivity.

Few studies have been carried out to determine how policies affect profit margins. “Much more research is needed to determine the full extent and potential role of bamboo production,” Hogarth said. In such areas where off-farm income opportunities are limited, more attention should be given to improving the income of existing forestry enterprises such as bamboo shoot production. CIFOR researchers collecting quantitative data from 240 households in Guangxi province found that forest-based enterprises such as bamboo production often represent the main, or even the only, industry and cash earning opportunity.

From a sub-family of grasses, bamboo is in many ways an ideal crop for the rural poor. Its clonal growth form, rapid growth rates and short rotation cycles, enables annual income generation, unlike the long harvest cycle for timber trees. “This is a very important attribute given the limited size of most household’s allocated forest land area,” said Hogarth. Bamboo also has less policy constraints and regulations compared to timber, authors of the study say. And, unlike timber, bamboo is relatively light and can be easily harvested and transported without specialised equipment or vehicles. “Bamboo production does not require special tools, and there are many skills in bamboo production that are common to agricultural crop management – such as soil cultivation and fertilisation – that are easily adapted,” Hogarth said. “Basic processing and value adding also does not require highly skilled labour or specialised equipment, and can be undertaken by low-income rural communities with minimal capital investment.”

China’s bamboo plantations underwent big growth from the 1950s, and experienced another rapid expansion in the 1980s following a series of conducive policy reforms concerning markets, commercialisation, land tenure and forest-use rights. This paved the way for increased smallholder investment in and management of plantation forests. Farmers enthusiastically embraced bamboo as a new cash crop, and planted it and other non-timber forest crops on their allocated household forest land in preference to less-profitable timber species.

A fifth of the world’s bamboo comes from China, the FAO documents, with more than 600 species, according to a United Nations Environmental Program report: Information for planning conservation andnnanagennent in the Asia-Pacific region. And it is estimated that more than 90 percent of China’s bamboo is in upland areas, which is also where poverty is concentrated, the CIFOR researchers cite the World Bank as saying. “A large proportion of households at the study site were living below the poverty line, and in many ways are representative of the persistent low-income people that the central government’s targeted poverty alleviation programs are trying to reach,” said Hogarth.

Bamboo has featured in many poverty alleviation and reforestation programs such as China’s conservation of Cropland Forest programme, in which direct payments are made to households that convert their sloping cropland in to forests. However, most farmers’ knowledge about management is limited to small-scale plantings of “village bamboo,” and wild bamboo is used for domestic purposes rather than commercial production. “Although important,” Hogarth said, “these kinds of traditional folk knowledge-based management systems are inadequate and outdated when applied to plantation production systems.” Researchers said that half of the 12 villages studied had suitable conditions for bamboo cultivation but no commercial industry. They looked at Nabi Township, for instance, where households have low-cash income levels and seemingly few options to make on-farm cash. Farmers in half the sample villages in Tianlin, the report notes, had little or no bamboo despite ideal growing conditions and local access to bamboo stock. It suggests these villages may be ideal ones to introduce development-oriented interventions and bamboo-based poverty alleviation programs.

First, however, there must be more information on the contribution of bamboo incomes. Hogarth recognises conducive forest and bamboo policies and programs that have helped promote bamboo development, but says there is also a general lack of quantitative data on the value of bamboo income – cash and subsistence – to household economies. There also is a lack of information on the effects bamboo policies are having on rural livelihoods and poverty alleviation, he said, and if and how they could be improved. “In such areas where off-farm income opportunities are limited, more attention should be given to improving the income of existing forestry enterprises such as bamboo shoot production” Hogarth said. “Hopefully our research can be used to illustrate the need for more attention to be focused on the sector in terms of its role in rural development and poverty alleviation.” This new publication forms part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry and was supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and Charles Darwin University.

rdevaney@capecodonline.com

January 27, 2013

In an episode of CBS’ sitcom “2 Broke Girls” that first aired last February, the main characters — Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs — visit a Manhattan pharmacy.

Behind them on the set, tucked away between hair mousse and crutches and canes, there’s a product from Cape Cod.

If you blink, you might miss it. And even if you don’t, you still might.

But for Bum Boosa, a Mashpee company that markets eco-friendly baby-care products and tissues, it’s one in a growing number of film and TV credits, and a stepping stone toward further growth.

Bum Boosa’s bamboo-derived baby wipes will make their fourth appearance in four years on TV shows and in movies when the wipes appear in a scene on “Revenge,” a prime-time drama on ABC, in the coming weeks.

Rather than discuss any direct benefit to her company from these placements, Bum Boosa founder Sonja Sheasley stresses a raised awareness of green products. She says the appearances show that bio-friendly and sustainable products are becoming “more mainstream and in-demand.”

“I am really proud that our product is gaining recognition and that is a big part of advocating to the public and bringing eco-friendly products to the marketplace,” she says. “Its all about making an informed decision when you buy. We have people-friendly products and whatever attention we gain from that works for us.”

Along with “2 Broke Girls,” the company’s other Hollywood credits include placement in Style Network’s reality series, “Tia & Tamara,” and the film, “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.”

For its appearance on “Revenge,” which stars Madeline Stowe and Emily VanCamp, Bum Boosa’s baby wipes featured as part of a nursery set.

So how has the local company found its way to stardom?

Sheasley says it all began with a call from Legacy Entertainment, a product placement agency for film and television located in North Hollywood, Calif. Legacy took notice of the brand after CBS hired the company to find nursery set items.

Bum Boosa is now listed in two product-placement booklets, with Legacy and another agency, Northeast Film Partners.

“These booklets go out to different TV and film

sets and then someone on set looks at the list and says, for example, we need baby wipes for the scene,” Sheasley says. “So then we send out a case for samples.”

But even after being chosen for product placement, Sheasley says the company often doesn’t make the cut.

“We have been placed on several sets and TV shows, but we haven’t always made it through the editing process.”

Legacy Entertainment, which represents 300 companies in the entertainment industry, primarily works with large companies like LG Mobile and Alize. But Steven W. Moore, Legacy

president and CEO, says regardless of company size, he is always looking for the next big thing.

“After we are approached by production — from film or TV — they ask us to find various products for sets,” Moore says. “We put together a list with the top five companies and then we narrow it down and find a match. We are quite selective in our process and try to be a one-stop shop.”

Moore, who has his own in-house research team that evaluates companies from around the world, says the criteria for product placement has several components.

“We are known for representing the creme de la creme (of companies), and when we found Bum Boosa we found a product that looked good on camera and was just a phenomenal product,” Moore says. “It was a combination of (Bum Boosa) being

eco-friendly, having a nice-looking package and high recommendations. We were very impressed.”

According to Moore, the fact that Bum Boosa was one of the only companies that carried environmentally friendly baby products pushed Sheasley’s company above the rest and ultimately led to it being signed by Legacy.

“I am a firm believer in green technology and anything that is in line with that will take priority,” Moore says. “Being green is so important and it is the future.”

Sheasley, who founded Bum Boosa in 2009, agrees with Moore and found that creating products from the renewability and stainability of bamboo is one of the best ways to create products that are environmentally sound. Bamboo can be harvested in two to four years and doesn’t require replanting, irrigation or pesticides, she says, adding that her products are natural, biodegradable and hypo-allergenic.

“I made the discovery that baby wipes are mostly made from plastic fibers, harsh materials and fragrances so I just thought that I wanted to create a better product that I didn’t see existed in the marketplace,” Sheasley says. “I was very interested in creating plant-based products and I found myself catapulted into this whole notion of creating a better product and it evolved into the business we have today.”

Bum Boosa, which now offers baby wipes, tree-free toilet paper and herbal diaper rash ointment will soon add 100-percent flushable bamboo diaper liners and has a new bathroom tissue coming out next month.

The company also has bamboo disposable diapers in the works which will be more biodegradable then conventional diapers.

In addition to its new products, Bum Boosa will also make its presence known in September, when it sponsors its annual road race in Cotuit in honor of World Bamboo Day. All proceeds will benefit the Plymouth-based World Bamboo Organization which promotes the use of bamboo and bamboo products globally.

While Sheasley says the Hollywood attention has been “exciting and fun,” she still maintains that the highest form of flattery is the ability to bring the existence of renewable and sustainable products to light.

Here’s to 2013! The Year of Bamboo! 

BUM BOOSA BAMBOO PRODUCTS INFO

TREES HAVE AN IMPORTANT FUNCTION BESIDES BEING A “MATERIAL” FOR CONSUMPTION

Trees hold onto water through their root systems, which helps prevent floods and erosion. They provide shade and homes for endangered and not-so-endangered animals, birds and insects. But most importantly, they make oxygen.  The trees left alone to mature are the trees that have the most contribution in serving the needs of the environment.

AS POPULATION EXPANDS, SO DOES OUR NEED FOR WOOD

Deforestation occurs for many reasons: trees are cut down to be used or sold as fuel (sometimes in the form of charcoal) timber, or to make pulp and paper, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock, plantations of commodities and settlements. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity. It also has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

MANAGING OUR NEEDS

The good news is that in many countries, increasing consumer demand for wood products that have been produced and harvested in a sustainable manner is causing forest landowners and forest industries to become increasingly accountable for their forest management and timber harvesting practices.  But we are still not “out of the woods” just yet. We still continue to lose hundreds of acres of trees every day due to wildfires, over-harvesting and development.  As we find ourselves in the middle of the holiday season, it seems timely to consider the fact that cutting down more trees to decorate for Christmas might not make as much sense as it used to.

WHERE DOES THE CUSTOM OF THE CHRISTMAS TREE COME FROM?

In the grand scheme of things, this tradition has not been popular for all that long. The custom of the Christmas tree developed in early modern Germany, with predecessors that can be traced to the 16th and possibly the 15th century, in which “devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes.” It only acquired real popularity beyond Germany during the second half of the 19th century!

THE AGE OF THE LIVING CHRISTMAS TREE

I know what you are thinking. If you celebrate Christmas with a fresh cut tree, you’re probably not ready to give up this tradition, even if you are eco-minded.  But you don’t have to give up this tradition!  The trend of “the living tree” is here. Living trees are just what they sound like: A live tree that come with their roots intact, and can be planted and enjoyed for many years.  What it also a nice bonus: A living tree actually benefits air quality!

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Christmas trees are harvested when they reach a certain height. An acre of Christmas trees does not have the beneficial environmental impact as an acre of old growth forest. In some cases management of Christmas tree crops can result in poor habitat since it sometimes involves heavy input of pesticides. In a world where there is not enough fertile land for food and sometimes not enough for wildlife, a Christmas tree farm might not be the best use of our resources.

IF YOU DO HAVE A CUT TREE THIS YEAR, MAKE SURE YOU DISPOSE OF IT PROPERLY

There’s nothing sadder than seeing a cut pine Christmas tree go completely to waste on the side of the road because the owner couldn’t be bothered to recycle it. There are a many things that can be done with cut trees. Call Earth911. They can help you figure out how and where to recycle your cut Christmas tree.

TREE PLANTING STORIES

We thought we would end with some inspiring stories of tree planting missions around the world!

• In the People’s Republic of China, where large scale destruction of forests have occurred, the government has in the past required that every able-bodied citizen between the ages of 11 and 60 plant three to five trees per year or do the equivalent amount of work in other forest services. The government claims that at least 1 billion trees have been planted in China every year since 1982. This is no longer required today, but March 12 of every year in China is the Planting Holiday. The forest coverage in China was 12% two decades ago and now is 16.55%!
• In the country of Senegal, on the western coast of Africa, a movement headed by youths has helped to plant over 6 million mangrove trees. The trees will protect local villages from storm damages and will provide a habitat for local wildlife. The project started in 2008, and already the Senegalese government has been asked to establish rules and regulations that would protect the new mangrove forests.
•  Abdul Karim in India created a 32 acre forest out of nothing over a period of 19 years, making planting tree seeds part of his daily ritual.  Abdul Kareem has created and saved forever a piece of wilderness for India. Read more: http://www.goodnewsindia.com/Pages/content/inspirational/abdulKareem.html
• Since 1989, an organization called Trees for the Future has assisted more than 170,000 families, in 6,800 villages of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, to plant over 65 million trees. (Bum Boosa has planted almost 50,000 trees with Trees for the Future.)

REMEMBER YOU CAN ALSO HELP ALLEVIATE THE BURDEN THAT TREES BEAR BY CHOOSING PRODUCTS MADE FROM BAMBOO!  HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT OUR ALTERNATIVE BAMBOO TISSUE PRODUCTS YET? www.bumboosa.com

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