Environmental micro business ideas are created by environmental business problems.

There is a bigger problem that is eroding the environment in getting the oil our society desires… problems growing the food we need to eat… and marketing and distributing it.

This is why Merri and  have been writing about Purely Green and Bio-Wash, two degreasing solutions that are obviously much more.

Ted Tidwell the manufacturer of Purely Green And Bio Wash recently sent me this note.

Gary-  Numerous people are descending on the local emergency personnel dealing with the Gulf oil spill with hundreds of “solutions” that work on light cooking and motor oils but not on the real sludge and “tar balls floating on the water.

Mitch Hainey actually gathered floating oil globs and tested Purely Green on them.  He posted the photos and videos on YouTube. The link is below.

Here is the link to our Youtube channel where you will find the test/demo videos on Bio Wash and oil slicks we have posted so far.  We have two more to post up that are VERY impressive!  Ted

Here are more micro business ideas that have evolved from Bio Wash.

Please let me be clear Merri and I do not sell Bio Wash nor Purely Green.  We are long term users who believe in what it can do and the great environmental benefits it brings. Though the manufacturer has given me some to test on our orange grove… I have personally purchased thousands of dollars of this product and use it every day.  I do not make a penny if you use or buy Purely Green or Bio Wash.

Ryan Franks shares with delegates today at our North Carolina Quantum Wealth seminar how he has built a business eradicating the Wooly Adelgid with Bio Wash.

We have numerous readers using this product as we do. Here are other ways that people are using Purely Green and Bio Wash in international micro businesses.

Ted Tidwell sent me this note:

Gary, Below is the first e-mail received from Chautauqua Hills Farm, Kansas with this photo of a quarter-sized blueberry.

In a telephone conversation, he also advised that his BioWashed blackberries are bigger and sweeter than previous years.

Seeing the cucumber success reminded me to update you my BioWashed blueberries.

I am using BioWash in my drip system. I drip feed 1800 plants twice per week in a regular nutrient regimen.

After the fruit set, I use BioWash in my foliar spraying, which I conduct every 10 days.

The berries this year are outstanding and much larger than last year…

As you can see from the attached flyer we are producing blueberries the size of a nickel.

Our customers are amazed and the word is getting out about how incredible our berries are grown right here in SE Kansas.

Lance Chastain
Chautauqua Hills Farm
“Home of the nickel-size blueberries”

Another reader Potato Richardson has created a unique product for horses using Purely Green. He wrote:

Gary,  Sure I am happy to share Ted’s products with anyone.  Attached are photos of a mare that all of a sudden developed a
horrible allergic reaction that would normally eliminate her from a 100 mile race (Tevis Cup) planned in the next few days.

Ted’s solution cleared it up in a few days.

I use different dilutions for specific problems.  I have had many similar occasions.  I love that stuff.  I have lots of people who swear by it for personal use too.

Potato  For Wealth, Health and Fun

Another uses it in agriculture and posted this at his website.

Spider Mites or Disease on Tomatoes?

One of the most common questions I get about the vegetable garden is how to stop the yellow leaves that begin on the bottom of tomato plants and move up the plant to ruin the production of food. Almost everyone’s plants get this fungal disease at some point, but organic growers have far less problem with it and it tends to hit their plants later in the season. It is often misidentified as spider mite infestation because those pests will sometime attack as a result of the stress caused by the disease.

It is a fungal disease that infects ornamental plants, fruit trees, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and shade trees. Brown to black spots form and enlarge on lower leaves developing concentric rings like a target. Heavily infected leaves turn yellow, dry up and die as spots grow together.

Target-like, sunken spots will sometimes develop on tomato branches and stems. Fruits other than tomatoes and some tubers can also develop this same disease. Spores are carried by the air and are a common cause of hay fever allergies.

You can control this disease by planting resistant cultivars and soaking seed in a disinfecting solution such as a hydrogen peroxide mixture before planting.

Soaking the seed in Garrett Juice also seems to work. Proper organic bed preparation helps greatly. Spray plants with Garrett Juice, treat soil with whole ground cornmeal and spray infected plants with BioWash. Also sold as Plant Wash , Bio Wash sets up a condition on the plants that the disease organisms can’t survive.

The best long term control is to prevent the disease by planting well adapted varieties in healthy, biologically active soil and spraying and drenching the root zone with Garrett Juice and THRIVE.

Click here to listen to more on this topic from my Green Living show.

Visit the Green Living store for great garden, home, kids and pet products and to purchase the products to treat tomato blight.

If you have any questions regarding this newsletter or any other topic, join me this weekend for my Green Living and Dirt Doctor radio shows.

Naturally yours,

Howard Garrett

Problems create opportunity and few problems exceed those in the environment. You can create global micro business opportunity by finding solution that help the environment.

For more information about Purely Green or Bio Wash contact Ted Tidwell at tedtid7@yahoo.com

Gary

July Special Save $299

We provide three e-courses that can help you develop a micro business that can help you earn anywhere you live in the world.

International Business Made EZ

Self Fulfilled – How to be a Self Publisher

Tangled Webs We Weave – How to Create Your Own Internet Business

July Special.

Enroll in our October Quantum Wealth course October 7-10, 2010 or any of the Ecuador real estate tours below and choose one of the three $299 courses above for free.

Pre enroll for our October 7-10 North Carolina Course click here for details.

See Ecuador tours for August, September, October, November and December below.

Learn more about how to invest and do business abroad.

Find ways  to have more fun as you earn more in investing and business. Join Merri and me with Thomas Fischer of Jyske Global Asset Management, Jean Marie Butterlin, who we support to conduct Ecuador real estate and shamanic tours,  and Bonnie Keough who we support to conduct Ecuador export tours at our upcoming Quantum Wealth – International Business & Investing Course October in West Jefferson North Carolina. Click here for details.

You enjoy discounts by attending multiple seminars and tours.

Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Ecuador Shamanic Minga

Sept.   2-6   Ecuador Export Tour

Sept.   8-9  Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Sept. 11-12  Coastal Real Estate Tour

Sept. 14-15-16 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Oct.  7 Quantum Wealth plus International Investing and Business North Carolina

Oct.   8-10   International Investing & Business North Carolina
Oct.   11-12  Travel to Quito and Andean Tour
Oct.  13-14   Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Oct.  16-17   Coastal Real Estate Tour
Oct.  19-20   Quito Real Estate Tour
Oct.  22-23-24 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Nov.    4-7   Super Thinking + Spanish Course Florida
Nov.    8-9   Travel to Quito and Andean Tour
Nov. 10-11    Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Nov. 13-14    Coastal Real Estate Tour
Nov. 16-17    Quito Real Estate
Nov. 19-20-21   Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Dec.   3-5    Ecuador Shamanic Mingo
Dec.   7-8    Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Dec.  10-11   Coastal Real Estate Tour
Dec. 13-14    Quito Real Estate Tour
Dec. 15-16-17    Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Stress kills.

Stress can harm you physically… plus ruin your ability to make good investing, business and lifestyle decisions.

Yet we live in a stressful world.

So how can we reduce stress? One way to relax is through music.

Merri and I continually listen to Baroque music and I play to reduce stress.

There is a great study on stress at the website of Weber University.  One chapter entitled “Stress and the Environment” shows how important music is to both reducing and creating stress. The entire chapter is linked below.

Dr. T. C. Singh, head of the Botany Department at Annamalia University, India, has conducted research into the effects of music on plants. He discovered not only that constant exposure to classical music caused plants to grow at twice their normal speed, but also went on to find what seemed to be one of the main causes of this accelerated growth. In his experiments, the violin was found to be one of the most life-enhancing instruments of all.

   Yet, perhaps the most interesting and significant of all of Dr. Singh’s findings was that later generations of the seeds of musically stimulated plants carried on the improved traits of greater size, more leaves, and other characteristics. Music had changed the plants’ chromosomes!

   To listen to Handel’s Messiah is not to debate intellectually about religion; it is to feel and become one with that surging inner flame of devotion. . . . It is the essence of this state that enters into us, tending to mold and shape our own consciousness into conformity with itself.

Several additional studies reflect the interesting and powerful effect of music.

One study done by Dorothy Retallack looked to see if plants responded to music similarly to how they respond to light. Plants respond to light in an interesting way. If a plant is place on a window sill where direct sunlight will shine, its flowers, after a period of time, will turn in the direction of the window and toward the sunlight. If the plant is turned so the flowers face away from the window, after a time, the flowers will again turn in the direction of the sun. Certainly many things are involved here, but one thing is certain, the plant seems to have a preference for sunlight. They respond positively to the light. Dr. Retellack wanted to see if the plants would respond in a similar way to types of music.

Six separate chambers were used with music speakers and similar plants in each chamber. Each plant received the same amount of water, light, and nourishment. The only difference for each plant was the type of music that was played in each of the chambers.

The first plant chamber had country & western music playing for a period of time. The plants exposed to this type of music didn’t appear to respond at all.

The second chamber of plants had the music of Claude Debussy playing continuously. The plants in this chamber responded by leaning away from the speakers by about 30%. The plants didn’t appear to have a preference for this type of music.

The plants in the third chamber were exposed to Jazz music. They responded by leaning toward the speakers by about 10%.

The fourth chamber had Indian Sitar music playing. The plants in this chamber were reported to respond by leaning toward the speakers by about 75%.

These plants appeared to show a great preference for this type of music. The next chamber had adagio movements of baroque music continuously playing. The plants in this chamber responded the same was as those exposed to the Indian Sitar music. Dr. Retellack reported that those plants that were closest to the speakers actually wrapped some of their branches around the speakers.

The final chamber of plants was exposed to the music of Led Zeppelin, a rock and roll group from the 1970’s. The results showed that these plants, after a short period of time withered and died.

We live in an era of rapid change and often new events can be disturbing… even bewildering and beyond stress.   Stress creates negative loops in lifetsyles. Stress leads to bad decisions and actions which create more stress… whihc blinds one to correct decsions.

There are numerous ways to reduce stress… one easy… effective… enjoyable way to reduce stress is through good music.

Gary

July Special Save $299

We provide three e-courses that can help you develop a micro business that can help you earn anywhere you live in the world.

International Business Made EZ

Self Fulfilled – How to be a Self Publisher

Tangled Webs We Weave – How to Create Your Own Internet Business

July Special.

Enroll in our October Quantum Wealth course October 7-10, 2010 or any of the Ecuador real estate tours below and choose one of the three $299 courses above for free.

Pre enroll for our October 7-10 North Carolina Course click here for details.

See Ecuador tours for August, September, October, November and December below.

Learn more about how to invest and do business abroad.

Find ways  to have more fun as you earn more in investing and business. Join Merri and me with Thomas Fischer of Jyske Global Asset Management, Jean Marie Butterlin, who we support to conduct Ecuador real estate and shamanic tours,  and Bonnie Keough who we support to conduct Ecuador export tours at our upcoming Quantum Wealth – International Business & Investing Course October in West Jefferson North Carolina. Click here for details.

You enjoy discounts by attending multiple seminars and tours.

Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Ecuador Shamanic Minga

Sept.   2-6   Ecuador Export Tour

Sept.   8-9  Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Sept. 11-12  Coastal Real Estate Tour

Sept. 14-15-16 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Oct.  7 Quantum Wealth plus International Investing and Business North Carolina

Oct.   8-10   International Investing & Business North Carolina
Oct.   11-12  Travel to Quito and Andean Tour
Oct.  13-14   Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Oct.  16-17   Coastal Real Estate Tour
Oct.  19-20   Quito Real Estate Tour
Oct.  22-23-24 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Nov.    4-7   Super Thinking + Spanish Course Florida
Nov.    8-9   Travel to Quito and Andean Tour
Nov. 10-11    Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Nov. 13-14    Coastal Real Estate Tour
Nov. 16-17    Quito Real Estate
Nov. 19-20-21   Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Dec.   3-5    Ecuador Shamanic Mingo
Dec.   7-8    Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Dec.  10-11   Coastal Real Estate Tour
Dec. 13-14    Quito Real Estate Tour
Dec. 15-16-17    Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Stress and the Environment

Here are two great benefits to living in Ecuador.

First, you do not really need a car in many parts of Ecuador.  Second the intense sun 365 days a year makes it perfect for solar power.

The layout of communities… low cost gasoline, numerous taxis and and cars with drivers for hire favor a no car lifestyle in Ecuador village life.

One of the easiest ways to help the environment and improve health is to stop driving so much and walk a lot more.  People living in Ecuador tend to do this.  They write me often saying that weight has melted off without trying when they are in Ecuador.  Plus they have worries about insurance parking and such.

Those who stay in the US or Canada are not so lucky.

So one way of dealing with rising gas costs and pollution are electric cars.

During a Smalltown USA study on electricity costs, I stumbled across a January 29, 2010 Economist article entitled “Running out of juice” that created new thoughts about green investing and about living in Ecuador.

An excerpt from the article says:

How will we recharge all the electric cars?

IN THE ten years since hybrid electric vehicles first hit the highways and byways of America, they have come to represent 2.5% of new car sales. Yet, in places like Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC, every other car seems to be a Toyota Prius. That is because hybrids like the Prius have sold overwhelmingly where well-heeled early adopters reside.

A couple of million of the new electric vehicles could be bought by early adopters during the first few years.

The popular assumption is that they will be plugged into a wall socket in the garage late at night, taking advantage of cheap off-peak power. Unfortunately, things are not that simple.

One thing the new plug-ins and pure electrics have in common is a beefy lithium-ion battery pack that needs a lot of heavy charging. At the very least, that involves installing 220-volt wiring in the home. Trying to recharge a modern electric car with a standard American 110-volt supply takes too long to be practical (up to 18 hours in the case of the Leaf).

Of course, if not fully charged at night it may have to be recharged during the day—when electricity rates can be up to five times more expensive. Average peak rates in America are 33 cents a kilowatt-hour compared with seven cents off-peak.

In theory, recharging electric vehicles during off-peak hours should help utilities “fill the valley”—the trough in electricity demand between midnight and six in the morning, and thereby get better utilisation from their coal- or gas-fired generating stations. But, again, things are not quite as they seem. No utility wants to run its network flat out. Scheduling maintenance becomes difficult, which can lead to more frequent failures. The net result is that additional capacity has to be installed at a cost that would not otherwise be justified.

This time the Californian utilities are being more circumspect. They are concerned about highly concentrated pockets of ownership and the effects of everyone deciding to recharge their electric vehicles at once—as they inevitably will do when they return home from work. The local electricity system could be easily overwhelmed, and wider swathes of the grid brought to its knees in the process.

Preparing for this means beefing up local transformers as well as installing heavy-duty wiring and smart meters in homes to provide early warning of network troubles ahead. Sooner or later, those additional costs will have to be passed on to customers.

Now let’s talk about US electricity costs.

Excerpts from an April 2009 NPR article entitled “An Aged Electric Grid Looks To A Brighter Future” by Jeff Brady point out a story for rising costs and says:

The nation’s electricity grid is facing some huge challenges — it’s outdated and unprepared for increasing demand and a future that includes more renewable sources of energy. In a week long series, NPR is examining the state of the nation’s electricity infrastructure.

The economic stimulus bill passed in February includes $11 billion to upgrade the country’s power grid, but that’s just a down payment on a massive undertaking. That’s because when it comes to electricity, not much has changed since Thomas Edison fired up the first commercial power grid in lower Manhattan on Sept. 4, 1882. The fundamentals he pioneered are still the basis for an electricity grid in the U.S. that is almost 100 percent reliable. But in recent years, that grid has started showing weakness.

On Aug. 14, 2003, a lot of people in the northeastern U.S. learned that they couldn’t take reliable electricity service for granted anymore. A utility in Ohio failed to trim a few trees, causing a surprise outage that rolled across the region. Eventually, it left 50 million people without power for about a day. The risk of blackouts still exists in just about every region of the country.

The cost of this upgrade will eventually be passed onto consumers.   This started me thinking about electricity in the parts of Smalltown USA where Merri and I live.

Living in Smalltown USA often means living with extra space and in some parts of the country that space can be used to generate electricity.

I have already figured out what to do with hydro power on our North Carolina farm… because our farm has space… water and a lot of drop in altitude.

But I wanted to check potential solutions for creating energy in Florida… where energy might best be provided by the sun. We have 16 acres in the sun and parts of this are in the form of large empty fields with no obstructions.  I was wondering what to do with this space and started looking at Hybrid Solar Energy Systems.

Right at the entrance of our house is a perfect…

place for an energy field.

So I started researching.

I was surprised. Though the numbers will not send me rushing to the bank… they have caused me to pause… and consider.

A 5040 watt complete MyGen solar electric system by Kyocera can generate up to 5,000 watts of power an hour… sometimes.   Our electricity co-op will buy this electricity from me for .11 cents a kilowatt.

This 5040 watt system was offered to me totally installed for $37,380. “Whew,” I thought at first.

But a 30% federal tax credit is available thus lowering my real cost to $26,166.  A talk with the electricity co-op suggests that the actual electricity generated from such a system is worth about $500 a year or about a 1.3%  per annum return on that cost… if electricity costs remain at .11 cents a watt.

1.3% isn’t enough to get excited about until you ask two questions.  The tax credit raises the return to 1.8%

First, what is my bank  paying me on a $26,000 CD right now?

A  local bank here in Florida is offering 1.6% on a one year CD.

Second, how much might electricity costs rise?

I do not know the answer to this but certainly would be surprised to see electricity prices fall.

In Florida there is one added kicker. The state has been paying a subsidy of four dollars per wat on the first 5,000 watts of installation. In other words… they would kick in $20,000 if I put in the system.  Wow!  That means the cost starts at $37,380.  The tax credit saves me $11,214…. leaving $26,166 of cost minus $20,000.

This is a no brainer… an investment of $6,166 with an 8.1% return at current prices on a commodity that is likely to rise in the years ahead.

The downside is that Florida ran out of money for this subsidy and there are numerous buyers already on a waiting list… which is the only reason why I am still researching rather than having the installer working now.

Yet there are three points we should consider as they may lead to some green profits

Green profit point #1: Solar energy systems are becoming more efficient.

Green profit point #2: Energy costs are rising.

Green profit point #3: We, as investors, may profit from installing solar energy in some states now.  This will create more demand for solar products and cause the shares of solar energy companies to rise.  Though we may not want to install solar systems we may want to invest int companies that produce solar systems.

The system I am looking at is produced by Kyocera.

A recent article at this site Retire in Ecuador & Live Longer reviewed Kazuo Inamori, founder of Kyocera Inamori. He is 77-years old and is showing no signs of slowing down!  He is an ordained Zen Buddhist monk. His priest name Dai-wa, means “great harmony.”  He remains honorary chairman of Kyocera and recently agreed t become CEO of Japan Airlines when JAL tanked and teeters on bankruptcy… at no salary

Kyocera is a multinational maker of cellphones, office document equipment, solar power products and ceramic components that employs 66,000.

Kyocera Solar Inc. supplies an environmentally sound, solar electric package called the MyGen Grid-Connected Systems. This is the system I am investigating, as it is convenient and designed specifically for residential use.  The system is pre-engineered to optimize system performance and has all the major PV system components, disconnects and grounding equipment .

Kyocera Solar, Inc. (http://www.kyocerasolar.com) is headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz. and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kyocera International, Inc. of San Diego, the North American headquarters and holding company for Kyoto, Japan-based Kyocera Corporation.

Kyocera Corporation (listed on the NYSE: symbol KYO (http://global.kyocera.com/), the parent was founded in 1959 as a producer of advanced ceramics and is a leading supplier of solar electric generating systems, telecommunications equipment, copiers, printers, electronic components, semiconductor packages, cutting tools and industrial ceramics. During the year ended March 31, 2009, its 50th anniversary and the 40th anniversary of its U.S. operations, the company’s net sales totaled US$11.5 billion.  It is ranked #418 on Forbes magazine’s 2009 “Global 2000″ listing of the world’s largest publicly traded companies.

Here is a chart from www.yahoo.finance.com of Kyocera’s five year share performance in New York.

Kyocera is worth looking at a green investment.

If you plan to live in Ecuador… and like the idea of an energy business… there may be potential there as well.  I have not seen much in the way of solar power… but there is a lot of sun in Ecuador… every day.

Whether you plan to live in Ecuador, Smalltown USA or wherever… investments in alternate energy may bring you extra profit… as you help the environment. 

Gary

Join Merri me and our staff  in Mt Dora Florida or Ecuador March 2010

March 11-14     Super Thinking + Spanish Course, Mt. Dora, Fl.

March 15    Travel to Quito

March 16 Travel Quito Cotacachi

March 17-18  North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

March 19-20    Cotacachi Shamanic Tour

March 21  Travel Cotacachi to Manta

March 22-23   Manta & Mid Coast Real Estate Tour

March 24 Travel Manta to Cuenca

March 25-26 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

March 27  Travel Cuenca to Salinas

Mar. 28-29   Salinas & South Coast Real Estate Tour

The Ecuador airfare war makes it cheaper to get to Ecuador than ever before… and there is still time to enjoy great Ecuador tour savings.

Read the entire articles:

Running out of juice

An Aged Electric Grid Looks To A Brighter Future