Hi, I'm Paula and I've been reading posts here for over a year now and I'm
very glad to see Veg-Raw coming back to life.  I've enjoyed reading the
recent introductions, so here is mine.

My family of four has been vegetarian, (almost always vegen) for about three
years, so though I have no formal education in nutrition or any type of
health care field, I have done a lot of reading and listening during this
time, and have a definate drive to learn all I can about it. (It seems the
more I learn, the more I learn I have so much more to learn.)  I'm
especially interested in understanding the nutrional needs of children.  My
oldest is 12 and learning to make his own choices about what he puts in his
body, the youngest is 6.  He has cerebral palsy (with a metabolism all his
own!) and finding ways for him to get raw foods is really a challange (due
to eating difficulties).

We live on the island of Maui in Hawaii and are fortunate to have access to
a variety of "organic" fruits and vegetables (we even have a small garden
ourselves), but the use of _large_ amounts of pesticides and other chemicals
on the sugercane & pineapple crops is so common here, I wonder how
chemically free any soil can be on this little island.  I want to learn how
to test the soil and water myself, but know little about what is really
involved with that at this point.  I'm actually a scientist at heart and
have enjoyed thoroughly justifying all these cravings for knowledge now that
I have taken the responsibility for the health of myself and family (for
starters).

That's about it for my introduction and now that that's finally over with,
I'm looking forward to posting comments and questions.

Aloha -- Paula