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