Despite being vegetarian for the last 30 years, Sir Ian McKellen admits he struggles to ''resist'' eating bacon and pork pies because he loves the taste of them so much.

Sir Ian McKellen finds it ''very difficult to resist'' bacon and pork pies, despite being vegetarian.

The 75-year-old actor is pleased he gave up eating meat 30 years ago because he discovered it was the reason he was getting constant headaches, but the 'Hobbit' actor cannot always deny himself the opportunity to chow down on a delicious pork-based product now and again.

He said: ''As a declared vegetarian, I make a very good Quorn shepherd's pie. I stopped eating meat about 30 years ago and the headaches that I'd had since childhood vanished overnight.

''My indigestion got better, too. Though I find bacon and pork pies very difficult to resist.''

As well as a lack of meat in the star's life, he is also not too bothered about drinking alcohol and hot caffeine-filled beverages which comes from his younger years as he didn't even try a cup of tea until he turned 18 years old.

He added to Esquire's Big Black Book magazine: ''I grew up in a teetotal house. I never drank tea, coffee or alcohol until I was 18, and I can do without them easily.

''That sounds like I'm really in charge of my life. I'm not at all.''

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Ian McKellen's porky problem

Vegetarian diet tied to reduced risk for colorectal cancer

Vegetarians, rejoice. A new health study says eating all those plants may cut your risk for colorectal cancer the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. by about 20 percent. For the study, published this month in the online edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association publication Internal Medicine, researchers kept track of 77,000 men and women over the course of seven years. Roughly half of the participants were meat-eaters, and the others fell into four vegetarian-like groups: semi-vegetarians (ate meat less than once a week), pesco-vegetarians (ate fish but not other meat), lacto-ovo vegetarians (ate eggs and dairy but no meat) and vegans (no meat, no dairy, no eggs).

After seven years vegetarians were found to be less likely to develop the disease compared to participants who ate meat, but pesco-vegetarians, in particular, came out the best. All vegetarians together had on average a 22-percent reduction in the risk of developing colorectal cancer, compared with non-vegetarians, lead researcher Dr. Michael Orlich said, according to CBS. Those who ate fish, on the other hand, saw a 43-percent reduction rate. Experts noted that nevertheless there is still no concrete evidence that this reduction in colorectal cancer is due to diet.

John Petrick

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Vegetarians have lower risk of colorectal cancer, study finds

A Napier-based organic food business is assessing the damage caused by a fire in its production operation on Tuesday night.

The Fire Service in Napier said the cause of the blaze at Chantal Organic Wholesalers was being investigated.

Company business development manager David Alexander said part of the single-storey production facility building had been damaged.

"Anything we change from a bulk packet into a retail packet will have some delays, anything we manufacture will have some delays - we don't know how long for," he said.

About 25 people worked on the site and it was too early to say how they would be affected by the fire.

"We're going to have some temporary setbacks," Alexander said.

Moving the production into temporary facilities would also have some impact.

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Fire setback for Napier organic food producer Chantal

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Organic farmers often live on islands in a sea of genetically modified crops. More than 90 percent of the corn that farmers plant is genetically modified to resist pests and herbicides.

And corn pollen gets around.

"Corn pollen can travel many miles," said Frank Kutka, a plant breeder with stories about how far corn will go to reproduce.

"An organic grower from southeastern North Dakota was growing blue corn," he said, "and he had farmers up to five miles away saying, 'Hey, I had a few blue kernels coming out of the combine.' So, yeah, corn pollen blows a long way."

Pollination is vital. But when an organic field is downwind of genetically modified (or GMO) corn plants, contamination happens. Such contamination can cost farmers thousands of dollars, because organic, GMO-free corn often brings a premium price of several dollars more per bushel.

Kutka works for the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society and lives in western North Dakota. He's been trying for several years to frustrate that traveling corn pollen. He's created an organic corn that rejects foreign pollen, and he's now working to grow enough seed to sell.

Organic farmers already take steps to reduce pollen contamination from genetically modified or GMO crops. They plant buffers around fields, and try to time planting so their corn produces pollen before or after genetically engineered corn growing nearby.

There's little data about the extent of genetic contamination, but in a survey done by the organic industry, about one-third of growers reported problems. This year a USDA survey of organic farmers is asking about financial losses caused by GMO contamination.

There's growing demand for organic, non-GMO corn to make everything from chips to baby food, and for use as animal feed. The organic food industry recorded $35 billion in sales in 2013.

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Breeders offering corn that's picky about pollen

MetaWear has just launched the nations first solar and geothermal-powered operation providing cutting, sewing, dyeing, and screen-printing of GOTS- certified organic cotton T-shirts using seaweed-based inks with no toxic inputs.

Fairfax, VA (PRWEB) - Close to our countrys capital, MetaWear has just launched the nations first solar and geothermal-powered operation providing cutting, sewing, dyeing, and screen-printing certified organic cotton T-shirts. This cutting-edge sustainable style manufacturer which uses seaweed-based inks with no toxic inputs, and pays its staff a livable wage was recently certified to the worlds platinum standard for the processing of organic textiles the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). MetaWear is the first and only US-based GOTS factory of its kind.

GOTS, the textile industrys counterpart to the US Department of Agricultures organic food standard, covers the growing, processing, manufacturing, packaging, labeling, trading, and distribution of all textiles made from at least 70 percent certified organic fiber. As with organic food standards, a textile product carrying the GOTS organic seal must contain a minimum of 95 percent certified organic fibers, while a product with the made with organic label must contain a minimum of 70 percent certified organic fiber. GOTS-certified textiles are free of pesticides, GMOs, formaldehyde, chlorine bleaches, heavy metals, and other chemicals detrimental to humans and the environment, but typically used in conventional cotton t-shirts and textiles.

MetaWear is extremely proud to be paving the way for todays textile industry here in the US. We adhere to the most stringent global processing standards, and offer earth-conscious, socially responsible, and flawlessly-fitting screen-printed apparel perfect for promoting companies brands and messages, states Marci Zaroff, ECOfashion pioneer and MetaWear Co-Founder and President.

MetaWear, located in a refurbished Verizon facility in Fairfax, VA, makes its promotional custom T-shirts for men and women using Fair Trade-certified organic cotton. In addition, the company uses SeaInk, a proprietary dye process that uses a seaweed-derived base with no harmful inputs including PVC, resins, or binders.

With SeaInk, MetaWear can avoid the harmful impact of standard dyes without sacrificing color vibrancy, says CAS Shiver, MetaWear Co-Founder and technical mastermind behind the ink development as well as the solar and geothermal energy practices the company employs.

In addition to being GOTS-certified, MetaWear produced the worlds first Cradle-to-Cradle Certified fashion T-shirt for leading lifestyle brand Under the Canopy also Founded by Ms. Zaroff. This T-shirt was unveiled at the Cradle-to-Cradle Innovation Institutes Fashion Positive launch, celebrating its newest program dedicated to the circular economy. The five categories of focus for C2C Certification include material health, material reuse, renewable energy, water stewardship, and social justice.

I am approached regularly by organizations seeking sustainable, domestically made solutions to their T-shirt needs, says Zaroff. Authenticity and transparency in the supply chain add value, and cheap, toxic T-shirts are no longer seen as acceptable. The days of conventional GMO cotton, plasticol inks, hazardous dyes, and exploited workers are over. Todays smart businesses want to make choices that resonate with their core values.

As a result, MetaWear provides GOTS-certified T-shirts to numerous organic food and beauty companies, and has just partnered with the Organic Trade Association (OTA), where Marci serves on the Board of Directors. OTA members get a 10 percent discount on screen-printed organic cotton T-shirts and in return, MetaWear donates a portion of the total sales to OTA.

MetaWear is on its way to revolutionizing the USA textile industry one GOTS-certified organic T-shirt at a time, states Zaroff.

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MetaWear Launches USA's First GOTS-Certified Ethical Manufacturing And Dye Factory