Calling all yummy mummies looking for a safer car - safer for your family, safer for the environment (ok maybe not quite like the one on the left!). Green cars are becoming ever more accessible to the average household so it's good to know what's out there when you're deciding to purchase the next family vehicle. We understand that not everybody can do without a car so we thought we'd look at a couple of the best for those who really do need one to get about in.

To figure out which are the most eco-friendly cars on the market it's important to look at mileage, tailpipe emissions and curb weight - factors the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) take into consideration when they put out their greenest cars report each year. This year they selected the Honda Civic GX, which runs on natural gas and emits less greenhouse gases than cars that run on petrol.

GoinGreen Reva G-Wiz, NICE Mega City and Smart Ed are three great little electric that you can pick up for between seven and ten thousand pounds. The downfall is in their size - they're not suitable for a 4.5 size family. Both the Chevy Volt (by General Motors) and Jeep Wrangler (Chrysler) are bigger sized electric cars.

Free Range Studios generally have a pretty unique way of getting their message across. Together with the Humane Society of the US the creative team have produced a music video to encourage people to vote yes for the rights of farm animals in California in the Proposition 2 ballot. A take on Stevie Wonder's 80's hit Superstition, Proposition the animal pop version, aims to inform voters on why they should vote for the abolition of cruelty to cooped-up pigs, hens and other animals that are kept in inhabitable pens. The new legislation is about stopping the practices of those factory farms that cut corners and ignore poor animal welfare for the sake of profit.

Let's hope this little piggy gets his message across in time for the November polls.

Kids love to wiggle... they love to giggle... they love to create and they love to get their hands dirty. What better way to get them involved and learning about the world around them than to encourage them in the garden.As we head into winter it's a great time to spark their interest, starting them out in the small league - indoors - growing seedlings in pots or sprouting bean seeds in jam jars. Growing bulbs like gladiolus and lilies are terrific in the cooler months' as they need to be kept in a dark, cool place before planting.

Beans and Herbs has a huge selection of organic seeds. You can also buy ready-made gardens kits tailored to kids with simple directions and seedlings included. Rocket Gardens do a children's garden version.

Helping kids to create Christmas plant gifts can be lots of fun too. Decorating old jam jars and making handmade labels with recycled cards from last year are great to light up those sprouting seedlings. Mini cacti and venus flytraps are plants younger kids are always fascinated by, making the joy of giving and receiving even greater.

So for all those children's friends' birthdays coming up why not give the gift of nature and help spread a few green giggles amongst the small folk.

Here's a bit of news that that has reminded me, once again, why I buy organic food - an EU food monitoring report has found that half of all fruit, vegetables and cereals are contaminated with pesticides.

Apparently this is quite a significant increase from levels measured five years ago - and that's not too long at all when you consider the mounting evidence to support the harmful effects pesticides have on our bodies and our earth. The EU report also found that five of the pesticides most commonly found in our food have proven to be ‘carcinogenic, mutagenic or disruptive to the hormonal system.' PAN (Pesticide Action Network) Europe say that these are the worst pesticide results they've ever seen.'

In a special press release commenting on the EU food monitoring report, Elliott Cannet, Coordinator of PAN Europe said 'a record proportion of fruits and vegetables are contaminated, while twenty three pesticides were detected at levels high enough to present an acute risk to public health - according to the EU's own risk calculations.'

Yes, I think I'll be sticking with the pesticide free variety thanks.

According to Re:Fashion there is three million pesticide poisonings a year and 20,000 deaths among agricultural workers. Why is this relevant to the fashion industry? 16% of global insecticides use goes on cotton crops and the majority of cotton is grown in developing countries. Cotton lies at the heart of the fashion industry. Poverty and worker's rights, energy consumption, and water usage and waste during production, trade tariffs and barriers, fast cheap fashion... these are just some of the major issues Re:Fashion Awards are looking to address through their active campaign to ‘transform social and environmental standards in the fashion industry within a decade.'

RE:Fashion are the first awards to celebrate innovative, design-led, sustainable fashion. The awards night is tonight at Shoreditch Town Hall and everyone has the opportunity join leading eco fashionistas including Vivienne Westwood, Zandra Rhodes, Allegra Hicks, Katharine Hamnett and Daisy Lowe. Tickets are £37.50 for public balcony seats.

Awards include RE:Fashion Designer of the Year; RE:People Award; RE:Environment Award; RE:Africa Award and RE: Cotton Award.

With the market for organic textiles in the UK growing at 50% a year Re: Fashion is doing what they can to actively promote organic, fairtrade and sustainable fashion. It's great to see the fashion industry taking more responsibility in turning our throw away clothing culture around.