Organics and Pesticides

I listened to a Mom Stuff pod cast a while back concerning organic food. I've always disliked that term being used for food production. I suppose it's old school but I think organic means a carbon based life form. Of course these days the definition of organic has been expanded, so I'm just wrong about that one. The question becomes what else am I wrong about. (ha ha that is ENDLESS!) Anyway, back on topic. I needed more info to make up my mind about organics, thank goodness for the internet.

I decided to start at the beginning by figuring out what EXACTLY makes organic food, organic. In the US, the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) was passed under title 21 of the 1990 Farm Bill.  In essence, this was the first time organic meant the same thing on every package. So what's it mean?

"Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.  Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation."

Whereever you see this USDA organic seal, it means that the product is at minimum made from 95% organic materials/ingredients. There are other USDA organic seals that indicate a lesser percentage of organic materials/ingredients and the slightly altered seal makes that clear.

Ok, so that makes sense. The US government decides that the consumer is not capable of determining for themselves what organic means to them nor if a producer meets those self proclaimed standards so they funnel off some tax dollars and widen their scope to protect us from our ignorance.

After I stopped channeling Harry Browne I thought, There are a lot of factors there that I want to look into: antibiotics, growth hormones, synthetic fertilizers, sewage (ugh), bioengineering, ionizing radiation and pesticides. I'll start with those problematic pesticides.

Since I seem to be out of the know when it comes to current definitions, I looked up pesticide and was happy to discover that it remains "a chemical preparation for destroying plant, fungal, or animal pests". Fewer pests mean more healthy plants which in turn means a higher yield. Is that a bad thing? After all, we are an agricultural society. The carrying capacity of our planet is greatly increased because of agriculture and (it stands to reason) by the introduction of ANYTHING that allows us to produce more resources for our survival on the finite amount of land we have.

I guess the only draw back I see is that pesticides are created to kill things. In some cases, they kill things that are a lot like us humans in their basic bodily functions. Doesn't that put us into some kind of danger when we consume the food that has been grown in proximity to them?

As far as I can find, our handy dandy federal government has been regulating pesticides since 1910 (California started in 1901). The Federal Insecticide Act was created to protect growers from a substandard pesticide product. After WWII, synthetic pesticides came onto the scene leading the Federal government to expand the Act to include Fungicide, and Rodenticide in 1947. These laws required that all pesticide products be registered with the USDA before their sale in interstate or foreign commerce and required certain information to be included in the label including warning statements to protect users, the public, and nontarget species of plants and animals. Yes it is a little harder to look at this government act with a tsk tsk, but I can manage :-)

What exactly are the effects of exposure to pesticides on the human body? The global healing center tells us that "Pesticides can be toxic to humans and lower animals" then goes on to quote Wikipedia's list of possible effects. The EPA explains that the effect depends on the type and the amount of pesticide. Pesticides can affect the the nervous system, hormones or endocrine system, irritate skin and eyes, and can be carcinogenic. All of the evidence indicates that pesticides are much more harmful to the people who work with them, than they are to consumers. The EPA regulates what pesticides can be used, in what quantities and how much residue to acceptable on the end product.

So where does that leave me? With a lot more research to do. There is an abundance of information about organic food production on the world wide web. For now, I'll not be going out of my way to find organic labels.

Here is a little treat for getting to the end of my ranting ramble. We all love quizzes and propaganda!

The Ultimate Organic Food Quiz

The Dirty Secrets of 6 Scandalous Foods

No Poo Abandoned

I made it about a month I guess. Then I had a couple of grueling hair days in a row and just couldn't take it nay more. I had mentioned before that the no-poo care was not working for my current cut and the longer I went without shampoo the worse it was getting. The wave was all but gone. I caved and shampooed with a "natural" shampoo which just meant less SLS and my hair felt terrible! The following day I went full stop with regular product and the hair felt better, I guess. the fact of the matter is that after my month of no-poo, it seems that I can just feel how dry and damaged it is without it's natural waxy protection.


My plan? To take another stab at this no-poo thing once I have grown some of the strange layers out of my hair and get it a little more length. Failing that I will cut it really short and try again.


I lost that battle to vanity. But the war is still on!

The No Poo Hair Saga Continues

Day 12
Can you believe I've made it 12 days? Wow. It's Sunday and I'm holed up in the house working, so I've got a headband to keep it outta my face not even thinking about it today. Yesterday I did go to the spa for a massage without shampooing. The massage therapist always does this awesome scalp massage with oil, I wonder if the scented oil in my hair is going to be a problem...
Day 13
Today was an amazing hair day. Zero frizz. I washed with the new baking soda water formula and rinsed thoroughly and then applied a rinse of  1 tbs or apple cider vinegar mixed with 2 cups water. gently towel dried and applied no product. I wonder if there is some unknown variable that contributed... I intend to go without a wash tomorrow, so we will see how it works out.
Day 14
For whatever reason today was not a good hair day. I think I'm going to need to explore a dry application (corn starch maybe) for days I don't wash with baking soda. But it was such a bizarre day I don't know if i trust my own judgement.
Day 15
Did the standard baking soda method, with the cider vinegar rinse. I brushed after the shower, but I know that my wavy hair doesn't like that. Never the less there was a good outcome.
Day 16
No shower today and I think I smell. Ok maybe only the same amount that I normally would after a hectic day.
Day 17
Today, for the first time I felt like a no poo'er. I didn't gaze lovingly at the shampoo sitting in the shower. I didn't wonder if I was doing something crazy. When I got home I decided to photograph my no poo hair. Once photographed,  I decide that I need to think about using a little product as well :-).

No Poo for You

What I really mean is no poo for me, but it just doesn't have the same ring. If you missed the back story including info on days one through five read The Sebum Challenge here. 


Day 6
It was the strangest thing, the greasy hair I had when I went to sleep was just gone this morning. It sounds gross, but I checked my pillow case expecting an oily mess. Nothing. Because I did not trust what I could see, I did do a baking soda wash this morning. It feels good right now, but I can still feel a bit of over oily on the tips where I experimented with the olive oil.
I also found that sprinkling the baking soda on dry hair and massaging before showering was easier. I felt that I got more complete coverage or something. I also used the paste on the area that was over olive oiled (SERIOUSLY, what was I thinking!).  


Day 7
You may begin to see a theme here. I laid in bed too long this morning and did not shower. My hair looked like hell, but mostly because I was about to pull it all out over stupid work stuff. Not oily or smelly. I think the baking soda does a WAY better job of cleaning my hair than shampoo did. I have a lot less frizz and a lot more body.


Day 8
You know things are getting desperate when I dream about wheather or not I should shampoo my hair. Today is the second time I've showered with out any type of cleansing treatment. I just wet my hair, massaged the scalp and rinsed with really hot water. It smells fine, I guess sebum doesn't really have an odor.


Day 9
Used the dry application method this morning with baking soda, massaged in the shower then rinsed. The baking soda does such an amazing job of clearing up the oily look and getting rid of any smell that I was worried that it was still washing away all of the sebum. It is pretty obvious from the way my hair feels when it is wet that the sebum is still there. It feels like a fine coating of wax on my hair. It's becoming obvious that my strange hair cut will not work in this new au natural hair, but I'm certainly not ready to take that plunge yet. 
Later Day 9
Not getting the baking soda completely rinsed out is a big problem. My hair is stiff and scary right now (but not oily). Note to self, quicker shower, rinse with HOT water.


Day 10
Today was my company picnic in the park, sweat and dirt and sports, oh my. This morning I washed with very little baking soda and rinsed with super hot water. I think I've been using to much baking soda so I'm going to fiddle around with the ratio. Pulled my hair back into a pony tail while wet and it was still wet when I got home. I also made a side trip and picked up some Burts Bees shampoo and conditioner that do not contain SLS. I don't know if I'm built for this no pooing. I'm going to do a little research into the shampoo ingredients. 


Day 11
I have a spa appointment today. Am I brave enough to go to the spa without shampooing? I don't know but I don't have long to figure it out. I'm thinking of cutting my hair super short, it might make the no poo easier to deal with...
I resisted the sinister pull of shampoo (natural is a good thing) but I did change my baking soda mixture to 1 tablespoon of baking soda to 1 cup water. I think the extra baking soda was making the ends feel brittle. I also added a vinager rinse for conditioning. It feels really good right now, but like I mentioned yesterday, it takes a lot longer to dry these days.

Caffeine Madness

I'm an addict. Well, that is probably an over statement. I do love some coffee in the morning.

I developed a ridiculous Starbucks habit several years ago. It happened when I discovered the iced latte. Cold espresso mixed with non fat milk is a miracle. I used to love the whole process of at my local Starbucks, but it's freakin' expensive and the service had gotten more and more ridiculous as time has passed.

I have had a couple of espresso machines, but it is such a pain to run four shots in the morning. Especially since I like it on ice and we NEVER have ice in the house nor enough space in the freezer to keep it.  I was lamenting at work the day my coffee drink exceeded $5, so a No Cal co-worker (ex-barista) suggested that I buy a french press. Since I like my coffee cold it looses a lot of the subtlety of the espresso anyway, meaning I can make a strong ass coffee in the french press at night, store it in the fridge overnight and mix it will cold milk in the morning for a spectacular imitation of my SB drink.

Of course this does require the fore thought to brew the coffee the night before, so sometimes the evil SB still gets my money. Like today, on my way there now.

The Sebum Challenge

Here is where I come clean. This is the reason I started the blog but I couldn't just jump right into it. No no, I needed to warm you up a little, let you get to know me in a non crazy person certainly not angry at society sort of way. Did it work?


Something you don't know about me... I love the How Stuff Works pod casters. They give me humor and a modicum of sanity in the night mare that is my weekday commute. Many of my interesting habits these days springs from topics they discuss. They tell me about something and I just have to know a little more. I find out more and the California crazy sometimes takes over.


So the gals over at "Stuff Mom Never Told You" where talking to me the other day about no pooing. You may have heard of it, it's basically going au natural with your hair. No more shampoo. No that doesn't necessarily mean dreads.


I did some reading and started thinking that I wanted to try it out. Why? To start my hair does not love the California environ. Also, I don't style... ever. I wash, towel dry, put some product in it then walk out the door. This is for work, for going out, and for most special events, everything. I am a firm believer in the natural. Everything our body does, it does for a reason. Surely the oil my scalp creates is useful and necessary. Why would I want to wash it off every day? Finally, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, it is the thing in most cleansers that make them foamy. This may be where we head off to fruity Californian land.


SLS is the key ingredient in industrial degreasant and garage floor cleaner. Obviously, it's not used in the same quantities in body cleaning products, but it is also a well know skin irritant. With my red face and irritated skin, I don't need that. SLS is not proven to be a carcinogenic when appled to the skin or ingested, although a lot of propoganda will tell you that is the case.


Anywho, I'm gonna give it a shot. Let's see if sebum can do for my hair what commerical products can not...


Day 1
Listened to the No Pooing podcast. Did some research and started thinking about the possibility.
Day 2
Woke up late and pulled my hair back to head to work. No pooing begins because I was lazy.
Day 3
My first hair experiment was today. I washed my hair with baking soda. It's less complicated than I imagined, a baking soda paste massaged into the scalp, rinsed with hot water. The outcome was no more oily hair, but I wonder if the oil production is being arrested or pushed into over drive. Huh...
Day 4
It was Saturday, No big plans and no overwhelming oiliness, so I stayed out of the shower all together.
Day 5
So today was my second hair experiment. Although the roots and top half of my hair seems to be thriving with the lack of shampoo, the ends are looking a little dry and sad. I think it's mostly by comparison to the shinier appearance of the roots and such. I read somewhere that using an olive oil conditioner on the ends would assist with damaged hair. I tried it and I have a big greasy mess. I have wet head look and the oily scalp one would expect from not shampooing. Dear sweet Pookie said it was time to wash my hair. This from a man that has gone a week without showering at all! Ye of little faith. So tonight I'll shampoo with baking soda and pray to the gods of female vanity that it works. If it doesn't I may have to start over.

Don't Cage Me In

The question is, who the hell do I think I am.

We've covered this, I'm an Okie. I'm proud of it. I like those folks and what they stand for but I seem to be getting just a little confused. I can't really tell you when it started but I'll tell you when I realized that something was happening.

I was standing in the grocery store in front of the egg cooler, looking for my eggs. They where out. I have never seen a grocery without an ample supply of eggs unless it's Easter Eve. More importantly is the kind of eggs I buy. They are easily a dollar per dozen more than the regular eggs and there where PLENTY of regular eggs, so what the hell! 

That was a bit of a tangent, sorry. Anyway, I was paralysed. I was standing in front of the egg cooler mentally debating the two options of no eggs and going to another grocery store. I was also hating both ideas with a passion when this women walks up and picks up a carton of regular eggs. An alarm went off in my head like a damn tornado siren. There was another option that I hadn't even considered. I could pick up the regular eggs like most of the population of the United States uses. I looked at the eggs, pursued the containers and I just couldn't do it. Now even just that one time. 

Now ya'll it would be dang shame if I was spreading a blanket of generalization over the population of Oklahoma. I certainly don't intend to, but when I say "we" don't do that or "we" do this I'm thinking of my mom, my grandmas and everyone else I was raised around. Standing in front of the egg cooler having my epiphany I could hear my grandma saying, "an egg's an egg. Don't you waste the gas going to another store."

Now here is the crux of the matter, I buy cage free eggs. I watched an episode of Dirty jobs with Mike Rowe where he was working in a chicken egg farm. It was gross, but that's not a big thing. I got a good look as how the big outfits house their livestock and I was just shocked. I know people who raise chickens and they would never treat them like that. I don't care if it's the dumbest damn animal on the planet a life crammed in a little cage with no space to even pace is not acceptable. So I buy cage free eggs. I know that the eggs are often dirtier. I know that improvement of lifestyle is debatable, but this is the choice I've made because free range eggs are not readily available. I don't think you need to choose the same. I don't think the government should outlaw battery cages for raising chickens (which is a law passed in California in 2008 causing chicken farms to move or shut down and the population to buy an out of state product, Brilliant Legislation). 

Anywho, that was the beginning. I'm getting weirder and weirder every year. By 2015 I'll either have my own damn chicken coop (which makes me an Okie to the core) or be vegan and I think we all know which way that breeze blows. 

Do me a favor, don't tell my Grandma...

For now, I'm gonna go marinate some steaks for dinner and get the potatoes ready for baking. 

Give me a C

Pookie has long been a fan of Vitamin C. He starts most days with a glass of OJ and he credits this (along with his obnoxious love of water) with a his irritating ability to only get sick once every two years. I myself am not a fan of the orange (unless used to garnish or supplement a summer cocktail). Several years ago a vitamin c mega dose made it's way into our home. It's one of those citrus flavored drink mixes that gives you a shot of vitamins including a 1667% of the Daily Recommendation Value of Vitamin C (DRV is 75-95 mg).


Obviously, I was not sold on this item. It's pervasive availability wormed it's way in to my life. Eventually I found uses for it. I would mix up a packet when I got a cold (which happens EVERY TIME I visit the desert) or when I had over imbibed and needed a shot of energy in the morning (B vitamins are included in the mix too). It creeped into my habits little by little although I would not really have said I subscribed to the treatment.


We all know Vitamin c is crucial to the function of the human body. Did you know that most animals create their own vitamin c instead of depending on food to supply it? As a matter of fact humans and higher primates carry a mutated and ineffective form of the enzyme L-gulonolactone oxidase, which is the last step in producing vitamin c in the body.


I've always been a little leery of overdosing on anything, including vitamin C. Recently I had a little adventure which meant that I was traveling through the desert every two weeks. One cold would end about the time I had to gear up for the next one. I did some reading and bought my own mega dose packets.


There is no conclusive evidence on the benefit of mega dosing vitamin C although it has seen an amazing number of tests and trials. The thing that finally swayed me is that even the most innocuous of side effects (indigestion when taken on an empty stomach) isn't seen with less than 6 grams daily. That is 8000% of Recommended Daily Allowance. I now mega dose daily, I've even found a supplement that includes Glucosamine to aid with my aching joints, but that is another blog altogether.


You know, I think I could easily persuade my folks to take up this mega dosing thing, so maybe it's not a crazy California thing at all...

The Back Story

I'm an Okie. I was born and raised in northwestern Oklahoma . The back drop was a little town with a population of less than two hundred people. A town surrounded on all four sides by wheat fields. A town with a co-op instead of a quick shop, a cafe instead of a bar, and three churches within the whopping quarter of a square mile that makes up the 'city limits'. At school, I was considered one of the city folks.

Now I live in Los Angeles county. Everyone who has ever heard where I come from and where I am now, asks the same question. "How in the world did that happen?" If you have a moment let's dawdle through the list of reasons people flock to Los Angeles, shall we? First, I am not an scrappy aspiring actor, writer, filmmaker who works a boring office job to make ends meet while I pour my sole into my art waiting desperately in the wings for someone to discover my talent.  I am not a beach bunny making the escape from a land locked prison with an insatiable longing to tangle with the sea one on one.  I also have nothing against places that experience weather, I think that scorched earth and snow are lovely in their time and even appreciate those things called seasons. I did not move because I lead a life style or have a career that requires a more liberal minded community for me to thrive. You may have noticed there that I did not in fact say that my life style or career are acceptable to those who consider them selves conservative, only that this is not the reason I moved. 

So what is it? What's left? Truth be told there is only one possible reason that a girl like me ends up in a place like this. It's about a boy, isn't it always about a boy. For the sake of familiarity, we'll call him Pookie. I think you're going to like him.

So here is the rest of the abbreviated back story. I graduated from high school and  ventured out to Oklahoma State where I spent an exciting year and a half before returning home. After my grandfather passed away, I moved into my grandmothers house with her in the closest city (population 50,000) to my home town. After a couple of years of living, working and playing in rather typical young adult fashion we decided that it was time that I get on with my life. I was 21 years old when I loaded up my bright red Dodge Colt and moved to Dallas. I was enrolled in school, looking for a job and living in a studio apartment. I didn't know a sole in Dallas it was the biggest adventure of my life. 

You may have guessed, this is where Pookie comes into the story. Pookie and I met in a toy store. OK I'll come clean, I just assume we met in the toy store. I don't really recall where or when, he was just part of the new people that came into my life when I took the job there. I guess that makes it obvious we aren't talking about any love at first sight nonsense. As a matter of fact, we where sort of friends by proxy in the beginning. I'm not sure when, but we started spending more and more time together, one night after an evening of carousing we fell asleep next to one another on the couch. I woke up snuggled up to him, and thought it was lovely so I decided to keep him. He moved in roughly six months later.

Pookie was born and raised in Los Angeles County. He went to a catholic school, was an ardent boy scout (turned eagle scout) and a promising artist. About the time I was moving back from Oklahoma State, his family was dragging him across the country to live in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. In Dallas Pookie became an apprentice tattoo artist, which is what he was doing when we met. He had graduated to tattoo artist by the time we where a couple. It was no secret that he was headed back to SoCal some day, maybe if I had thought about that when I woke up leaning against him on an uncomfortable old couch we would not be here. 

Never the less, here I am. An Okie in Los Angeles. I'm not the first, won't be the last. I don't love it. I don't hate it anymore either. I'm discovering that in some ways my surroundings are changing me. In other ways, these liberal fruit cakes make me more conservative than I ever could have dreamed of being. That's what this blog is about. I'm going to tell ya'll what happens when a Okie let's Los Angeles into her life. We all know that it may be just simple growing up that's happening. I might be changing like this in Tulsa, Dallas, New York wherever the wind might of plopped me down. It's part of the age old debate of nature vs. nurture, innate characteristics vs. environment. I'll let you be the judge.