Archive for Environmental

The problem with organic food

Share

Does the label “organic” deliver on its promise?

What does the word “organic” conjure up for you in your mind? For me, ten years ago before I began to research food, “organic” meant over-priced, blemished fruits and veggies. I certainly didn’t understand why anyone would pay extra for what I thought must be subpar produce. Of course, I had never seen an organic apple at that time – I just believed they would be full of worms, since no pesticides were used. Later, after I’d actually gone into a store that sold organic produce, and found my first organic apple to not only be blemish free, but also to be the tastiest apple I had ever had in my life, the word “organic” took on a new meaning for me. Now it meant tastier food, and it also took on the pastoral meaning of the traditional family farm – the type of mixed farm we read about in our first-grade readers.

Organic food now means food grown without chemical pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and organic animals are fed organic feed, and are antibiotic and hormone-free, but according to Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, originally the word “organic” meant much more than that – a communal bond that was trying to change the relationship people had with the planet in order to save it. The organic movement was born in the late 60s as a protest against the collective – anything industrial and centrist. The California hippies at the time were environmentalists that wanted to create that one-on-one connection with the earth, and to grow healthy food in a cooperative, “more gentle on the earth” way that wasn’t contaminated by the industrial, collective, “conquest” of nature” system. Living organically was a political act based upon three ideals: chemical-free farms (how food was grown), anticapitalist food co-ops (how food was distributed), and “countercuisine” or “brown food” (brown rice, brown bread etc.) which was pitted against the “white foods” created by industrial agriculture. Pollan explains how the original organic hippies believed completely that “you are what you eat”, in every sense of the word, and that one cannot separate the food you eat from how it is grown, and how it arrives at your table.

In nature, plants and animals are symbiotic. Animals poop on the plants which nourishes the soil that the plants need to grow, that the animals eat. It is a closed system that replenishes itself, and is therefore sustainable. So, mixed farms actually work quite well. But is the organic food we buy in the supermarket actually coming from these mixed farms we imagine in our heads, and does it fit the ideals of the originators of the organic movement?

I think unfortunately a lot has been lost. Over the last 40 years the growth in organic food has been tremendous, the word “organic” now representing an 11 billion dollar a year industry. With the demand for organic food being so big, suddenly organic food is being shipped thousands of miles from where it was grown, using lots of fuel for its transport. Organic farms have grown in size to handle the demand, meaning they have needed to adopt many of the industrial agriculture methods in order to process the food. Sure, the food is grown without chemicals, but heavy machinery is needed to pick, wash and package all those organic mixed leafy greens or organic baby carrots we see at the grocery store. Last week I discussed the problem of feeding cattle corn rather than grass. Organic beef is probably fed organic corn, and an organic cow will get just as sick on organic corn as a conventional cow will on conventional corn. So, we have organic factory farms which are indeed feeding their animals organic feed, but not the animals’ natural diet, putting out organic beef, milk, chicken and eggs. But now the farmer can’t use drugs to keep the animals healthy. The organic food movement has become industrialized in order to handle demand. Also, processed organic food uses the word “organic” to denote something healthy, but organic ketchup made with organic high fructose corn syrup is just as unhealthy as the conventional product.

And what do the words organic “free-range” mean when it comes to chicken and eggs? The words conjure up the idea of happy chickens running about outside in the grass, pecking out grubs – being a chicken! According to Pollan, who visited Petaluma Poultry in California which sells free-range organic roasting chickens and organic free-range eggs via the brand name “Judy’s Family Farm” through Whole Foods, 20,000 chickens live together in huge sheds. They are not in battery cages, but still live in pretty cramped quarters due to the number of chickens and the space available to them. Along the side of the shed is a grassy yard that the chickens can explore should they wish, but apparently because the door to the outdoors is shut for their first 5 weeks, they never bother going outside during the last 2 weeks of their life. But the farmer can put “free range” on the label because that option is available to the chickens for the last quarter of their life. The chickens eat the organic feed that is in trays above the ground in the sheds. So much for “free-range” chicken and eggs – seems a bit of a scam to me! They are unlikely to be getting the grubs they need to alter the nutrition of their eggs or their meat for the better, after all. I have yet to see “pasture fed” on milk, cream, yogurt, cheese or butter in my grocery store, so one must assume it is grain fed, even if it is organic.

So the organic movement, brimming with the ideals of the late 60s has turned into industrial organic, a method of farming that closely resembles that of conventional industrial agriculture. Ideals have fallen by the wayside, since the farming and distribution methods are essentially the same. Industrial organic is probably slightly better than conventional farming due to the lack of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, which would not only produce a less toxic, potentially healthier food, but would also do much more preserve the soils and protect the streams from chemical run-off. But is that good enough?? When it comes to meat, poultry, eggs and dairy, is the food healthy enough to provide us with the nutrition we need? Is this the food system we should be supporting with our hard-earned dollars?

There is a third option – a much better way, that provides healthy food and sustains the planet. Next week we’ll discuss opting out of the industrial food system. Do read Michael Pollan's fantastic book – it is well worth it.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

Related tips
Industrial agriculture – what’s the real cost of cheap food?
Conventional vs. Organic vs Pasture-fed meats, poultry, eggs and dairy
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Processed food is taking over our supermarkets
Food brands that contain genetically modified ingredients
Essential fats: Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratio
Food, our raw material

Pollan, Michael The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals Penguin Press, New York, 2006.

Gonzalez F. et al.Grain feeding and the Dissemination of Acid-Resistant Escherichia coli from Cattle Science Washington, Sept. 11, 1998, Vol. 281, Iss. 5383: p. 1666-69. (A study that shows the difference in e-coli levels between grass and grain fed cattle.)

Copyright 2008 Vreni Gurd

Comments off

Industrial agriculture – what’s the real cost of cheap food?

Share

Most of us are eating a huge amount of corn (and soy) and are not aware of it. What is that doing to our health, and the health of our planet?

I’ve been reading a great book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, who looks at food from a rather unique perspective – that of the food itself. So instead of looking at corn as a commodity, he wonders how corn has managed to propagate its seed so well, becoming the most successful plant on the face of the earth. Considering the rather large obstacles that corn must overcome to reproduce, its success is astonishing. He notes that the corn kernels (the seeds) are all contained in a thick husk, and should the cob fall to the ground those seeds would have to make their way through the husk to the soil in order to germinate, and even if they did manage to accomplish that task, considering all the seeds are bunched together, there would be a huge overcrowding problem which would further diminish the chance of success. Corn’s domination over other plants has been due to its amazing versatility at a low cost, filling the bill for food globalization perfectly. We are now planting it in vast quantities in order to put it into pretty much all processed, packaged foods as well as factory-farmed meat, poultry, eggs and dairy on the market.

Most of the corn in our food is not the same corn that we enjoy by the cob in the autumn – it is an industrial, genetically modified corn, grown for its super cheap calories , grown for its oil (sold for cooking, salad dressings and for hydrogenation into transfat margarines and shortenings), its sweetness (high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, maltodextrin, maltose), its meal, flour and starch, which is further processed into stabilizers, emulsifiers (mono-, di-and triglycerides, lecithin, xanthan gum) thickeners, gels and viscosity control agents for food, as well as adhesives, coatings, and plastics for industry, not to mention ethanol for fuel. Most of the corn grown by far is fed to animals like cows and chickens, in order to fatten them up quickly for market.

Why were animals forced off the grazing fields to be packed together like sardines in the barns of factory farms? Grazing animals take a lot of space, and also it takes more time to convert the sun’s energy that is stored in grass into the meat of a grazing animal than it does to convert petroleum-based energy from chemical fertilizers into corn, and then into meat by feeding the animals that corn. So, in the eyes of industrial agriculture, petroleum-based / corn-based farming makes a lot of economic sense. And the processed food companies like Cargill and General Mills love it, because corn is a cheap filler, preservative, and sweetener which can easily be disguised to replace more expensive or more perishable ingredients, increasing their bottom line. So for example, fruit juices become fruit drinks made of corn, strawberry shakes are not made from strawberries but from corn, and chicken becomes chicken nuggets (hard to determine how much of that chicken nugget is actually chicken).

So, according to Pollan, if you were to read the ingredients in a fast-food meal at McDonalds to determine how much of the food was derived from corn, depending on what you order, from the french fries at about 23%, to a cheeseburger at 56% (including the corn fed to the beef in the patty), to a salad dressing at 65%, to a milk shake at 78%, to a soft drink at 100%, that is a lot of corn we are eating. And a lot of fossil fuel was used to make that fast-food meal, considering not only the chemical fertilizers to grow the corn, but also all the trucking involved from farm to grain elevator to processing plant to food plant to fast-food outlet.

Here's the thing. Even though to the industrial agriculture / food processing industries, using corn and oil as the basis for making cheap food products is very profitable, there is a huge hidden cost to all this cheap food. First of all, at the most basic level, we have switched from a style of farming that uses the sun to create food energy to one that uses petroleum (chemical fertilizers) to create food energy, which is not sustainable. Industrial agriculture depletes soils, rather than maintaining them or improving them. Chemical fertilizers don't provide complete nutrition to the plant, resulting in plants that contain less nutrition for the animals that eat them. Huge fields of one kind of crop reduces the diversity of plant life, which not only harms the food chain, but also creates economic risk, as all the eggs are in one basket should that crop fail. And all monoculture crops need to be trucked for processing, AND ALSO trucked to supermarkets and fast food restaurants, further utilizing petroleum energy.

Feeding corn to ruminant animals who's bodies are designed to eat grass makes cows very sick. The rumen, the organ that ferments grass, can't handle corn, which causes gas to become entrapped in the slimy build up, bloating the rumen which causes it to press upon the lungs of the animal. The animal must be intubated to prevent suffocation. Also, corn causes the rumen, which normally has a neutral pH, to become acidic, resulting in a heartburn type of condition, and over time the acid can wear a hole in the rumen allowing bacteria into the blood stream, causing liver problems and eventually death. E-coli levels are very high in corn-fed cattle. So, the cows are given drugs to combat these conditions. And all of this could be avoided if the cows were allowed to eat their natural diet – grass. Scientists have even shown that if the cows are fed hay for the last two weeks prior to slaughter, e-coli counts would drop dramatically, but the industrial farmers won't even do that because of the perceived extra cost.

Industrial agriculture also creates a huge pollution problem. Chemical fertilizers sprayed on crops, as well as manure waste from factory farms leach into streams and rivers, sickening and/or killing off marine life. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, industrial agriculture is the biggest polluter of rivers in the States.

And at the top of the food chain we find us. And we are unwittingly eating huge amounts of processed GMO corn (and soy) in packaged food, factory-farmed meat, dairy, poultry, and eggs from animals sickened and drugged because of the corn they are eating (remember – when you see "grain fed" beef at the supermarket, that is NOT a good thing!) If the food we eat is inherently unhealthy is it a surprise we are getting sicker and sicker? It is predicted that today's children will not live as long as their parents. More and more of us are overweight and suffering from type 2 diabetes and heart disease at younger and younger ages due to so much starch, sugar and omega 6 fats (found in corn and soy) in our diet and in the diet of the animals we eat, and the lack of nutrition found in packaged and factory-farmed food. So, ask yourself. Is the cheap food provided by the industrial agricultural system really that cheap, when you consider the environmental and health costs as well? How much are you paying out in drugs each month to treat health conditions largely caused by consuming industrial food?

There is a much better way … We'll get into that soon.

Do read Michael Pollan's fantastic book – it is well worth it. If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

Related tips
Conventional vs. Organic vs Pasture-fed meats, poultry, eggs and dairy
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Processed food is taking over our supermarkets
Food brands that contain genetically modified ingredients
Essential fats: Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratio
Food, our raw material

Pollan, Michael The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals Penguin Press, New York, 2006.

Gonzalez F. et al.Grain feeding and
the Dissemination of Acid-Resistant Escherichia coli from Cattle
Science Washington, Sept. 11, 1998, Vol. 281, Iss. 5383: p. 1666-69. (A study that shows the difference in e-coli levels between grass and grain fed cattle.)

Copyright 2008 Vreni Gurd

To subscribe go to www.wellnesstips.ca

Comments (4)

The girl that silenced the world for 5 minutes

One of the most powerful speeches I have heard. Please take the five minutes to listen.

The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes.

I have nothing to add.

 

 

 

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

Related tips
Global warming – let’s do our part!
Choose local and save the world!
Disappearing bees update and stuff
Clean Water for Streams – by Karen Munro
Habitat for everything – by Karen Munro
Urban Growth – by Karen Munro
The power of volunteers – by Karen Munro

Copyright 2008 Vreni Gurd

www.wellnesstips.ca

Comments (1)

The World According to Monsanto

Take the opportunity now while you still can, to view this documentary on Monsanto.

I am taking a wee holiday, so for this week's tip, I invite you to watch this documentary that aired on French television (ARTE – French-German cultural TV channel) by French journalist and film maker Marie-Monique Robin, called The World According to Monsanto – A documentary that Americans won’t ever see.

Perhaps not a bad idea to watch it now before Monsanto has it removed.

If you like to garden, perhaps you can consider looking into planting some heritage seeds, or varieties of vegetables and fruit that are not easily found in the supermarket, and help protect some of the biodiversity that Monsanto is trying to take away.

Related tips
GMO – Crossing the species barrier
Food brands that contain genetically modified ingredients
Worm composting to eat your garbage and feed your garden

Copyright 2008 Vreni Gurd

www.wellnesstips.ca

Comments (3)

Greening the holidays

Share

If any of you are only beginning the annual holiday shopping rush, maybe trying to reduce the environmental footprint that the holiday season tends to create can be consideration.

In the summer we don't do the campfire thing anymore, and for the past several years, we've opted for an artificial Christmas tree. It seems to me that every live tree is precious as it can soak up carbon, and so I no longer feel comfortable wasting trees only to burn them or throw them out in a couple of weeks. I hope to use my artificial tree for the rest of my life, and then hopefully it can be donated to someone else that can use it after that.

However, live trees are biodegradable whereas artificial ones are not, and many fossil fuels were used to make the artificial tree and get it to my home. So, I'm not sure which is really the better alternative, and possibly I made a wrong decision a few years ago. If you do get a live tree, look into getting it chipped into mulch rather than having it disposed of in a landfill. The best option is probably to decorate a potted tree or plant, and then plant it in the garden afterwards.

Lighting – LED lights are the way to go, as they use far less energy and therefore last much longer than the other kind. They may cost a little more, but in the long run they will save you money.

Wrapping paper – how about using that newspaper you read? Then you can recycle it, compost it or put it into your worm bin afterwards. Or re-use a gift bag that you received from someone last year.

Or, if you have the time and the inclination, sew some gift bags that can be continually reused. Or wrap with tea-towels, handkerchiefs or something else like that. At the very least, make sure the wrapping paper you buy is made from recycled paper, and then recycle / compost it again afterwards.

Gifts – Do you feel that your home is being filled up with stuff? How much more stuff do you really want? I don’t believe I’m the only person that feels like I have enough stuff. Giving experiences can be good – theatre, concert or movie tickets, a dinner out, an afternoon of snowshoeing, swimming lessons, piano lessons, wood carving lessons, or personal training for example.

Or home-cooked food can be a wonderful gift – something to put in the freezer and use on a busy night or when your recipient does not feel like cooking.

Or a gift certificate for your time for babysitting, lawn cutting, snow shoveling, leaf raking, house cleaning, or any other helpful service that may be needed. I think that frequently spending time together is what people want the most, and if you don’t have much spare time, that gift can be very valuable indeed. Gifts like this don't have much packaging, and they are not transported half way around the world to get to a store near you.

Another form of gift that I would love to receive would be an acre of land in my name donated to the Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defence, World Wildlife Fund, or some such organization that is involved in protecting habitat.

Another neat idea are carbon offset gift cards – they come in 1 to 50 metric ton denominations. Or a donation to Oxfam unwrapped or any other charity you think your recipient would appreciate. These sorts of gifts can be purchased online from the comfort of your home, and if you have a printer, you can print electronic gift certificates at home, so your gift isn’t being flown or trucked using up fossil fuels.

These are only a few ideas – do you have others? Please do tell us by commenting!

Related Tips
Worm composting to eat your garbage and feed your garden
Global warming – Let’s do our part
Choose local and save the world!
E-waste and our health

www.wellnesstips.ca

Comments off

Disappearing bees update and stuff

Share

I have been asked by a few people why in the world I give up my Saturdays to spend 6 to 8 hours writing a tip for my readers for free. "Why not charge for your info?" I get asked. "Make it a paid subscription service charging a buck a tip or something. I'd pay you for your tips.” Well, that’s very kind, and I admit I have considered it. But I believe that even if the fee were nominal, readership would decline drastically, and my goal is to get this information out to as many people as possible. (If you want to pay me something, buy a book from Amazon on my site, or go through the Amazon link at the bottom of the left sidebar of my home page when you are doing your Amazon purchases. I get a tiny percentage of the price.) I want to provide info that will help everyone see the link between our health and the health of the planet. If enough of us return to following the laws of nature, we can probably save our Earth. And I admit, I am quite worried about our Earth. I feel a strong sense of urgency that we need to change how we live on a massive scale now, or my nieces and nephews, and all kids of today will have it pretty tough by the time they hit their 40s and 50s. And I wonder what kind of a life their kids will have. There isn’t much time left for us to turn this all around, and I think it is the grass-roots, the masses that have to force the companies and the governments to change by choosing carefully what we buy.

What brought that rant on?? I saw a documentary on PBS this week about the bees that are disappearing all over the world. The scientists are figuring that if the current rate of disappearance continues, the bees will be completely gone by 2035! This means that all vegetables and fruit as well as the grasses that the cows and other ruminants eat will have to be pollinated another way or disappear. The only plants that won’t be affected will be those that are wind pollinated, the grains, leaving us only grains and seafood to eat. Unfortunately much of our seafood is becoming more and more toxic due to high mercury levels. And grains alone do not a healthy diet make!  Obviously, we will attempt to do the job of the bees and find another way to pollinate the plants, but needless to say, that endeavor will be extraordinarily expensive, so vegetable, fruit, meat, eggs and dairy prices will go through the roof. Many complain that organic food today is expensive, but compared to what food prices will be if we have to resort to hand pollination … Better to do what is necessary to resolve the problem with the unpaid labour force – the bees.

According to this PBS program, the scientists have dismissed the electomagnetic field theory, and have turned their attention to three main theories – pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, mono-nutrition, and viruses.  When looking through the book Basic Guide To Pesticides: Their Characteristics And Hazards, it seems that many pesticides fall under the category of medium to high toxicity for bees.  Bees bring the pesticides back to the colonies, contaminating the colonies and the honey, bee pollen, royal jelly etc.  Just scroll down and look at these lawn-care pesticides and you will see how it isn’t just the bees that are suffering, but also birds and fish due to our ridiculous desire for perfect lawns! If you want to know the effects of different pesticide classes on warm-blooded animals such as humans, click here. So, we can choose to avoid using such products and refuse to support their use by purchasing food that we know has not been sprayed, by choosing organic or supporting local smaller farms that don’t spray.  Support golf courses that use natural lawn care methods and shun those that don't.

Bees are trucked great distances in order to pollinate crops. They are often brought to big agri-farms that grow only one kind of crop. Another theory on the demise of the bees is that malnutrition occurs because the bees don’t have access to a variety of plants on these huge mono-crop farms. This would weaken their immune system and make them more susceptible to sickness. Once again, we can play a role by supporting local, smaller farms that grow a variety of produce on their farms, and not purchasing from the large agri-business type farms whose farming practices are harmful on so many levels. Farmer’s markets, local organic delivery, coop programs etc. are all better places to get good quality food than the country-wide grocery chains that get their food from agri-business for the most part.

The US began importing bees from Australia to replace the bees lost through colony collapse disorder. It is now believed that part of the problem is an AIDs-like virus that came from Australia that is now infecting the North American bees and affecting their immune system. The scientists are working to resolve that issue, and hopefully they will. Most likely it is a combination of many things that have come together to create this catastrophe, and it will probably take a multi-pronged approach to reverse the trend. As individuals, we have a huge role to play through our collective purchasing power. Agri-business won’t get the message that we don’t want to eat their pesticide-laden food unless we stop buying it. So, save the bees by paying a little more for quality real food now from small farms that grow a variety of crops, enjoy the health benefits you and your family gain, and save our children from the possibility of not being able to afford nutritious food at all later should the bees die out.  If you have a back yard and your local laws allow it, becoming a beekeeper can be a fascinating and rewarding hobby that can play an important role in establishing healthy bees in your area.  The bees will compliment any backyard gardening efforts too!

Related Tips
Bee-population collapse, electric fields, and the implications for our health
Choose local and save the world!
Our toxic body burden
Bacteria, soil, the gut, and detoxification
Worm composting to eat your garbage and feed your garden

PBS Nature: Silence of the Bees
Briggs, Shirley, Rachel Carlson Council Basic Guide To Pesticides: Their Characteristics And HazardsTaylor and Francis, Washington D.C., 1992.

Copyright 2007 Vreni Gurd

Comments off

Our Grand Canyon Adventure

ViewBefore leaving on this backpacking trip, it would be accurate to say that I was somewhat apprehensive. It was explained to me that when a trail is described in the trail guide as “exciting” or has “considerable exposure”, that is code for “you are walking along a cliff edge, and a slip here could hurt badly.” The trails that we had committed to were considered “extremely strenuous – for experienced Grand Canyon hikers only”, which of course I was not. And the fact that my quads had still become quite sore after my training hike the week prior to leaving did not inspire much confidence that I was actually ready for the big show. Our plan was to hike north down the Tanner trail from the east end of the Park on south rim to the Colorado River, then continue north along river following the Beamer trail, hopefully to the confluence of the Little Colorado, and then retrace our steps out. Then we would drive around to the wilder north rim, and explore the Nankoweap trail, the so-called most challenging trail in the canyon, for a day or two. I spent so much energy worrying about my readiness for the trip, that I didn’t get excited about what I would experience, until we arrived at the rim.

View from Watch TowerIf you didn’t know it was there, you would have no idea by looking out the car window on the drive to the Grand Canyon that it actually existed at all. The land is generally flat, with small stubby trees. Occasionally one would catch a glimpse of a small gorge cut out of the plateau, but nothing to indicate the grandeur that awaited us. Even when the three of us reached the sign for the Grand Canyon National Park, there was no indication that the canyon was so near. We arrived at the south rim mid afternoon Sept. 29th, set up camp in the Desert View campground. Canyon signAfter eating lunch, we walked through the amphitheater of the campground to the rim, and I got my first breathtaking view. WOW! What struck me immediately was the size and beauty of the place. You know how people that have been to the Grand Canyon tell you that it is so big? Well it is SO BIG!!! No photograph can capture the vastness of the place – somehow it is too big for photographs. Not that that stopped us from trying.

We then went to the Desert View Watch Tower, where we could see parts of the trail that we would be following the next day, and the Colorado River, our destination. At that time we did not realize that we would almost always be in view of the watch tower while we were hiking on the south side.

RainbowWe awoke to thunderstorms the next chilly morning. We were at Lipan Point, at the Tanner trail-head by 7h30am, but thought it best to wait out the storm. I got a great picture of a rainbow over the Canyon, and by 8h30 we headed down the trail through the juniper and pinyon forest. The trail was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Yes, it was steep in places, but there were also long traverses. The path was very obvious the whole way, and I found that contrary to the creek beds that I was hiking on in BC that were rainfilled with slippery, roly-poly rocks, this trail was made up mostly of broken, sharp scree, so my shoes practically stuck to the trail. There were no scary cliff edges. I imagine they call this trail very strenuous because in the heat of summer there would be no break from the sun, which would wear one down. But, we were hiking in October, and the morning was cloudy. We sat out another thundershower in our rain-gear half way through the morning, but after that the weather cleared into a sunny afternoon.

CactiThe scenery was simply beautiful. Not only the cliff faces all around us, but also the huge red boulders that dotted the landscape, the black, twisted tree trunks, the cacti, the colour of the soil, which kept changing depending upon what layer of history we were traversing. Even the rocks and small stones were crazy beautiful. You know those rock halves one can buy in gift shops where one side is a collection of crystals? Well, these kinds of rocks were lying on the path! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. We got to the river about 5h30, set up camp, heated water to pour into our dinner bags, ate, and were in our sleeping bags by 6h30 or 6h45 because it was dark, and there wasn’t anything else to do.

CairnsThe next day we packed up camp and were on the Beamer trail by 8h30. The trail did not stay low, but rather climbed the cliffs above the river, and involved much going in and out of drainages. This trail was not as obvious, and since one in our party was French Canadian, we were looking for “inukshuks” rather than “cairns”. At about 1 o’clock, we came to a beautiful beach on the Colorado, which became our home for the next two days. It was hot, and we stripped out of our funny-looking safari outfits Beach(we hiked in long pants and long-sleeve shirts to protect us from the vicious cacti, agave, and other thorny vegetation, as well as to protect us from the burning rays of the sun.) and into shorts and T-shirts, and spent a splendid afternoon wading in the ice cold water, doing laundry, and playing in the sand and mud. River rafters joined us on our beach that evening, and offered us food and wine – having already eaten, we enjoyed their wine.

AmphitheatreThe following day our hope was to make it to the confluence of the Little Colorado. The guidebooks said the trip was long, so we set out early with light packs filled only with food and water. Once again, the trail climbed above the river 50 to 100 feet, and zigzagged in and out of drainages. The drainages looked like big red-rock amphitheatres, complete with a stage and seating, and they were usually shady. I was developing a hot-spot on one of my toes, so we had a shoe-off break so I could apply moleskin. Shoe-off breaks in the shade became a treat. Such a pleasure to be able to wiggle one’s toes around!

View from Watch TowerWe had just come out of another drainage and were rounding a butte above the river, when we saw that the trail ahead of us was right along the edge of the cliff. SCARY! And this bit seemed long! We were stopped in our tracks, not sure what to do. Going forward seemed too dangerous to be worth while, going back seemed to be a shame, so we decided to try and find another way around the butte and meet up with the trail at the next drainage. So we climbed up and over the gently sloping butte, and after picking our way down the drainage, re-found the trail. I’m not sure how long our waffling indecision and detour took, but probably at least an hour. So, we were forced to turn around by about 1 without having reached the confluence, so that we would make it back to our beach before dark. We didn’t want to be walking on the edge of cliffs in the dark!

Tanner vegetationThe following morning we packed up our tents, loaded our packs with filtered Colorado River water, said a regretful goodbye to our lovely beach, and headed back the way we came to Tanner beach, and then up the Tanner trail to Cardenas butte where we were to camp for the night. After dinner I was regretting that I had not packed sandals on this trip, as I was dying to get my hiking shoes off my feet. My fellow trekkers suggested that I take the insoles out of my shoes and put them in my socks! Brilliant idea! My toes were free! I loved my slippers!

We had the tent fly off that night, as it was clear, and there is nothing quite like lying in a sleeping bag looking up at a sky dense with stars. I was wishing I could remember all the constellations my dad taught me as a kid, but all I recognized was the big dipper on the western horizon. At about 1 in the morning, the wind picked up. Not just a little, but a lot. We thought that if we left our tent, the tent would blow away, and we even wondered if the wind would blow us with the tent over the edge of the butte! Happily, with the tarp off, the wind blew through our tent so it didn’t act quite so much like a sail, and it tempered the noise a bit. I don’t remember sleeping much the rest of that night, and packing up the next morning was a hilarious challenge. We took movies of the tent coping with the wind – pretty funny!

The next day we hiked out of the Tanner at roughly noon, and immediately hit the showers at the campground, ’cause phew, did we stink!

View from Watch TowerDriving to the Nankoweap trail-head on the north rim, we came across a big sign stating that we were entering the Kaibab National Forest, which I found to be particularly funny, as there was not a tree to be seen. Only open land with sage brush. Finally we got to the end of the dirt road, and we repacked our backpacks for the trek to the trail-head. They were predicting snow that night, and a low of 23 degrees, so we attached an extra fleece blanket each to our packs before heading off through what was looking more and more like that North Kaibab forest that the sign had announced. Two hours later we reached the rim, just before sunset. And yes, it was cold! We were decked out in our warmest clothes and jumping around in the dark and singing songs trying to get warm before slipping into our sleeping bags.

A Scary TrailWe did not wake up to snow, thankfully, but it was definitely chilly. We ate our ziploc bag breakfasts overlooking the north rim and into the beautiful Nankoweap creek basin, and did not take off too many clothes before setting out on our day hike to Marion Point. This trail was very different from the other two we had done – it was very narrow and overgrown in places, different vegetation and a lot more of it, and footing was tricky in places, but it was also breathtakingly beautiful. This was the day that I had fretted the most over before leaving, as there is the famous scary bit where one is stuck between a rock wall and a cliff edge on the way to Marion Point. Falling there would mean certain death. I had decided to take a wait and see attitude, not being sure I would be able to coax myself to do it. But when we got there, somehow it was no problem, even though the path was only about 4 inches wide at the narrowest, and right at that narrow point was a big boulder that stuck out, which meant to pass it we had to turn in to face the cliff. I certainly didn’t enjoy walking that particular 15 feet, but we all managed it twice, as we had to take the same trail back. I honestly think that had we not done the Tanner and the Beamer first, I would not have made it past that point.

View from Watch TowerThe little bit of the Nankoweap that we saw was wild and beautiful, and so unlike the Tanner of the south rim, and the Beamer along the river. Perhaps because the north rim is 1000 feet higher? Perhaps because it falls more steeply to the river? I don’t know. But I can now understand why people who hike the trails are seduced by the Grand Canyon, and yearn to go back. With each trail being so different, affording different kinds of beautiful vistas, it is hard to be satisfied with just hiking one, or two, or three. Let’s just go a little bit further to see what is around the bend …

Comments (2)

Bee-population collapse, electric fields, and implications for our health

Share

Blaming our cell phones, electronic gadgets, and transmission towers for the mass decline in the bee population seems unbelievable, but that is indeed what some scientists are proposing. Apparently bees are particularly sensitive to electric fields – they carry an electrical charge naturally. Is it possible we've hit a tipping point with respect to the amount of electric fields in the atmosphere, and now the bees are dying out? The stats are astounding – 60% of commercial bees in western North America, 70% in eastern North America, and colony collapse has also been reported in Germany, Spain, Greece, England, Switzerland and Italy. Beekeepers say that the bees leave the colony and simply don't return. There is no doubt about the decline in the bee populations – the question that needs to be answered very urgently is why? Other theories include GMO foods, pesticide and herbicide use, some kind of mite or parasite, a disease, among others.  The problem is difficult to solve, as there do not appear to be any dead bees to study.

Albert Einstein supposedly suggested (no way to be sure if this is true!) that if the bees disappear, humankind has only about 4 or 5 years left, because bees are responsible for over 80% of the pollination of the plants. Once the plants are no longer viable, we've lost our food supply. Hopefully Einstein is wrong, and we have enough other pollinators to do the job should the bees not survive.

If we find out that electric fields are indeed what is causing the collapse of the world's bees, would you be willing to give up your electronic gadgets in order to be able to eat? How likely is it that transmission towers would be dismantled if it became clear that our lives depended on it, considering how slowly governments / companies / individuals are moving on climate change?

www.wellnesstips.ca

Comments (1)

Plastic Water Bottles Update

Share

In a previous tip I suggested which water bottles do not leach chemicals into the water, and how to tell which bottles are safe to use. I suggested that those extremely popular hard plastic
colourful lexan water bottles with the recycling number 7 on them leach Bisphenol A, a xeno-estrogen and endocrine disruptor, into the water. You can’t taste it at all, so it is easy to think your water is not affected. Synthetic xenoestrogens are linked to breast cancer and uterine cancer in women, decreased testosterone levels in men, and are particularly devastating to babies and young children. BPA has even been linked to insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes. Nalgene, the company that manufactures the lexan water bottles also makes #2 HDPE bottles in the same sizes and shapes, so we have a viable alternative. Order one at Nalgene.

Unfortunately, most plastic baby bottles and drinking cups are made with plastics containing Bisphenol A. In 2006 Europe banned all products made for children under age 3 containing BPA, and as of Dec. 2006 the city of San Franscisco followed suit. In March 2007 a billion-dollar class action suit was commenced against Gerber, Playtex, Evenflo, Avent, and Dr. Brown’s in Los Angeles superior court for harm done to babies caused by drinking out of baby bottles and sippy cups containing BPA. We need to move away from storing food and water in plastics, and use glass or ceramic instead. If you still use a microwave, remember to NEVER microwave food in plastic containers or use plastic wrap to cover the food, as the plastic will infiltrate the food and you will then be eating it.

Plastics may be convenient, but they are not generally good for our health nor the health of the planet, as they don’t break down easily. Plastics frequently wind up polluting our oceans and waterways, and are very harmful to the sea birds and other marine life that get entangled in plastic bags, fish net remnants etc. Wildlife frequently ingest small plastic pellets thinking they are fish eggs which makes them sick.

And the onslaught of plastics into our oceans continues, year after year. For an insight into that topic read The Plastic Sea to learn what our consumption habits are doing to our home, and the home of our fellow species.

Related tips:
Plastic water bottles
Microwave ovens: convenience vs. health and nutrition

Chek, Paul; How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy! Chek Institute, San Diego, CA, 2004.

Alonso-Magdelena, Paloma; "The estrogenic effect of Bisphenol A disrupts pancreatic β-cell function in vivo and induces insulin resistance" Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 114, No. 1, Jan. 2006.

vom Saal, Frederick and Hughes, Claude; "An Extensive New Literature Concerning Low-Dose Effects of Bisphenol A Shows the Need for a New Risk Assessment" Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 113, No. 8, August 2005.

Hunt,Patricia;"Bisphenol A Exposure Causes Meiotic Aneuploidy in the Female Mouse" Current Biology, Vol 14, 546-553, 1 April 2003.

Schonfelder, Gilbert et al.Parent Bisphenol A Accumulation in human maternal fetal placental unit Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 110, No. 11, Nov. 2002.

More studies

Copyright 2005-2007 Vreni Gurd

www.wellnesstips.ca

Comments (3)

Global Warming – Let’s do our part!

Share
Well, the UN report on Global Warming was just released in Paris on Friday, and the scientists say that there is a 90% chance that human activity is causing climate change. As David Suzuki said in a radio interview the other day, we all buy insurance to protect us in case of injury, fire or burglary and the chances of those things happening are usually far less than 90%! So the time for debate is over. Global warming is a reality, and we must do something about it now in order to preserve a bright future for the next generations. If you have not yet viewed Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, buy it or rent it and learn what the world will look like when the ocean rises to the extent predicted, and how many coastal cities will be partially or completely under water. Three of the biggest causes of global warming are the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and intensive agricultural practices, which have big impacts on our personal health as well, and as a global community we must learn to live differently.

So, what can we as individuals do? Lots. So let’s get to it!

  • We can choose not to support industrial agriculture and factory farming. 
    We can support sustainable farming by buying organic produce, free-range
    eggs and chicken, and pasture-fed meats and dairy.
  • We can buy local whenever possible so less fossil fuels are used to
    transport our food and goods.
  • We can choose not to eat red meat at least one day a week.
  • We can choose products with as little packaging as possible.
  • We can bring our own bags when we shop.
  • We can walk, bike or use rapid transit rather than drive whenever
    possible.
  • We can get rid of the car and join a car coop for those occasions when a
    car is really really necessary.
  • We can convert our car to run on bio-diesel, or possibly purchase a
    hybrid.
  • We can make sure our tires are properly inflated – under-inflated tires
    waste gas.
  • We can turn off the car rather than idle it.
  • We can check the air filter on the car monthly and replace it when
    necessary.
  • We can buy carbon credits to offset the emissions caused by driving and
    flying from Terrapass or Native
    Energy
    .  It is extremely affordable so let’s do it!
  • We can turn out the lights when leaving the room.
  • We can caulk and weather-strip the doors and windows, and ensure the
    walls and ceilings are insulated.
  • We can turn down the thermostat.
  • We can exchange the light bulbs for energy-efficient ones.
  • We can unplug electronics and battery chargers when not in use.
  • We can choose energy-efficient home appliances.
  • We can run the dishwasher only when it is full.
  • We can keep our shower time short.
  • We can install a low-flow showerhead and toilet.
  • We can use cold or warm rather than hot water to wash our clothing.
  • We can use a clothesline to dry our clothes instead of a dryer.
  • We can donate old clothing rather than throwing them out.
  • We can use 100% recycled paper, and not print a copy of everything.
  • We can reduce, re-use and recycle, and compost our food waste.
  • We can plant a tree.  Or two.  Or a hundred.
  • We can tell our government representative that global warming is the
    most important issue there is, and demand government action.
  • We can encourage our friends and family to do the above as well!

Related tips:
Choose local and save the world!
Worm composting to eat your garbage and feed your garden
Clean water for streams by Karen Munro M. Sc. Environmental Scientist
Urban growth and affects on streams by Karen Munro M. Sc. Environmental Scientist

Online at cbc.ca Paris report calls climate change “unequivocal”
Online at David Suzuki.org
Online at Take the Green Challenge

www.wellnesstips.ca

Comments (1)

« Previous Page« Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries »Next Page »