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October 28, 2002

The Organic Experience

Sometimes I have trouble thinking of a clever title, this is one of those times. A recent blog entry over at Orange Creamsicle made me think to write about this. For as long as I can remember, I've been very particular about what I put in my body. For those that know me, that may sound like an outright lie, but for those that REALLY know me, they'll know its not, especially as it relates to pharmaceuticals.

I've never liked taking pills or getting shots or anything. If I get a headache or get sick, I hate taking medicine. I've always thought (without actual medical proof), that doing so weakens ones own system, both physically and physiologically. In other words, if you take X medicine every time you get problem Y, your body will begin to expect to get medicine X and not try as hard to heal itself. I say physiologically because I believe our mind has a lot to do with whether we get sick or not, and whether we stay sick or not. My friends have always angrily heard me say, "Its all in your head!," and while I don't literally believe this, I do believe our mind and mental state play an important role in our physical health. Believing oneself strong goes a long way.

After my knee surgery (another story entirely), I had to take Celebrex daily. Celebrex is just an anti-inflammatory which is easier on your stomach. I tried stopping many times over a 1.5 year period unsuccessfully. WIthin a week of stopping, I could hardly use the leg. My body had adapted to needing it. I finally did ween myself off it and I'm much happier now knowing I don't NEED it. While this is all interesting in and of itself, I should get to the topic, Organic Living. For someone who cared so much about what pills he took, I sure didn't care what I ate. "Don't ask, don't feel guilty about it", was my motto. Well, for a number of reasons, I can now re-evaluate that.

On a separate, but related note. I'm a very cynical person and often look at attempts by the few to sway the many as vain attempts. I'm beginning to see a few areas where the few really DO sway the norm by long, continuous effort. Normally taking decades. It appears that this can be said of the Green movement (which the Organic movement is a part). Rewind to the 80s. Nobody cared what went into what we were eating, as long as it was fast and cheap. Corporate American ran wild, doing whatever they wanted with little to no regulation. There were those few, however, who warned that we should care more about how food got to our plate. They were ignored however. Fast forward to today, Organic growing was on the cover of Newsweek and Time and is being reported on CNN and other mainstream news channels. I saw a show late last night on CNN that talked about struggling farmers moving towards organic crops and finally getting out of the red. People are willing to pay more and in many instances, growing organically can actually be more efficient. In one example, this pig farmer talked about the difference between corporate pig farming and organic pig farming. In corp pig farming, pigs are born, live and die in a tiny space, just big enough for them to survive. In organic farming, they are allowed to roam free. This particular farmer, who came from a long line of pig farmers, explained how he generally cared for the pigs and decided after a trip overseas to a organic farming clinic that he would make life as pleasant as possible for the pigs. Specifically he talked about stress levels and how pigs with higher stress don't live as long or grow as well. The most stress a female pig is recorded to have is when she must give birth in the same place she eats and defecates. This farmer admitted that his pigs, which only receive vaccinations and do not receive hormones, pesticides, or any unnatural foods, do not birth as many piglets. They do however live longer and probably birth more piglets over the coarse of their longer life, so in the end, it really ended up NOT being less efficient to treat them well. His final thought was that he looked at his job as making sure the pigs have a happy life with only one bad day.

I'm concerned with what we're eating and how it interacts. All the pesticides and genetically modified food. Even those that test safe by themselves... we just don't know how they'll interact with all the others. Plus, there is no doubt that taking in so many foreign chemicals into the body has a long term affect on ones physiology. A pseudo-health-nut friend of mine admitted that he pays more for his 'organic' food, but believes its a small price for the knowledge that he is in control of his own body (paraphrased).

Kasei, the writer of Orange Creamsicle, is a vegetarian; a position I find myself respecting more and more. I am not a vegetarian. However, for myself, I believe there are sufficient organic choices to 'go organic' without abandoning meat. Can I go completely organic? Probably not, but I can make a conscious effort, understanding that I am not only doing the right thing for my body, but also sending a signal (be it small), with my wallet that I will prefer organic foods. The more people that do this, the more it will catch on. For reasons I've stated in prior blog entries, I don't harbor much hope for our capitalistic system at large. Big companies will continue doing things the 'wrong' way until they see it as economically sounds to do it otherwise. Its probably nearly impossible to convince corp america to 'do the right thing' and go organic. Working within the system however, its obvious that change can be made.

I'm sure Kasei will have thoughts on this matter and I'm curious as to what they are. I just wish we had a Trader Joe's or Wild Oats up here. :)

Posted by wonko at October 28, 2002 01:49 AM

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Posted by: useEvil at October 29, 2002 06:52 AM

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