Hey Mr. Green winner!

The winner of the book, Hey Mr. Green is Angela White from Breastfeeding 123.

So, Angela, email your mailing info to me at crunchychickenblog@gmail.com.

Congratulations, Angela!

For those of you who didn't win, there's still time to enter the book giveaway for Enlightenment for Idiots.

Enlightenment for Idiots - book giveaway!

Let me be the first to admit that I'm not exactly prone to reading chick-lit. And, for the most part, I'm fairly intolerant of most current fiction writers - I'm still working my way through 19th Century fiction. So, when the opportunity came across to read Enlightenment for Idiots, I figured, what the hell, why not?

This is, not exactly a green book, but it is a book. And it pokes fun at the whole yoga, meditation and search for enlightenment craze that seems to have inflicted itself upon Westerners. For that alone, it's worth a read because it is quite amusing. It's a real quick read - something I polished off in roughly 24 hours.

Anyway, in spite of a few plot holes and a couple of deus ex machina style interventions, I really enjoyed this book and wished it could go on forever. Okay, maybe not forever, but for longer at least. This is the writer's first work of fiction (she normally writes for Yoga Journal, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and her essays have been in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, O: The Oprah Magazine, Salon.com and the like).

So, if you are looking for a light read, then I highly recommend this book. It has been equated to Eat, Pray, Love, but with more of the pray part. As such, I'm giving this book away so that one lucky reader has the chance to read it for themselves! As usual, if you want to enter the random drawing, put your name in the comments. The drawing ends this Sunday at 6:00 pm PST. Good luck!

By the way, I guarantee if you read this book you'll be craving chai tea like crazy. Here's a recipe to satisfy the urge (and save you money):

Masala Chai

1.5 inch chunk of cinnamon stick
6 cardamom pods
8 whole cloves
1 star anise
10 whole black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon any unperfumed loose black tea (such as Darjeeling or Assam)
Sugar to taste

In a mortar, crush cinnamon, star anise, cardamom and cloves (or use a coffee grinder). Put water and spices in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the milk and bring to a simmer again. Add the tea leaves and simmer for 3 minutes. Strain the tea, add sugar to taste and serve immediately.

Book week - Hey Mr. Green giveaway

Here's to another exciting green book week! This week I'll be focusing on book giveaways, book club posts, book reviews and the like. So, if you like books, this is your lucky week!

Since I'm torturing you all with sweaty butt cracks and not allowing you to buy anything, I thought I'd feed your desires with a giveaway of the book, Hey Mr. Green: Sierra Magazine's Answer Guy Tackles Your Toughest Green Living Questions, by Bob Schildgen. From the publisher:

When is the right time to replace an old refrigerator? Is it more environmentally correct to buy your beer in bottles or cans? And is it okay to knit a sweater with acrylic (petroleum-based) yarn?

For several years, Bob Schildgen (aka “Mr. Green”) has been answering real-world questions in his Sierra magazine column. Readers know they’re getting up-to-the minute, authoritative responses, because all information is backed by the research and experience of Sierra Club. But Mr. Green’s legions of fans have also come to expect a refreshing dose of common sense — and often a laugh, too — because Bob is a funny guy with his feet on the ground.

Now the editors of Sierra magazine have distilled the best of “Mr. Green” into this enormously useful and entertaining book, organized for easy access: “At Home” offers tips on staying cool, cleaning up, and other domestic details; “Food for Thought” focuses on how to eat and drink better while spending less; “Out and About” covers getting around, fueling up, and enjoying the great outdoors; “The Three Rs” shows you how (and why) to reduce, reuse, and recycle almost everything; and “The Big Picture” considers how the environment, politics, religion, and other issues intersect — often at the dinner table.

Bob Schildgen writes the popular “Hey Mr. Green” environmental advice column for Sierra magazine, where he was managing editor and book review editor for many years.

To sign up for the random drawing, just add your name to the comments. The drawing for the book will be held this Friday at 6:00 pm PST. Good luck!

Sunday Confessional - Week 2

Forgive me people, for I have spent. It has been one week since my last confessional.

This month is just not going as well as April. At least it seems that way. Anyway, I have broken several commandments:

1. No new clothes - I bought new shoes for both kids, plus Emma got some new underwear and they each got a pair of new pajamas. I could have purchased the latter second-hand, but I didn't have time to go to multiple stores and both of them have been growing like weeds lately. I don't do used shoes or undies.

2. No eating out - We went out for coffee four times this week post-clinic visits. I can at least say that no disposables were used and we supported local coffee houses that do food composting so I don't feel too bad about it.

3. Other sundries - I bought some ibuprofen and some red vines for the kids.

How did last week fare for your pocketbooks?

The Sweater Lodge

It's a sweltering 62 degrees and raining here in Seattle today.

Although I must admit it was quite a bit warmer earlier in the week and I actually used the air conditioning in the car for the first time on Thursday. Other than that, it's been manageable since it's been cooling down in the evenings.

How are you handling the Sweat Yer Buns, I mean, Keep Yer Cool Challenge? Any air conditioning transgressions yerself?

The Chicken Tractor

No substantive post today people, I'm too busy working on the new business proposal for my post Peak Oil employment. You can read more about it here.

Please do not confuse this project with the stationary Chicken Ranch. And, please note, however, that the prices will be slightly more expensive since we boast organic, free-range, hormone-free chicken. Also note that I will give my peeps a very high commission if you are interested in auditioning.

What wacky ideas do you have for post Peak Oil commerce?

The benefits of higher food prices

The Economist has been having an online debate this week over whether or not there are any benefits to the rising costs of food. So far, the pro side has been winning the vote.

Some of the more salient arguments towards the benefits of higher food prices are that it will encourage new investments in agriculture and higher global production. Another point is that, for the last 30 years, the food strategy hasn't been working well for the world's poor. So, in effect, giving a different system a chance will be a good thing. "If a strategy has not worked for 30 years, surely there is an upside to changing strategies."

Some of the con arguments include the idea that it is a fundamental human right to have access to food. Additionally, the losers greatly outnumber the winners with increased prices. These losers include many people who were near or below the poverty line before the current food crisis struck.

What do you think? Is there an upside to higher food prices? Will it really result in new investments in agriculture and higher global production? Or will higher food prices simply push the poor into starvation? Or both? Do biofuels policies distort the market and should we stop them?

Peak oil primer - what does it all mean?

I know a lot of you out there are quite apprehensive about peak oil and what it means for the future. The cost and availability of oil have been all over the news the last few months and we are all witness to the rising oil prices. We'll see something similar with natural gas in the next few years as we hit peak natural gas soon, too.

The short story on this is that there is or will be a decline in availability of easy-access and inexpensive energy sources. This doesn't mean that we will be stepping off a precipice suddenly and there will be NO MORE OIL like, next year, in spite of what you may be reading on other sites and blogs.

On the contrary, what it means is that there will be a decline in production of light, sweet crude oil (we'll call this "easy" oil) and an increase in production of heavy, sour crude oil, oil shale and tar sands (we'll call this "difficult" oil). The whole concept of the term peak means that we've used 50% of the oil known to exist, mainly the easy oil.

The issue with extracting the difficult oil, is that it is, well, more difficult and more costly. There are also issues with more environmental degradation (particularly with the oil shale and tar sands) in extracting the more difficult sources of oil in addition to the massive energy and water inputs required as well. But, all that said, it is oil and it can and will be extracted one way or another as long as it remains profitable.

As the return on investment of oil production goes down you'll see an increase in usage of natural gas and coal and a whole lot more investment in energy alternatives such as wind, solar and geothermal, among other things. And, as the cost of energy goes up, you'll see a lot more innovation in energy efficiencies from manufacturers and conservation from consumers.

We are already seeing this with investments in new energy and in the market as manufacturers try to switch gears to adjust to higher oil costs. Some industries will be hit harder than others, and some may go out of business, but there are plenty of new opportunities to take their place within the new energy economy as well as in the restructuring to more local, community-based businesses.

The worst case scenario with peak oil is that this transition will be bumpy and we'll see some economic fall-out. I'm hoping for a little turbulence (or as my brother would say "light chop") as we slowly ease off petroleum and gear up on alternatives. It all depends on how willing people are to let go of their old habits. And that starts with you.

So, should you be panicking? Well, no, my take on peak oil is far from theskyisfallingweareallgoingtohellinahandbasket reaction. Will it affect our way of living and economy and food supplies? Well, yes, but not in the drastic manner many are purporting. Since it will be more expensive to produce food and manufacture products you will have to modify your behavior. In other words, you'll have to drive less, travel less and use less energy.

What merchandise and services you do buy will most likely be more locally oriented. The massive economies of scale (aka Walmart, chain restaurants and the like) will lessen considerably with higher costs of petroleum since these businesses rely on cheap oil to keep costs low. So, expect a return to local businesses to provide goods and services. Why is this? Mainly due to lesser energy intensive transportation costs.

In my next post on the topic, I'll discuss in more detail some of the issues with over-reacting to peak oil and what you can be doing to limit the impact. So, in the meantime, take a deep breath and try to relax. The world isn't going to end tomorrow or even next year. You've got some time to get a handle on this.

Sustainable hair removal

This is an age old question: how can I easily and successfully remove body hair? Most recent inventions tend to be environmentally unfriendly due to packaging, waste and chemicals.

So, it all comes down to, what's the most sustainable way to remove body hair? This question has been asked of me several times over the last year and is one which, amazingly, I haven't blogged about yet. Well, here's my take on it.

Of course, one could argue that leaving your body hair well enough alone is the best option, but I'm assuming that this is not an acceptable answer for most women in the U.S. and for women in some cultures where the removal of body hair has long been part of their traditional heritage.

Depilatories. Well, I'll tell you depilatories ain't the winner. Not only are they chock full of chemicals that do Lord knows what to the environment and your own skin (remember that your skin in your largest organ and absorbs this stuff), the packaging and propellants in them aren't environmentally friendly either. So, even if you find it effective, I suggest you try to switch to something a little less damaging all around.

Razors. You have a few options if you are shaving with a razor, some better than others. Clearly, disposable razors aren't the way to go. Even if you opt for a disposable head, the heads generally come full of plastic and packaging. If you want to go nuts and find yourself an old fashioned safety razor where all you supply are new razor blades, then by all means, hack yourself to pieces. Other shaving options include a straight razor, although it's difficulty and lack of convenience and acceptability make it less of a decent option for most.

Electric Shavers. Electric shavers are more sustainable than disposable razors in theory, but you are still taking a hit on the environmental impact of production, packaging, shipping and electricity to run or charge it (unless you have a solar charger). If you can get a used electric shaver, then you've eliminated at least the manufacturing element.

Laser Hair Removal. I don't consider this all that environmentally friendly given the incredible amount of manufacturing input involved to make the equipment. One could argue that once the device has been manufactured, then it's really only input it energy. But, until laser hair removal is actually something that lasts and isn't so expensive, I wouldn't even consider it. I added it here only because I figured someone would bitch, I mean ask, about it.

Waxing. Most waxes are petroleum based. If you use store-purchased waxing kits, then you again are dealing with production, packaging and shipping issues as well as the waste created with throwing out the used strips. Salon waxing may provide a better option than home purchased kits since you may be able to find a salon that uses natural waxes, but there is still an issue with disposal due to health concerns. And, primarily, the cost is an issue.

Sugaring. For those of you who are lucky enough to have tried sugaring or have a salon nearby that provides this service, you will know that sugaring is much more comfortable than waxing in that it adheres only to the hair rather than the skin (like waxing). There are kits you can buy for home use (like Moom), but there is still the issue of production, packaging, distribution and waste.

So, what the answer? What's the most environmentally friendly method of hair removal? Home sugaring.

Now, before you get all complainy and squeamish on me, well, you asked. There are only a few items that are needed and you most likely already have them on hand. All of these items are reusable so you just need to provide a few simple ingredients and a little know-how.

Home Sugaring Kit

Tongue depressor (a wooden Popsicle stick or dull knife also works well as a spreading device)

Cotton or linen cloth or muslin cut into 1 inch strips

Candy thermometer

Glass storage container (optional: if you plan on reheating in microwave)

Sugaring Recipe
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water

Combine all the above ingredients in a saucepan. Heat on low (making sure it doesn't boil over). Put the candy thermometer into the saucepan and when the mixture reaches 250 F on the candy thermometer (hardball candy stage), take it off the heat and pour it into the glass container after it's cooled down a bit. You can reheat this mixture in the microwave later if you don't use it all after it is made or if it cools down too much and isn't as spreadable.

To use: Let the mixture cool down enough so you don't burn yourself. Test it on your wrist. Trust me, you will learn quickly to make sure the temperature is correct. Using your spreading device, spread it on your skin in the direction of the hair growth. Cover with the cloth strips and rip it off against the direction of the hair growth (kind of like pulling off a bandaid). You can also hold the skin taut with the non-ripping hand to aid in making sure all the hairs come out.

Feel free to swear like a sailor. "Mother-fucker" is a favorite expletive of mine particularly when doing this in the nether regions. To clean up, just wash the strips in soap and water. You can even throw the strips in the laundry for reuse again. I like to hand wash and air dry the strips.

I highly recommend showering after sugaring to make sure you remove all of the mixture since bacteria love to breed in sugar.

Voilà! Enjoy your silky smooth skin using only a little sugar and lemon!

DivaCup 2008 wrap-up

Oh, it's been another successful DivaCup Challenge this year. I'm so proud of all of you who faced your fears of "The Cup" and gave it a try.

I know a number of you have fallen in love with it and it's changed your lives forever. Some of you are still struggling with getting it right and hopefully you'll eventually get it working for you. If you are still having problems, here's another opportunity to get some help, so post your concerns in the comments.

And, now's a good a time as any to have a poll on the subject...

NW meetup date

Well, it looks like there are about 50 people who are interested in the NW Blogger Meetup that Melinda from One Green Generation and I are trying to arrange.

We wanted to run a poll on potential dates so that we all have a chance to put in our 2 cents. Given such a potentially large group, we are thinking of doing this at a public park.

So, if you have any suggestions of where to hold this, add it to the comments. It will be a local-food style potluck with a bring your own reusable plate, silverware and cup thang. Since it will be held at a park you can bring your kids and come and go as you like. I'm expecting this to be a mid-to-late afternoon event.



Once we get the date and location nailed down, I'll announce more of the final details and you can email me if you are still interested so I have a final head count and an email list to communicate with you all.

Just as a teaser, I'm also planning on hosting a few more get-togethers later this year with a focused agenda. The first will be a "Green Girls Party" to get women together and teach them how to make their own natural, green beauty products. The second will have a more holiday focus in teaching people how to make sustainable homemade gifts for the holidays. Stay tuned!

Sunday Confessional - Week 1

Forgive me people, for I have spent. It has been three months since my last confessional.

Well, here it is three days into the challenge and I already have a confession. I guess this first sin isn't too bad since it was something I was supposed to have purchased by the end of July and it's something I promised my kids way back at the beginning of June. Anyway, I got each of my children two very small Lego sets as promised.

Next up, I broke the new commandment: I ordered pizza last night for my belated birthday party. I was just too tired to cook for everyone. My husband also ordered a cake instead of making it himself, but he's still recovering from his stem cell transplant. But no one, and I mean no one can make cakes like Morfey's Cake Shoppe. Mmmmm. Champagne cake.

Minor transgressions, but I will do better!

How was Week 1 for you in the Buy Nothing Challenge - August Edition?

By the way, it's not too late to sign up!

Crazy raspberry lady

I was at our grocery store the other day buying 1/2 flats of berries from a local farm (they deliver daily!) when a man asked me a question about the raspberries. Well, let me tell you he got an earful!

After chatting for a few minutes, discussing how long they'll last, what to do with them, how to freeze them, what kind of deal this was, etc. he said, "Wow, you know a lot about raspberries!" I was somewhat embarrassed, but just answered, "Well, I'm the crazy raspberry lady". Of course, my cart was filled with two half-flats of blueberries ($5.98 each!) and two half-flats of raspberries and nothing else.

I was thinking of making jam, but just wasn't in the mood. So, instead I've been freezing and drying the berries that haven't been making their way into our mouths. I freeze them on cookie sheets and once they are frozen I pack them into Ziploc freezer bags and suck the air out with a straw. I've been doing this for the last two weeks so I think I finally have enough berries to last us for a while.

Sex with pumpkins

Good lord, I can't wait to see what kind of Google traffic this post drives to my blog.

I've been a little disappointed with my bee friends this summer. Many a sugar pie pumpkin baby has not been pollinated this year, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I've done this before and it always makes me feel a little dirty to be fingering my pumpkin plants, but I wanted to share with you how to hand-pollinate your plants if nature isn't taking its course, so to speak. This works with plants that have male and female flowers such as cucumbers, zucchinis and pumpkins. You know, squashes and whatnot.

First of all, put on some music to put them in the mood. Maybe a little Barry White. Next, some scented candles would be nice. If you're desperate, a little pumpkin porn might work. Now in your best deep voice say, "Let's get it on..." Oh, wait.

On second thought, it's best to just find the requisite parts. Find a flower that has male parts. This will be easy as it looks like, well, a male part. In other words, a pumpkin penis. (Okay, sure, sure it's really called a stamen, but this isn't biology class for Christsakes.)

Now, locate a flower with female parts. This is not exactly a replica of the human female anatomy, but once you see it you'll figure it out. Soft, a little wet and swollen. Jesus, this is getting graphic. If you're real confused the female has a baby pumpkin at the base of the flower.

Feel free to talk to your pumpkins as you do this, it might make it easier. An "excuse me" here and there would be appropriate. You can use something else for this process, but I prefer using my hand.

With the thumb and forefinger gently rub the penis until your fingers are covered with pollen. Now's a good time to whisper something to it. If you want to talk naughty to your plants, that's your business, I don't want to hear about it.

Rub the pollen on the female flower parts. You'll feel how silky it is, so be gentle. Just keep rubbing until all the pollen is on it. Find another male/female combo and go at it again. It's somewhat addictive but just remember, there is no pumpkin sex addiction hotline so try to control yourself. Each plant can really only support 4 to 6 pumpkins so you probably don't want to pollinate too many.

So, there you go! Go forth and hand-pollinate.

CC in the National Post

Happy Birthday to me!

I've got a few exciting things to announce today.

First, one of my blog posts was picked up in the column Sense and Sustainability in The National Post:

The Green Gender Gap: Peak oil response is a case of he said, she said.

It is based on my blog post, Peak Oil - instinctual reactions.

Second, and much more exciting news, my husband came home from the hospital last night! We pretty much begged to have him released early and so they set it up so he can get his treatments from home instead of doing it in-patient.

So, hopefully we can keep him out as he recovers from his stem cell transplant.

Hooray!

Buy Nothing Challenge - August Edition

Batten down your wallets, it's that time again!

Y'all have had three whole months to wallow in your decadent, consumeristic lives and now it's time for a kick in the pants. Yes, folks, it's another edition of the Buy Nothing Challenge. If you missed out on it last time you can check out all the previous posts on how much fun (or withdrawals) everyone had.

We had over 225 people participating in April, so let's see how many we can get to sign up for the August edition. I'll be hosting the weekly Sunday Confessional again where you can attempt to justify your wanton purchases. So, just think about having to confess to the world why you couldn't contain your credit card.

Here are the rules (plus a new one), in case you forgot 'em...

• No new clothes
  
• No new gadgets
  
• No new furniture or housewares
  
• No salon services (except haircuts)
  
• No new makeup
  
• No new tools
  
• No whatever the hell else people buy
  
• No eating out (yes, this one is new!)

Once more, I'm only giving you one day to prepare so you don't run off and stockpile like crazy. You should be focusing on whether or not what you are buying is a necessity or something frivolous. Food, medications and other essentials are okay.

If you must absolutely acquire something non-edible or not essential to growing your own food, preserving or storing food for the off-season or for your survival, then you must borrow, barter, or buy it used (please note: canning equipment and supplies like sugar, pectin and jars are okay). If you end up buying something new, then spill your sins at the Sunday Confessional.

Since a lot of you are probably in buying back-to-school supplies mode, try to stick to what's on your supply list. If you have young kids who don't know any better, buy their back to school clothes at a thrift or consignment store. Feel free to torture older kids with it, too. No, really, it will be fun!

Those who participated last time took about a week to get into no-spending mode, but then were amazed out how much they saved. They were also amazed at how much they buy stuff they don't need.

If you want to sign up for the challenge, leave a comment on this post and I'll add you to the sidebar under the list of participants. For those of you who stumble upon this later, you can still join. If you want to put the graphic up on your blog, just paste the following code:

<a href="http://crunchychicken.blogspot.com/2008/07/buy-nothing-challenge-august-edition.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6rwHG_JqKj0SmCdZEDm1rxbmfFPBClVLcE0E9HucWMLzsK62fKpN2uprk_ijti0gZpU6elx7m4jgbiABgbbrJnuGrDbnFuwi60DZsU5ROfQNxaS6i9bxo0MiNIj-hRhk9nbAbi2IDvFU/s320/banner.jpg" border="0" alt="Buy Nothing Challenge - August 2008" /></a>

Remember folks, there's safety in numbers.

The shampoo dilemma solved

Because I posted on the whole coconut oil as hair moisturizer the other day, I thought I would follow up with an answer to the question people had on what I do for shampoo.

I've been planning on writing on this topic for months now. To start, I will describe what I'm working with here so you can get an idea if this advice will be at all useful for you.

I have long (not quite mid-back since I cut 4 inches off a few months ago, but a few inches shy of it), colored hair that is curly in front and straightish in back. If I were to blow dry it straight without a straightening iron, it looks totally crazy frizzy. I have an oily scalp so I need to wash my hair every day. The ends are mostly healthy (since I cut off the length) with few to no split ends, but the ends are dry (hence the coconut oil conditioning search).

Let me preface this whole discussion with the simple fact that no, I haven't tried the no-poo method yet, nor the apple cider vinegar (ACV) rinse, and don't plan on it. I'm really not up for the transition time it takes for my hair to supposedly adjust. And, quite frankly, if I don't wash my hair, my scalp stinks.

Anyway, I've been using Aveda products for the last few years (Color Conserve for shampoo, Scalp Benefits for conditioner and Damage Remedy Intensive Restructuring Treatment) and am aware that they use SLS (sodium lauryl sulfates - the sudsing and main cleaning agent) in their products. The issue with SLS is that there have been some studies showing they potentially have nasty effects in the body, particularly in the liver. Allegedly.

Additionally, there's the issue of plastic with the bottles. So, initially, I was trying to get aware from packaging and worrying less about the chemical content, but still aware of them. As a result, I tried out a few types of shampoo bars. All the ones I tried (J.R. Liggett and my own homemade soap with similar ingredients) left my hair exceptionally greasy in spite of washing it daily with the soap.

I tell you, I had real high hopes for them. They sudsed up like crazy, way more than my shampoos with SLS, and I thought "Hot Damn!" my hair is gonna be clean. After rinsing, my hair felt weirdly squeaky and difficult to deal with. Once it dried, it felt really soft and was a lot less frizzy except it never really felt clean. After 3 - 4 days, it looked like I had squeezed a bottle of Canola into the area near my scalp. I went back to my regular shampoo.

I have heard that people swear by using the ACV rinse to combat the squeak and the greasitude and it was all a matter of "adjusting" but, frankly, life is too bloody short to spend farting around with magic potions on the off chance that in a month maybe my hair won't look and feel like shit. But I digress.

I also tried shampoos like Burt's Bees Very Volumizing Pomegranate Shampoo. It doesn't contain any SLS ingredients and it shows. It smelled great, but the lather was less than impressive and I couldn't stand using it for more than a few days. It didn't feel like it cleaned my hair, I had the same squeaky action and it left my hair dried out. I went back to my regular shampoo.

Since the shampoo bars weren't working (I still have yet to try Lush's shampoo bar with sodium coco-sulfate although I suspect I'll still run into similar problems) it looked like I would have to reduce the packaging element by buying something in bulk. Luckily, my local store sells a couple kinds, one of which is Giovanni's Tea Tree Triple Threat (or Treat or Something) Invigorating Shampoo. To say "invigorating" is an understatement.

At first, the intensive mintytude of it was overpowering. I have not experienced something so damn minty that it made my skin actually hurt before, but since then I have either gotten used to it or I was overly sensitive the first time. Either way, this stuff is Certified Organic and uses none of the nasty chemicals like lauryl/laureth sulfates. They make other shampoos as well, so if I'm finding the tea tree oil to be too drying or the superpowered peppermint oil too annoying, I'll switch to one of the other ones they carry in bulk.

So, to make an incredibly long story short (or in this case, short story long). I have found a shampoo that lathers pretty well, cleans nicely, has no chemicals or packaging and I don't have to walk around looking like a giant stinky greaseball, mess with funky powders or liquid rinses in the shower or smell like a vinegar and oil salad all day long.

Phew! I hope that answers the question.

The Sweat Lodge

I know a lot of you (especially those in Dallas and in the South) are totally sweating your buns off this week, but I am up here freezing mine off. Tomorrow we are due to have highs of a whopping 65 degrees.

So, while I have no fantastic advice for you since I'll be cuddled up in my fleece blinky tonight when it drops to 55 degrees, I do hope the rest of you are handling the warmer temperatures okay.

What are you doing to stay cool? Are you turning your air conditioning up just a little or using some other techniques? Are you able to stick to your original goal?

What's your favorite technique to stay cool?

Going nuts for coconut oil

Now, using coconut oil will definitely not turn you into a Silkie Chicken, but it will turn you into a silky chicken. Let me 'splain.

I've been looking for a natural deep hair conditioner as the majority of good mainstream ones out there tend to be full of odd sorts of chemicals. Most of the so-called "natural" ones I've encountered so far have been heavy, greasy or just gross and didn't really do anything or were impossible to wash out.

Well, much to my surprise I stumbled upon a group of people who use straight up coconut oil for their hair. It's referred to as "oiling" and basically you just apply some unrefined (aka "virgin") coconut oil on dry hair before washing. You can put it on 15 minutes before shampooing, overnight or anything in between - whatever you prefer. Obviously leaving it on longer will allow it to work more, just know that it will leave your hair rather oily and you'll want to protect your pillow with a towel if you sleep overnight with it in.

So, what's the big deal with coconut oil? Well, I tried it (since I have a ton of the unscented kind for making soap) and it washed out really easy, left my hair very soft and, most amazingly, my hair is super shiny, but not at all oily. The other weird thing is that the curls in my hair are a lot more defined, probably because the cuticle is less frizzy.

How often should you use it? Well, I guess it depends on how dry and damaged your hair is. You can probably get away with using it twice a week although I'm sure once a week or month is probably a goodly amount. Many people also use a very small (and I do mean tiny) amount on their dry hair daily for shine and for controlling fly-aways.

How does coconut oil differ from something like jojoba oil? Purportedly, coconut oil is able to penetrate the hair shaft better than jojoba or sunflower oils. According to one study:

Among three oils [coconut, mineral and sunflower], coconut oil was the only oil found to reduce the protein loss remarkably for both undamaged and damaged hair when used as a pre-wash and post-wash grooming product. Both sunflower and mineral oils do not help at all in reducing the protein loss from hair. This difference in results could arise from the composition of each of these oils. Coconut oil, being a triglyceride of lauric acid (principal fatty acid), has a high affinity for hair proteins and, because of its low molecular weight and straight linear chain, is able to penetrate inside the hair shaft.

For more information you can check it out here.

The other thing you can use coconut oil for is moisturizing your skin. It magically disappears into your skin and doesn't leave you feeling oily or greasy.

This morning I whipped together a little body moisturizer using coconut oil, cocoa butter and vanilla essential oil. Since both coconut oil and cocoa butter are solid at room temperature (but melt at body temperature), I microwaved the two briefly and then added in the essential oil. Cocoa butter tends to be a little waxy, so if you try mixing up this concoction on your own, go easy on the cocoa butter.

CC on Huffington Post

For any of you who are interested, The Huffington Post picked up one of my blog posts and wrote about it today:

Dining Out with Green in Mind

Here's my original article: Is Eating Out More Eco-Friendly?

By the way, my 100 Mile Vacation article is finally up on 5 Minutes for Going Green (can you tell how organized I am this week?).

If you sauntered your way over here from The Huffington Post, welcome! Please feel free to poke around...

NW blogger meetup

Melinda (from One Green Generation née Elements in Time) and I have been talking about putting together some sort of get-together to, well, get together all the bloggers and interested readers from the Seattle area and beyond.

We are still at the pre-planning stages and wanted to get an idea of what, if any, interest there would be in getting all us peeps together for a meet n' greet.

So, both of us are posting today to get a head count and some ideas of the whats and wheres. Should this just be a social event or should there be an agenda? Indoors, outdoors, local food, suggestions, aversions?

We were thinking of doing this August 24th, but are flexible on that date.

So, what think ye?



If there are enough people interested I'll be hosting another poll to determine what kind of venue to have it.

100 mile vacation

If you're interested, check out my post on the 100 Mile Vacation over on 5 Minutes for Going Green today!

If a "staycation" is not your speed and you don't want to go all-out on a trip to Rome you can still have a great time on a 100 mile vacation...

Jiminy - this is up finally!

Peak Oil - instinctual reactions

I promise this isn't going to be a Peak Oil blog all the time, I just wanted to put something down that I was mulling over in the shower. That is, why do people respond to Peak Oil in the way that they do? Why does it seem like there is a strong gender difference in how people react to the coming energy crisis?

Humanity has a great history and tradition of believing that their generation is the one that's going to bite the dust. Each generation has this belief that they will witness the next coming of Christ, the end of days, or some other catastrophe or apocalypse. For some, I think there's the idea that people have reached some point either because they've earned it or because, as my paranoid Grandmother used to say, "it's Sodom and Gomorrah out there".

The majority of people writing about Peak Oil and, therefore, proposing their version of the future are men. Perhaps it's the extremists that stick out and are what people remember, but I've heard many complaints about the whole prediction that Peak Oil = Social and Economic Armageddon. Several of you stated so in your comments to yesterday's post. I, frankly, think this prediction is ridiculously inaccurate. I like to think it's because I subscribe to a certain logic about how the world works. Others might argue that it's because of my gender.

Of the women writing about Peak Oil, the predictions are much more metered. The conversation revolves mostly around preparation. I find it similar in concept to that whole "nesting in" period right before a woman gives birth. It's like instinctually women know some trauma is coming and need to prepare by making the home comfortable and clean and storing up food and supplies. Nothing panicky, just getting things done. If the home is set up right, we somehow know that we can handle pretty much anything to come. Even if deep down we're scared shitless.

The male reaction must be based on something else because for many male Peak Oil writers out there, it degrades quickly into Ramboism. Load up the shotgun, honey, this is going to be bad! In fact, I would argue that many actually welcome this breakdown of society. But what could this be attributed to? Bear with me here while I stereotype half the population.

The human male, over the last several centuries, has been stuffed into a society where all their evolutionary self-preservation instincts are kept under lock and key. Not to reduce a gender to hormones (although I just did above with females), but over tens of thousands of years men spent their days physically fighting for power, physically overtaking women and killing other animals to survive. I would argue that modern society is a vast improvement over this, but you can't instantaneously remove thousands of years of genetics primed to succeed in this environment. Realistically, we're only a couple piddling generations out from this "lifestyle".

So, faced with the potential disaster of Peak Oil, why do some men so rapidly carry out the thought experiment to survivalist mode? There's a definite romanticization of living off the land, tribalism and protecting the women. Is it because the desire to unleash all those things that, presently, aren't socially acceptable is so strong? In these survivalist scenarios, the men get to scratch that evolutionary itch. I think it's safe to say that fantasy is one thing, but the reality is that most modern men are ill-equipped to deal with the violence that comes with anarchy.

Of course these are all just gross generalizations, but then again why am I hunkering down into gatherer mode, dehydrating strawberries and stockpiling peanut butter? I sure as hell ain't pregnant.

And now that I've completely stereotyped everyone, I admit that you can't reduce people down to instincts only. But, I do think it's important to see where people are coming from, what their motivations are, conscious or otherwise and take that into consideration when reading someone else's predictions. It's all a crapshoot as far as the future goes, but it helps to process the unknown when looked at this way.

What do you think about this? Did this help or do I need to lay off on the rum cache?

Peak oil and a poll

I usually focus mainly on environmental subjects with the occasional social topic thrown in for good measure. Lately, I've been lightly mentioning peak oil without really going into what it exactly means.

I know a lot of you read Sharon's blog and are either somewhat or well versed in all things peak oil, but I also bet many of you have no idea what I'm talking about or don't really understand much about it. I generally have left the peak oil discussions up to others, but lately I've been doing a lot of reading on the topic and am finding myself better equipped to tackle some of the more salient bits of the conversation.

So, my question for you is, would you like to see me take a more vocal position regarding peak oil on this blog? Would you like some more information on what it is, what is means for us a society and what to expect? Would you like me to debunk some of the colossally ridiculous facts floating around? As usual, I would keep it as entertaining as possible, when it's possible.

Of course, this calls for a poll.

Food Not Lawns discussion (chapters 1 - 3)

Welcome to the first installment of the Food Not Lawns book club discussion post!

Let me first, right off the bat, state that I find this book both alternately inspiring and annoying. What do I find annoying? Mamble like the following:

"In the garden, by stepping outside economic and social constructs for a moment to envision ourselves in the cradle of nature, we can get to know the ecological self."

That kind of yammer just bothers me. And most of the exercises she suggests seem contrived. Particularly the water sports one. I don't envision myself cradling that one.

That said, I will ignore this kind of language and hooha and try not to let it distract me from the task at hand: discussing the actual content. Since this book's format is quite a bit different than the other ones in the book club, I won't be breaking it down by chapters, but just discussing a chunk of the book as a whole and throwing out questions where I see fit.

Okay, let's begin.

Lawns. Big ass lawns. Why do we have a culture of lawns? Well, the 18th century French aristocrats thought it good fun to rub it in the faces of the peasants that they were so darn wealthy than they could just grow grass. Not something functional, like food, but big swaths of green, grassy goodness. That cultural ideal has continued to modern America where a beautifully manicured lawn is equated with wealth and status.

I think of it as those covenants against laundry lines. Growing food, raising chickens and hanging out your laundry = poverty. Austere, pristine grassy nonsense = wealth. Put it another way, 58 million Americans spend about 30 billion dollars every year to maintain more than 23 million acres of lawn. Oh yeah, and use around 270 billion gallons of water a week. That's right folks, we're talking billions to maintain grass.

Let's not forget the incredible amount of pesticides and fertilizers being doused on those lawns that, ultimately, run off into the groundwater, evaporate into the air we breathe or run out into our waterways, poisoning our fish and aquatic life. The gas mowers, edgers and blowers don't exactly help either. Even if you don't water or fertilize your lawn, you still are preventing all sorts of habitat for critters by keeping a lawn.

So, what's an environmentally conscious citizen to do? Well, aside from the obvious alternative of returning the lawn to its natural habitat (by growing native plants and using permaculture techniques*), grow some food!

What to do if you don't have a lawn? Well, you have a couple of options. You can see if you can use a neighbor's lawn, rent a plot in a community garden, volunteer at a local farm (oftentimes they'll offer free produce to volunteers), garden in pots and containers, use the roof, depave a sidewalk or driveway, or (the most radical) take over a vacant lot.

If you do have the space you have some alternatives such as growing in raised beds, vertical gardening (growing up), or just reshaping your yard to take advantage of microclimates, rainflow and runoff and all sorts of other permaculture techniques*.

One of the discussion points in Chapter 3 is water-wise gardening. The author discusses mulching, irrigation, contouring and graywater. I'm a little unsure of the whole graywater thing as I believe it has to be done carefully (graywater can quickly become blackwater) and there are legal issues to be considered. She is extremely cavalier about this aspect, so tread carefully on how you want to proceed with using graywater.

After reading these sections are you inspired to tear up your lawn? What about the community aspects of growing food? Would you be willing to share you lawn with the neighbors for growing food for the community? Do you know your neighbors well enough to ask them to share their yard?

What about some of the suggestions she has for contouring your yard to grow food? Had you thought much about that when considering growing food before or was this new information for you?

Would you be willing to install some sort of graywater and/or pond system to irrigate your food crops or does it seem like too much work or too risky? What about rainwater capture?

Ok, that's it for now. The next book club post will be in two weeks.

*Ms. Flores goes into permaculture techniques in depth in the first section of the book, but I won't cover it here because I like to keep things somewhat briefish.

Fighting the beauty ideal

The last couple of days I've been toodling about town without makeup. Maybe because it's summer and I'm not going to work for a while, but it just seems dumb to bother getting all dolled up to hang out at the cancer clinic. One thing that I've noticed is that, after getting over the initial shock of not seeing myself in makeup, I look just as good without it, just different.

I started wearing more makeup when I briefly lived in Southern California mostly because everyone else wore a lot and I felt really under-dressed in comparison. The beauty standard there is quite different than Seattle and the pressure to pay attention to your appearance non-stop is oppressive. For the most part, I generally wear noticeable makeup only when going out on the town which happens, oh, once a year. In other words, I don't wear much makeup or, at least, it doesn't look like I wear much makeup.

Skimming it down is liberating. I save an extra 5 minutes and since I'm just letting my hair air dry, there's another 10 minutes in the morning. It strikes me as ridiculous those women who spend an hour doing their hair every morning. I'd rather be doing something else, but I'm sure some women can point to me and say that they'd rather be spending the extra 15 minutes every day doing something else. So, it's all relative.

There are some women who, admittedly, look better with makeup than without, but the majority of celebrities are trapped by the same beauty ideal, even though they look beautiful without makeup.

So, who is driving this standard? Industry, other women, men or a combination of them all? Is it because it's what we expect women to look like that we set these ideals? Or are the red lips and rimmed eyes some evolutionary throwback that stimulates some part of our primate brain that signals beauty?

For the women reading this post, do you wear makeup and, if so, do you feel better with it on? Do you feel ugly without makeup or is there one or two things that you absolutely have to wear in order to go out in public? For the men (and I know you won't answer but I'll try anyway), do you prefer your significant other or just women in general to wear makeup?

If it's really just industry driving this, why are we willing to spend thousands of dollars on beauty products and potentially poisoning ourselves with chemicals just to achieve some arbitrary "look" when, in fact, no one cares? If we really are programmed to respond to this artifice, can we ever escape it? I'd like to hear the opinions of those who didn't grow up under this beauty rubric... if any still exist.

What's your water footprint?

My kids have been intent on standing at the bathroom sink lately and letting the water run, and run, and run. They think it's water-works time. Hand washing turns into washing whatever toys happen to be in there with them (usually Legos) and I find myself yelling all day long "Turn off the water! You're wasting water!"

Then I still need to physically go in there and wake them from their water-stupor. Usually when they hear me coming the water goes off. Since I can't tell half the time if they are actually washing their hands or screwing around in there, it gets a little difficult.

So, I've been expecting my water bill to be higher than usual. It wasn't. It was actually 26 gallons per day less than this time last year. This is even more astounding since it's been hotter this year and, truth be told, the Slip 'N Slide was put into miserly use a few weeks back.

When I read recently that the average American uses about 100 gallons of water a day I figured we'd be right up there. For comparison, the French and Germans use about 60 gallons a day and people in some tribal villages use less than 10.

So, how did we compare? We use about 45 gallons a day per person, which still seems high to me. What am I doing different than last year? Well, the kids are getting bathed a whole lot less and we aren't flushing the toilets as often. I am wearing some clothes a few times before washing them. I never water the lawn, but that's nothing new. We do a lot of laundry, but we have one of those front-loader water saving kinds, but that's not new either. So, I have to chalk it up to less bathing and flushing.

What's your water footprint? How does it compare to the average? What do you do or what suggestions do you have for reducing your water usage?

Finally, does anyone know of some contraption I could put on the kid's bathroom sink to, at the very least, limit the flow?

Plenty book winner

Congratulations to Just Ducky for her self-restraint. By some dumb luck, you actually won the drawing.

But, since you decided to be all mature and not sign up for the drawing, the book actually goes to Ave.

So, Ave, congratulations! You are the winner of the book Plenty: One Man, One Woman and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally!

Email me at crunchychickenblog@gmail.com with your info and I'll get it out to you sometime this month :)

Life without oil - Part 2

Last week, in Part 1 of Life with oil, I discussed what I was doing to reduce the amount of gas I use for transportation purposes. This week I want to bring up our other big use of oil-based products: home heating.

This is going to be more and more of a problem for us since we use heating oil to heat our house. Sure, we use BioHeat, which is a blend of biofuel and oil, so there is some environmental impact there on two fronts, but at least the emissions are less. I want to switch to something more sustainable long term as well as something that won't have huge cost run ups as the price of oil increases.

At our old house we had a natural gas furnace and it is a viable alternative for some people, but we do not have natural gas lines going through our current neighborhood and, since it is believed that we have already reached "peak" natural gas as well, I fully expect to see prices of natural gas going up, too. It may not be seen as quickly, but I don't want to switch to something new and then regret it in 5 - 10 years.

Burning stuff (wood, corn pellets, etc.) isn't very practical since most of the time there's a burn ban in the city and using wood doesn't seem sustainable for urban dwellers and I believe corn pellets are going to be harder and harder to come by and/or will go up in price.

So, what's left? Electric heat is an option. We are signed up for 100% Green Power, meaning that we are getting all our electricity from wind, hydro and the like. The only real issue that I see with switching to electric heat is possibly overtaxing portions of the grid, especially on cold days when the demand is already high. Of course, this is only a problem if everyone decides to jump onto electric heating. My super-frigid house temps aren't going to be taxing much of anything.

I'm really intrigued by these solar air heating panels where the energy collected is used strictly for heating the home and does not go into your electrical usage. It would be a cheaper solution than getting full-on solar panels since the energy is targeted specifically to home heating. It would be nice to eventually use solar for other energy usage, but I'm just not willing to spend the money on them yet.

I suppose we could switch to electric heat and then eventually look into doing full solar if the prices become more reasonable. That way we take advantage of cheap, green energy now and then can move to solar generated electricity later if that looks viable. That seems like a good option if other things don't pan out.

In the meantime, I'm going to look into the solar air heating panels since I think it would cost less than $5,000 for a home heating upgrade.

What about you? How do you heat your home? If you use heating oil or natural gas are you putting any thought into switching to something else when the costs run too high? What are your thoughts on wood and corn pellet heating?

Plenty book giveaway!

I won this book from Green Bean and I thought I'd pass it along to some other lucky winner now that I am finished reading it.

Plenty: One Man, One Woman and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally, is written by a Vancouver couple that, not too surprisingly, spends one year eating locally. Written in a similar vein as Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, this story is a little more apropos to those who don't have a lot of land or, really, any land to grow and store their own food.

Here's my mini review:

It was interesting reading how this couple struggled with keeping to their 100 mile diet and how they went about trying to find foods that fit within their criteria. On one hand it was admirable that they stuck to their guns (for the most part), but I was disappointed by the incredible amount of travelling they did during this time. Granted, much of it was work related, but still. It seemed to offset their efforts.

I found the format of authors switching between chapters confusing and half the time couldn't remember which one was writing when I picked up the book again. The crabbing about their relationship and each other was distracting and, even though it may have pertained to what they were experiencing, it came off as being really childish. I wasn't as inspired reading this one as opposed to the several other books out on the market that deal with the same content and the writing isn't nearly as good as with Kingsolver's, but that's a hard comparison.

I guess my recommendation is that if you haven't read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or The Omnivore's Dilemma, then you will probably like this book. It isn't as good as the other two, but if you can borrow a copy, then give it a whirl.

Now that I've totally turned you off from reading this book with my fabulous review I must say that it is still worth a look-see if you are interested in reading about other's experiences with trying to eat locally. And, hey, it's free! So sign up if you want to win this copy by adding your name to the comments of this post. This contest closes on Friday, July 11th at 6:00 p.m. PST.

Good luck!

Independence Days update

I haven't been very good about keeping you all up-to-date on my participation on the Independence Days Challenge over on Sharon's blog. I generally haven't had time to make updates and/or I can't keep straight from one week to the next what I've been working on. Call it early senile dementia.

Either way, here's what I've been up to in the last week. For those of you unfamiliar with the challenge, these are things I have done to be more independent of the standard American food chain:

Harvested:

Kale, lettuce, spinach, chard

Red onion

Lavender, sage, rosemary, mint

Strawberries, cherries

Rose petals

Planted:

Peppermint

Grapes

Walla Walla sweet onion

Beets

Spinach, lettuce

Carrots, radishes

Anaheim pepper, Cayenne pepper

Meyer lemon tree (woohoo!)

Transplanted:

Marjoram, oregano

Preserved:

Vegetable stock

Dried rose petals

Drying lavender

Made 8 jars rose jam

Made 32 jars strawberry jam (more on that later)

Stored:

Bought extra beans, pasta and water for storage. Will continue to buy extras every week to create emergency supplies in addition to canning

I spent most of the afternoon yesterday canning strawberries. I made three different types of strawberry jam. I'll post the recipes up on my cooking blog once I get around to it, but for now, just know that I made:

Strawberry, Sangiovese and Spice Jam (cinnamon, clove, star anise, nutmeg)

Strawberry, Mint and Black Pepper Jam

Strawberry, Balsamic Vinegar, Vanilla Bean and Amaretto Jam

I know these sound weird, but they are fantastic and are loosely based on some French jam recipes. Yum!

Announcement: Tomorrow I'll be doing a book giveaway of the book Plenty: One Man, One Woman and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and JB Mackinnon.

Also, look for the first book club post for Food Not Lawns coming up next Tuesday!

DivaCup super fold

For those of you participating in the 2008 DivaCup Challenge as well as you seasoned veterans, I am about to share with you something that will make you weep with joy.

Behold... the DivaCup super fold, aka the push-down fold. If you have had problems with inserting and getting the cup to open up and create a tight seal, well, look no further. This folding technique will change your life. Really.

You can thank me later. Now, go forth and fold. Try it even if you aren't having your period. It's okay, no one will know any different and I guarantee it will make you fall in love with this little fella all over again.

Thanks to Madeleine at Lunapads for letting me know about this superior folding technique.

Affiliate links
Here's the DivaCup I use. Aside from loss or mystery melts, it should (honestly) last a lifetime:
DivaCup Medical Grade Silicone Cup

My country, 'tis of thee

For such a young country, we certainly have a lot of history to ponder on this Fourth of July. I am a huge fan of early American history and, while there is a lot to be proud of in our founding fathers, there are a lot of warts to be overlooked as well. No generation is perfect and everyone has their faults, but there are a few big things that concern me as to where our country is headed.

Our political process is so imbued with sensationalism, scandal and sound bites that no actual information is imparted by the general media. What happened to the Lincoln-Douglas style debates? Do you think the modern American would be able to stomach 3 hour long debates? Or really any real discussion of the issues?

I used to believe that the rest of the world looked to America, not as just a superpower both in economic and military might, but also as a friend in need. A country that held high standards for itself and hoped to help others achieve the same as well. The kind of friend you look up to as a model of behavior, leadership and strength and someone to lean on for comfort or even protection.

I haven't felt this pride in my country in almost a decade and it saddens me to see us slipping down even faster into the abyss of self-absorption and self-righteousness. I am, quite frankly, embarrassed by the current administration and how the rest of the world must view Americans. I only hope that others looking in don't think that all of us are the spoiled brats our popular media so loves to follow.

More frightening than the lack of acknowledgement that we've stepped down as a global leader by the leaders of this country is the complete apathy of its citizens. It angers me that, as a country, we sit idly by, letting the privileged few decide the fate of this nation. Yes, I realize it's called democracy, but is it really democratic if hardly anyone bothers to vote? Or if those in power take advantage and erode some of the basic principles of our nation such as civil rights and right to privacy?

When you think back to the blood, sweat and death that generations before us have endured to create a sovereign nation based on equality, freedom from religious persecution, and the right to achieve what is within our own abilities, it is a shame that our generation sits on our hands and, honestly, doesn't give a crap anymore as to whether or not these foundations are preserved.

What about all those Americans that fought against slavery and for civil rights and for suffrage for all Americans not just the landed, educated or wealthy? Why don't we take advantage of this gift and vote? It's fairly ridiculous when you think about it. If we were to go back and tell those who so desperately fought for the right to vote that future generations wouldn't even bother voting for president, let alone local elections, do you think they would be incredulous?

So, please, if you have any respect left for this country, pay attention to how we represent ourselves to the rest of the world. Fight to obtain information about how this country is run. Take advantage of the rights we have to make your say known in how you want this country governed. Then, and only then, can we instill a sense of ownership of our government, a sense of civic duty and participation and a pride in our country not just by its citizens, but by the rest of the world.

The other white meat

Last week The New Scientist reported the results of a study regarding the disease rates in organic pigs versus ones raised conventionally.

This is a no brainer, right? The organic pigs are by far going to be healthier, have less exposure to disease given their healthier living conditions and just generally be happier and shinier, right? Um, well, no.

According to the study, done by researchers from the College of Veterinary Medicine at The Ohio State University, of the U.S. pigs that were tested, they found traces of Salmonella in 39% of the conventionally raised pigs (which are routinely given antibiotics) and in 54% of organic pigs raised outdoors without the drugs. Did you just snort those pork rinds out yer snout? Well, read on.

Additionally, the study found that two of the organic pigs had signs of infection with Trichinella, our dear roundworm friend that can cause trichinosis when undercooked pork is eaten. Trichinella has been nearly eradicated in livestock in the the U.S. and Europe, although it still exists in wildlife. The rate they found it was 23 times the average frequency in conventional piggies.

And, just to wrap things up, the researchers also found traces of the parasite Toxoplasma, which is carried by cats and other animals, in 1% of conventional pigs and 7% of free-range animals. For those of you who have been pregnant, you will recognize this as the parasite that can damage developing fetuses.

Now, before you start throwing out all your organic pork products in fear for your life let me remind you that as long as pork is cooked thoroughly according to federal guidelines, the presence of these infectious agents in food animals should pose no risk to human health. So, what's one to do? Shooting pigs up with antibiotics prophylactically breeds antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but not giving them drugs means more animals carry Salmonella and other nasties.

This doesn't, of course, take into consideration animal welfare or other environmental impacts, but if we were to look strictly at food safety this poses a huge conundrum. Does eliminating antibiotic pre-treatment create an environment for the resurgence of diseases that we thought were somewhat under control? What does this all signify and can the same parallels be drawn in other animal stock? Will we see similar results if organic poultry and cattle operations are similarly studied and compared against conventional?

The obvious argument will be just to choose a vegan or vegetarian diet and you then eliminate all chance of meat-borne pathogens, but let's face it, that's just not a realistic answer.

Now comes the biggest question of them all, if you dig deep into the bowels of the original study article in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease you'll find this gem: "This project was funded by a grant from the National Pork Board (NPB-04-108)."

How significant is that? If you read the study it appears that the researchers are basically just reporting the numbers of animals found exhibiting the presence of certain pathogens, but we all know how numbers can be massaged to support one argument over another. How can we trust food safety research if there is the possibility of an ulterior motive funded by industry?

In either case, we are in a bit of a pickle. On one hand, organic pork appears to have more contaminants. If this isn't actually the case, then we are being bombarded by food safety studies that are skewed to smear the organic industry.

So, what should we do with this information?