Organic is not always what you think

I was in Nepal last month. And what I'm about to say is certainly no condemnation of Nepal--these are just the things that go on in the world. They happen everywhere.
I wanted to go to the south, to the Terai, to see the lowland crops. We get quite a few oils from this place: Japanese Mint, German Chamomile, Palmarosa, Eucalyptus, Tulsi, French Basil.....there is no reasonable way to get to the mountianous areas where our other Nepali oils come from. Between the Maoists and the lack of roads most of these areas are basically inaccessable.
I wrote about this journey already--suffice to say we ran into problems about 30 minutes after the Mungling turn--a road block, a strike, tyres burning and buses parked diagonally, blocking vehicle traffic every couple of streets. We were stuck in Narayangarh for the rest of the day--it's another 4 hours drive to the plantations. The point I'm making is that travel in Nepal is difficult.
Nepal's Terai is low lying and covered with decidous forest as well as grasses. It is the home of the largest population of one horned rhinos in the world, as well as tigers, wild elephants, guar, wild buffalo, several kinds of deer, and a huge variety of birds and smaller animals. As all over the owrld, there is a terrible problem with deforestation here--the Terai is Nepal's prime cultivation area. Logging also plays a role. However, most trees are cut for firewood.
Every year approximately 100-200 acres (from what I was told) of forest is turned to cultivation--much of it eucalyptus.
Why eucalyptus? Certainly not for essential oil. Although some eucalyptus is distilled, Nepal can't compete with China as far as cost. China is much cheaper; transportation is not a problem. The only real advantage Nepali eucalyptus has over the Chinese is organic certification. So why grow eucalyptus?
It grows fast, is hardy, requires little care. Never mind that eucalyptus guzzles water. It grows fast and will give a quick return. Eucalyptus looks good on paper. Trees will appear, rapidly, and there will be forest again. It's not a real forest, it's a eucalyptus grove, but to someone who knows nothing about forests, it's "a forest." So these areas are not included in deforestation reports from ngos or regulatory agencies, unless those agencies actually end someone in person to the area. Instead, it relies on the word of the go betweens, the scientists and ministers, who certainly should know the difference between a tiger habitat and a eucalyptus grove but sometimes hesitate to point this out.
This eucalyptus is intercropped with palmarosa, citronella, lemongrass although these like full sun and so this also doesn't make much sense but....they grow fast. I think they are going to try patchouli soon; Patchouli likes shade and so maybe they will have some luck with this.
But back to the question: why grow eucalyptus if there is no market for the oil?
The answer is......for timber.
Timber? Isn't eucalyptus a soft wood, is it good for building? Who uses the timber for anything other than firewood? Does it have a use?
Yes, I was told, to make telephone poles!
Telephone poles? Aren't those usually straight and sturdy? Is eucalyptus a good choice for this?
No, but first they treat it with some chemicals; then it's better.
Chemicals? Is this cost or environmentally effective?
Meanwhile, I'm staring out the window at the Kathmandu street and there right in front of me is a concrete telephone pole covered with loose wires.
I pointed it out and was told yes, of course, here in Kathmandu they don't need such things, but the outlying areas will use these chemical saturated eucalyptus poles. I didn't ask which chemicals are used as I didn't want to leave the main theme: why eucalyptus?
I didn't even realize they were still putting in land line phones to remote areas. Nepal has decent cellular coverage and almost everyone has a phone, even the rickshaw wallahs.
So the forest is being replaced by all eucalyptus and palmarosa. The eucalyptus are supposedly going to be chopped and treated with something and then used as telephone poles in rural Nepal. On paper is just looks the same, as "forest."
I asked if this wasn't what we call "monoculture" and what about the biodiversity of the area.
The answer is that this was what the organic certifiers had said. In fact, the certifying body has recommended that other flora be planted in the area before organic certification will be issued. That's all it will take.
Since this was originally wild forest, and now is eucalyptus, there never have been biocides used. The area is "clean" in this regard. So it can qualify as organic, technically, and in the most superficial way.
Organic is not supposed to mean this, but is supposed to take many other factors into account: sound growing practices, environmental sustainability, abundance of the ecosystem, etc. But like a game of telephone, interpretations change as you get further down the line.
Supposedly the certifiers (for USNOP) will withhold certification until steps have been taken to introduce more flora, but with the amount of time (or money) it takes to get to the Terai, I wonder how they will check this. In any case, my supplier has informed me that the cost is now $3000, up from $2000 and so they have commenced bargaining.

Don't get me wrong--I buy organic too. And sometimes organic means a great deal. And this Nepali certification means something too--it's just that we need to look with both eyes as well as our hearts and minds and not be taken in by a pat little package, simply because it makes us feel proud and a little sanctimonius for doing our part against the environmental terrorism currently being wrought world wide.

On the bright side, this farming provides livelihoods for many local people, and continual organic certification means that there is no large scale biocide introductions.

Therapeutic Grade? A Perception of Purity.

This is not going to be popular, but I'm going to point out a couple of things that have to do with hype.
The first is just something I noticed while looking up a few things on the internet. What is the deal with "therapeutic grade" essential oils that so many companies have listed? You used to only see Young Living and a few other companies spouting this, and the occasional person would ask for it at Enfleurage. But now you google it and hundreds of companies jump on the bandwagon, or perhaps I should say bankwagon.
There is no such grading system.
In fact, the the US, there is no grading system at all for essential oils. None. We all make up our own, presumably each of us showing our own product line in the best light. There is no national guideline, no regional ranking system, no checks, no balances, nothing. In most cases the people selling the oils have no idea whatsoever what's in the bottle because they just parrot what their vendor says. And their vendor may or may not know anything at all.
That bottle of ylang ylang or jasmine or lavender could contain anything at all---99% of people selling essential oils on every level have no idea how to tell, what to look for, questions to ask, or how to read a lab (GC for example) report which in any case is not comprehensive. Not that people test their oils.
Lots of companies say they do. And a few might. But that would be a very few.
Most companies simply repeat what the vendor says, it the vendor says GCs were done, then that's what's repeated.
You really can't expect people to test most oils anyway. Typical gc/ms tests run well over $100; that's clearly ridiculous when you think about every batch of every oil being tested. And many oils are not worth testing anyway--citruses, palmarosa, citronella, these are cheap, easily distilled, and have less possible adulturation problems than, say, sandalwood, lavander, rose, jasmine, geranium, etc.
Therapeutic grade.
As opposed to what? That's not to be confused with what some people call pharmaceutical grade--these are grown and distilled under strict conditions for medicine--these oils are usually grown in France and Germany in highly controlled environments. They don't go out on the open market--they are used by the companies who grow them. And there are a couple of tiny companies who specialize in these oils.
Food grade? A lot of people sneer at this. But at least food grade is subject to fda. Of course, all kinds of crap can and does go in our food, but at least there is a hint of quality control. Supposedly. But as I said at the beginning, there really is no quality control assurance or actual grading system for essential oils. The guidelines for our food are frightening anyway. So food grade is moot, even in a pejorative sense.
Looking at various web sites out there it seems that most peoples interpretation of regulations in Europe are carefully distilled with whatever salient points they can wring from our own laws to support their own advertising.
Therapeutic grade. Like there are clinical tests comparing this grade of neroli with that. I wish people would use their deductive powers better.
There are tests done with some essential oils, clinical tests in controlled settings, the sort that work within an empirical, scientific frame. Tea Tree, lavender, neroli, geranium, there are lots of oils which have been tested. Many are tested on animals too, but that's another story. I'm speaking of controlled clinical environments. But one of the big drawbacks (according to allopathic thinking,) is that natural products vary, and so this tea tree will differ slightly from that one and the terpenene-4-ol levels are higher here and lower there, and so often it's the isolates that are tested. But let's keep to the point. That these oils have been tested is nearly amazing. And the library of clinical trials grows. But I don't think there can possibly be any way to test for what actually makes an oils "therapeutic."
It's very easy to assume that synthetic oils will show up as synthetic and therefore not work, but I can assure you the actual process is murkier. Will a synthetic lavender scent relax someone? Of course it will if they expect it. Obviously, a respiratory blend made up of essential oils heavily adulturated with toxic chemicals will probably do more harm than good but these are the two extremes. Most of life falls in between.

The label "Therapeutic Grade" is like "organic" or "aromatherapy." In almost every case it's used as a marketing tool, and nothing more. What about something like Glade aromatherapy solids? How far removed from, say, using melissa oil on the herpes virus, is that? How far removed from a blend of essential oils specifically for deep lung expectorant use? It's just nonsense.

Where do I get off saying this?

Unlike most people, I actually slouch around the world and inspect things, sticking my nose into people's business. Stills, farms, factories.....I don't have a degree in farm machinery inspection, but I am becoming more and more critical in my reasoning. Also, I wander around by myself a lot, so I see more than what I'm told, or I see it from different angles. I like to see where the oils come from. Undoubtedly I am fooled from time to time. But over the last ten years I have become aware of how often most people are fooled. I see a lot of inconstistancies--people jump on a bandwagon without thinking. Look at how many companies supposedly sell Indian sandalwood. Go find the Indian government website dealing with export quotas, and then reconcile the amount of sandalwood sold as "pure" on the open market with this. Often the essential oil compamies will tell you that only they, or their supplier, is allowed, because of family connections, or spiritual practice, to buy this tiny amount of legally harvested sandalwood. It's just a crock.
That's just a tiny yet obvious example.
I have seen supposedly certified organic frankincense from Somalia.
Really? And just who certifies organic in Somalia, a country who's own government fled to a neighboring capital for 12 years? There is a lot of this kind of thing.
Most people don't really care about all natural. they just want it to smell pretty.
Or they interpret it in informal ways, for example using isolates to boost the smell of something, like adding geraniol, citronellol to rose lotion top make it smell better. Is that bad or not? Lot's of reputable companies do it. Just look on the label. They will be the last few ingredients.

A lot of people in aromatherapy, not flavor, not fragrance, care about that "natural" moniker. It's a small group. And easily fooled. From time to time there are cries to certify natural products, to standardize them, and I used to get angry that this never happened, but now I can't see it working anyway.

To me, traveling around looking at flowers and trees, grasses and herbs, the method of growing, the care of the forest, the respect shown to both domestic and wild animals is very very important, as is the care and intention of the distiller and harvester and the respect (or disrespect) with which the earth is treated in the process. It's a whole philosophy, and really doesn't reflect an organic label, although sometimes it does, so it's case by case. Which is as it should be, since these are individual plants, and individual spirits--The world is becoming sicker and sicker--a sad, sick and tired creature, abused for too long. Those of us who consider ourselves green add nearly as much fuel to the fire as the most ardent Hummer driver with our unquenchable thirst for bottled water among our supposed "eco-friendly" habits.

Photo thanks to Lina Francisco.

Suicide Plunge

Someone hurled herself from my building on Sunday morning--she lived one floor up, in a studio on 33, and must have been desperate to get out, prying and scrabbling at the window with scissors before managing to pry it open and leap into the beautiful and quiet morning, the sun sparkling on the highrises of Midtown Manhattan.
She left a couple of suicide notes, but her daughter was there.
Her daughter called police, the window gaping. Because this building is so incredibly tall, (73 floors) and sleek, and covered in windows, it's difficult to open them. They open in, not up, and only a few inches before stopping. If you really want to open a window you can unscrew it, but it's not something that can happen without some thought.
I guess she thought about it, at least for a couple of minutes.
My friend lives next door, on the next street, in a building with lots of balconies--it's only 14 floors, so it's hard to see it from way up here. By pressing my nose to the glass I can see the rooftop and 14th floor balconies, but not lower. My building looms huge and monstrous over her rooftop terrace.

She landed on a second floor balcony, at least most of her did.
A young family live(d) in that apartment--the couple enjoying Sunday morning coffee, their 3 year old girl watching cartoons, when they heard a thwump and a splat and blood exploded all over the windows. The woman took the child and left, the man stayed to deal with police.
Even though this happened just before 9am, they didn't remove the largest body segment until after 3. And then they, meaning the City of New York, left the rest until the next day so the blood, tissue, and brain matter sat and congealed in the sun for 24 hours before crews came to clean it the next day. This is what I heard from the building manager, who was shaking with fury--from the lower commerical side of this building you can look just a few feet away a the mess on the other balcony. But if someone gets attacked in an atm lobby the cleanup crews are there right away so I can't explain this. Usually blood is cleared away quickly.

I wondered about the physics involved with falling bodies. On September 11 you read about the sound they made landing in the wtc courtyard area and how it looked to people coming out. But no one talked about them exploding on impact and I wondered if perhaps they didn't, if everything just broke apart on the inside, and somehow stayed contained in the outer sac. But I didn't really dwell on this.
But now I know what happens. People explode, they break apart, even from 32 floors, never mind 110.
Her head went here, her arm there, some part of an organ over there, some little tissue bits, over there. She was scattered all over the top of City Center, and a crew was dispatched to pick up the pieces. I didn't watch this because I would have had to unscew my windows and lean out over, to see so low.

It may be a quick way to go, but has a lot of ramifications for other people. If you must commit suicide, then why not at least try to make it look like an accident? Maybe sleeping pills? Drown yourself? But jumping out of a skyscraper?
I think part of it is to really hurt those people you leave behind, so as to show them how much you think they hurt you. Or something like that. Suicide, especially spectacular feats of it, are really effective for ruining the lives of the people left behind.
She didn't land on anyone. Thankfully.
And also she didn't hit the ground. So many people were spared this. The streets here are always crowded these days.
My friend who lives in the building next door called me in a panic that evening. She knew only the gender, approximate age, apartment view and height of plunge--she thought it might have been me.
Because it was Sunday morning there were not too many people here. And most of the windows she passed were offices, unstaffed on Sunday morning. Most of my neighbours are away.
The only people who may have seen this were guests at the Hilton, or the Rhiga, and a couple of other hotels. The police were here for an hour or two on Sunday morning.
So not that many people know about it. The staff here does, and probably some of the tenants. I do. My friend does. And all of her building does as well. But it never even hit the papers.
Something like this can happen, exploding people, an entire life to death drama, gruesome and terrifying, takes place in the air above New York, and hardly anyone notices.
Even I wouldn't know about this, had I not come into a police investigation in my lobby as I left for work. That morning I sat in a cosy little corner, with my back to the black glass Hilton tower, eating some yogurt and drinking coffee, listening to NPR. I even wondered why this morning I sat with my back to the city--I never do that. But I missed the flailing arms and legs, and the horror.

She was on antidepressants. I guess they didn't work. Although in the doublethink so prevalant today suicide is considered a "side effect" of antidepressants. If you google "antidepressant" and "suicide" together you will get over 2 million hits.
Antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior in people with major depressive disorders.
Aren't those the people you'd think who would be on antidepressants?

The list of drugs that carry this warning include these drugs--anafranil, aventyl, celaxa, cymbalta, desyrel, effexor, elavil, lexapro, ludiomil, luvox, marplan, nardil, norpramin, pamelor, parnate, paxil, pexeva, prozac, remeron, sarafem, surmontil, symbyax, tofranil, tofranil-pm, triavil,vivactil, wellbutrin, zoloft and zyban.

It's common and normal these days for doctors to try and drug patients, and drug companies shill their products directly to the populace as well. Slowly people are beginning to believe that any discontent, anxiety or depression is unnatural and needs to be medicated. And for the minority that actually have clinical disorder, these drugs increase the possibility of suicide!

And I've just learned that no one wanted to take responsibility for this cleanup. The poor tenant was left to do the legwork, calling govt agency after govt agency. Finally he got the landlord of his own building to do it, after threats. I find this very hard to swallow--how is it not the responsibility of the City of New York? Is a decaying corpse not a public health hazard? And doesn't that mean that the smaller parts of it are also a hazard? What about the pigeons and cockroaches that fed on these remains for the two days they decayed in the sun? It's hard to imagine how irritating it would be to make call after call, reiterating one's information, being placed on hold, pressing one for English, leaving messages, all after some stranger lands in a bloody mess on your balcony.

The Incense Factory

Indian incense sticks, or agarbattis, can be of two main types--the first of these is masala incense, which is the higher quality of the two. The other is dipped. Both start out the same way: with a bamboo stick.
Both types of incense use jeget--this non aromatic plant extract keeps the stick burning evenly. It can (but doesn't always) take the place of charcoal if making a masala incense. So powdered herbs, woods, or spices are mixed with the jeget, dampened, and the bamboo stick is rolled in this mixture. Often the spent biomass from a still is used here, as there is no other use for it, and it still retains some aromtic compounds. For example, at Enfleurage we have agarwood incense from Vietnam. It's in the agarbatti style, with a bamboo stick, (as opposed to the Korean and Japanese styles, which have no bamboo stick at all, but are just jeget and powdered woods.) Once distillation of the higher grades of oil is completed in Laos, the dust is brought out of the stills and spread out on the ground and dried in the sun. Later it's bundled into bags and taken labouriously to Vietnam, where it is rolled with jeget onto bamboo sticks and dried. And that's all. The higher grades of distilled agarwood still retain enough fragrance to make this a passable quality of agarwood incense.
I was excited to see a factory producing dipped sticks, as I had never seen this before. During our recent tour we were taken to an Incense factory on the outskirts of Pune.

Dipped incense starts the same way--with a bamboo stick. Then jeget and charcoal are mixed together in a powder. That's on the right here.

Then the bamboo sticks are rolled in this mixture. You can see this below.













After drying they are bundled together and held to the side.



A vat of fragrance is brought in and placed near the dipping platforms. Note the holes in the bottom of these platforms.
The incense bundles are dipped into the fragrance, first one side and then another. Then these bundles are placed on the platforms and the excess oil runs off through the holes and onto a slanted shelf below. It finds its way back to the original fragrance vat.
A kilo of fragrance oil can perfume 5-8 kilos of incense sticks. This fragrance you see here is champa.

The incense is left to dry and then sorted and packed by weight--small bundles and large ones. Women do most of this weighing and packing. The men pack the packages and then stuff the larger packages into bags or boxes for transport. Once the individual packets are filled and sealed they are ready to be packed for shipping.

Dipped incense is the cheapest and most common incense. It's found everywhere and is always synthetic, no matter what you may hear about them being dipped in essential oils. Synthetics hold their fragrance longer and are much, much cheaper so they are always used. Essential oils evaporate quickly and are more expensive. They are never used for incense. I know many companies swear their incenses are made from essential oils, but this is really highly unlikely, and sandalwood oil is certainly never used due to its extreme high cost and scarcity. Needless to say, rose oil, jasmine oil, and even less costly oils such as geranium, lavender, patchouli, vetiver, and ylang ylang are never used in incence of any kind either. Masala incense may contain spent sandalwood powder though, and also other previously distilled and powdered herbs such as vetiver and patchouli. Masala incense can have fragrance added but can also be the herbals alone. A lot of people probably will want to argue this about the synthetics, but I stand by it.

A factory like this one produces many many brands of incense--about 1 ton a day. All incenses are made in the same way.

Tasty Tidbits

India is one of my favourite eating countries. One of the best parts is that, in addition to abundant fresh delicious food, being a vegetarian is no problem at all. One simply asks "Is it veg?" and that's all it takes. I particularly love street food, and chai.
So here are a few food highlights:

Bhel puri guy
This incredible gentleman stands about a 15 minute walk down from Benzer, on Bhulabhai Desai Rd in Breach Candy, Mumbai. From this innocuous stand comes some of the freshest, brightest snacks I've ever tasted. Potato, cilantro, onion, tamarind, puffed rice, gram vermicelli, and probably other things, mixed together and stuffed into a cone of newspaper to be deliciously slorped up with a crispy minature puri disk. I couldn't get a picture of the actual snack as I would have had to come up for air and let go of it. So here's the bhel puri guy.
Batatawaras are little potato crispy fried cakes with lentils and cilantro inside. Not exactly dietetic food, but really what does that matter if you are lucky enough to find yourself in a roadside teastall in India?
Just up the street from the bhel puri guy is a small group of justly famous snack houses--including Snowman's and The Right Place. The Snowman was sadly (for us) closed for renovations the day we appeared but The Right Place proved so. They specialize in pressed sandwiches. I can't explain why they are so good. They are vegetables and cilantro mint chutney, a little cheese or paneer--triple layer, seared to dark perfection. These are famous throughout Mumbai, and not found often in India. This merits a stop of its own when hungry in Breach Candy.
The Parsi Dairy. This restaurant itself is one of my all time favourites. The Dairyland Parlour itself sits in a ripe and voluptuous garden in Nariman Nagar, Varvada, on Hwy 8. All I can say about this place is that every single thing we ordered was absolutely spectacular, from the spinach with paneer, to the potato paranthas, to the batatawadas, to the caramels we bought by the boxload afterward. Every vegetable dish, the amazing dahls, the light and flakey breads, the fragrant rice, it was one aromatic delight after another, the kind of place where one eats far beyond one's capacity. There are three main locations: Dadar (Mumbai)--171, Sunnoo Lodge, Sir Bhalchandra Rd, Hindu Colony; Lalbaug (Mumbai)--Hari Niwas, Dr. Ambedkar Rd next to Bata Stockist and the main Dairy Farm--national Hwy 8 Nariman Nagar, Varvada.
Khyber. I almost hate to include this famous restaurant but I have to say that it deserves it's sublime reputation. I first ate here in 1999 and it's as good today as it was back then, even with all the competiton recently surfacing in Mumbai. Khyber is Northern Indian, with a strong Mughlai influence. The menu is large, and accomodates non-veg as well as cocktails. Khyber is considered one of, if not the best restaurant in Mumbai, and anyone going to Mumbai needs to reserve a table here. This restaurant is the only place I have listed that serves meat and alcohol, is dressier, and suitable for any need for a luxurious dining experience.
One last street food mention--Outside the Air India Building at Nariman Point is a row of stall selling all manner of foods, from dosas, bhelpuri, all manner of chaat, samosas, paranthas, sandwiches, fruit, and many other things that I couldn't get the names of. We ate methodically, I think the three of us managed to try one of mearly everything on sale that day. It's crowded and therefore fresh--chai stalls dot the lane as well. This is a perfect place to come for a late breakfast--there's something for everyone, and plenty of it.
I now realize that I will never be able to give a comprehensive list of good food in Mumbai, not even in the most general terms. There are several fantastic restaurants we ate at, and dozens of others I have eaten at in the past. The street food is fantastic all over the city. It's almost difficult to go wrong, as long as one eats where the locals do, and avoids tourist hangouts.

Tea is something else I can't get enough of. Proper chai bear no resemblance to the oversized and underspiced drink of the same name we find in the west.
Indian chai is tea boiled with a masala of varying spices, but usually including cardamom, black pepper, cloves, ginger, and sugar, lots of it. Milk is added and the whole thing is boiled up once, twice, even three times, and poured into tiny glasses for about 5 rs--that's about 9 cents in Iindia. The glasses are not usually very clean--the washing is often just a quick dip in a bucket of cold water. But personally I find this much more appetizing than the sterile handling of food we expect here in America. If one wants to live in the world, one must show some pluck as they say, musn't one?

Lastly, here is Urmilla--she is one of the best and most resourceful cooks I know. She makes pani puris a lot. These are little crispy puris filled with dahl, dipped into a watery sauce and quickly gobbled before they fall apart. She feeds me well when I am in Mumbai and I don't know what half the stuff is, but she's pure veg so I usually don't even ask, except to say yes to another helping.