Are Girl Scout cookies killing orangutans?

Source:  Grist

Please take a look at the article above from The Grist.

Below you will find my reaction to it's over simplified reporting.  In reading this article from The Grist one can easily be outraged at palm oil, cookies, The Girl Scouts, or all of the above.  However, it's once again, economics to blame.  Well, economics and the global affects on agribusiness.

Palm oil is the problem?  Girl scout cookies are the problem?  Really?!?!  An ingredient produced by the planet and little girls are to blame?  C'mon; the growing practices are to blame.  Look...I make products with sustainably grown/sourced and fair wage palm oil from a Columbian Co-op and have for a few years due to their bio-sphere positive agricultural practices.  Never once did I say to myself that the ingredient is to blame or that little children were to blame.  I just switched to a better, and more ethical producer.  

Nature or nurture?  It's not me.  It's how I was raised.

Look; it's just plain bad reporting to say things like "palm oil, the No. 1 culprit behind deforestation in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia."  Palm oil is not an evil to stamp out.  The GROWING PRACTICES are!  Support the users and producers of ethically grown and bio-diverse palm oil.  Don't just make statements, out of hand, that encourage consumers to blame a product.  Go the extra step and tell them to look for ingredients and growing cooperatives that do not contribute to rain forest deforestation, invest in adult education, build evaporation awnings to protect valuable irrigation water, and protect animal habitats.

Look I understand it's easy to vilify and tear down a product like palm oil; but if you really understood how much good this product does in our daily lives; from common baked goods to Soaps and detergents, Candles, Cosmetics, manufacturing and transportation lubrication, biodiesel, glue, printing inks, textile industry just to mention a few.

In addition to oils extracted from the oil palm fruit, other parts of the tree can be used in industry. For example, leaf fibers and empty fruit bunches are used to produce chipboard and plywood. After plantations are cleared out, the trunks of old palms can be used to make furniture.

Look, I'm all for bringing the attention to problems a affecting change but oversimplifying and demonizing a great product from the earth like palm oil is not the way to do it.

Tell your readers to look for sustainably grown products and to support businesses that "get it".  Tell you readers to vote with their dollars.  Put down the candy and cookies made with deforestation palm oil.  Sure, it's the cheapest.  Pick up the products that may cost a little more due to organic (reduced yield) farming, vegan, fair wage or fair trade, carbon neutral, or chemical free (no parabens or petrochemicals or toxins that harm the grown water or bioculture and travel up through the food chain).  Then email the Girl Scouts of America and tell them that you will buy more when they switch ingredients and that you are willing to pay for the extra cost.  Sustainable agriculture practices, humanity, species and the planet are worth it.

Winters' biggest bloopers: Common seasonal moisturizing mistakes

It's cold outside and during this time of year the streets of Chicago are bone chilling.  Perhaps it's cold in your neck of the woods as well.  Below you'll find a few tricks to fix winter dryness.

The common issues are parched frizzy over dryed hair, itchy or flakey skin, and cracked lips.  Most of the common mistakes we commit trying to fix or ward off the cold.  Each day I see commuters applying salves while waiting for the El, passing lunch breakers skirting into gleaming buildings with scorched hair and itchy and dry skin.

Most of the dryness is caused by our need for quick warmth and many of us are from the More is More School of heat.  Not so; easy does it with is the rule.   Who doesn't enjoy that steaming hot shower, comforting radiator, and the hot air of a dryer.  But these are over used sources of quick heat that we pay for later.  The cure?  Moderation and some good sources of moisture to rapair.

Hair

Your scalp produces fewer oils in the winter.  Shampooing every day is not necessary so be kind to your hair.  Naturally, if you skip a day or two it's going to feel unnatural.  Hey, it's a change to your process and you may even think that your hair feels dirty.  But don't worry.  Rinse with warm water and use an organic conditioner.

Static is often the biggest hair problem in cold weather. I recommend using a dime sized portion of vitamin E or Camellia Oil immediately after getting out of the shower, then drying your hair on a medium setting or air drying if time permits.  Careful, a little goes a long ways and be careful to avoid over moisturizing.

Lips

Ever heard the urban myth that you can be "addicted" to lip balm. Not true, but you may be addicted to a routine that is not working for you.

The solution is finding a hydrating balm with lipids that will give the barrier layer time to heal. Stay away from long-lasting lip color formulas and balms with menthol.  These items can dry and open the lips natural moisture layer to attack.  Finding and using natural lip balms with lipids is an easy trick.

Most commercial brands, including the so-called medicated lip balms, have a petroleum base. Petroleum jelly, petrolatum, white wax, paraffin wax, and mineral oil are all synonyms for petroleum or petroleum by-products, used to hold moisture against the skin – but these may be toxic.

Add to that aluminum salts, preservatives, artificial flavors and sugar or artificial sweeteners and you've got a potentially dangerous combination of chemicals that natural health experts say should not be used anywhere on the skin, and certainly not near the sensitive mucus membranes of the mouth.

But the real culprits, as far as dry lips go, are additives like menthol, camphor, phenol or alcohols that are used as counter-irritants to give lips a cool, soothing sensation as lip balm is applied.

Hygroscopic ingredients are your moisture loving friends.  Look for lipid rich hemp oil based balms, those with aloe and organic ingredients as well as good old glycerin, sorbitol, and glucose or sucrose.  These Ingredients can maintain a high level of moisture in the upper layers of the skin for several hours and can reduce the rate at which water lost.

Skin

Ceramides, lactic acids, peptides and glycerin are the best ingredients to look for in skin moisturizers.

What does that mean? Skip the anti-aging aisle (the chemicals designed to stop wrinkles can be drying) and check for vitamin E.

What happens in the shower matters too. First, pass on the boiling water. You can douse your whole body in cream but if you totally stripped your body of that protective barrier, it's going to take a lot to get it back to that natural balance.  Then switch your soap for a creamier body wash that will add moisture as it cleanses.

Cheap fix: A humidifier for your bedroom will replace the moisture that your heater sucks out of the air, stopping the problem before it starts.