So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen...

2012-12-31T12:37:00.000-08:00

Dearest Readers,

This post has been a long time coming. While we have enjoyed contributing to this community of like-minds for almost five years and will always appreciate all of your support, the time has come to turn the page and begin a new chapter.

On March 27, 2008 we published our very first blog post after spending a total of $25 to get our site up and running. As two sisters with a mutual love of all things natural we decided to create a space to easily share our favorite products with our friends and family. We had no idea if anyone would ever read our posts other than us. It began as just a fun hobby for two sisters who lived on opposite sides of the country. We were thrilled when our readership grew from 5 to 500 to 5000 and on and on. We are still amazed at what it became.

This year has been full of changes, difficulties, breakthroughs, challenges and triumphs. We will be forever grateful to the blogosphere for the freedom to write what we wanted and to all of you for continuing to read whatever was on our mind. We are flattered that many of you considered us experts but you should know that we are just two women who happen to like the more natural things in life who crave information and honesty and who wanted to create something that didn't exist. We always aimed to keep it real and hope you found that here.

An important lesson we have learned over the years in building an online community is that it is especially important to be conscious of being present. In other words, be where you are. It's very easy to escape into an online world. Don't miss the opportunity to live in the here and now. Don't forget what truly matters. For us, this proved to be difficult while spending so many hours online as it can be for many others. This year has been full of lessons and one that rang loud and clear is that it is essential to disconnect from devices and re-connect with people and nature in an analog way.

We wish to extend a very warm thank you to all the companies who sent us products to put to the test, to the retailers who sponsored us and/or sought our opinion on what they should carry in their stores and to our readers who continue to return here and value our perspective.

Erin remains very busy raising three adorable littles while starting her own, all-natural (obviously) candle company. You can keep up with her on Instagram @poppyjanecandleco and at her website www.poppyjanecandleco.com.

Stancie is taking on the challenging task of renovating a 1930s house into the home of her dreams. You can keep tabs on her favorite products, home ideas, healthy recipes, wellness tips and more over on Pinterest.

As we begin a new year we look forward to fresh starts, new adventures, renewed perspectives and wish you the same. Have a wonderful and meaningful 2013!

xo,

S+E

Photo credit: Fig+Sage.

Soapbox: Stanford Study Claims Organic Food No More Nutritious, But Is It Healthier?

2012-09-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

Stanford's recent ~~study~~ meta-analysis conclusions reminds me of a national news story I watched a few years ago that shared "shocking" lab results concluding that organic produce has no less bacteria on it than conventionally grown produce. Hold up. Really?! This is news? I spoke to the television. The camera panned to an organic potato just plucked from the ground with a lot of dirt on it. Cue dismal background music. The stone-faced reporter looked right into the camera and said, as if revealing catastrophic information never heard before: "our independent lab results found organic produce contains the same amount of bacteria as conventionally grown produce". Cue gasps, raised eyebrows and hands over mouths? Nope. Cue the crickets. Turns out this assertion was also made in the recent Stanford study. Why go to all the trouble to do a study of the obvious? These types of studies do prove something - that although more organic is being purchased than ever before, many still don't understand what "organic" means.

Are we eating organic because we think it's more nutritious or are we eating it because it is h-e-a-l-t-h-i-e-r? There is a difference.

I don't know about you but I eat organic because of what it isn't, more so than what it is. I don't prefer my nutrition with a side of pesticide, a dollop of fungicide and a sprinkle of GMO. I'll just have my nutrition plain, please.

What about the correlation between pesticide, antibiotic and genetically-modified organism consumption, including Monsanto's Roundup Ready crops, and health? That wasn't part of this study which is where Stanford researchers missed the mark.

If you've ever driven between Illinois and Missouri you know much of the drive is cornfields, cornfields and more cornfields. It seems like corn is in everything these days and they've got to grow it somewhere. As I drove through the fields on my way to Missouri a couple months ago I noticed a huge corn operation with big perfect barns, massive new tractors, huge white silos, shiny conveyor belts that went on forever and perfectly green stalks as far as the eye could see. My gawking was interrupted by small bright yellow planes overhead that were flying really low and then high, dipping down and back up again, back and forth. At first I thought it was an air show because it seemed like they were doing tricks until I saw huge clouds being released from the bottom of the planes when they would dip way down close to the corn. Six planes were methodically releasing pesticides on almost fully grown stalks and everything else below. I immediately turned off my A/C, closed the vents and pushed on the gas. I cringed thinking about the people and animals who lived in this area, worried about the air they breathe and the water they drink. Do they eat that corn or do they know better? I wondered if more people would wander to the organic section of their market if they saw this for themselves. I wondered if the pilots ate this corn or if they quietly bought organic for their families. I was already a believer in organic but witnessing this firsthand had a definite impact. Does Stanford expect us to believe that spraying our food with conventional pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers is healthy for bodies, healthy for farmers, healthy for animals, healthy for water, healthy for soil and healthy for air?

We don't need a study to dictate what is healthy in this instance, we need common sense. What I would like to see Stanford spend their time and money on is a study of people who live in agricultural areas who are consistently sprayed and the percentage of illnesses compared to those who do not live in such areas. Now that would be newsworthy.

According to Stanford News Service:

"There were no long-term studies of health outcomes of people consuming organic versus conventionally produced food; the duration of the studies involving human subjects ranged from two days to two years." [Source]

I'm also interested in the study's source of organic produce as all aren't created equal. I tend to believe we'd find some nutritional variation depending on soil and water quality, environmental and farming practices. I bet there would even be nutritional differences found between organics purchased at the grocery store, farmer's market and what is grown by our neighbor in their organic garden. I wonder when we'll see a study on that.

Via New York Times:

"The study’s conclusions about pesticides did seem likely to please organic food customers. Over all, the Stanford researchers concluded that 38 percent of conventional produce tested in the studies contained detectable residues, compared with 7 percent for the organic produce. (Even produce grown organically can be tainted by pesticides wafting over from a neighboring field or during processing and transport.) They also noted a couple of studies that showed that children who ate organic produce had fewer pesticide traces in their urine." [Source]

“What I learned is there’s a lot of variation between farming practices,” said Smith-Spangler. “It appears there are a lot of different factors that are important in predicting nutritional quality and harms.” - Crystal Smith/Spangler, one of the Stanford study authors [Source]

>Click here to read the Stanford study review<

Food for thought:

Organic Food vs. Conventional: What The Stanford Study Missed

Michael Pollan Responds To Study Finding 'No Significant Health Benefit' To Organic Food

Study: Eating Organic Produce Slashes Pesticide Concentrations In The Body

Are Organic Foods Better?

Is Organic Food Healthier? New Study Fuels Debate

Organic Food Isn't More Nutritious, But That Isn't The Point

Stanford's Organic vs. Non-Organic Health Claims

Why do you eat organic?

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