The Top Ten

I wrote this for those people who are pondering the purchase of organic foods. I'd like to begin by telling you what “organic” means to me, and also some of the reasons why I personally made the switch.

For food to be classified organic means it is produced without the use of chemicals, herbicides, fungicides, petroleum, sewage, sludge-based fertilizers or chemical pesticides. These foods are also not bio-engineered, genetically modified, or irradiated, and contain no or much less synthetic or artificial flavorings, colors, chemical preservatives, pesticides, hormones or antibiotics.

Also please note that “Natural" or "All Natural" doesn't mean organic. Because organic foods are popular becoming more popular, many companies are labeling unhealthy foods "Organic," such as Fruit Loops and other junk-type foods. So a good rule to remember is to stick with raw, unprocessed foods and use your best judgment.

It was my concern that the widespread use of antibiotics in conventionally raised animals and pesticides use on crops may spawn drug resistance, and that synthetic growth hormones could cause cancer or speed up puberty for children (especially little girls).

Pesticides do cause disease and death. Their goal is to kill off bugs and pests, but it was my concern that they could also have a serious impact on the lives of humans, especially children. This is particularly important because the long-term effect of this combination of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and chemicals can affect fertility, development, and the overall health of our children.

Here, according to Delicious Organics, are the Top Ten Fruits and Veggies produced using the most chemicals. These are the ones that you should try and buy organic if you can ALL of the time.

FRUITS	VEGETABLES	OTHER
Strawberries -one of the most pesticide laden food of all Raspberries Apples Grapes Raisins Grape Juice Peaches- listed as the worst with the highest levels of pesticides of all conventional produce Nectarines Apricots Pears Cherries Lemons Limes Bananas - heavy chemicals for the trip to America including Thiabendazole, which damages the brain and nervous system Kiwis Cantaloupes - from Mexico Tomatoes	Potatoes Green Beans - Acephate, Benomyl, Chlorothalonil, Methamidophos - Damages Brain and Nervous System, Cause Birth Defects Carrots Corn - bugs love it, plus most corn is now genetically modified! Celery Cucumbers Spinach Green & Red Bell Peppers Lettuce Hot Peppers Green Beans Hard Winter Squash	Rice - loaded with pesticides! Oats Milk - antibiotics and hormones are forced into America's conventional dairy cow Baby Foods Farm raised Salmon GMO - like Corn and Soy

And here are the Top Ten Fruits and Veggies produced using the least amount of chemicals.

• Onions
• Avocado
• Pineapple
• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Mangoes,
• Papaya,
• Sweet Peas
• Cauliflower
  
• Kiwi

While it’s true that organic items can be a bit more pricey to purchase, I would suggest looking for coupons in the Sunday paper, e-mailing companies and asking for coupons (they will generally send them), and purchase items that are on sale. And oh, let’s not forget about the good benefit of locally grown fruits & veggies that can usually be found at co-ops.

Sources:

-WebMD Medical News January 10, 2006
-The National Dairy Council
-USDA Pesticide Data Program.

An Ongoing Travesty - Free the Jena 6

From the Afrosphere's Eddie G. Griffin we learn Mychal Bell, the first of the Jena 6 defendants, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31, 2007, and that a rally in his support is planned on the steps of the Jena courthouse.

The whole episode in Jena, LA is shameful and no rational, thinking person who reads all of the details can reasonably defend such judicial behavior in this day and age.

The one good thing that has come about as a result of this whole episode, and unfortunately the many others like it that, has been the way the Afrosphere has brought this issue to the attention of America and the world, and galvanized the people for direct action in opposition to this travesty.

I wish I could be at the rally on July 31st but unfortunately can't do it at this time. But I'm sure the good people of Jena will prolong this injustice into the foreseeable future and I'll be able to head over at the next available opportunity.

If you can go, do. At least sign the petition. These folks aren't going to do right unless they are forced to by unrelenting pressure from the community. So please click on the image for numbers of caravan organizers in your area.

It Figures.

Uh oh. Looks like most of that mountain spring water we've been consuming is not from the mountains or a spring.

Pepsi-Cola announced Friday that the labels of its Aquafina brand bottled water will be changed to make it clear the product is tap water. The new bottles will say, "The Aquafina in this bottle is purified water that originates from a public water source," or something similar, Pepsi-Cola North America spokeswoman Nicole Bradley told CNN.

Americans spent about $2.17 billion on Aquafina last year, according to Beverage Digest, an independent company that tracks the global beverage industry. The U.S. bottled water business in 2006 totaled roughly $15 billion, it said.

Corporate Accountability International - which describes its work as challenging "irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world" - has been pushing for this change for months with its nationwide "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign, said spokeswoman Deborah Lapidus.

Its aim was "to challenge the marketing muscle of the bottled water corporations and to galvanize support for our public water systems around the country," she said. The campaign focused on Nestle, Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

I guess their challenge is working based on the drop in share prices of some of the major companies in the industry after Pepsi's announce was made.

Shares of Pepsi (down $1.18 to $65.66, Charts, Fortune 500) closed down 1.7 percent to $65.66 on the New York Stock Exchange, while shares of rival Coke (down $0.70 to $52.28, Charts, Fortune 500) closed down 1.3 percent to $52.28

Introducing: That Girl Boo - Or, Did She Really Use Ferric Orthophosphate In A Sentence?

I would first like to say "thank you" to DP the HBIC (Head Brother in Charge) of the famous (or is it infamous) There... Already. First for taking the time to start the blog, and secondly, for allowing my words to be heard.

So, let me introduce myself.

You can call me That Girl Boo, and I live in Houston, TX. My goal is to educate us and keep us informed about our health. I'm not a doctor or a health professional "yet," I'm just a sista who one day asked herself why are there fifty ingredients in every food that I consume for myself and purchase for my family, and why can't I pronounce half of the ingredients? Then I asked myself "if a splat of ferric orthophosphate was sitting on my plate right now, would I eat it?

The answer of course is no, so why would I eat this same poison in my rice?

I took things a step further and teamed up with a nutrition guru, and together we learned about the benefits of eating organic foods in comparison to traditional foods. I've since been taking the time to learn (and I'm still learning) what the doctors and health professionals aren't teaching us; namely that all of these chemicals are slowly harming us.

It is my hope to bring what I've learned to our African-American family with the same type of energy and dedication as I did for myself and my family. It is my hope that little by little we can all educate ourselves about how to prepare foods without destroying all of the nutrients. Together I plan to take us on a journey where we can educate ourselves about organic foods, pesticides, non-irradiated spices, holistic medicines, essential oils, the benefits of water. We'll take some side trips to get more information about the toxins in our make-up, deodorants, cleaners, tupperware, soaps, mattresses; the list goes on and on.

So hang on ya'll because were going to get down right deep about the chemicals and toxins that were surrounded by and ingesting everyday. The million dollar question for this week is "are all of these toxins causing the huge array of cancers that everybody you know keeps coming down with?" Want my opinion? We'll check out my next post! Until then, the next time you're in the grocery store reaching for that tomato that's been sprayed with pesticides, remember that the bugs had enough sense not to eat it, and so should you.

Until Next Time,

That Girl Boo

New Blood

I'm sure y'all noticed that the pace of new posts has slowed to a crawl around here, and the reason is pretty simple; I've been busy. But while I've been too busy to blog regularly, important issues like school resegregation, the Genarlow Wilson case, the Jena Six, Pakistan's implosion, Michael Vick's dogfighting empire, and about a million others have passed without any acknowledgment on this blog. Which got me to thinking, why not bring in a little new blood to keep content flowing in this space?

So after an exhaustive search of Houston and the surrounding areas, I've opened this space up to two people with completely different perspectives and passions and I want to introduce them to you now.

First up is That Girl Boo. No, no, no, not just Boo, it's like A Tribe Called Quest, or A Pimp Named Slickback - you got to say the whole thing. Say it with me now, That Girl Boo. Now That Girl Boo is passionate about how the food we eat and other things surrounding us in our daily lives are impacting our health and well being and will be bringing us information from her perspective on that subject matter. Look for her first post a little later.

Also coming aboard is my man Buzz B. This brother has the technology scene down cold, and has a knack for putting complex technical issues into terms that you and I can easily understand but more importantly figure how this stuff is really impacting our lives. Buzz B. is also know around here for having the pulse of the local political scene.

So please help me welcome There... Already's new contributors and I hope you enjoy their work.

While I Was Sleeping

I've been going through a little bit of the blogger burnout thing for the past few weeks; posting very irregularly. In the meantime, so much has been going on that I feel I should have been posting about.

Like the Jena Six.

If there was such a thing as an outrage meter, mine would be in the red zone right about now. I know I'm late to this discussion, but what's occurring right now in Jena, LA is a travesty and a crime. It's been covered far better than I can do by many others in the Afrosphere and beyond, but in a nutshell (and lifted in it's entirety from www.michaeldavidmurphy.com/jena/), the issues in Jena are:

In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana, asked the school for permission to sit beneath a "whites only" shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn't sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn't care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree.

The boys who hung the nooses were suspended from school for a few days. The school administration chalked it up as a harmless prank, but Jena's black population didn't take it so lightly. Fights and unrest started breaking out at school. The District Attorney, Reed Walters, was called in to directly address black students at the school and told them all he could "end their life with a stroke of the pen."

Black students were assaulted at white parties. A white man drew a loaded rifle on three black teens at a local convenience store. (They wrestled it from him and ran away.) Someone tried to burn down the school, and on December 4th, a fight broke out that led to six black students being charged with attempted murder. To his word, the D.A. pushed for maximum charges, which carry sentences of eighty years. Four of the six are being tried as adults (ages 17 & 18) and two are juveniles.

Mychal Bell, the first of the Jena Six to face trial, was found guilty of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit the same on June 28th.

Like they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. You can find more information and action plans here, and definitely sign the petition.

Reading is Fundamental

I hadn't seen this but apparently it's making the rounds. I found it at 3 Brothers and a Sister via Thoughts of an Angry Black MF.

Strong language and content; Parental Guidance is advised.



The crazy part is that a lot more books will probably be read now.

Good Riddance

You'll all be happy to know that the N-Word is now officially dead and buried. There apparently were at least 2 ceremonies over the past couple of days in Houston and Detroit where the oh so troublesome word was put out of our misery. In Houston;

...the so-called interment celebration will be at Houston Memorial Gardens in Pearland. A casket, draped with a banner, will contain a hanging noose, a burned cross, a replica of a Ku Klux Klan robe and an ax. It will be buried in an unmarked grave site.

"This word wasn't created by blacks," said Tammie Campbell, the former president of the Missouri City NAACP. "It was created by whites. They have a responsibility as well as blacks — more so than anybody else — to destroy and annihilate this racial term that has hurt this nation as a whole."

While in Detroit, the burial served as an opening for the NAACP Annual Conference (Hat tip to the Field Negro). According to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick;

"Today we're not just burying the N-word, we're taking it out of our spirit. We gather burying all the things that go with the N-word. We have to bury the 'pimps' and the 'hos' that go with it. Die N-word, and we don't want to see you 'round here no more."

I really don't know what to say, but I do think the umarked grave in Houston was a nice touch. Or as my friend P.B. said, " I wish I'd been there so I could've said 'seeya later n*gga' when it was all over with."

Contact Us

Got a topic that you think we should be talking about too? Want to trade blog links? Looking for that latest recipe from That Girl Boo?

Whatever the reason, if you need to contact any of us at anytime, drop us a line at:

therealready@gmail.com

About

There... Already is a collective effort out of Houston, TX dedicated to advancing our never-ending struggle for dignity and respect.

We blog everything Houston, Texas, Politics, Health, Technology, Food, Environmental Issues, and Just Plain Foolishness.

As stated on the front page, everything expressed here is the personal opinion of the individual writers and those who comment, and do not reflect the views of our employers, churches, family members, friends, or anybody else. If you have an issue with anything, take it up with that individual in the comment section of their posts, or email them directly.

More biographical information to com.