November 2006 | Mindful Living
Americans Starting To Turn Away from Sleeping Pills
When it comes to sleeping problems, the mainstream is waking up to alternative medicine. More than 1.6 million Americans now use non-AMA medicine to treat insomnia, according to new research by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). The study by the U.S. government agency found that one in six Americans had trouble sleeping in the last year. Of these, 4.5 percent turned to alternative therapies, most frequently herbal remedies (65 percent) and/or mind-body techniques (39 percent) such as meditation. Conventional Western medicines for insomnia include antihistamines, Valium, antidepressants and newer “hypnotics” such as Ambien. But with side effects ranging from vomiting and reduced sex drive to seizures, hallucinations and dependency, it’s no wonder the sleepless seek alternatives. Insomnia therapies currently under research by NCCAM affiliates include valerian, hops, melatonin, vitamin B12, yoga and homeopathic remedies.
The report turned up some unexpected survey results. Nearly 61 percent of those who reported sleeping trouble were women, and, contrary to previous research, insomnia did not simply increase with age but peaked in middle age (45-64 years) and again at age 85. Locally, practitioners have long reported success using alternative remedies. “Acupuncture and different herbs are very helpful for sleep disorders,” said Beth Marx, a licensed acupuncturist practicing in Oakland. “I treat the underlying condition, balancing that out,” Marx explains. “Then sleeping is easier.” “There’s a reason that more and more people are seeking complementary treatments,” says Beverly Burns, integrative medical specialist at UCSF’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. She sees the NCCAM study as further indication that the Western medical establishment is serious about finding out why. — Monica Woelfel
As Backpackers say, “Cotton kills.”
It turns out the fabric of our lives isn’t that good for living things. The cotton-growing industry is one of the world’s leading consumers of toxic pesticides and insecticides. According to the Pesticide Action Network, cotton producers use more than 10 percent of the world’s pesticides—$2.6 billion worth each year—and nearly 25 percent of the world’s insecticides. In California, cotton crops use the second largest amount of pesticides, outsprayed only by grape growers. A study ranked cotton third among California’s crops for the number of workers with pesticide-related illnesses.
Heavy pesticide use in developing countries often results in spills and poisoning. Run-off from fields saturated with toxic chemicals also kills freshwater fish, can contaminate livestock (meat and milk) and in the U.S. is estimated to kill 67 million birds every year.
But don’t begrudgingly reach for your old polyester just yet. Consumer alternatives to conventional cotton clothing are made possible by organic cotton, which is grown without toxic pesticides or genetically modified seeds. Organic cotton product sales in the U.S. have more than tripled between 2001 and 2005.
“Consumers are what’s driving the organic industry, and the organic industry is growing by leaps and bounds,” says Jodi Selene, who opened EcoChic Clothing, an organic fair trade clothing store in North Berkeley this June because she was tired of the shipping expenses and fitting uncertainties involved with buying organic clothing over the Internet. The store carries women’s fashions, cotton jeans for men, baby clothes and clothing made from hemp and bamboo at prices comparable to non-organic boutique clothing. Also in Berkeley, The Ecology Center Store sells organic cotton baby clothes and organic cotton toys.
If you’re into designer jeans, going organic won’t bleed your wallet, comparatively: Loomstate (Loomstate.org) makes organic cotton jeans that retail online and in boutiques across the globe for between $155 and $200. To search for organic cotton products around the world, visit the Organic Cotton Directory at organiccottondirectory.net — Emily Dulcan
EcoChic Clothing, 1539 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley; 510.666.8814
Ecology Center Store, 2530 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley; 510.548.3402; ecologycenter.org/store
A Happy Planet, 4501 Irving Street, San Francisco; 415.753.8300; ahappyplanet.com
Allie G, 76 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley; 415.381.2554
Bay Area Artists Scrap for Residency at the SF Dump
“The great thing about working with artists is that they’re kinda quirky,” says Paul Fresina, a manager at SF Recycling and Disposal. He’s also the director of the city dump’s Artist in Residence program.
Since 1990, Bay Area artists have been applying to the company that handles most of the trash in San Francisco to compete for the residencies, which provide the winners with 24-hour access to the dump and the adjacent 2000-square-foot art studio replete with power tools, kiln and darkroom.
Fresina’s office selects between three and six artists annually for full- or half-time paid residencies. Once accepted, the painters, sculptors and multimedia artists have four months to take advantage of the dump and the studio to make treasures from your trash and mine. They’re restricted to materials they can find within the dump, but this limitation doesn’t seem to hinder their creativity. Case in point: Strolling through the dump with Fresina, seagulls circled above a four-foot sculpture of Archie (of comic book fame) made entirely from refuse by sculptor Kim Weller.
Other artists over the years have created sculpture gardens, paintings, and photographs during their four months at the dump. Their “topics” are as varied as the mediums, and the final products span from the fascinating to the sublime to the downright silly. Each residency culminates in an art show open to the public (the art belongs to SFRD for a year after the artist leaves). You can see some of this art for yourself in between art shows by taking the tour of the recycling company, including an exhibit of pieces from the permanent collection and a tour of the art studio where artists are guaranteed to be tinkering away on their projects. Tours are the third Saturday on every month (Nov. 17) at 10am. Call 330.1415 for info and details on how to find the dump itself, which is halfway between Monster Park and Cow Palace (take the Monster Park exit off of 101). The official stated purpose of the program is “to inspire the public to conserve resources…that would otherwise be sent to landfills.” Fresina says the art program is not the only way they try to get that message out. SFRD also contracts with nonprofits to refurbish and sell furniture, mattresses, bikes, etc. that come to the dump. — Lina Swislocki
Messing With Meat
by Jim Hightower
You probably aren’t aware of it, but the big meat conglomerates are now charging meat prices for water.
Up to 20 percent of the volume of your supermarket steak, pork chop or drumstick is most likely H2O, plus a nice dose of salt and chemicals. These are being injected into the meats by the industry, which has concocted a tasty-sounding term for the rip off: “deep marination.”
Believe it or not, Cargill, Wal-Mart and the other corporate purveyors of these adulterated meats say they are doing it as a favor to you, asserting that they are “flavoring” the meat! As a pork processor so insultingly put it: “This way we make sure consumers have a pleasurable eating experience, even if they do a poor job of cooking the meat.”
Well, golly, first of all, meat is supposed to have its own flavor—what happened to that? Second of all, there’s nothing pleasurable about learning that watered-down meat can cost more than... well, meat. Third of all, at a time when America’s doctors are calling on food processors to cut the salt they’ve been adding to our meals, the “deep marination” process can quadruple the amount of salt in poultry, beef and pork.
Yes, says the industry, but, it’s all up to the consumer, for we label the product with such language as, “boneless chicken breast with up to 20 percent of flavoring solution of water, spices, sugar and phosphates.”
Online Lifeline
Through Kiva.org, your $25 can help launch a worthy business on the other side of the world
By Traci Hukill
When Stanford graduates Matthew and Jessica Flannery returned from Uganda, where Jessica had been doing research on poverty and Matthew had been filming village life, they wanted to help the struggling people they had met in their travels.
Operating on the “hand-up, not hand-out” principle, they started Kiva.org, an innovative website linking people willing to loan small amounts of money to fledgling entrepreneurs throughout the developing world. And in so doing, the Flannerys may have started a minor revolution in philanthropy.
Microfinance isn’t new, but traditionally it’s been done by banks—not average Joes and Joans with credit cards. Kiva offers an easy, direct way to link people for whom $25 is a week’s lattés with people for whom $25 is a month’s income. You could say it’s to official foreign aid what blogging is to newspapers. From an office in San Francisco’s Mission District, Kiva’s small staff oversees a microfinance operation that has facilitated $400,000 in loans to small businesses in 13 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
It works like this: You visit Kiva.org and peruse a few entrepreneur profiles. Betty Asio might catch your eye. She’s a Ugandan who needs $500 to buy more chickens and veterinary care for her small but growing poultry concern. She’s offering to pay the money back in six to 12 months. You may loan her anywhere from $25 to the full amount, at no interest, using a credit card via PayPal. She receives the cash and later remits payments to a nonprofit partner of Kiva in Uganda.
In the interim, you can read updates on Betty’s progress—or that of any of the hundreds of Kiva loan recipients throughout the world. Ixel Cardenas Amado has already repaid $234 of the $700 she borrowed in April to buy a chicken fryer for her taco stand in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. Mihael and Lilliana Yordanovi haven’t repaid anything yet; the young couple just received their $1,000 loan for a new farm supply business in Bulgaria in September.
“Kiva makes it so I can connect with and lend to the poor and have a transparent view of how my money is helping someone,” says Premal Shah, who left a job at PayPal to become Kiva’s president. And Kiva is taking off. In September, the site facilitated $5,000 in loans in a single day, a company record. Later that month, it was one of just a handful of NGOs invited to the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting in New York. Shah describes a moment of realization about the company as he stood at the podium talking about innovative solutions to poverty.
“I looked down and there was Colin Powell,” he says. “A year and a half ago, did any of us expect this? To go in 18 months from one village in Uganda to 13 countries?
It’s incredible.”
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