Corn: When Good Veggies Go Bad

When Midwestern cornfields and rural farm life come to mind they probably seem far removed from the politics of Capitol Hill. 

The reality is that corn is deeply entrenched in American politics. It is now the #1 crop grown in America, with almost 80 million acres planted annually.  Corn should be rotated among fields, or else grown only once in four seasons, in order to prevent depletion of the soil.  However, common commercial growing practices do not rotate corn and therefore rob the soil of nitrates and precious minerals.  The result: commercial corn requires more nitrate fertilizer and pesticide than any other crop.  Corn’s extreme hybridization further contributes to its heavy reliance on fertilizers and pesticides to grow.

So where does all this corn go?  More than half of the 10 billion bushels produced in America each year are fed to animals being farmed for slaughter, including cattle, chickens, pigs, and even farm-raised fish like salmon.  Since these animals don’t eat corn in their natural diets, they have trouble digesting it properly and frequently become sick.  Farmers respond by dousing the feed with antibiotics, steroids, hormones and drugs.  The antibiotics keep animals alive long enough to be slaughtered, while steroids make them grow large prematurely so they can be slaughtered before showing any signs of disease. For example, the lifespan of a chicken in the wild is about 17 years, but a factory-farmed chicken is slaughtered at 3 months or less.  The antibiotics and steroids fed to these animals, not to mention all the chemicals sprayed on the corn they eat, accumulate in people who eat factory-farmed meat.

Corn isn’t just an indirect health risk to meat eaters - its mass farming has terrible environmental consequences.  The sea of chemicals, nitrate fertilizers and pesticides used to grow commercial corn severely harm local water supplies and eventually run off into major water sources like the Mississippi River.  The costs are real: the Gulf of Mexico now has a 12,000 square mile zone where marine life has been virtually wiped out!

It gets worse.  Four billion barrels a year of corn are processed and refined into high fructose corn syrup.  Since the 1980’s, we’ve replaced the white sugar formerly found in many foods with this virtual poison.  A few examples include packaged food, fast food, junk food, baby food, juices, soda, sweet tea beverages, canned soup, cookies, muffins, pasteurized juice and even bread.  High fructose corn syrup is highly glycemic and promotes hyper/hypoglycemia, elevates triglyceride levels, and induces an insulin response. Guess what has occurred in almost exact parallel to the inundation of high fructose corn syrup…a shocking rise of obesity and Type II diabetes in children!

So how did corn syrup infiltrate the American diet?  Politics.  Corn costs $3 per bushel (56 pounds) to produce, but the world market is so saturated that it fetches only $2 dollars per bushel.  In June 2002 President Bush approved a $190 billion farm bill, which provides $4 billion per year in subsidies (i.e. taxpayer money) through 2012 to induce farmers to grow MORE corn. 

To be clear, helping farmers is good thing.  But the unfortunate reality is that even with this subsidy, most corn farmers are working hard and not getting rich.  Behind the farm bill is a more powerful lobby - the pharma/chemical industry that supplies all those pricey pesticides and chemicals that corn needs to grow and the antibiotics, hormones, and steroids going right into corn-based feed. 

While Americans get fatter and sicker and our environment gets more polluted, it seems that just a handful of big business are benefiting- at our great expense.

What can we do? Take a stand. Stop buying packaged food that contains high fructose corn syrup. Stop buying processed corn products for you, your family, and your pets. Stop supporting factory farming, and start supporting organic farming. You’ll feel better than ever.

Special thanks to Dr. David Jubbs for his essay, “The Cornification of America.”

Hollywood Meets New York

When Adam and I started Envision Beauty we were focused almost entirely on creating the best possible product.  I was practically obsessed with tweaking THE SOLUTION until it was completely perfect - the ultimate all-in-one skin formula that would significantly improve user’s skin and give the “wow!” reaction that other skincare lines I had used (Clinique, Murad, La Mer etc.) just didn’t provide.  I was also psyched to educate people about natural health and beauty, such as the fact that putting layers and layers of products on your face can cause visible aging! 

After months and months of development, I knew that we finally had an absolutely amazing product.  The next issue was how to get the word out.  Adam and I figured we would market THE SOLUTION online and through boutiques.  The only catch was that we had NO media or press contacts and only a tiny marketing budget.  In short, we were going on complete blind faith, putting our dream out into the universe and trusting that we would get what we need.

This brings us to last summer.  I was on the set of a movie (Old Dogs, starring John Travolta and Robin Williams) when I met the movie’s publicist, John.  We ended up talking and really clicking. You know when you meet someone that you feel comfortable with instantly, that you feel that you’ve known for years? Despite the negative stereotypes about people working in the film industry, that’s how I immediately felt about John.

John is so real and good-hearted, amazingly calm and kind to everyone, funny in a non-sarcastic way and very open-minded.  All this despite that as a major Hollywood publicist he works with some of the biggest celebrities and on the some of the largest motion pictures in the business. 

John was almost instantly THE SOLUTION’s #1 Fan, promptly ditching his Shisheido collection and never looking back.  Now, a year later, John has grown to become an integral part of Envision Beauty, directing our marketing and PR efforts.  As difficult as it was to create a groundbreaking product, getting it out there is just as much work.  Fortunately for us, the universe brought John and Envision together. 

The funny thing is that when John first met Adam, he said, “You don’t seem like a lawyer!” Adam replied “Well you don’t seem like a Hollywood publicist!” I do believe that energy is energy, and like attracts like, and I am very grateful that our company attracted the most yogic lawyer and the most yogic Hollywood publicist possible.

When we started, back in 2006, I could never have imagined such a wonderful team.  Now I can’t imagine anything less!

Yin and Yang

People often assume that I am calm all the time because I practice yoga, meditate and/or do Reiki…whatever the analysis.  Well, in a perfect world, I would be calm all the time. But the reality is that I am not always practicing yoga, and I’m not a yogi (yet!) that can disappear into the caves of the Himalayas and mediate 24/7.   

 

Running Envision Beauty can actually be quite stressful.  It has been my dream come true, but has also taken up much of the time and personal resources of both me and my partner, Adam, for the last two years. 

 

Now from the outside, you might say that Adam and I are as opposite as opposite could be. He shows up to our meetings in a suit with a monogrammed shirt, while I’m in yoga pants, a tank top and barefoot.  An IP lawyer by trained profession, Adam chuckles at my Feng Shui suggestions for his apartment – though he does keep a good luck Ganesha statue that I gave him next to his computer.  He does not meditate and didn’t know what a Goji berry was until I introduced them to him.   I make almost all of my food at home, only occasionally going out (I do love Pure Food and Wine!), much prefer to get my own groceries, and don’t drink, except for the occasional glass of wine at dinner.  He likes to eat at restaurants, which he does almost every night, and drinks beer after work.   Time and time again, I sigh when I look into Adam’s empty refrigerator.

 

In spite of all this, Adam is always the voice of calm and perspective with business affairs. When we shot some videos for our website (coming soon!), I hated the way they looked and burst into tears.  Adam was the reasonable one, calmly reminding me that the videos still hadn’t been edited. When the first draft of our website came back with a tacky picture of me sitting on a fluffy cloud — despite our clear instructions to the contrary – I was anything but calm.  Over weeks, then months, as the website design process droned on I felt my blood temperature rising, utnil Adam took over all communications with the web designers. When  thousands of the Thank You cards that we put in each box of The Solution  were printed UPSIDE DOWN, Adam handled it all, with composure, grace and ease.  Although Adam has practiced yoga exactly once, he exhibits the ultimate yogic qualities of equanimity, not letting the outside world disturb one’s peace of the mind, and breath.

 

Owning and managing Envision Beauty involves incredible self control and commitment and has taught me an incredible amount about bringing my yoga practice off the mat and my mediation pillow and into the real world.  Adam, I’ve discovered, beer drinking lawyer though he may be, is every bit as much a yoga teacher as me.

The Soho Apple Store

If I were single (which I am not) I would hang out at the Apple Store on Prince Street in Soho.  It has occurred to me on more than one occasion that it is the perfect place to meet someone.

If you don’t live in New York this post probably isn’t much good to you, but if you want to keep reading and are picturing a normal Apple Store, erase that image!  The Soho Apple Store is a huge, two-floor structure in the heart of Soho.  It was renovated from a cool old post office building and still bears post office markings on the side of the building.  Laptops and Ipods are on the first floor, and a huge staircase of almost see-through steps invites you upstairs.  It’s almost as if you are going to some magical kingdom, which you practically are. At the top of the stairs is an auditorium where Apple holds free classes on hardware and software, and even music concerts.  Yes, that’s right, free concerts right in the store!  I’ve actually been to some decent ones in there. 

I should probably mention that in spite of today’s posts I am not somehow tied in to Apple.  I’m not even a die-hard Apple proponent, though I do own one of their laptops.  I just happen to think it is a really cool store.  But back to my idea that it could be a great place to meet a special new “friend”…

First off, everyone in the Apple Store probably has at least one thing in common - they like Apple products.  Even if you don’t own one, you can at least appreciate their slick design and genius of the Ipod.  Second, easy conversation-starters abound!  Have you checked out this MacBook Air?  Is it cool?  How do you like your iPhone?  How does the typing work?  I can’t decide between this Ipod color and that one - what do you think?  Third, seeing as you are in the heart of Soho, you’re going to find some cool, interestingly-dressed, all around attractive people in that store.  These are people you may usually not walk right up to, but through the power of technology talk, initial meetings somehow seem much easier…and more natural. 

If you meet that special someone between the Powerbook aisle and the checkout counter I expect details! J

Ode to My Ipod

As soon as I step out of the front door of my apartment and lock the door, my other hand is already plugging my ipod earphones in, with my 30 gb or nano ipod tucked into the inside pocked of my carry on.  Without my dear ipod, living in the wonderful, but hectic sensory-overload of New York City would be a different experience altogether.  New York is a serious walking town.  And I am walking usually over an hour, at least, every single day across Manhattan, not counting subway transit.

Of course, there are times when I want to hear what’s going on in the hum of the streets, listen to the musicians on the corner, or hear people laughing or talking to their dogs in the park.  But with my ipod, how else could I best tune out the creepy construction workers/packs of men that I unfortunately pass every day, yelling profanities and lewd comments at me in English, Spanish, African tongues, or Arabic?  Or how better to politely weave around the aggressive “Greenpeace” or “Save the Children” troops in the street looking to sign me up for monthly donations.  “Oh sorry!” I smile,” I can’t hear you!”- as the obvious dangling cord of my earphones attests to.    I know they are great organizations, but it seems a bit disconcerting to hand all my credit card and personal info to a 22-year old that I’ve never met in Union Square!!

Best of all, when I have long subway commutes for a meeting all the way uptown or far East in midtown, and am stuck standing with all other people rushing somewhere and looking stressed, or bored, or worse, eating fast-food, whose sickening smell reverberates in the trapped energy of the subway cars, I cling to the pole in the middle of the car, doing my best to stay steady, and having my own great music makes the time go by waaay faster.  There are inevitably crazies everywhere on the subway platforms, ranting and raving and grumbling about how “y’awll suck”.  Even though I may use the time to read, playing calming music on my ipod still helps me tune out all the, um, outside noise.  And there are times when I need to be excited, enthusiastic for a meeting, even when I’m a bit tired, and I’ll play an upbeat song on my ipod right until I step off the elevator, feeling that vibe as I walk into my meeting.

So, altogether, ipod, this Manhattanite thanks you so much for being born, for coming into my life.  You are truly my favorite piece of technology.