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This explains it.
http://www.live-the-organic-life.com/natural-vs-organic.html
Interesting link. It's a sad reality that the legal definitions of man terms are not even close to what the terms mean to most people when they hear or read them. "Organic" doesn't even
always mean "organic". Do you know whether rotenone is still permitted in organic agriculture? I never use it, myself. My only "bug sprays" are neem, Safer brand insecticidal soap (OMRI approved, the active ingredient is a fatty acid), and a concoction I make with a little liquid soap, essential oils of orange and lavender, and water. I mostly rely on the fact that if the soil is healthy, the plants are healthy, and healthy plants don't attract nearly as many bugs as stressed or sick plants. (That's because part of the insects' function in nature is to eat the unhealthy plants before they reproduce.)
In organic meat production, the animals must be from certified organically raised parents, (and it must be documented) your feed must be certified organic, there are restrictions on a number of things like what kind of wood can be used in pens, fences, etc, it's a pretty complex list of requirements. There are some treated fence posts and timbers on my property (nowhere near the garden!). I can't afford certified organic feed. Much of it, when tested by independent labs, had the same levels of pesticide residues as conventional feed anyway, or so I've been told. I can't afford to have tests of that sort run, so I'm taking somebody else's word for it. I can't afford certified organic breeding stock. So while my garden is organic, it's not certified. My chickens cannot be called organic, because the get conventional feed (but NEVER medicated feed) and don't have organic parentage, there's treated wood on the property, etc. But they can and do free-range daily, (unless nobody will be home at dark to close the coop, happens once in a while, maybe 2 days a month) in pasture and woods that don't get sprayed or treated with any kind of pesticide or herbicide. That's as close as I can manage.
So whatever the legal meaning, that's what I mean by "organic" and "not organic".
Terri, I suppose you've already tried probiotics? I went through years of food allergies caused by candida overgrowth (which in turn, caused a lovely condition attractively called "leaky gut syndrome".) I wonder if your daughter could be having a similar problem? Has she been checked for celiac sprue? If she avoids wheat, does she get better? How about dairy?
When I read Barbara Kingsolver's book,
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, one of the things she mention was lactose intolerance, and how it's actually normal to be lactose intolerant. As we grow up, we're supposed to stop nursing, and we gradually stop producing lactase, the enzyme that helps digest milk. In cultures where people are heavily dependent on dairy for survival, people have developed
lactase persistence, so they can tolerate milk even as adults. They are the exception, but have come to be considered the norm.
The reason I mention this, is that there may be other similar things that we consider normal, that are actually aberrations. I think it's possible that some health problems are caused by eating things that we've outgrown, or that we shouldn't be eating in the first place, like textured vegetable protein, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, and the toxic brew of chemicals found in food prepared by corporations. Some of which they have the gall to call "homestyle", with a list of ingredients you'd be hard pressed to find in somebody's kitchen.
Anyway, I wish you and your daughter the best of luck with this health issue.
Oh, has she tried taking slippery elm bark? It's very soothing and healing to the entire digestive tract, from one end to the other. Non-toxic, you can't OD on it. I get the slippery elm bark powder, and mix it with honey to make a paste, and take it that way. I often add some cinnamon, to make it more palatable, and a little acidophillus powder. It doesn't have much of a taste, it's not hard to take, unless you get it wet. Then it's slimy. Honey has very little water, so it doesn't turn to slime until
after you swallow it, and that's ok, then.
