Guest guest Posted November 14, 2005 Report Share Posted November 14, 2005 Butch Owen <butchbsi Fri, 19 Dec 2003 22:35:07 -0800 Rosewood Oil Yo Martin, Another post I did not get through the system. I pulled this up from the Oils & Herbs archives. You knew when you posted this that I was gonna disagree .. and I am. But not too much right now .. at least not in any detail. Soon as I catch up on some hot projects that are kicking my butt and can find time to go to the toilet without feeling guilty .. I intend to present my opinions. Friends don't gotta agree with everything friends think .. and you know we have never agreed on this one. ;-p > To keep my earlier promise of sending some info. on rosewood I have > extracted the relevent details in plain text from my web pages. > Chrissie Wildwood told me yesterday that she is building her own > website where you will be able to read much more on conservation > issues. I will pass that URL on when it is ready. I am sure Chrissie Wildwood believes what she believes but I doubt that Chrissie Wildwood knows more than she has read on the subject from those who are a bit " greener " than they are informed of the realities. > Martin Watt > http://www.aromamedical.com > ------------------------ > Dec. 2003: This week (14th Dec.) the body of a 27 year old Greenpeace > activist was found floating in the Amazon. Emily Craddock was > investigating the activities of the illegal loggers operating > throughout the Amazon basin. It is believed she may have fallen > overboard, but as it is known that loggers had threatened this > expedition, investigations are ongoing. Will be interesting to hear the outcome of the investigation. And, it would be interesting to know what her investigative credentials are. > A book soon to be published by Chrissie Wildwood will be exposing the > lies told by most rosewood oil suppliers over their sources. See my > other articles under conservation & trade update. Publishing a book is good enough reason to take a position .. and finding folks lying about sources of Rosewood oil is not difficult to do as there is a lot of scuttlebutt out and about regarding new, sustainable crops being raised there .. which I am told by Brazilians who are supposedly in the know .. are not yet ready for harvest. And also, these sustainable crops/plantations were established as much to satisfy the western world as they were to ensure a steady supply of Rosewood. > I would just ask those who insist on selling and using rosewood oil > to consider this. What you have done is indirectly contribute to the > death of the young lady mentioned above. That's a bit on the extreme side so I'm not gonna comment on it. > All the excuses the trade come up with about " we only use the sawdust " > " we only use the leaves " " we are only tiny users compared to other > trades " etc. are simply hogwash to cover them continuing to trade in > endangered species and helping support criminals. If the world stopped buying Rosewood products (oil is the least marketed product from the trees) there would be no harvest of Rosewood trees .. but there would still be felling of Rosewood trees. > We in aromatherapy have never needed this oil as most of the > therapeutics are the inventions of aromatherapy authors. For my part > I have always refused to write a monograph on the uses of rosewood > oils and my opposition to their use dates back well over 10 years. Your opposition to this is understood. > My respects to Emily and her family, a sad loss to the world at such > a young age. Right .. sorry a person had to die. And if it is later determined that she was murdered by illegal loggers I hope justice is served. But I am willing to give odds now that there will be no connection in any regard to the harvest of Rosewood. Additionally, Greenpeace " activists " routinely place themselves in harms way .. there will be accidents and incidents when folks take it upon themselves to go against the establishment .. Turkish Coast Guard has pulled many of them out of the Bosporus when they tried to stop LARGE ships that need ten miles to make a turn with a little dinky boat. If one is so dedicated (as some are .. though not all) to going against the establishment they are either heroic or foolish .. but in either case, they are in harms way to one degree or another. And governments flat out tell these people that they aren't able to protect them. In most cases, the activist is technically violating one or more laws anyway so the best thing a government can do to protect them is to arrest and deport them. > Part of articles 1 and 2 > It is now clear that the essential oil traders have been lying for > years about the origin of, for example, Rosewood oil. There has > *never* been any ecologically sustainable production of this oil. Agree with that statement. But there will be now that replanting is required. > Currently, even oil claimed to come from leaves and twigs is produced > from felled wild trees. There have only been a few experimental > distillations of this oil. Above all, it is important to remember > that no oils from cultivated rosewood trees have yet been provided to > the commercial oils market. Production from the few experimental > plantations established in the 1990s is some years away. Agree with that statement. But it will change .. soon. > For many years I have been saying that rosewood oil should not be > used in aromatherapy because: > a). The trees were endangered species on the CITES lists. > b). There was no sound therapeutic use information - most > being 'invented' by modern aromatherapy authors. CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is a very GREEN organization .. and has vested interests in supporting their positions on this and that even if it means turning their heads away from reality .. their mission is to stop the harvest of what they consider to be endangered species and the reasons for this or that being endangered is not an issue .. its their ultimate goals they hang onto .. like a Pit Bull. Not saying they are totally out of line in all regards .. but they are biased in their reporting. AND .. Europeans in general are more GREEN than Americans because they are generally more liberal in philosophy and also have a bit of founded guilt about how they have destroyed their own environment. > To counter the ecological issues argument, most aromatherapy > suppliers started to claim that: " their oils come from the leaves of > plantation grown trees " . I have always thought this was a trade scam > but have never had the opportunity to prove it. Now, Chrissie > Wildwood - helped by a few others - has done a magnificent job in > checking out the claims being made by aromatherapy suppliers and > proving they are lies. Good show .. my Rosewood oil is from the heart wood of felled trees .. trees that were NOT (I will bet) felled for the purpose of obtaining EO. > The market is now flooded with semi-synthetic sandalwood oil due to > the shortage of the real thing. The aromatherapy trade is only a > small part of the huge criminal trade in real Sandalwood oil, but I > thought aromatherapists were supposed to be caring people??? So take > a look at what your supplier claims on the above issues. Whatever made you think that aromatherapists were more caring than folks who do other things for a living? ;-) I have one customer who runs (at the expense of her and her husband) a farm for Rescued Dawgs. They are (in my opinion) doing more as unsung heroes/protectors of Mama Nature's critters than those who sing their accomplishments and write about them. As for Mysore Sandalwood .. this is really a political issue .. says my Indian friends. The gummit wants to control the sales .. not to slow it down but to overtax it more. And the biggest users of Mysore Sandalwood are in India .. the prices went up big-time during Sep-Oct-Nov due to a number of festivals and religious events where the natives use this oil. > These conservation issues make me more sick of the hypocrisy in > aromatherapy than anything else. Many of its leading figures try to > give the impression they are lovely spiritual caring people. Yet what > do they do - they condone the rape of the Worlds forests for > their 'energetic' oils. Recently is was reported that Amazon jungle > deforestation increased by 40% between 2001 and 2002 BBC world news > report here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3024636.stm > and: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2193172.stm The forests are NOT being raped for the oils .. but they're being raped. And I think action on the part of the international community is what is needed to stop the destruction of the Rain Forests all over the world .. not just in Brazil. I doubt if Greenpeace will be able do a lot about it. More later from me .. gotta run now. Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 14, 2005 Report Share Posted November 14, 2005 Publishing a book is good enough reason to take a position .. and finding folks lying about sources of Rosewood oil is not difficult to do as there is a lot of scuttlebutt out and about regarding new, sustainable crops being raised there .. which I am told by Brazilians who are supposedly in the know .. are not yet ready for harvest. And also, these sustainable crops/plantations were established as much to satisfy the western world as they were to ensure a steady supply of Rosewood. Butch I was wondering what branch of the service you served in. The scuttlebutt made me question that. I was a Marine btw. Theresa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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