Phoenix Organics - A Natural Evolution
By Charles Carreon
It isn’t always easy being ahead of your time, but when the times catch up with you, it’s sometimes fun to discover that you’re ahead of the game. That’s where the owners of Phoenix Organics may soon find themselves, thanks to their dedication to finding a better way to do the basic things we have to do – like drive our vehicles around, grow food, and have a place to live. By now everyone knows that Phoenix Organics sells biodiesel. What I didn’t know was that they have a booming nursery, an abundant stock of agricultural supplies, an Eco-Building Center, a thirty-foot yurt for permaculture seminars, and plans to keep growing. The Eco-Building Center was what I wanted to talk about, because construction is a huge industry in which we are all necessarily interested.
Since the dawn of the industrial age, our conveniently toxic environment has taken its toll on our health, that of the planet, and our fellow-creatures. Toxic building materials are a historic artifact of civilizations smart enough to shape materials, and stupid enough to not realize the consequences of using the wrong material for the job. Take the Roman love of lead – a soft metal that melts at low temperatures, they formed it into pipes and brazed them together to create water systems. Unfortunately, the soft, silvery metal rotted the brains of upper-crust Romans in large numbers. Our society has made matters worse. High rates of cancer and other environmentally-triggered diseases suggest that we have been as out of touch with physical reality as the ancient Romans were in their day. Today we are exposed to a plethora of hazardous agents from agriculture, industry, transportation, healthcare, and warfare. At least when it comes to building your house, you can use the healthiest materials available.
Abraham Harris, one of the owners of Phoenix Organics, told me he got interested in using non-toxic materials because, since childhood, he noticed chemical odors in his environment that other people overlooked. Now, his company offers non-toxic and sustainably-produced building products that are competitive with conventional building materials on quality and price. He is well-informed on the subject of healthy building, and sells by virtue of his own personal enthusiasm.
It is time we urged our civic leaders everywhere to adopt green building certification standards for all municipal buildings, and to enact regulations that encourage building healthy houses and offices with sustainable, non-toxic materials. It would feed the market for green building materials, lower the price of wholesome housing for everyone, and lower the cost to the planet of carrying the human species. Phoenix Organics has plenty of room to grow, and the only limit on how fast will be the speed with which folks around here wake up and smell the organic coffee. See them online at www.phoenixorganics.com, or email them at phoenixorganics@yahoo.com.
It isn’t always easy being ahead of your time, but when the times catch up with you, it’s sometimes fun to discover that you’re ahead of the game. That’s where the owners of Phoenix Organics may soon find themselves, thanks to their dedication to finding a better way to do the basic things we have to do – like drive our vehicles around, grow food, and have a place to live. By now everyone knows that Phoenix Organics sells biodiesel. What I didn’t know was that they have a booming nursery, an abundant stock of agricultural supplies, an Eco-Building Center, a thirty-foot yurt for permaculture seminars, and plans to keep growing. The Eco-Building Center was what I wanted to talk about, because construction is a huge industry in which we are all necessarily interested.
Since the dawn of the industrial age, our conveniently toxic environment has taken its toll on our health, that of the planet, and our fellow-creatures. Toxic building materials are a historic artifact of civilizations smart enough to shape materials, and stupid enough to not realize the consequences of using the wrong material for the job. Take the Roman love of lead – a soft metal that melts at low temperatures, they formed it into pipes and brazed them together to create water systems. Unfortunately, the soft, silvery metal rotted the brains of upper-crust Romans in large numbers. Our society has made matters worse. High rates of cancer and other environmentally-triggered diseases suggest that we have been as out of touch with physical reality as the ancient Romans were in their day. Today we are exposed to a plethora of hazardous agents from agriculture, industry, transportation, healthcare, and warfare. At least when it comes to building your house, you can use the healthiest materials available.
Abraham Harris, one of the owners of Phoenix Organics, told me he got interested in using non-toxic materials because, since childhood, he noticed chemical odors in his environment that other people overlooked. Now, his company offers non-toxic and sustainably-produced building products that are competitive with conventional building materials on quality and price. He is well-informed on the subject of healthy building, and sells by virtue of his own personal enthusiasm.
It is time we urged our civic leaders everywhere to adopt green building certification standards for all municipal buildings, and to enact regulations that encourage building healthy houses and offices with sustainable, non-toxic materials. It would feed the market for green building materials, lower the price of wholesome housing for everyone, and lower the cost to the planet of carrying the human species. Phoenix Organics has plenty of room to grow, and the only limit on how fast will be the speed with which folks around here wake up and smell the organic coffee. See them online at www.phoenixorganics.com, or email them at phoenixorganics@yahoo.com.