Found a great recipe that includes using vanilla? Great! Now you just need to find the product that’s best for your needs. Some people go toward synthetic vanilla flavour and don’t even look for naturally grown product – probably cheaper and tastes roughly the same.. or they might not even know about the real vanilla (I certainly didn’t), but why you should still go for natural vanilla?
1. Your health.
Our health is the one and only thing we need to take care of our whole lives. Start today, not tomorrow! Are you aware of how much chemicals you come in contact with every single day? It’s frightening and it doesn’t come without consequences. Nowadays people are sicker than ever, tons of allergies and food sensitivities, cancer etc. Chemicals play a great role in this and the best thing you can do is to eliminate as much as possible. You can’t get rid of everything, our environment is the same.. but you can start by not purchasing any chemicals. Start eating clean, natural, real food. Check for chemical fertilizer usage, check the ingredient lists of the things you buy and you have taken a great step toward better health.
2. .. so you wouldn’t eat paper-production wastes.
Yep, that’s right. Most of world’s vanilla products are not made using real vanilla, not to mention they don’t use naturally grown real vanilla. Vanillin is a compound in vanilla that gives it the characteristic scent and flavour. A great amount of vanillin is synthesized from lignin, a by-product of paper manufacturing.
3. Rainforest conservation
If you are open-minded person, you probably have the ability to look further than just the front of your nose and it’s really necessary for more people to know this – rainforests, that are being destroyed at an alarming rate, produce most of the oxygen we breathe in every day. Without oxygen, we die. Without rainforests, we die. But where’s the link between vanilla and rainforests? You see, rainforests are the best growth places for vanilla. There is plenty of sunshine, but enough shade at the same time.
Growing vanilla plants is hard work, demands lots of manual labour. It grows in a very narrow area of the world and this makes its price rather high. When farmers still do well, despite the price, they are very interested in keeping the rainforests as they are. Win-win situation, because we really-really do need the oxygen. So I’m happy to help with purchasing naturally grown vanilla!
4. Vanilla plantations neutralize burning fuel.
According to Rainforest Vanilla Conservation Association: “Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. A one-acre vanilla plantation is estimated to annually absorb (sequester) the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions from burning 2,550 gallons of gasoline. Or for every one gallon of real vanilla ice-cream you consume, you are removing from the atmosphere the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions from burning approximately one gallon of gasoline.” Purchasing naturally grown vanilla bean rather than synthetic is also good from the ecological point of view.
5. Taking care of family businesses.
Photo by Brian Jackson/Alamy
As I’m now an owner of a small family business, I know how to appreciate the hard work it takes. I have always preferred to support local farmers or small businesses rather than huge corporations. In my own country I always go for local farmers, but vanilla just doesn’t grow in this northern environment. This is why most of you also need to purchase it from outside your country. But it’s okay, we make sure that the farmers get fair trade prices and that you get the highest quality naturally grown product. We make sure that way farmers and their family businesses do well, they’re happy, we’re happy, you’re happy.
These are the five reasons I think are very important. We need to look past ourselves and see the bigger picture. And it doesn’t only apply to vanilla.. it applies to all the products you consume daily. Always opt for your local farmers and local food.. see that there are no chemical fertilizers used.. don’t purchase products high in preservatives. Take care of our nature, because if we don’t, who does?
Click here to read more about Summer Day Naturals’ 100% naturally grown Ground Vanilla Bean.
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