Images 23 - some prime pics

[Bob Schroeck]

... the blue dye is a chemical. It's just the product of a plant instead of a factory. (And ten to one that plant has to go through at least a simple industrial process to be used as a dye.) That kind of sloppy, stupid equivalence of "chemical"="unnatural" absolutely infuriates me.

EDIT: So I went looking for more information. It turns out it takes a year of processing with dangerous chemicals to turn indigo plants into dye:

The process begins with sun-drying the indigo leaves followed by an intensive fermentation to make sukumo. Next, the concentrated dye component is integrated with lime, lye [and] other substances in a dyeing vat and re-fermented before it is ready to use.

Lime and lye aren't exactly milk and honey. Further, indigo's "natural" antibiotic and insect-repellent properties function just like any other -- it's a poison that humans can ignore.

Plus, the meme makes it sound like this is a special dye only arborists use. It's not -- it's the standard traditional Japanese blue dye. Everything from soap to blue jeans uses it.

Dammit, people, stop fetishizing "natural" and trying to make it sound like magic that does its work without resorting to nasty "unnatural" chemicals!