Hurricane Irene Devastates Organic Farmers in the Northeast – How We Can Help and What it Means for Consumers

Written by Max Goldberg on September 2, 2011. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

For some people, Hurricane Irene has come and gone and we are back to living our normal lives.

Yet, for many organic farmers in the Northeast, the storm has been devastating.

The organic farmers hardest hit have been in Eastern New York, Southern Vermont, Western Massachusetts, Western Connecticut and Northern New Jersey.

THE DAMAGE

Along with losing their electricity, many farmers have had their properties completely flooded, which is a disaster for two reasons.

One, they have lost everything that is in the ground now. Read More »

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What’s With These Holes in My Kale?

Written by Max Goldberg on August 22, 2011. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

Ok. Let’s be very, very honest here.

How many times have you been at the market, looked at a piece of organic produce, seen numerous imperfections, and then searched for something that looked a little bit more aesthetically pleasing?

I’m certainly guilty of doing that.

But the question is: Why do we do this?

My sense is that we have this belief in the U.S. that fruit and vegetables are supposed to look “perfect”. And if they are not perfect, there is something wrong with them.

Yet, as organic consumers, this is something that we need to get beyond.

Take, for example, the kale (above) that I bought in Nantucket this past weekend at Pumpkin Pond Farm, a certified organic farm. Read More »

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The Economist Magazine is Wrong – Organic Food Can Feed the World

Written by Max Goldberg on March 7, 2011. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

The Economist magazine recently did a special report on the The Future of Food. I would characterize it as despicable, not surprising and shocking all at once. There are many different sections in the report and it is worth a read.

Organic food isn’t even considered as an option for feeding the world. The solution they propose is to boost yields through better genetically-modified seeds and to put more animals into restrictive cages so that they can grow faster.

This is the main problem we have in the organic industry. The media pounds on us that this is the only solution to feeding everyone. I hear it all the time.

What people need to understand, however, is that this is a completely flawed argument. Do not believe the hype for one second. Read More »

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My Water Habits and The Water Bottle I Use – A Glass One

Written by Max Goldberg on February 20, 2011. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

As I have written about many times before, I am a water fanatic. I like clean, ultra-purified water and have a four-stage filter (with a .015 micron filter on filter #2) in my apartment.

When I go to work, there is a Poland Spring cooler but I refuse to drink from it. Why?

The water tastes very, very off and is not purified.

So, I bring my own bottles of water to work each day. This may sound crazy to some people but drinking high quality water is essential to staying healthy.

Given that I take so much effort to drink good water, the type of bottle that I use is also of great importance.

I used to drink from a BPA-free plastic bottle. The problem with that is that it is still plastic and is leaching other chemicals into the water. Read More »

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Organic Wine – Should We Lower Our Standards with Sulfites?

Written by Max Goldberg on January 6, 2011. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

This morning I read a very well-written and interesting piece in the Los Angeles Times about what is going on in the organic wine world.

For those who are unfamiliar with the details of organic wine, I wrote a blog post about this a while back. Essentially, naturally-occurring sulfites above a certain number are not allowed in USDA certified organic wine. Added sulfites are not allowed at all.

The Los Angeles Times discussed a movement going on that would allow sulfites to be added. Some organic wine producers want to be able to add sulfites because they think it would encourage more wine producers to grow more grapes organically, without the use of herbicides or pesticides. They also say that sulfites are important, given that wine is regularly shipped around the world and these sulfites are critical to help prevent the wine from going bad. Read More »

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