livingmaxwell: a guide to organic food & drink

Wednesdays at Whole Foods – The Store of the Future, Holiday Gifts, The Best Planet

Written by Max Goldberg on December 3, 2014. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

On the first Wednesday of every other month, I have a column called Wednesdays at Whole Foods. It showcases the most interesting news, products, store events, and happenings at the company.

WHAT’S IN STORE

As most you of probably know, Whole Foods Market just launched its very first national ad campaign called Values Matter. The goal was to communicate the tremendous importance of how and from where the company sources its food.

Yet, the ad campaign is hardly the only new initiative the company is rolling out.

In its recently opened store in Alpharetta, Georgia, Whole Foods Market is beta-testing a new format that will improve and increase its engagement with shoppers. Read More »

10 Organic Food News Stories to Know About

Written by Max Goldberg on December 1, 2014. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

These 10 organic food news stories over the past week or so really caught my eye.

1) GMO-LABELING IN OREGON HEADING TO A RECOUNT

If you haven’t heard by now, we came in 812 votes short in Oregon’s GMO-labeling ballot initiative, which means this slim margin automatically triggers a recount.

Please consider donating money for the recount because Monsanto is stepping up its efforts to defeat us in this final stage. The recount will take place between December 2-12.

2) STARBUCKS PUTS MAJOR SPIN ON VERMONT LAWSUIT Neil Young launched a boycott of Starbucks because the company is part of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the trade organization that is suing the state of Vermont to overturn the GMO-labeling bill there.

Starbucks has since put out some MAJOR spin trying to separate themselves from the controversy. However, it doesn’t take much to see that their response is nothing but hot air.

No, Starbucks is not suing Vermont directly. However, Starbucks does help fund and is a member of the GMA, which is suing Vermont directly.

The Organic Consumers Association has called for Starbucks to quit the GMA immediately. Read More »

Food Chains is a MUST-SEE Movie

Written by Max Goldberg on November 27, 2014. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

When people talk about why they eat organic food, the most common answer is that they don’t want to ingest food that has been sprayed with toxic pesticides. The focus is generally on “me” or “we”.

An answer that does not come up nearly as much as it should is “I don’t want to expose farmers to these toxic pesticides.”

The truth is that most of us are completely in the dark about what takes place on farms, in terms of what kind of chemicals farmers are exposed to and also how farm workers are treated.

A brand new documentary called Food Chains sheds light on this very serious problem and what we see is not pretty. Read More »

Cornucopia’s Yogurt Scorecard – Some Brands are Healthy, While Others aren’t Far from Junk Food

Written by Max Goldberg on November 20, 2014. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

One misconception that the food industry would like us to believe is that ALL yogurt is healthy because of the beneficial bacteria (probiotics) that the product contains.

However, many of the largest food corporations have turned yogurt into quasi-junk food by adding ingredients such as artificial colors, chemical defoamers, milk from cows who have been raised on genetically-engineered feed, synthetic preservatives, carrageenan, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, and excessive levels of sugar.

Some “fruit yogurts” don’t even contain fruit!

Other yogurts may be afoul of the FDA’s official definition of yogurt and may not even be legally qualified to market themselves as “yogurt”.

All of this is detailed in The Cornucopia Institute’s groundbreaking report on yogurt called Culture Wars: How the Food Giants Turned Yogurt, a Health Food, into Junk Food.

In its exhaustive research piece, Cornucopia breaks the report down into five main sections: Read More »

TAKE ACTION: Organic Fish May Be Coming Soon and it is a Horrible Idea

Written by Max Goldberg on November 15, 2014. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

Right now in the U.S., there is no such thing as USDA certified organic fish. Why?

Because organic standards for fish have never been passed.

That may soon change, however. The USDA is getting close to finalizing organic aquaculture production regulations, based upon recommendations from the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB).

And what is being proposed — including allowing ocean-based fish farms and the use of wild fish, meal or oil — is a horrible idea. Not only will these standards harm the ocean’s ecosystem, but they will impact the integrity of the organic seal.

In an excellent report called Like Water and Oil: Ocean-Based Fish Farming and Organic Don’t Mix, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) outlines the key reasons why the proposed regulations are flawed and why ocean-based farms are completely incompatible with organic standards. Read More »

Coco Mojo and Maca Blend from Essential Living Foods are Two Great Products, Smoothie Recipe

Written by Max Goldberg on November 9, 2014. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

coco-mojo

There may be other brands of superfoods on the market that are more well-known and have wider distribution, but when it comes to quality, Essential Living Foods holds its own with anyone.

I have had long discussions with CEO Kipp Stroden about how and from where he sources his products, and I can assure you that he has done his homework. I trust him completely.

Two products that I believe are extremely well-formulated and have great taste are Essential Living Foods’ Coco Mojo and Maca Blend. Read More »

Beware: Monsanto Hires a Millennial to Convince Other Millennials that GMOs are Okay

Written by Max Goldberg on November 2, 2014. Follow Max on Twitter: @livingmaxwell.

(Credit: NPR / Christopher Paton)

UPDATED 1/4/15: This post was updated to reflect the Twitter conversation below.

This past weekend, I came across something that made my skin crawl.

Wanting to persuade (fool) young people that both Monsanto and GMOs are actually good for the world, the company has hired a 32-year-old Director of Millennial Engagement named Vance Crowe.

Whether he is traveling alongside company salesmen or attending conferences around the country, such as SXSW Eco Conference in Austin, this Directory of Millennial Engagement is actively engaging with his peers to reverse the overwhelmingly negative sentiment against Monsanto.

In a frightening interview with NPR’s The Salt, Vance Crowe shared a little bit about what he is up to and what he is telling his fellow millennials.

Let me summarize a few of the things that he said and what the truth is.

Vance Crowe: To me the science on GMOs is very clear, so why do people have trouble with this?

On one hand, the science is very clear.

In its study Failure to Yield, the Union of Concerned Scientists reported that the biotech industry has been carrying out gene field trials to increase yields for 20 years, all without significant results. Read More »