On Saturday, the Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) held its winter conference in Worcester, Massachusetts, and I was able to spend the afternoon at the event.

With so many great speakers and vendors, I didn’t have time to see everything.  These were my personal highlights.

* Interview with Joel Salatin The keynote speaker and celebrity of the conference was Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia.  If you saw Food, Inc., Joel was one of the stars and the organic farmer featured in the movie.  Over the past 25 years or so, he has authored six books and has been featured in nearly every major television and print media outlet.

I had the good fortune to interview Joel, and the video will be uploaded shortly.  As a huge fan of all things organic, getting a one-on-one with Joel was a big thrill. Read more »

Even though my website has been up for only a very short period of time, several people have left comments on the blog that they like to look their local farmer in the eye before they purchase their food.

Why is this?  Well, they want some reassurance that the food they are buying is truly organic and free of pesticides.

In essence, they want to know where their food is coming from.

Dole Organic has recognized this desire of many consumers and has actually done something about it.

At the top of the label, you will see a farm number.  If you go to doleorganic.com and search for the corresponding number, in this case #633, you will be able to get information about and pictures of the farm where the bananas were produced, including PDFs of the organic certification papers.  The content and pictures may vary slightly from farm to farm.

According to Frans Wielemaker, Director of Sourcing and Development of the Organic and Exotics Program at Dole, “this program was started two years ago.  It was initially something that our organic certifier wanted us to have but once all the hard work and logistics were implemented, we decided to use the system as a way to connect with the consumer.” Read more »