On the third Friday of every month, I have a column called Eco-Friendly Fridays. I started this column because I run across so many amazing organic, non-food items that I believe people ought to know about. While organic food is certainly a major component of living an organic lifestyle, it is not the only part.

When it comes to organic clothing, Marci Zaroff, the founder and president of Under the Canopy, is truly a pioneer. And I don’t say this lightly. Read more »

It seems like every day that passes, the USDA approves another very risky GMO crop, all to the benefit of biotech/chemical companies and to ZERO benefit for consumers.

This time, the USDA has approved a first-of-its-kind genetically-engineered (GE) apple that doesn’t turn brown after bruising or slicing.

The apple, developed by the company Okanagan Specialty Fruits, uses a relatively new form of genetic engineering called RNA interference, or gene silencing, which has raised numerous concerns from consumer groups, environmentalists, and the apple industry. Read more »

If anyone you know is still feeding their children conventional cereal, maybe this piece of news will get them to change their habits.

GMO Free USA, a non-profit that educates consumers and other stakeholders about the potential hazards of GMOs, just published its results of independent lab tests (verified by DNA analysis) done on Kellogg’s Froot Loops cereal.

Here’s what they found:

1) 100% of the corn in the Froot Loops was genetically-modified, containing DNA sequences known to be present in insecticide-producing Bt and Roundup Ready corn. This corn produces insecticides inside of the plant’s cells and cannot be washed off. Read more »

Just when you thought that GMOs, as we know them today, were bad enough, get ready for something potentially worse to deal with.

In a recent New York Times article, it was reported that biotech companies have discovered and exploited a loophole in government regulation that allows them to create a different breed of GMOs and market them to the public without needing approval from the USDA. Read more »

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 »

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 »

(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 »