For most of us in the organic food industry, our journey into the world of healthy living began sometime in our 20s, 30s or 40s.

But for a handful of very aware and socially responsible kids, their start came at a much younger age.

At 11 years old, Toronto’s Rachel Parent first learned about the risks of GMOs and soon launched the very influential Kids Right to Know. Her TV debate about GMO-Golden Rice with Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary garnered more than 2 million views, and she was named to Canada’s Top 20 Under 20 Change Makers by the National Post, among many other things.

At the age of 9, years old, Tennessee’s Birke Baehr began studying sustainable and organic farming practices. Two years later, his TEDx talk called “What’s Wrong with Our Food System” garnered more than 2 million views and acclaim from across the globe.

While Texas-based Nina Warda has not achieved that level of success just yet, she is one to definitely keep an eye on, as this teenager has tremendous determination, drive and discipline. 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 »

When most people think of the reason to drink organic milk, the first thing that pops into their mind is the desire to avoid hormonal milk – milk that has been produced from cows who have been injected with synthetic growth hormones.

(If you are unfamiliar with the serious health risks of hormonal milk, click HERE.)

Yet, a recently released study gives us an additional reason as to why we should drink organic milk.

In research published in PLOS One, the scientists of the study reported that organic milk contained 62% more omega-3 fatty acids and 25% fewer omega-6s. Read more »

Whole Foods has a very important place in both the organic industry and the American cultural landscape, and as I have gotten to know the company better, the more fascinated that I have become with it.

Since the company has so many cool initiatives going on all of the time, most of which do not get the attention that they deserve, I have decided to create something called Wednesdays at Whole Foods. This column will appear on the first and third Wednesday of each month and will showcase a wide variety of news, interviews, and other features.

If you have any suggestions, ideas, or things that you would like to see in this post, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, enjoy my new column – Wednesdays at Whole Foods!

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THE LATEST IN MOTOWN

In one of the most anticipated events in the company’s history, Whole Foods cut the ribbon on a new store in inner city Detroit a few months ago and as you can tell from the picture above, it was an absolute mob scene on opening day. Read more »

Recently, I got a comment from a woman who felt guilty about feeding her kids pesticide-laden, conventionally-grown food and asked if she “should always feed them organic.”

As someone who is very passionate about organic, I am going to be biased about organic food, which should not come as a surprise to anyone. Read more »

I got a message from a reader the other day on Facebook about a Health.com story that made her quite concerned. And rightly so.

The article is titled “27 Mistakes Healthy People Make” and the #2 mistake was that “you always buy organic”.

It starts off by saying “Buying organic is wise for certain foods, such as beef or strawberries, but it doesn’t make much difference for others, like avocados or eggs.”

It alarms me that a website with such a giant readership could mislead people so badly. To say that it doesn’t make much of a difference to buy conventional eggs versus organic eggs is simply preposterous. Read more »

A primary reason that people eat organic is because they don’t want to consume food that has been sprayed with toxic pesticides. This is especially important for children since their bodies are still developing and are very sensitive to poisonous chemicals.

Despite what the chemical industry would like us to believe – that chemicals are safe – the President’s Cancer Panel report says otherwise.

“The Panel was particularly concerned to find that the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated. With nearly 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States, many of which are used by millions of Americans in their daily lives and are un- or understudied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread.”

With 41% of the U.S. population expected to get cancer and 21% of the U.S. population expected to die of cancer, one recommendation made by the President’s Cancer Panel was to choose “food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers.”

In its recently released report, The American Academy of Pediatrics also believes that pesticides pose a grave danger to children.

The report says that “acute poisoning risks (from pesticides) are clear, and the understanding of chronic health implications from both acute and chronic exposure are emerging. Epidemiologic evidence demonstrates associations between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems. Related animal toxicology studies provide supportive biological plausibility for these findings.” Read more »