6/24/13: RACHELLE CURRENTLY STARS IN THE CBS SHOW “UNDER THE DOME”

Star of ABC’s new medical drama Off the Map and new Golden Globe nominated films “Barney’s Version” & “Casino Jack”

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I started livingmaxwell to get the word out about organic food to as many people as possible. Why is this so important to me?

Because I know that organic food plays a critical role in the health of our citizens and of our planet. There is no reason that food grown with toxic pesticides, synthetic growth hormones and genetically-modified organisms should be in our bodies.

Many people in Hollywood recognize the value of organic food as well. One of these individuals is actress Rachelle Lefevre, whose credits include “The Caller,” “Fugitive Pieces,” and of course the blockbuster movie Twilight, as well as her upcoming TV series Off the Map. Read more »

En esta entrevista, hablo con Alberto González, el fundador de GustOrganics.

GustOrganics es el único restaurante orgánico certificado en NYC. Conversamos sobre lo que es un restaurante orgánico certificado y nos explica todo acerca del proceso de certificación.

Yesterday, I went to Organic Avenue‘s store in the West Village and something pretty unexpected happened.

After drinking my shot of E3 Live, I sat on the bench outside and started gazing into the sun. Increasing my Vitamin D levels is a real priority these days.

As I was sitting there, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, one of the world’s most famous chefs, walked by me and went into the store to return his glass bottles of juice. On his way out, I stopped him and asked him a few questions.

The one that immediately came to mind was whether Organic Avenue’s pressed juice was now for sale in his restaurants. When I interviewed Denise Mari, founder of Organic Avenue, at Fashion Week a few months ago, she mentioned that they would soon be selling them there.

Jean-Georges confirmed that they are available at three of his restaurants, including ABC Kitchen, his fantastic upscale organic one, and that they are selling very well. I wondered whether he would eventually press the juice himself in-house but he said no. He appeared to be very happy with the current arrangement and didn’t seem interested in dealing with the glass bottles. Read more »

I went to a fantastic organic food symposium last week in NYC and got a chance to interview Maria Rodale, the CEO of Rodale Inc. and author of the recently released Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World and Keep us Safe.

Maria gave me her thoughts as to where organic food is heading in our country and shared some other very interesting information.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Rodale name, it carries a lot of weight in the organic food industry. Maria Rodale is the granddaughter of J.I. Rodale, the person who started the organic food movement in the U.S. in the 1940s.

At this year’s US Open tennis tournament in New York City, Stonyfield had its Stonyfield Cafe outside center court where they served organic and natural food. This was the first time that I can ever remember organic food being served at a major sporting event, and I hope this becomes a regular occurrence.

At the tournament, I caught up with Stonyfield’s President and CE-Yo, Gary Hirshberg, where we talked about the the success of the Stonyfield Cafe and its future plans.

A side note: When I started livingmaxwell about ten months ago, one of my goals was to interview Gary Hirshberg. So, making this happen was a big thrill.

Not only was Gary was featured in the movie Food, Inc. but he is one of the most influential figures in the organic food movement in our country. Aside from his tremendous commitment to organic and the environment, Gary believes that business is the most powerful tool to change the world — something that I agree with 100%.

Also, many thanks to Gary’s wife, Meg Hirshberg (a fellow Brown University alum), who did a great job shooting this segment.

Earlier this year, I interviewed Joel Salatin, one of the stars of the movie Food Inc., at the Northeast Organic Farmers Association – MA Winter Conference.

In case you don’t remember, Joel Salatin was the organic farmer in the movie who was cutting up the chickens in his “outdoor” processing facility.

One complaint that never seems to disappear is the high price of organic food. In the video, Joel addresses this concern and what people can do about it.

I have a decent amount of footage with Joel and will be releasing it in a few different installments. Here is the first one.

When I launched livingmaxwell at the end of December, I realized that I needed to get my act together in regards to social media.

Having immersed myself in this space over the past few months, I now pay particular attention to how other organic food businesses use social media.  My overall impression so far: I am extremely unimpressed.

Here are two exceptions.

Whole Foods

No surprise here.  Whole Foods leverages social media better than most companies in the world.  Not only were they a very, very early user on Twitter but how many corporations have their own Flickr page?

These people know what they are doing and their stats confirm this.  235,000 fans on Facebook and 1.75 million followers on Twitter. Read more »