Last night, I interviewed Andrew Kimbrell, the Executive Director of The Center for Food Safety (CFS), a non-profit based in Washington DC.

The website says that CFS “protects human health and the environment by curbing the proliferation of harmful food production technologies and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture.”

In plain language, this organization battles the people who are polluting our environment and corrupting the integrity of our food supply.

What is important to note is that when CFS files lawsuits, it often succeeds.  This includes several victories against Monsanto and others.  Recent wins include: stopping GE sugar beets, halting GE crops in wildlife refugees, preserving r-BGH free labels on dairy products, and passing California law to protect farmers from the hazards of GE crops.

Andrew Kimbrell and his team are amazing advocates of organic food, and I cannot express how lucky we are to have such competent and committed people fighting for our cause in Washington.

The interview I shot with him will be up very soon, but I received an email from CFS today and wanted to share it immediately.

The organic food community is under serious attack from the USDA.  Yes, the USDA.  It is considering allowing GE alfalfa, which would have disastrous consequences for the organic food industry and the well-being of small and family farms. Read more »

If you haven’t watched Jamie Oliver’s keynote address at the recent TED conference, you need to.  The speech was an all-out assault on the food that Americans eat and how it is literally killing our population.

It is a shame that we have to have someone who isn’t even a U.S. citizen give us a wake-up call but that is the dire situation we are in with our food system. The truth is that our government is failing us and not acting in our best interest when it comes to health.

One of the great things about doing this blog is that I get to publicize organizations who are working diligently to reverse this severe crisis we now face. One such group is called RootDown LA.

RootDown LA, a project of Community Partners, is a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles whose purpose is simple: to get kids reconnected to real, whole foods that are not processed nor laden with chemicals. Read more »

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, this is the time of year when we cannot forget to incorporate organic into our plans. And for sure, this includes flowers. Why?

Ginger Thompson, a great journalist for the New York Times, wrote a fantastic piece several years ago on the flower industry in Ecuador. The local workers, who are in desperate need of money, have little choice but to work for these companies and suffer the dire consequences of being exposed to the poisonous chemicals used on the flowers. They are getting sick but it is a question of illness or hunger.

Furthermore, the chemicals inevitably get into the soil and pollute the water supply.

It is a very, very sad situation, and there are no easy answers.

What we can do, however, is increase our consumption of organic flowers. If consumers demand organic, chemical-free flowers, growers around the world will change their ways or suffer economically. We need to create change with our wallets.

Valentine’s Day is a huge day for the flower industry, and for those of us concerned about the environment and the well-being of our fellow citizens, organic flowers need to be just as important as organic apples or grapes.

Here are two flower companies, both of which are well-respected in the organic community, that can do next-day delivery for Valentine’s Day

* California Organic Flowers

* Diamond Organic Flowers

I almost fell over yesterday when I was at the Whole Foods Market (Fresh Pond Store) in Cambridge, MA. Let me explain…

Before entering the check-out line, I was looking at the marketing materials related to Whole Foods’ new Health Starts Here campaign — an initiative based on a plant-based, nutrient-dense diet.

In the world of high antioxidant fruit juice, pomegranate, acai, grape and blueberry seem to get all of the attention.  Black currants, however, need to be in the discussion.

A few weeks ago when I went to the Northeast Organic Farmers Association winter conference in Worcester, MA, I had an interesting conversation with Kate Kerivan, the owner of Bug Hill Farm in Western Massachusetts. Bug Hill is a very small farm that organically grows black currants and bottles the juice.

I have seen currant juice in the supermarket from time-to-time but there are very few brands that offer it.  And, the ones that I have tasted before either weren’t organic or just didn’t make much of an impression.

So, when I spoke with Kate and tasted her product, my interest was piqued again.

The nutritional benefits of black currants never escaped me.  According to the research that I’ve seen, they have significantly higher levels of antioxidants than blueberries and have three times the amount of Vitamin C than oranges.

Furthermore, they are rich in a phytochemical called anthocyanidin, which has anti-aging and anti-inflammatory properties. Read more »

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 »

While there are many great organizations in the country that promote organic food and work to protect organic food regulations in Washington D.C., the two most prominent ones are the Organic Consumers Association and the Organic Trade Association.

As you can tell from their names, one focuses on consumers and the other focuses on the trade.

Last year, however, the Organic Trade Association (OTA) embarked on its first nationwide consumer awareness and education campaign.  As part of this outreach, the OTA just launched a program called “Organic. It’s Worth it in Schools.”

This initiative is calling on teachers, parents, students, educators and others to vote for their favorite school to win an organic garden complete with seeds, soil and expert gardening support; or a fully stocked vending machine, which can feature organic items like milk, fruit, cheese, yogurt and snacks. Read more »