Last Friday, a California court ruled that Monsanto’s Roundup chemical caused groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson to get cancer (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) and ordered the company to pay $289M in damages.

This was a watershed moment for the industry, as organic advocates had been sounding the alarm for years about the toxic effects of this herbicide, whose main ingredient in glyphosate. Read more »

The Stephens family, owners of Nature’s Path (l. to r., Ratana Stephens, Arjan Stephens, Jyoti Stephens, Arran Stephens)

* Iconic cereal brand Nature’s Path has quit the Organic Trade Association (OTA) as a protest to save organic.

* The company says the OTA “is not working in step with organic advocates to protect and strengthen the original principles of the organic movement” and is not acting with sincerity when it comes to hydroponics, the most divisive issue in organic.

* BASF and Cargill have been granted membership in the OTA, even though their GMO and chemical products “are actively harming” organic farmers.

* The OTA defends its governance, transparency and organic agenda.

—

For some people, having BASF — one of the world’s most powerful chemical and GMO companies — as a member of the Organic Trade Association (OTA) is not a problem.

For Arran Stephens, CEO and Co-Founder of the fiercely independent, family-owned Nature’s Path, this was something that he could no longer tolerate.

A combination of frustration with the OTA over the years, the organization’s willingness to accept hydroponics in organic, and allowing non-organic members, such as BASF, Cargill, Campbell’s and General Mills, to have influence over the direction of the OTA were all reasons Nature’s Path cited as reasons why it recently left the trade group.

“Our departure from the OTA is an act of protest to raise awareness of our concern that the important role organic plays to support the health of consumers and our planet is being compromised,” says Arran Stephens. Read more »

The Summer Fancy Food Show, put on by the Specialty Food Association, is always one of my favorite food shows of the year.

Aside from the fact that it attracts vendors from all over the world, it also features an Incubation Village, where food incubators from around the country showcase some of their most interesting brands. This gives invaluable exposure to young brands, many of whom would be unable to afford a booth on their own. Read more »

(Photo courtesy of the Texas Civil Right Project via Twitter)

In light of the heartbreaking tragedy taking place at the Mexican border, where kids have been separated from their parents, a few organic food companies have taken a stand.

John Foraker, Co-Founder and CEO of Once Upon a Farm, who played the leading role in saving Ron Finley’s “Gangsta Garden” in South Central Los Angeles last year, wrote a letter on LinkedIn, challenging and calling out his fellow CEOs for staying quiet on this issue. Read more »

(This is a sponsored post from my partners at Intellipure. I have been using the company’s air filtration machines for well over a decade — many years before I started Living Maxwell.)

—

After having eaten close to 100% organic since 2001, I have come to realize one thing — food is only one part of the equation.

While I maintain that it is still a very important piece of the puzzle, it is certainly not the only one when it comes to good health. I would put your emotional well-being, the quality of water that you drink, the EMFs that you are exposed to and the air that you breathe all in the same conversation when it comes to optimizing personal wellness.

Yet, arguably, clean air may be the most important thing to address when it comes to your health. Why? Read more »

In the summer of 2016, President Obama signed an absolutely horrible GMO-labeling bill into existence.

Two years later and with the proposed standards of this bill recently released to the public, we now see just how deceptive and confusing this piece of regulation is.

Here are a few of the major points of the GMO-labeling law, which is formally known as the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard.

1) The standard defines “bioengineered” food as food “(A) that contains genetic material that has been modified through in vitro recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) techniques; and (B) for which the modification could not otherwise be obtained through conventional breeding or found in nature.”

First and foremost, a GMO-disclosure rule should make it clear and easy for consumers to know whether a food is genetically-modified or not.

The truth is that most people have no idea what “bioengineered” means, and using this seldom-used, scientific term is confusing to shoppers.

Replacing “GMO” or “genetically-modified” — terms that have been used by consumers for decades — with “bioengineered” is both disingenuous and deceptive. 

Second, the definition of “bioengineered” does not give us any clarity about whether the next generation of GMO technologies, such as gene-editing, synthetic biology and RNAi, will be covered under this rule. This is critically important.

2) Companies will have three options to disclose the presence of “bioengineered” foods – text, symbol or QR codes. QR codes are inherently discriminatory since nearly 100 million Americans do not have a smartphone.

The proposed bioengineered symbols with a smiley face, grass, a blue sky and sunshine — all of which are supposed to be neutral — give off the impression that “bioengineered” foods are healthy!

3) It is still uncertain if heavily processed, genetically-modified sugars, syrups and oils will require a label. Read more »

As more and more people are moving toward a plant-based diet and migrating away from animal products, organic cannot be forgotten in this equation.

Unfortunately, I see far too many people who think that as long as it is plant-based, that is sufficient. It’s not.

Case in point: almonds.

In the early 2000s, there were a few outbreaks of salmonella traced to raw almonds from California, a state where nearly 100% of America’s almonds are grown. As a result, the USDA implemented a rule that required all almonds grown in California to be pasteurized. This holds true for both organic and non-organic varieties. Read more »