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Prairie Organic Spirits Makes Commitment to Organic Farming, Establishes “Spirit of Change Fund”

The U.S. faces a real challenge when it comes to sourcing and producing organic food.

Right now, organic comprises more than 5% of overall food sales in the country. However, out of the total farmland in the U.S., less than 1% is organic. As a result, we are forced to purchase an incredibly high percentage of our organic food from abroad.

Making matters worse is that there is no governmental vehicle to help transition farmers to organic, which would not only create jobs in the U.S. but would lessen our dependence on imports.

Wanting to do its part to address this problem, Prairie Organic Spirits, the nation’s leading organic spirits brand, has created the Spirit of Change Fund. Through the establishment of this fund, Prairie Organic has committed 1% of its sales to support the next generation of organic farmers and to help transition more conventional farmland to organic.

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Foodstirs Becomes the First Nationally Distributed Organic Food Brand to Become Glyphosate Residue-Free Certified

Most people recognize Foodstirs as the company that has completely transformed the organic baking category.

But with its latest move, the company will soon be known as a true trailblazer throughout the entire organic industry.

Foodstirs has become the first nationally distributed organic food brand — with its multi-ingredient food products being sold in natural and conventional retail outlets, as well as Starbucks — to receive Glyphosate Residue-Free certification.

Glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, is the most widely used herbicide in the world, It is known to the State of California to cause cancer, and the World Health Organization declared that it is a probable human carcinogen, which means that it probably causes cancer.

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Best Trade Show Booths from Natural Products Expo West 2013 – Sambazon and Bitsy’s Brainfood

In what is now starting to become a tradition, I am giving awards to the best trade show booths at both Natural Product Expo West and Natural Products Expo West.

Some companies put a tremendous amount of effort into their booths, and I want to make sure that they get recognized for this.

At Expo West 2013, two booths in particular caught my attention.

SAMBAZON

Many of the bigger organic food companies have completely lost their start-up edge and creativity when it comes to trade show booths.

Sambazon showed that it still has it.

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Organic Products that Contain Unapproved Additives are the Source of Controversy

When I was at the Expo West trade show recently, I came across Horizon Organic Milk with DHA Omega-3 and was impressed at first glance. I thought to myself that this looks like a pretty interesting dairy product.

Yet several days after returning back to NYC and just as I was about to write a post about this organic milk, I received an email from The Cornucopia Institute, a watchdog for the organic industry.

The Cornucopia Institute has condemned the USDA for allowing products containing unapproved synthetic additives (DHA Omega-3, as one of them) to be labeled “organic” for an indefinite grace period.

Furthermore, The Cornucopia Institute has filed legal complaints against infant formula manufacturers and Dean Foods, manufacturer of Horizon dairy products, for adding unapproved additives: Martek Biosciences Corporation’s omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (DHA/ARA), derived chemically from fermented algae and fungus, to foods with the organic label.

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My Fantastic Dinner at Cafe Gratitude in Los Angeles

Whenever I visit San Francisco, the very first place I go to eat is Cafe Gratitude in the Mission district. It is one of my all-time favorite organic restaurants and the food is always spectacular.

For those who are not familiar with Cafe Gratitude, it is an amazing restaurant that started in San Francisco and has gained an iconic reputation within the organic and raw food community. It has since grown to several locations in the Bay Area and very recently opened its first outpost in Los Angeles.

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Fearless Makes a Truly Fantastic Organic Chocolate Bar

When I go to the organic trade shows twice a year, I see hundreds and hundreds of products.

Many of the products I am already familiar with but some are brand new. And in this category of brand new products, there are always a few that make a long-lasting impression.

Fearless Chocolate happens to be one of those organic products, which I encountered at the 2011 Expo West show in Anaheim, CA, and I vividly remember not being able to stop eating it.

While I favor raw chocolate over non-raw chocolate, because it tastes so much more light and healthy, the Fearless Chocolate Matcha Green Tea Peppermynt was something special.

The combination of green tea and peppermint, both of which I am a huge fan, was what made this chocolate bar so refreshing, compelling and unusual.

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Harmless Harvest is the Hottest Brand in the Organic Food Industry

I see a lot of products in the organic food world but there is a buzz about Harmless Harvest and its coconut water that I have never seen before.

This tends to happen when you are in a super-hot category and you are the best tasting, healthiest product in that category.

Harmless Harvest’s raw organic coconut water is made by using a technology called high pressure pasteurization (HPP), which I named one of my top 5 organic food trends for 2012.

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