Organic Food Blog

There’s so much controversy about soy milk, that I’ve decided to summarize all this mess into a short list:

The good stuff:

• Soy milk is casein free.
• Soy milk is lactose free.
• Soy milk contains proteins and other essential nutrients in high percentage.
• These nutrients make soy milk lower your cholesterol levels.

The bad stuff:

• Soy milk contains the dangerous phytic acid.
• Soy milk is filled with female hormones such as estrogen, which may cause breast cancer in women and lower sperm count in men.

Everyone learns things in different ways. I know people who are afraid of cookbooks, and feel they will never learn to cook. What about watching a video? Learning to cook by watching is definitely not as scary as attempting a recipe on your own from a book with too many instructions.

And there are 3 great video series that come to my mind if you are the cookbook fearing kind:

Keith Snow of Harvest Eating - great simple recipes, and lots of them.

Cynthia Lair of Cookus Interuptus - funny videos with storyline, and healthy, yummy recipes that are easy to make.

Myra Goodman of Earthbound Farm - new videos highlighting organic food, demonstrating quick and delicious recipes.

pic: johannesburglive.co.zaWe all want to avoid the manic mall mayhem. Scurrying around under strobe lighting with the rest of the pre-Christmas flurry is hardly conducive to calm, and there are so many wonderful markets at which you can pick up home-made fare for your Christmas meal; goodies, crafts and gifts that are local and handmade, in an unhurried atmosphere. We've made it even easier, by selecting those at which you're sure to enjoy yourselves and find hidden treasures.

Markets we love

Top 10 markets in & around Cape Town
The two stalwarts of Cape Town have to be the Neighbourgoods Market and the Porter Estate Produce Market, both of which have a strong focus on responsible and local foods, and some crafts. The Neighbourgoods Market held a Christmas market last year, which they’re sure to repeat. New to the Cape Town scene is ...

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Amazon Health Products from StarseedOil on Vimeo.

BUBALINA, a beauty company that continues to develop products that are useful and beneficial to the skin and the environment, has just launched its Natural Organics product line!

What makes BUBALINA products so unique? As with all BUBALINA products such as the body lotions, sugar scrubs, bath/shower gels and body butters, they contain only pure and superior ingredients, infused by natural extracts.

BUBALINA combines indulgent aromas to delight your senses while it exfoliates, hydrates & moisturizes your skin. All the products are natural and without parabens. The products were created for every girl and everyday use and the scents always feature BUBALINA’s charming signature packaging: colorful vignettes of the BUBALINA girls.

In the brand new Natural Organics line you will discover five wonderful scents also consisting of body washes, body scrubs, hand & body lotions and body butters. Keeping with the organic nature of this line, BUBALINA has taken the extra steps to ensure that even the packaging is beneficial to the environment by using vegetable based inks and recycled materials. This is the kind of dedication that you can expect from BUBALINA.

Footprints Environmental Centre is closing at the end of November! They have to leave their premises, as the property owners need their land for another use. Footprints plays an enormous role in recycling in Cape Town and friends and supporters are more than a little distraught to see it close. Some supporters are already mounting a campaign to try and find new premises for it, and we will keep you posted.

First community Market - an organic community market is set for tomorrow, 25 Oct, at the Owl Shelter, 9 Polaris Road (off Blomvlei Road) in Lansdowne. The market is part of the MENNGOS food garden programme, which has several projects in the Eastern & Western Cape. They fall under the ambit of individual food gardens for food security and surplus to sell, organic nutrition gardens to feed people affected by AIDS and HIV and high school children. All preparation of the land is conducted by the community project participants themselves and individuals who operate their own vegetable and herb gardens.

Woolworths offers fellowships to help the environment. If you are about to register for a full-time Master’s or Doctoral study at UCT, and want to do research in the areas of – pesticides, seafood sustainability, water usage, waste water, energy/climate change or biodiversity – Woolies is offering fellowships that cover tuition and subsistence, research costs or conference travel. Want to know more? Email pgfunding@uct.ac.za

Green retail space up for grabs. If you’ve a green business and you’re looking to share space with green conscious retailers, then a newly renovated mall at the top end of Long Street might be for you. They’re looking for clothing retailers, jewellery, shoes, décor etc. A minimum of 10% of your product needs to be sustainable, recycled or the like. Contact stacey@210onlong.co.za

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Whilst many have scoffed at organic farming as little more than a Western lifestyle fad, a major UN study, released yesterday, shows that these traditional practices can break the hunger cycle.

An analysis of 114 projects in 24 African countries found that yields had more than doubled where organic, or near-organic practices had been used. That increase in yield jumped to 128 per cent in east Africa.

The research conducted by the UN Environment Programme, suggests that organic, small-scale farming can deliver the increased yields which were thought to be the preserve of industrial farming, without the environmental and social damage which that form of agriculture brings with it.

The study found that organic practices outperformed traditional methods and chemical-intensive conventional farming. It also found...

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I often have people ask me if kosher meat encompasses sustainable practices, and I hate to crush the fantasy, but most often it does not. With the kosher seal, most people assume that the certification has taken into consideration the life and death of the animal- but this is a much bigger discussion. As detailed in this informative NYTimes article from this weekend’s Food Issue, when Agriprocessors, the processing plant that was responsible for up to 60% of the kosher beef and 40% of kosher poultry nationwide was raided in 2006 for immigration violations, and had already had a string of bad press for animal abuse and health and safety violations… “The allegations against Agriprocessors galvanized a small but thriving Jewish environmental movement and took its concerns to a much wider audience. In some American Jewish households, the raid on Agriprocessors started a deep conversation about the very meaning of kosher: is it simply about cutting an animal’s neck and butchering it in a specific way? Or is the ritual also meant to minimize an animal’s pain or to bring sanctity to its death? Does it matter how the animal was treated when it was alive? How about the workers who processed it? Is reverence for life possible in a factory-farming setting?”

And now there is quite a movement to make kosher and sustainable meat available to people, and there is a large demand. Devora Kimelman-Block is an active member in this movement, when she realized that it was almost impossible to find kosher and sustainable meat, she created a local, grassfed, organic, kosher meat business in Washington, DC, KOL Foods- Kosher Organic-Raised Local -which has since expanded with drop-offs in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and South Orange, NJ. She has gotten quite a bit of press lately, mentioned in the “Kosher Wars” article from the NYTimes this weekend, and also a recent mention in the HometownAnnpolis.com article “Jewish celebrants embrace eco-friendly foods.” Both are such fascinating pieces about the truth of industrial food slowly seeping into the mainstream and the people who are trying to pick up the pieces. Thank you to Devora for getting out into the community and sharing her knowledge, I know she speaks often in Jewish community to educate people about factory farming, sustainable food, and the new food models we need to support.

And speaking of getting the word out into the mainstream, today Oprah had a show - Lisa Ling Reports: How We Treat The Animals We Eat. I hope that the 10 million + viewers who usually watch her show were sitting on the edge of their seat… we need some more support for small family farmers! Thanks Oprah and Lisa too!

The Fine Food Store provides a quick delivery of organic food products and Organic Hampers in London, Manchester, and across the UK, offering its customers to order organic food products online from the comfort of home.

Managing Director of Fine Food Store David Porter tells, “The Fine Food Store is committed to providing the very best quality organic food that is prepared using quality ingredients. It is certain that our expanding range of organic food products will satisfy our customers demands, all our organic food is made from naturally obtained ingredients, the very best in quality and taste.

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Here is an exciting new service from Fleisher’s Meats- grass-fed organic meats packaged and delivered the same day to your doorstep!  Here is note from owner, Jessica Applestone:

I’ve got some exciting news for you: Fleisher’s Grass-fed & Organic Meats is about to start a door-to-door, fresh meat delivery service to Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island City. Fleisher’s was recently named “one of the best butchers in the country” by Bon Appetit magazine but until now you have had to visit one our shops in Kingston, NY or Rhinebeck, NY to enjoy our products. That’s about to change.

Fleisher’s sources directly from local Hudson Valley farms and only sells meat that comes from well-treated, healthy, drug-free animals. Serious cooks and serious carnivores know it’s nearly impossible to find local pasture-raised, antibiotic and hormone-free meat in the City.  And you know what you’re missing if you’ve ever tried Fleisher’s intensely flavorful beef (including steaks, burgers and absurdly good hot dogs), the revelatory Berkshire pork, the 100% organic chicken (which will remind you why a simple roast chicken is one of life’s greatest pleasures) and the lamb? Fuhgeddabouddit!

So forget pounding the pavement for inferior product or standing in line at the green market for frozen meat. Fleisher’s will bring whatever it is you want right to your home or office. And everything that arrives on your doorstep is cut, ground and packaged the same day. If you are interested go to our website www.fleishers.com, click on the NYC Delivery tab, give us your information and we will keep you updated.