There has been a big debate during the last few years in the United States about the choices that we provide our children when it comes to nutrition. Many times food stamps end up being used to buy unhealthy foods and sweetened beverages and considering that we are in the middle of an obesity epidemic just add to insult to injury a group that already has a higher prevalence of weight-related illnesses. Many people naturally resist the idea of being told what they can, and can not buy at the grocery store (with or without government help) but some don’t like the idea of our tax dollars going towards meals that will just end up burdening the next generation with higher health care costs.
At the same time, many of the arguments being made against this idea are soft drink companies who stand to loose out on millions of dollars of revenue if food stamps were not allowed to be spent on them. While there are many arguments for or against this idea I think that we can all agree that at the very lease expanding the options available to consumers to actually include healthy choices.
There is a company called Wholesome Wave based out of Connecticut that created the “Double Value Coupon” program. Through this program people are invited to get double their money’s worth of food stamps (now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) so long as they use it on participating farmers markets located across the country. In the last three years they have expanded to include over 150 farmers markets across the country. Check out their website at WholesomeWave.org
Stonyfield Organic dairy firm CEO Gary Hirshberg decided to put together a little video as he launched a year long education campaign to spread the word on the problems that we face due to industiral farming. While i dont think that anyone expects that this guy is going to get an invite to the next soul train awards I like his idea.
This promotion is not juts to feed your ears, you can also take part! If you visit the Just Eat Organic website you can submit videos of your own to be mixed into their next creation. So flip on that camera and do your best “Just Eat Organic” rap and maybe you will get featured!
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The EU is set to put into force a new label that will displayed on products that have certified to be organic by the Agriculture and Rural Development committee. These rules come into effect tomorrow and is required on any pre-packaged foods that have been produced by any of the EU member states. The so called “euro leaf” will stay optional for non packaged and imported organic products. In order to better track the supply chain that brought your food to the store, the code number of the body that had been in control of the certification process should appear on it as well so people can better track that their food came from.
There is a two year transition period to comply with the new rules, and this is the first introduction of EU rules for organic agriculture for the first time.
Be warned, just because its says organic, doesn’t mean that its low in calories and diet friendly. A study shows that people often assume that the health benefits of eating organic somehow translates into a lower calorie intake. 100 participants were shown nutrition information for an Oreo cookie made with organic flour and sugar. These labels clearly showed that a serving of two organic cookies contained 160 calories, but it was were silent on the calorie content of the non organic snacks.
Later these same people were asked which they thought had less calories and 38 percent of the people chose the organic food presumably because they inferred that if organic cookies had 160 calories, then the other cookies, regardless of its calorie content, must be higher.
Another instance of this phenomenon was found with exercise. After finding 200 female college students who were trying to loose weight and asked them to forgo their post-dinner three mile run and eat either an organic dessert, eat a non organic desert, or refrain from desert all together. The results found that the students wouldn’t find it a problem to favor eating the organic dessert or nothing, over the non organic food, despite there being zero caloric benefit to it.
So when your making food decisions, don’t be misled that organic food is better on your waistline, its just good for your health!
Green is the new black! A recent movement within the fashion industry looks to organic clothing to create great styles in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Vogue magazine doesn’t believe this is a passing fad and is likely a development that could last for many years and has even featured organic clothing on their covers. Consumers are becoming more sensitive to the environmental cost of the things they eat, wear and use in their daily lives. Key players have been making improvements to their design and production processes instead of only focusing on the final product and the profits it carries with it.
Organic Cotton can be produced without the need for Chemicals
Cutting costs through outsourcing has been rampant over the last decades as textile production is often being sent to sweat shops with questionable business practices. Toxic pesticides and other chemicals were often used during production to cut costs quickly and consumers did not react, but much has changed. The organic movement began half a century ago with the production of organically produced food began. These changes slowly made their way to cosmetics and most recently textiles. Organic cotton is in huge demand and despite all cotton having a large carbon footprint, you can feel confidant that the clothes you are wearing are not covered in chemical fertilizers and pesticides ruining the land they grow on.
Tank Tops made with Natural Bamboo
The organic movement is even beginning to include natural fibers like hemp clothing, bamboo clothing and silk which are all highly resistant to bacteria and mould, easy to grow and are even biodegradable to stay out of our landfills. Animal fibers can also be raised from animals without the use of hormones to improve growth. There have even been improvements to the dying industry. With the use of AirDye technology, color can be added to clothing without the use of any water.
There are many places you can find these products these days, even Wal-mart is getting in on the action and selling a wide array of organic clothing. If you check out local stores you might find some as well, especially in rural and local food markets where organic food is sold (you can check our store locator if you need help).
Many online stores are also selling organic clothes and some of it looks great!
Want to grow your own organic food but need a little help? Nature’s Path Organic Foods, the largest producer of organic cereal in North America is sponsoring its Gardens for Good Grant contest to encourage sustainable farming in needy communities. Two entries will be selected in the form of an essay in 500 words or less to respond to the question: “Tell us about your program, who you serve, and how a garden grant will help you to serve more people”.
The two winners will get $10,000 in cash for their project, $5,000 in mentoring and technical design from Organic Gardening magazine, the hosting of a fundraiser for the winners and donate up to $100,000 in its own products to a local food bank in the winners community. Enter quickly, as you only have until June 14th to answer.
You may have heard of a recent organic food study conducted by the German based Stiftung Warentest consumer watchdog group. It found that organic food is not necessarily healthier or even better tasting then good ol’ regular groceries, despite being an average of 30 percent more expensive.
May not be healthier but is safer!
There were 85 different investigations over eight years to come to the results of the organic study and these findings have been heavily promoted in the media, however what I think is more important that is mentioned in the study almost as a footnote. Of the 13 different organic baby food products tested, 75% of them were pesticide free, compared to only 16% of the conventionally grown foods and this is the most important reason to be eating organic. Sure maybe the foods are not as nutritious as some others, but that’s like making a decision between potato chips and french fries. Sure one may be nutritious then the other, but they are both full of hash chemicals that are the ones doing the real damage to your body.
It also was revealed later that in both cases only processed foods were being used rather then raw fruits, vegetables or meats.
Where did we get the term “organic” food? Apparently in the early 20th century Walter James the 4th Baron Northbourne wrote a book called Look to the Land and coined the term organic farming as a holistic, ecologically based approach to farming in contrast to what he called chemical farming. Walter was a multi talented man being an agriculturalist, author and ever competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics where he won the silver medal.
Thanks for the Tip!
He contrasted his new method of farming with what he called chemical farming which relied on imported products and which could not be described as self sufficient. He described this as imported fertility. So here’s to you Walter, thanks for the great idea!
As well know, organic food is the healthy alternative to conventionally grown or raised food. People who make the switch get paid dividends in better health over their lifetime. But what about other animals? We recently talked about organic food and products are a good idea to give your pets but apparently at least for the birds they don’t agree. A three year study from Newcastle University found that wild birds, when given a choice will pick non-organic bird seed over organic seed.
No Organic Food for Me!
Researches think it may because chemical fertilizers make the non-organic food appear to be richer in protein then their natural alternatives. The scientists set up side by side bird feeders in over 30 locations across England and monitored the birds behavior when they came to eat. Apparently even after swapping the position of the two feeders made no difference as to eliminate the possibility that the choice was being made by location.
So birds don’t like to be healthy. I think ill keep putting organic feed in my feeder as I still force my son to eat his organic broccoli no matter how much he says he doesn’t like it.
There has been a big debate during the last few years in the United States about the choices that we provide our children when it comes to nutrition. Many times food stamps end up being used to buy unhealthy foods and sweetened beverages and considering that we are in the middle of an obesity epidemic just add to insult to injury a group that already has a higher prevalence of weight-related illnesses. Many people naturally resist the idea of being told what they can, and can not buy at the grocery store (with or without government help) but some don’t like the idea of our tax dollars going towards meals that will just end up burdening the next generation with higher health care costs. 
