Congressional Support For Organic Weak; Organic’s “Lack of Respect for Traditional Agriculture” Troubling to One Congressman
A recent story by the Associated Press reported on the growing consumer demand for organic products also detailed the challenges to getting more supportive policies from a USDA and a Congress dominated by the interests of large agriculture. An effort to change current federal law to allow organic farmers to create an organic industry-wide marketing […]
Media Watch Week of April 14
Thanks to Sean Timberlake for pointing us to the dangers of tweeting about scones. As reported in The Eater April 16 Epicurious’ attempt to respond to the Boston Marathon bombing was about as well thought out as telling the government to stay out of my Medicare. Local Sante Fe & Albuquerque TV news station KOB April 19 report […]
Whole Foods Scores Another Green Coup, Announces Rooftop Greenhouse in Gowanus Brooklyn Store
Fresh after what many called the company’s groundbreaking rules regarding vendors and GMO transparency, Whole Foods scored another big green thumbs up with its Monday announcement that Gotham Greens would operate what the company stated is “the nation’s first commercial scale greenhouse farm integrated within a retail grocery space.” Gotham Greens current hydroponic operations in […]
Santa Rosa Newspaper and CNBC Profile Amy’s Kitchen Berliner Family
In a profile of Amy’s Kitchen founders Andy and Rachel Berliner and their daughter and namesake Amy, Santa Rosa California’s Press Democrat also detailed the company’s plans to abandon building a new plant in the low-cost state of South Carolina, 25 year old Amy’s new role with the company and a promise to keep the growing […]
Whole Foods, Following Ouster of Scharffen Berger Chocolate, Requires Ethical Sourcing Audit for Coconut Water
After removing Hershey owned Scharffen Berger Chocolates from its stores due to ongoing concerns over Hershey’s sourcing procedures and child labor, BevNet reports that Whole Foods is now requiring all of its coconut water vendors to conduct ethical sourcing audits from a list of store approved 3rd party auditors. Another Hershey brand, Dagoba Chocolate, […]
Organic Study Claims Reasons to Buy Organic are Unclear
While a review of current studies on the benefits of organic food by researchers at Stanford University and published in the Annals of Internal medicine offers a few nods of the cap to organic, primarily less pesticides, they even question the value of this benefit. Really? As noted in CNN the report states that “no studies have […]
I’ll Have Big Mac, Double Fries and a Side of Pink Sea Salt Please
After a nearly six year hiatus coming back to San Francisco is a bit like remembering how much I loved to play baseball; its a surprise and obvious all at the same time. When I was a child one of my favorite pastimes, besides setting up bar for some of the oh so fabulous 1960’s […]
USDA To Start Spot Testing Organic Products, Media Makes Hay Over It
Given the current failure of proper government oversight into a wide range of businesses –banking, finance, mortgage lending and meat processing to name just a few, the fact that USDA announcement that it would begin more rigorous spot checks on organic products was greeted by some in the media as evidence that the organic is meaningless left […]
Ingelhoffer Launches Organic Mustards
Back in the mid-90’s NBN ended ten years of working in natural foods retail to hit the road. No nothing romantic, we’re not talking Kerouac, here. He became a traveling salesman. Yes NBN was looking for love in the form of sales commissions all over the San Francisco Bay area working for what was then […]