Poison Pet Food—Its Like Alar On Apples
Why Its Time To Start Educating Consumers Well I love my cats almost more than myself. And yes I feed them the good natural stuff too, without preservatives and probably better for humans than most of the crackers at my local supermarket. Turns out that the unfortunate pet-poisoning incident has been a boom for natural […]
Wal-Mart to the World: We Want to be the #1 Organic Retailer
Wal-Mart’s recent announcement that it plans on rapidly expanding its selection of organic items in its stores garnered plenty of attention. Yet NBN believes that while Wal-Mart is seriously considering the opportunities here, we aren’t holding our breath. Of course we know that there will be more and more organic milk, peanut butter and dry […]
Wild Oats Products Hit Price Chopper—Is the Brand Worth More Than The Stores
As regular readers know we have been following Ron Burkle’s interest in the Wild Oats chain closely. So far, despite his nearly 25% ownership and placement of many of his people at the helm, things have remained pretty much the same at Oats. At least so far. More recently we’ve talked to folks who suggest […]
Senate Proposes Changes on Organic Rules
Is It Like Putting the Fox in Charge of Guarding The Henhouse More and more granola minded soccer moms are buying organic nut butters, gallons of Odwalla juices and Amy’s Organic frozen dinners at big box stores. No surprise here. In San Francisco, I know lots of folks who load up their Volvos at Whole […]
Feds Reverse Ban on Use of USDA Organic Seal—Let Them Eat Soap
The USDA announced that it would reverse a rule prohibiting the use of the USDA Organic seal on body care, pet food and all other non-food items. Last April the Agency decided that only food items could use the USDA seal. Previous to that, under advisory rulings the agency had allowed organic claims for non-food […]
Organic Valley Steps Up Beyond the Horizon
Fund Created to Assist Conventional Dairies Transition Organic Valley announced last week the creation of a transition fund to support conventional dairy farmers facing the challenging and initially costly steps in becoming certified organic. OV’s transition fund, created in partnership with Stonyfield Farm, will pay farmers a premium above the market rate cost of their […]
Now For Some Good News—Money Talks, Antibiotics Walk—At Least A Little Bit
Okay so this doesn’t signify a revolutionary change in the way food is processed, but two items in today’s Supermarket News online edition suggest that the interests of agribusiness may be increasingly at odds with the concerns of those actually bring the foods to markets. Albertson’s announced the introduction all natural antibiotic and growth hormone […]
Scharffen Berger Slurped Up By Giant
Hershey Extends Reach To Upscale Chocolate Lovers Now that someone no longer owns Scharffen Berger we care for, it’s time to reveal a nasty comment made by a colleague earlier this spring. “The more I eat Dagoba, the more Scharffen Berger is starting to taste like Hershey.” We’ll see if the candy giant keeps the […]
Bronner Boxes Bureaucrats over Rule Reversal
Battle Over Organic Non Food Labels Heads To Court The Organic Consumer Association and Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps issued a lawsuit attempting to win an injunction against the USDA’s recent attempts to ban disallows any labeling or marketing of products that are certified to comply with the NOP (National Organic Program) standards. When the rules […]