All About Organics
OCA's Organic Resource Center
Organic Consumers Association Campaigns, Essays, Headlines, Action Alerts, Downloads and Videos on Organic Food.
Organic food is pure food. It's safer, more nutritious and free of chemical additives. Organic crops are grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers and organic livestock are raised without antibiotics, growth hormones or other drugs. Organic food isn't genetically modified or irradiated.
News
July 25, 2014
"When I ask students where their food comes from, they say, "The supermarket,'" says Carol Okada, plant quarantine branch manager for the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.
These students aren't alone. Even with raw sewage spills, controversy over taro patents and threats of an avian flu pandemic, studies show that local consumers are almost completely unaware of how their food is grown and what goes into it.
Most Hawaii consumers, like their national counterparts, don't know that more than 70 percent of processed foods in the U.S. market contain at least one genetically Read more
These students aren't alone. Even with raw sewage spills, controversy over taro patents and threats of an avian flu pandemic, studies show that local consumers are almost completely unaware of how their food is grown and what goes into it.
Most Hawaii consumers, like their national counterparts, don't know that more than 70 percent of processed foods in the U.S. market contain at least one genetically Read more
News
July 3, 2006
SOUTH BAY - When Florida Crystals Corp. decided to try growing and processing sugar cane for the organic market nine years ago, even some of its top officials were skeptical.
"The biggest challenge was the processing. How do you process it without chemicals?" said Ricardo Lima, vice president and general manager of the firm's Okeelanta Corp., which includes 65,000 acres of cane fields, plus a mill, processing plant and distribution center. "I said, 'That's not possible. You're nuts.' But we decided to try it, starting out with 50 to 60 tons of sugar."
Another challenge Read more
"The biggest challenge was the processing. How do you process it without chemicals?" said Ricardo Lima, vice president and general manager of the firm's Okeelanta Corp., which includes 65,000 acres of cane fields, plus a mill, processing plant and distribution center. "I said, 'That's not possible. You're nuts.' But we decided to try it, starting out with 50 to 60 tons of sugar."
Another challenge Read more
News
July 2, 2006
Darrell Wood drove slowly across his land near Chico, a battered cowboy hat pulled down over his forehead, his eyes darting back and forth as he sized up the Black Angus cattle grazing nearby. In the back of his truck, three border collies stood at attention, ready to work.
The cattle looked in prime shape as they stood in lush pasturage dotted with sapphire vernal pools. Large flocks of northern pintails dabbled in the water, while white-tailed kites hovered overhead and red-winged blackbirds called from the sedges along the pools.
"This ecosystem is like anything else Read more
The cattle looked in prime shape as they stood in lush pasturage dotted with sapphire vernal pools. Large flocks of northern pintails dabbled in the water, while white-tailed kites hovered overhead and red-winged blackbirds called from the sedges along the pools.
"This ecosystem is like anything else Read more
News
July 2, 2006
Shoppers often reach for organic food -- even if it costs more -- to avoid pesticide residues on fruit and vegetables, said Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association.
Because the amount of chemicals that linger in food varies, that reach makes more sense for some foods than others, said Consumer Reports magazine earlier this year after reviewing U.S. Department of Agriculture tests. Food labeled as organic, according to federal rules that took effect in 2002, is not genetically modified and has been grown using soil conservation techniques on land that has been Read more
Because the amount of chemicals that linger in food varies, that reach makes more sense for some foods than others, said Consumer Reports magazine earlier this year after reviewing U.S. Department of Agriculture tests. Food labeled as organic, according to federal rules that took effect in 2002, is not genetically modified and has been grown using soil conservation techniques on land that has been Read more
News
June 29, 2006
I wrote a post a little while back about the exchange http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/6/20/125716/262 going on between food writer Michael Pollan and Whole Foods Market honcho John Mackey. The subject has been some claims about Whole Foods' relationship to "industrial organic" made in Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma. Read that previous post for background.
Mackey has written another detailed letter to Pollan. http://www. Read more
Mackey has written another detailed letter to Pollan. http://www. Read more
News
June 30, 2006
Hill, of Blacksburg, is retired from the University of Maine's Department of Chemical Engineering.
We know that American manufacturing jobs have been going overseas. Jobs making clothing and textiles are among those vanishing from the United States. Making matters worse, the jobs going to China, Vietnam, El Salvador and other nations, are not helping to pull abjectly poor people in those countries out of poverty. Rather, the workers often receive wages that barely sustain life.
Often, children or very young women are exploited in sweatshop conditions for very long hours
Read more News
June 23, 2006
Mayor Gavin Newsom swore in eleven members of the Sweatfree Procurement Advisory Group yesterday at City Hall.
Newsom and Supervisor Tom Ammiano introduced a Sweatfree Procurement Advisory Ordinance in June 2005 to ensure San Francisco does not purchase goods produced in sweatshops. The ordinance will guarantee products the City procures are produced under safe, fair, and humane working conditions.
"It's not just a promise on paper," said Mayor Newsom
Read more News
June 25, 2014
DERIDDER, La. -- Ted Williams likes thinking differently, and he's hoping he can persuade others to do the same.
The Singer native has worked across the United States as an organic consultant and even helped professors at the University of Minnesota set up the school's organic education program. Now he's planting his knowledge in Harvest Organics Co-op, an organic farm and education resource center that he and wife Louise are opening in Beauregard Parish later this year.
The Williams plan to run the co-op on 330 acres they purchased eight miles south of DeRidder. They're Read more
The Singer native has worked across the United States as an organic consultant and even helped professors at the University of Minnesota set up the school's organic education program. Now he's planting his knowledge in Harvest Organics Co-op, an organic farm and education resource center that he and wife Louise are opening in Beauregard Parish later this year.
The Williams plan to run the co-op on 330 acres they purchased eight miles south of DeRidder. They're Read more
News
June 29, 2006
Big-name supermarket chains nationwide are offering more organic and health-oriented foods to consumers, in a move to capture some of the success enjoyed by natural markets such as Whole Foods, Wild Oats and Trader Joe's.
According to supermarket consultant Phil Lempert, Whole Foods "changed the game" for "Big Middle" traditional supermarkets. They are now seeking ways to grab a piece of the 11.1 percent annual growth Whole Foods has experienced in the past five years. The Big Middle -- a major part of the $480 billion grocery industry -- has more or less been stagnant in recent Read more
According to supermarket consultant Phil Lempert, Whole Foods "changed the game" for "Big Middle" traditional supermarkets. They are now seeking ways to grab a piece of the 11.1 percent annual growth Whole Foods has experienced in the past five years. The Big Middle -- a major part of the $480 billion grocery industry -- has more or less been stagnant in recent Read more
News
June 29, 2006
Most people who shop at Whole Foods are liberal yuppies.
They have enough money to spend $9 on a pound of cherries.
They believe that shopping for groceries at Whole Foods instead of Safeway or Food Lion or Giant or Wal-Mart is the politically correct thing to do.
They probably believe that the President and CEO of Whole Foods is a liberal like themselves.
They of course would be wrong.
John Mackey is instead a libertarian with right-wing tendencies.
Mackey says that Milton Friedman is his hero.
He's a devotee of Ayn Read more
They have enough money to spend $9 on a pound of cherries.
They believe that shopping for groceries at Whole Foods instead of Safeway or Food Lion or Giant or Wal-Mart is the politically correct thing to do.
They probably believe that the President and CEO of Whole Foods is a liberal like themselves.
They of course would be wrong.
John Mackey is instead a libertarian with right-wing tendencies.
Mackey says that Milton Friedman is his hero.
He's a devotee of Ayn Read more
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