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
June 7, 2006
America's appetite for organic food is so strong that supply just can't keep up with demand. Organic products still have only a tiny slice, about 2.5 percent, of the nation's food market. But the slice is expanding at a feverish pace.
Growth in sales of organic food has been 15 percent to 21 percent each year, compared with 2 percent to 4 percent for total food sales.
Organic means food is grown without bug killer, fertilizer, hormones, antibiotics or biotechnology.
Mainstream supermarkets, eyeing the success of organic retailers such as Whole Foods, have Read more
Growth in sales of organic food has been 15 percent to 21 percent each year, compared with 2 percent to 4 percent for total food sales.
Organic means food is grown without bug killer, fertilizer, hormones, antibiotics or biotechnology.
Mainstream supermarkets, eyeing the success of organic retailers such as Whole Foods, have Read more
News
July 7, 2006
As Cindy Daley walked the fence line at
Chico State University's farm this week, a curious herd of heifers
tromped along in the thick grasses of their pasture, following her
every move.
Likewise, the doe-eyed creatures have been under the watchful supervision of Daley, an animal science professor, who has been working to open one of the first organic dairy teaching facilities in the United States — the only one in the West.
Chico State's former dairy was the conventional feedlot sort where animals are confined to a relatively small area. But within the
Read more News
July 6, 2006
Appearances can be deceptive. Cotton, for most, seems like an entirely innocuous fabric. Against the sometimes scratchy, plasticky man-made fabrics, soft, breathing cotton seems positively natural. It is certainly
popular: hard-wearing, cool in the summer, warm in the winter, easily dyed and woven. No wonder we've been cultivating it for 7,000 years, or that last year we got through 112 million 480lb bales of the stuff, much of it grown in the US and China, the world's biggest producer. And yet it is a killer, a sartorial narcotic we need to give up. Cotton, as Dov Charney, entrepreneur Read more
popular: hard-wearing, cool in the summer, warm in the winter, easily dyed and woven. No wonder we've been cultivating it for 7,000 years, or that last year we got through 112 million 480lb bales of the stuff, much of it grown in the US and China, the world's biggest producer. And yet it is a killer, a sartorial narcotic we need to give up. Cotton, as Dov Charney, entrepreneur Read more
News
Eden Foods
Though all EDEN organic food is grown, handled, processed, and certified in a way that meets and exceeds the requirements for using the 'USDA Organic' seal, Eden Foods chooses not to use this seal on its product labels or marketing materials. Many reasonably ask how Eden came to this decision. The short answer is, this seal does not approach Eden's high standards for organic, in practice or in spirit. Years before the implementation of the National Organic Program (USDA's NOP) in October of 2002, Eden got word in 1992 that a national standard for organic was underway. In theory it seemed like Read more
Scientific Study
Subject: A new source of information on organics - Organic Eprints
July 4, 2006
Hugo F. Alroe writes:
Dear Organic Consumers,
You may wish to inform your readers and members about an important source of information on organics, the internet archive Organic Eprints.
Organic Eprints ( http://orgprints.org ) is an international open archive for papers and other information related to research in organic agriculture. The archive was established in 2002 and there are now more than 5000 papers from over 25 different countries. Some of the main objectives Read more
July 4, 2006
Hugo F. Alroe writes:
Dear Organic Consumers,
You may wish to inform your readers and members about an important source of information on organics, the internet archive Organic Eprints.
Organic Eprints ( http://orgprints.org ) is an international open archive for papers and other information related to research in organic agriculture. The archive was established in 2002 and there are now more than 5000 papers from over 25 different countries. Some of the main objectives Read more
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
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