
All About Organics
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.
Consumers who want to see how their favorite organic brands fared on the Cornucopia's ratings scorecard can click here
http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html
From: The Cornucopia Institute <www.cornucopia.org>
3/22/06
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Kastel, 608.625.2042
Organic Dairy Being Corrupted by Factory Farms
New Study Highlights Both Corporate Exploitation and Ethical Brands
CORNUCOPIA, WI: A
Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.
Dear Umbra,
I just read your column on organic syrup, and you made a comment about the futileness of the phrase "free range." I always try to buy free-range eggs and, whenever possible, the same with chicken. Am I wasting my money?
Jeff Pritts
St. Louis, Mo.
Dearest Jeff,
Yes, basically. There is a chance that your egg purveyor uses "free range" in the way that you understand it, but the only way to tell is call them and ask about range freedom on their chicken ranch. The Food and Drug Administration
Read moreNow Available!
The Cornucopia Institute's national survey of organic products in the dairy case showcases ethical family farm producers and exposes factory farm producers and brands that threaten to take over organic dairying. With this Web-based rating tool, you can see which brands and dairy products found in your region are produced using the best organic farming practices and ethics. Based on a year's research into the organic dairy business, the scorecard rates 68 different organic dairy brands and private-label products.
Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk
Read moreTHE CORNUCOPIA INSTITUTE, a nonprofit agricultural policy research group in Cornucopia, Wis., will release a report today that ranks organic milk and dairy products based on federal organic standards as well as environmental and humane concerns.
"It is simply an analysis comparing the ethics and management practices of all organic name brand and private label dairy products," said Mark Kastel, a founder of the group, last week. "This is a tool to help consumers shop with firms that represent their values."
Shoppers have come to expect that a container of milk bearing the
Read moreAnd organic food has become a bona fide 21st-century retail hit. In 1976, consuming food produced by organic farmers was cutting edge, a counter-cultural reaction to the pervasive use of pesticides and herbicides by family farmers and agribusiness alike.
In 2006, having been embraced by mainstream consumers, organics have become a big business, with annual sales in the United States zooming from $1 billion in 1990 to $20 billion in 2005.
The Organic Trade
Read moreChefs at many high-end restaurants prefer to whip up their culinary treats with the vivid flavors provided by organic produce and food products.
Many organic products are tastier and healthier than their conventional counterparts. Unfortunately for those of us on a tight budget, the eye-popping price tags often put organic foods out of reach.
But you don't have to carve up your budget to serve organic produce and food, said Craig Minowa, an environmental scientist with the Organic Consumers Association, a nonprofit industry group.
Through comparison shopping, bulk
Read more
Dear Members & Friends of the Organic Food Network,
So far in this series, we have looked at what to eat and what not to eat to strengthen our immune systems and "be healthy." The e-mail preceding the start of this series offered different perspectives on the bird flu issue and gave us some background to understand the possibilities should the bird flu virus mutate and spread to humans. Remember that this is all speculation at this point and that my position is that we can all use this opportunity to improve our health habits and
Harleysville, Pa. Feb 28 / SOAPWIRE/ -- The Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) announced today that retail sales within the U.S. consumer packaged goods health and wellness industry reached $79 billion in 2005. That constitutes a total growth of 15% over 2004. These findings are part of NMI's annual Health & Wellness Trends Database? (HWTD) research study of 2,800+ U.S. consumer households.
According to NMI President Maryellen Molyneaux, "The 2005 sales figures represent significant acceleration compared to the 8% dollar growth shown in 2004. Functional/fortified beverages
Read moreGot Organic Milk? That's the question more and more consumers are asking in supermarkets across the nation. | Sales of organic food have grown dramatically over the last decade - soaring from $3 billion in 1997 to more than $10 billion in 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Sales of organic food have grown by 20 percent annually, and experts predict that the industry's share of the U.S. food market is expected to grow from about 2 percent to roughly 3.5 percent by the end of the decade.
In fact, demand for organic food is growing so fast that consumer
Read moreCertifiers are being told in National Organic Program training sessions to get tougher on enforcing commercial availability regulations.
"We are putting everyone on notice that we are holding certifiers' feet to the fire," said Mark Bradley, associate policy director for the NOP. "We are seeing a deficiency here."
Organic producers are required under the law to make a good faith effort to source organic ingredients for the 5% non-organic portion of certified organic products.
Bradley said there have been instances reported to the NOP where processors did not do a good
Read more