I’ve just come home from a trip to San Francisco, where my friends Gabe and Kelly treated me to organic bangers and mash at a sweet local restaurant. American bangers, which means the most huge, giant bangers I’ve ever seen. Californian bangers, which means they had more garlic in them than an French aioli. Delicious, wonderful and - dare I say it - possibly an improvement on a truly delicious British staple.

Go find them yourself at Magnolia on Haight Street, a block down from the legendary Haight / Ashbury crossroads. Run by chef David Coleman, owner Dave McLean, and Dave’s wife Demetra Delia, this stylish yet relaxed restaurant offers perfect English pub food alongside American micro-brewed beers on tap. The emphasis is on local and chemical-free ingredients, sustainable seafoods and organic vegetables. The English recipes are faithful yet improved upon. Check out their homemade root beer and homely favorites such as fish and chips.

British shoppers were warned yesterday that there could be a shortage of organic turkeys at supermarkets this Christmas. The recent bird flu outbreak in East Anglia, which resulted in tens of thousands of premium birds being culled, is posing major problems for suppliers and retailers with less than three weeks to go. Industry experts predict that customers may find it harder to buy a fresh turkey, which will push up prices.

The extent of the looming problem was underlined by a major quality supermarket chain, Waitrose, which said yesterday that it would have no organic turkeys to sell this Christmas. The store had planned to source its entire stock of 18,000 birds from two UK farms on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk. However, they were all slaughtered when the premises became infected with avian flu.

In the past year, the UK organic turkey market has increased by almost 50 per cent as British shoppers spend more for top-quality, traceable produce.

Hi,

I work with a law firm that is investigating the sales of organic milk from Costco, Safeway and Wild Oats. According to investigations the milk labeled organic, and being sold at higher prices, is in fact not organic according to USDA regulations.

The milk production process used by these three stores is found to have over 14 violations of USDA regulations. A lawsuit has already been filed against Safeway which uses the same milk supply company and sells its milk under the Safeway “O”-label.

If you have been purchasing organic milk from Costco under the Kirkland Signature brand, Safeway under the “O”-label or milk marked organic from Wild Oats we want to hear from you.

You can reach the Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro attorneys by visiting www.hbsslaw.com/Org_Milk.htm , sending your information to info@hbsslaw.com or by calling 206-623-7292.

Lisa

by Ysanne Spevack

3 medium onions, peeled and diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
3 stalks celery, plus the inner leaves, chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
4 tablespoons bacon fat or olive oil
4 cups / 700g mixed yellow and green split peas, soaked overnight
6 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 large or 5 small bay leaves
freshly ground pepper
2 quarts / 2 litres chicken or vegetable broth (stock)
1 quart / 1 litre water
1 lb / 450g ham, cubed into 1/2” chunks, optional
salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a large stockpot or saucepan, saute the onions, carrots, celery and garlic in the bacon fat or olive oil over a low heat with the lid on. Cook until the onion is translucent.

2. Drain the split peas and rinse them in cold water, then throw in with the vegetables.

3. Add the Worcestershire sauce, herbs, and pepper, then stir everything with a wooden spoon.

4. Pour in the liquid, raise the heat, and bring to the boil with the lid on. Once boiling, bring down the heat to a low simmer for about half an hour.

5. Add the ham and simmer another 45 minutes.

6. Once the peas have disintegrated, salt the soup and add more pepper, to taste.

This recipe comes with a no frills guarantee… Perfect Gingerbread. Low fuss, high moisture, delicate yet rich.

2 1/2 cups / 300 grams all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 stick / 120 grams butter, softened
1/2 cup / 100 grams unrefined cane sugar
1 cup / 250 ml dark molasses
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup / 250 ml boiling water
2 teaspoons baking soda (not baking powder!)
2 eggs, lightly beaten

You will need:

A non-stick 8 inches or 20 cm square cake pan
A sieve
2 large mixing bowls
1 small mixing bowl
A wooden spoon
An electric or hand whisk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C / Gas Mark 4. Lightly grease the cake pan with butter.

2. Sift the flour, cinnamon, ginger and cloves into a bowl.

3. Beat the butter in the other mixing bowl with the wooden spoon until it’s creamy and smooth.

4. Add the sugar, molasses and honey and continue beating with the spoon until everything has blended.

5. In the small bowl, pour the boiling water onto the baking soda, then pour the frothy liquid into the sugary butter mixture, mixing well with the wooden spoon.

6. Add the flour mixture, and whisk with the electric or hand whisk.

7. Beat in the eggs.

8. Pour the runny cake batter into the pan and bake for about 50 minutes. The cake will be ready when a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean.

9. Take the gingerbread out of the oven to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

10. Alternatively, turn the cake out onto a cooling rack, wrap it when cool, and serve at room temperature any time within a week of baking.

Some of our most cherished childhood memories center on food preparation, and Christmas is a fantastic opportunity for getting children into the kitchen. Homemade gifts have personal appeal, and with thought children can add their own twists to traditional recipes. This mincemeat recipe contains no alcohol but you can substitute the fruit juice for something stronger - with parental permission. It is also nut free and uses vegetarian suet. Reduced fat varieties are now available.

Mincemeat is a no-cook recipe and adapts well to the classroom setting – lots of weighing, chopping and stirring. You can add peeling too, if you would prefer to peel the apples – it is not necessary.

Stirrin’ Stuff Mincemeat

Makes 6 jars ready to bake your own mince pies!

What to find:

1 lemon
1 lime
Juice of 6 oranges (400ml / 2 cups)
100g / 1/2 cup dried apricots
100g / 1/2 cup dried cherries
750g / 3 1/4 cup mixed dried fruit
100g / 1/2 cup dried cranberries
350g light Muscovado sugar / soft brown sugar
250g / 1 1/4 cup light shredded suet (packet)
225g / 1 cup tart cooking apples, washed, cored and finely chopped (e.g. 1 large Bramley apple, or two small Granny Smith apples)
2 tsps cinnamon
2 tsps nutmeg

Kitchen Stuff:

Scales
Grater
Vegetable knife
Chopping board
Measuring jug
Large mixing bowl
Juice squeezer
Wooden spoon
Dessert spoon
Rounded-ended knife
Jam jars

What to do:

1. Wash the lemon, lime and one of the oranges. Grate the rind from the citrus fruits, but be careful not to grate the pith (white) of the fruits. Put the rinds into the mixing bowl.

2. Cut all of the citrus fruits in half. Twist the halves around a citrus squeezer to get the juice out. Put the juice in a measuring jug.

3. Weigh out the apricots and cherries and younger children can use a rounded ended knife to chop them into small pieces. Put the chopped fruit into the mixing bowl.

4. Weigh out the dried fruit, cranberries, sugar and suet and add to the mixing bowl.

5. Add the chopped apple, fruit juices and spices to the mixing bowl.

6. Place a damp cloth under the mixing bowl (to stop it from moving) and gently stir the ingredients together. Little stirs, keep everything in the bowl.

7. Cover the bowl and leave the mincemeat in a cool place for 24 hours.

8. Use a dessert spoon to carefully pot the mincemeat into sterile jam jars. Cover the jars with a lid and store in a refrigerator until use.

Tips:

Use equal quantities of dried fruits e.g. sultanas, currants and raisins.

Always cover wounds before cooking; this is especially important when juicing lemons because the juice can sting.

Adventurous Cooks:

Use a whole nutmeg to grate your own nutmeg powder. Find out what mace is.
Try changing the dried fruit – use chopped tropical dried fruits or dried blueberries instead.
Make ‘designer covers’ for the pots of mincemeat and give them away as Christmas presents.

©Stirrinstuff.

Here’s David preparing some onions for a deep-fried extravaganza called Chrysanthonions. First, take a big juicy onion and make a bunch of very deep cuts from the shoot top to the bottom, but keeping a circle around the root intact. Next, soak the onions in cold water for a few hours so they swell and reveal a fake chrysanthemum flower shape.

This brings us to the stage you can see, which is where the onions are double-dipped in batter. First, dip the onions in an egg wash and roll them in corn meal. Then, dip them in the egg wash for a second time, and thoroughly coat them in flour that’s been seasoned with salt, pepper and a little bit of chili powder.

Once they’ve been double-dipped, it’s time for them to meet the deep fat fryer until the outside is crisp and golden brown.

Flowertastic!

Each growing season, like many other sugar beet farmers bedeviled by weeds, Robert Green repeatedly and painstakingly applies herbicides in a process he compares to treating cancer with chemotherapy.

In his right hand, Duane Grant holds a genetically engineered sugar beet, next to a conventional beet. Once refined, the sugar from each would be the same, sucrose.

“You give small doses of products that might harm the crop, but it harms the weeds a little more,” said Mr. Green, who plants about 900 acres in beets in St. Thomas, N.D.

But next spring, for the first time, Mr. Green intends to plant beets genetically engineered to withstand Monsanto’s powerful Roundup herbicide. The Roundup will destroy the weeds but leave his crop unscathed, potentially saving him thousands of dollars in tractor fuel and labor.

For Mr. Green and many other beet farmers, it is technology too long delayed. And the engineered beets could pave the way for the eventual planting of other biotech crops like wheat, rice and potatoes, which were also stalled on the launching pad.

Seven years ago, beet breeders were on the verge of introducing Roundup-resistant seeds. But they had to pull back after sugar-using food companies like Hershey and Mars, fearing consumer resistance, balked at the idea of biotech beets. Now, though, sensing that those concerns have subsided, many processors have cleared their growers to plant the Roundup-resistant beets next spring.

It would be the first new type of genetically engineered food crop widely grown since the 1990s, when biotech soybeans, corn and a few other crops entered the market.

“Basically, we have not run into resistance,” said David Berg, president of American Crystal Sugar, the nation’s largest sugar beet processor. “We really think that consumer attitudes have come to accept food from biotechnology.”

A Kellogg spokeswoman, Kris Charles, said her company “would not have any issues” buying such sugar for products sold in the United States, where she said “most consumers are not concerned about biotech.”

If some other big food companies are now open to genetically modified sugar, though, they are not talking about it. Both Hershey and Mars declined to comment. “There’s just nothing we have to say on the topic,” a Mars spokeswoman said.

Many sugar refiners and seed developers also refused to comment, hewing to an industrywide plan to coordinate the introduction of the genetically engineered beets and carefully control what is said about them.

When it comes to genetically modified crops, there is a reason to keep one’s corporate head low — to avoid protests. Some opponents of biotechnology are only now getting wind that the sugar beets have been resurrected.

“When I first saw this I said, ‘No, it can’t be,’” said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association. “I thought we had already dealt with this.”

His organization issued a call to arms and thousands of identical e-mail messages were sent to Mr. Berg at American Crystal Sugar warning that “profit margins of your company and its supporting farmers” would be hurt by consumer resistance.

Mr. Berg said he received 681 messages in a 24-hour period before having the e-mail blocked. He said he still believed that most consumers would accept biotech crops. Mr. Cummins, however, said he would next try to persuade consumers to pressure food companies to boycott the sugar. “I don’t think companies like Hershey are going to want any more hassles than they already have,” he said, referring to recent earnings pressure and management turmoil at the chocolate company.

About 10,000 American farmers grow sugar beets on about 1.3 million acres, mainly in Northern states from Oregon to Michigan. That makes the beets a minor crop compared with corn, at about 90 million acres, and soybeans, at almost 70 million.

And yet beets account for about half the nation’s sugar supply, with the rest coming from sugar cane. The sugar from beets and cane, generally considered interchangeable, is used in candies, cereals, cakes and numerous other products, although some food manufacturers have switched to high-fructose corn syrup, which is cheaper.

When genetically engineered versions of soybeans and corn — as well as cotton and canola — were introduced in the mid-1990s, farmers quickly adopted them. But opposition to genetically engineered crops then took hold, particularly in Europe. Food companies, fearing protests or loss of customers, pressured farmers not to grow the crops.

Sugar was not the only crop affected. Insect-resistant potatoes developed by Monsanto were withdrawn from the market in 2001 after fast-food companies resisted them. Monsanto gave up on developing Roundup-resistant wheat in 2004, in part because American wheat farmers feared losing exports. The rice industry, also heavily dependent on exports, has never grown herbicide-tolerant varieties.

Even if the situation has now changed for sugar, however, other crops might still meet resistance. For one thing, sugar is a refined product that contains no DNA or proteins, just the chemical sucrose. “While the sugar beet is genetically different, the sugar is the same,” said Luther Markwart, executive vice president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association and co-chairman of the Sugar Industry Biotech Council.

By contrast, the foreign DNA and proteins in genetically modified wheat, rice or potatoes can be eaten by consumers, which at least theoretically raises food safety questions.

Moreover, only about 3 percent of American sugar is exported, Mr. Markwart said, compared with about half of wheat and rice.

The sugar industry’s organizational structure also helps. Virtually all sugar processors — the companies that buy the beets from farmers and then extract the sugar and sell it — are owned by the farmers themselves. That makes them more likely to accept the biotech crops than an independent processor might be.

Among farmers, demand for the Roundup Ready beets, as they are known, is expected to be strong. “The sugar beet growers are going to adopt this technology immediately,” said Alan G. Dexter, the extension sugar beet specialist at North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota. In a survey he conducted, 57 percent of beet growers cited weeds as their biggest problem, with diseases the distant runner-up at 16 percent.

The seeds will be most attractive to those with the biggest weed problems. With a technology fee of a little more than $100 per 100,000 seeds paid to Monsanto, the genetically engineered seeds will cost at least twice as much as conventional seeds. That translates to about $50 to $65 in extra seed costs per acre.

But Duane Grant, who grows about 5,000 acres of sugar beets in Rupert, Idaho, said the extra seed outlays would be offset by other savings. He said his annual herbicide costs would drop to $35 an acre, from $70, and he would no longer have to hire migrant workers to pull weeds by hand, at a cost of $35 to $150 an acre.

Mr. Grant, who was designated by the national beet growers’ association as its spokesman on this issue, also said Roundup would have to be sprayed only two or three times during the spring-to-fall growing season, while the existing herbicides must be sprayed five times or more. The existing herbicides are decades old and some weeds have developed resistance to them, Mr. Grant said.

Some weed experts say there are also some weeds resistant to Roundup and its generic equivalent, glyphosate, as a consequence of the heavy use of the herbicide spurred by the proliferation of Roundup Ready crops. But such weeds are not found in beet fields, Mr. Grant said.

He said that with conventional beets, Roundup can be used only before the seedlings emerge from the ground, because after that the Roundup would kill them.

Bringing back the biotech beets took a long, coordinated effort involving Monsanto, seed companies, growers, processors and trade groups under the auspices of the Sugar Industry Biotech Council.

Rival seed companies all agreed to use seeds descended from a single genetic transformation done by Monsanto and KWS, a German seed company. That meant the industry had to win federal approval only once. The new genetically engineered sugar beet was reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration in 2004 and approved for unrestricted growing by the Agriculture Department in early 2005.

And before planting the beets, farmers have waited for approvals in other important markets. Just last month Europe approved the beets for food and feed use, although not for planting.

Because such foods would have to be labeled in Europe as containing genetically engineered ingredients, some American food companies might use cane sugar, which is not genetically modified, for products they export to Europe. But in the United States, foods containing sugar made from biotech beets would not have to be labeled.

The sugar beet industry conducted field trials in Idaho last year and Michigan this year. Mr. Grant, who was part of the Idaho test, said the biotech seeds actually had slightly higher yields and sugar output than very similar conventional varieties.

Some environmentalists say the use of Roundup on sugar beets could contribute to the growing problem of Roundup-resistant weeds. But the Agriculture Department said it expected little, if any, environmental effect from growing the beets.

One factor that could help keep the trait from spreading is that beets produce seeds only in their second year, after passing through a winter. So beets grown in most parts of the country never produce seeds, because farmers harvest beets every fall and plant new seeds the next spring.

But in California, beets stay in the ground through the winter and there are weeds that can mate with sugar beets. So growers there may be more cautious about the Roundup revolution.

“We have to make sure we don’t cause ourselves more problems than we’re curing,” said Ben Goodwin, executive manager of the California Beet Growers Association.

Story written by Andrew Pollack for the New York Times

Isn’t this a beauty? Like Cinderella’s carriage, this dusty dusky pumpkin is full of magical promise. I think I’m going to make a pot au crème with it for Thanksgiving…

I’ll peel and cube it, then steam it until it’s very very soft. Then I’ll squash it through a sieve to make a very smooth pureè, and combine a cup of this mixture with 3 cups of heavy cream. I’ll throw the mixture into a pan with a vanilla bean that’s been split, a pinch of nutmeg and a tad of cinnamon, and simmer everything gently for 20 minutes.

Next, I’ll whisk 8 egg yolks with 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a metal bowl that’s sitting over a pan of boiling water for about 7 minutes, whisking and whisking to keep everything fluid.

Then I’ll mix the pumpkin stuff with the egg stuff, mixing it all in the metal bowl still suspended over the steam. I’ll leave it to cook for about 45 minutes, whisking everything every ten minutes and making sure everything is cooking as gently as possible.

Once it’s done, I’ll divide it equally between ten little old-fashioned tea cups, then chill them overnight in the fridge before sprinkling them with a little grated milk chocolate.

by Antony Worrall Thompson

1) Get ahead: make brandy butter, mince pies, stuffing and cranberry sauce a week or two before Christmas: freeze them and thaw overnight on Christmas Eve. You can also cook mince pies from frozen if guests drop by
unexpectedly.

2) Cut turkey time: cook your stuffing in a baking tray to save time as an un-stuffed turkey cooks more quickly than one with stuffing in its cavity.

3) Juggle roast potatoes: pre-roast your potatoes for 40 minutes before the turkey goes in the oven. The turkey will need 20 minutes’ standing time tightly wrapped in foil to allow the juices to go back into
the flesh having risen to the surface during cooking. So during this time, turn up the oven to hot and pop your potatoes back in to finish roasting and crisp up.

4) One dish wonder: two weeks before Christmas make up and freeze two large lasagnes – one meat and one vegetarian. They will make a wonderfully warming supper and can be whipped out of the freezer and baked from frozen. Perfect if you suddenly need to rustle up supper –or for the day when you feel too tired to start from scratch. Simply serve with big bowls of mixed leaf salad lightly tossed in olive oil and sea salt.

A new organic food store has opened in London’s trendy Clerkenwell district where everything for sale is sold without packaging - Unpackaged.

Shoppers are invited to bring their own containers to fill with everything from fresh organic produce to organic rice, organic dried fruits, organic oils and even eco washing powder. The store does offer reusable containers if needed, but is heavily promoting their customers to bring their own by offering a discount of 50 pence per kilo (about US$1 every 2 lbs).

It’s an old-fashioned concept. This is the way most stores operated a hundred years ago, from the old Wild West trading posts of California to the village delicatessens of the Swiss Alps. But the difference with this new store is that it’s modern and fun, with a deep political motivation to spread an eco-message while passing on the price benefits of lower packaging.

A newly published scientific study shows that infants who eat organic dairy products, and whose mothers also consumed organic dairy products when they were pregnant, are 36% less likely to suffer from eczema than children who consume conventional dairy products.

Whilst there is a significant body of evidence showing that organic food contains higher levels of beneficial nutrients than non-organic foods, this is the first example of a definite specific health impact of organic food consumption being published in a peer reviewed journal.

Currently one-third of the children in Western societies show symptoms of allergies including eczema, hayfever and asthma.

Whilst the study confirms organic dairy consumption protects against the development of eczema, the scientists could only hypothesise why organic dairy foods deliver this protection. Their hypothesis follows the established facts of increased levels of the beneficial conjugated linoleic acid isomers (CLA) found in milk from organically managed cows. A separate recent study confirms that higher levels of conjugated linoleic acids are not only found in cows’ milk but also in the breast milk of women consuming organic milk. This therefore underpins the hypothesis that the higher levels of CLAs in the breast milk of organic milk drinking mothers are a key mechanism in reducing eczema, as well as the organic dairy diet of the infants themselves.

CLA’s are currently receiving much attention in nutritional research, as experimental evidence suggests these fatty acids might have anti-carcinogenic, anti-atherosclerotic, anti-diabetic and immune-modulating effects, as well as a favorable influence on the proportion of fat tissue to muscle mass in the body.

Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director said:
“The first peer reviewed scientific paper showing a significant health benefit from eating organic food is a major landmark. But the scientists’ findings of over a third fewer cases of eczema among children fits in with the experience of many people who eat organic food. Given the strong evidence that organic has more beneficial nutrients, and the absence of harmful additives, common sense suggests that organic food is better for your health. It’s good to see this starting to be confirmed by scientific research. These studies add to the body of evidence showing that the UK Food Standards Agency’s stance on organic food is out of date.”

The research was carried out by the Louis Bolk Institute and the Department of Epidemiology, Care and Public Health Research Institute (Caphri), Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands in association with a number of other medical schools:; Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health Group, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK; Department of Epidemiology, Nutrition and Toxicology Research Institute Maastricht (NUTRIM), Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands, Department of Medical Microbiology, University Hospital of Maastricht, Maastricht, the Netherlands; Department of Experimental Immunology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

My oh my, this gentleman is saucey! Last night, we had a delicious time preparing spaghetti bolognese with more than a touch of Californian sauce. Always a sucker for experimentation, I wholeheartedly embrace Richard’s thoroughly modern approach to this Italian staple.

Traditional Italian bolognese sauce hails from the town of Bologna. The official Bolognese delegation of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina states that it is made from a tomato sauce base with ground beef, pancetta, white wine and cream. However, there are as many recipes for bolognese sauces around the world as there are cooks. Here’s what we did last night.

First Richard seared equal amounts of ground beef, ground pork and ground lamb in three separate pans. Simultaneously, finely chopped onions, minced garlic and sliced crimini mushrooms were sautéed in salted bacon fat. The combined cooked meat and vegetables were then drenched with diced and sieved canned tomatoes and a liberal helping of tomato paste. Simmering slowly, the sauce was flavored with dried fennel seeds, oregano, basil, powdered dried porcini, ground pepper, a touch of chili and a bottle of really fine Californian red wine from Silver Lake Wine.

The resulting bolognese was perhaps the perfect dish to warm our cockles this crisp and chilly autumn night. A truly exceptional sauce which, of course, will improve as each day passes, getting richer and increasingly luscious as the days wane.

There are times when you know deep down in your soul that the only thing to do is to eat a huge pile of the freshest organic greens you can find, preferably tossed in a simple dressing and served with a delectable and substantial ingredient to satisfy your bodily needs. David Dressler, Matt Lyman and Erik Oberholtzer joined forces to answer this calling at their vitamin-rich restaurant, Tender Greens, located in Culver City, California.

It’s true, they have other great stuff on the menu, such as the line caught ahi tuna hot from the mequite grill, and the Angus flatiron steak with mashed yukon gold potatoes. There’s also a fine roasted roma tomato bread soup with micro basil, and a richly lemony chicken soup.

But the heart of this restaurant is its salad menu. Inspired by Matt’s childhood on a Maryland farm and Erik’s ongoing passion for home-grown produce, the three friends have developed a deep and wide salad menu that relies on produce picked daily at family-run Scarborough Farms in Oxnard, a short hop skip and jump from the restaurant. While not certified as organic, the family run a small-scale European-style farm using the lowest amount of chemical inputs possible to nurture their lettuces, arugula, microgreens, edible flowers, herbs and baby salad vegetables on realistic restaurant scales. The additional ingredients are consciously sourced, with organic oils and vinegars, free-range poultry, hormone-free beef and line-caught fish.

Simple salads include the baby spinach, goat cheese and hazelnut with cabernet vinaigrette, and the red and green butter lettuce with dijon vinaigrette.

The big salads are far more substantial, providing full lunch or dinner satisfaction. Check out the Chinese chicken salad with spicy greens, golden pea sprouts, carrot, crispy wonton, roasted peanuts and sesame dressing. Also the grilled veggies with crunchy lettuces, shaved parmesan and roasted tomato vinaigrette. And finally the ahi tuna nicoise (pictured above) with tender greens, tomatoes, potatoes, capers, olives and sherry vinegar.

Watch out as the Tender Greens tendrils reach out to other California neighborhoods. Two new restaurants are currently planned, one in West Hollywood and another in San Diego. Keep your fingers crossed if you’re further afield…

This is my sister Lindsay’s recipe…

Beat 2 eggs and 2 splashes of milk and pinch of salt.
Add 2 drops of vanila essence. (A-ha! That’s the secret!)
Dip the bread in and let it soak up the mixture on both sides.
Grate a nutmeg and a sprinkle on.
Heat sunflower oil in a pan and fry on a high heat.
(N.B. 2nd slice is always the best - Ive no idea why)

Once golden brown put on kitchen towel to remove excess oil and if you are feeling really naughty, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar and/or cinnamon.

Nina really gives a fig. She is a fair trade food activist with a penchant for the finer things in life, such as the moist and sticky fig and apple pie she makes with fruit from this fig tree in her central San Francisco home garden. It’s moist from the fresh figs, sticky from a generous sprinkling of brown sugar, and wholesome because of the whole wheat flour in the shortcrust pastry.

While not tending to her plants or delighting husband Greg with her vegan delicacies, Nina earns her daily bread helping to publicize fairly traded chocolate in Berkeley, California. Part of her job description is to try out new chocolate varieties to see if they are fairly nice or really properly delicious. It is all in a day’s work for her.

However, the main part of Nina’s job is to help oversee the building of an exciting brand new chocolate factory. Due to open Spring 2008, the factory is the first of it’s kind to be built for years and years. Almost all companies “make” chocolate by melting down chocolate couverture and reforming the molten chocolate into molds. The company that Nina is working for is throwing this easy way on it’s head, investing a ton of money into the serious machinery needed to grind cocoa into the finest, smoothest artisan chocolate imaginable.

More news as this fair trade chocolate story unfolds…

Such a simple idea, but one I’d not encountered before… Last night, Colette pierced a dozen or so baby plum tomatoes onto a wooden skewer, adorned them with thyme, then slow-roasted them over a barbeque until they sweltered in oozing sweetness. The gently charred skins added a smokiness to the green baby leaf salad that they were thrown into, the caramelized flesh infusing the vinaigrette with extra sweetness. So pleasing to bump into these babies in the midst of all that greenery, they pop with a gentler softness than their raw counterparts. Try it. You’ll smile as brightly as Colette and savor the flavor just like Zeth.

Talking of sweetness, it’s now established that different species experience this basic taste radically differently. Old World primates - such as humans - and New World primates - such as spider monkeys and marmosets - perceive sweet compounds differently. For example, give humans a food containing aspartame, and they will find it sweet. Feed aspartame to a passing spider monkey, and they’ll sense only a dull chemical taste.

The human taste response to aspartame has stimulated widespread production of this industrial food ingredient under the brand names NutraSweet, Splenda, Canderel and Equal. However, whether you’re a human or a spider monkey, eating food and drink containing aspartame is strongly suspected of causing extreme negative health responses, including brain tumors, lymphoma and leukemia.

This is because aspartame is broken down by the human digestive system into methanol and formaldehyde, universally recognized poisons. Aspartame also contains phenylalanine, a protein that adversely effects neurotransmitter function in adults as well as unborn fetuses.

A number of rigorous scientific studies have looked into these claims of toxicity, and although the findings are contested by the aspartame manufacturing industry and their friends, it seems wise to avoid foods that contain aspartame unless new data proves it safe after all.

The cautionary principle is so wise when it comes to protecting your family’s health from all under-tested and novel ingredients developed for cheapness and convenience rather than taste, nutrition or improved culinary function.

Of course, one of the many reasons to choose organic foods is because aspartame is prohibited from them, along with a long, long list of other potentially risky chemical additives. You can reach for any certified organic food without the need to scan the ingredients list. Aspartame isn’t on it. Simple.

VARGINHA, Brazil — Rafael de Paiva was skeptical at first. If he wanted a “fair trade” certification for his coffee crop, the Brazilian farmer would have to adhere to a long list of rules on pesticides, farming techniques, recycling and other matters. He even had to show that his children were enrolled in school.

“I thought, ‘This is difficult,’” recalled the humble farmer. But the 20 percent premium he recently received for his first fair trade harvest made the effort worthwhile, Mr. Paiva said, adding, it “helped us create a decent living.”

More farmers are likely to receive such offers, as importers and retailers rush to meet a growing demand from consumers and activists to adhere to stricter environmental and social standards.

Mr. Paiva’s beans will be in the store-brand coffee sold by Sam’s Club, the warehouse chain of Wal-Mart Stores. Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s and Starbucks already sell some fair trade coffee.

“We see a real momentum now with big companies and institutions switching to fair trade,” said Paul Rice, president and chief executive of TransFair USA, the only independent fair trade certifier in the United States.

The International Fair Trade Association, an umbrella group of organizations in more than 70 countries, defines fair trade as reflecting “concern for the social, economic and environmental well-being of marginalized small producers” and does “not maximize profit at their expense.”

According to Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, a group of fair trade certifiers, consumers spent approximately $2.2 billion on certified products in 2006, a 42 percent increase over the previous year, benefiting over seven million people in developing countries.

Like consumer awareness of organic products a decade ago, fair trade awareness is growing. In 2006, 27 percent of Americans said they were aware of the certification, up from 12 percent in 2004, according to a study by the New-York based National Coffee Association.

Fair trade products that have experienced the biggest jump in demand include coffee, cocoa and cotton, according to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations.

Dozens of other products, including tea, pineapples, wine and flowers, are certified by organizations that visit farmers to verify that they are meeting the many criteria that bar, among other things, the use of child labor and harmful chemicals.

There is no governmental standard for fair trade certification, the same situation as with “organic” until a few years ago. Some fair trade produce also carries the organic label, but most does not. One important difference is the focus of the labels: organic refers to how food is cultivated, while fair trade is primarily concerned with the condition of the farmer and his laborers.

Big chains are marketing fair trade coffee to varying degrees. All the espresso served at the 5,400 Dunkin’ Donuts stores in the United States, for example, is fair trade. All McDonald’s stores in New England sell only fair trade coffee. And in 2006, Starbucks bought 50 percent more fair trade coffee than in 2005.

Fair trade produce remains a minuscule percentage of world trade, but it is growing. Only 3.3 percent of coffee sold in the United States in 2006 was certified fair trade, but that was more than eight times the level in 2001, according to TransFair USA.

Although Sam’s Club already sells seven fair trade imports, including coffee, this will be the first time it has put its Member’s Mark label on a fair trade product, which Mr. Rice of TransFair called “a statement of their commitment to fair trade.”

He added, “The impact in terms of volume and the impact in terms of the farmers and their families is quite dramatic.”

Michael Ellgass, the director of house brands for Sam’s Club, said the company could afford to pay fair trade’s premium because it has reduced the number of middlemen.

Coffee usually passes from farmers through roasters, packers, traders, shippers and warehouses before arriving in stores. But Sam’s Club will buy shelf-ready merchandise directly from Café Bom Dia, the roaster here in Brazil’s lush coffee country.

“We are cutting a number of steps out of the process by working directly with the farmer,” Mr. Ellgass said.

Some critics of fair trade say that working with thousands of small farmers makes strict adherence to fair trade rules difficult.

Others argue that fair trade coffee is as exploitive as the conventional kind, especially in countries that produce the highest-quality beans — like Colombia, Ethiopia and Guatemala. Fair trade farmers there are barely paid more than their counterparts in Brazil, though their crops become gourmet brands, selling for a hefty markup, said Geoff Watts, vice president for coffee at Chicago’s Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea, a coffee importer.

But in Brazil, a nation with little top-grade coffee, the partnership between small producers and big retailers is a better blend, Mr. Watts said.

Fair trade coffee farmers in Brazil are paid at least $1.29 a pound, compared with the current market rate of roughly $1.05 per pound, said Sydney Marques de Paiva, president of Café Bom Dia.

Most coffee farmers are organized into cooperatives, and some of that premium finances community projects like schools or potable water.

Like most of his cooperative’s 3,000-odd members — and three-quarters of coffee growers worldwide — Mr. Paiva, the coffee farmer (no relation to Mr. Marques de Paiva), farms less than 25 acres of land. He produces around 200 132-pound sacks for the co-op, with 70 percent of that sold as fair trade to Café Bom Dia.

The company would buy more if there were more of a market for fair trade coffee, it said.

The fair trade crop brought Mr. Paiva about 258 reais ($139) a sack, compared with about 230 reais for the sacks that were not fair trade. For the latest crop, that meant an additional 3,920 reais ($2,116) for him, a huge sum here in the impoverished mountains of Minas.

“It’s been great for us,” Mr. Paiva said with a huge, toothless grin. “I call the people from the co-op my family now.”

Mr. Ellgass, the Sam’s Club executive, said the chain hoped to expand its fair trade goods.

So do Brazil’s farmers. “Everybody is doing their best to come up to standard so we can sell our coffee as fair trade,” said Conceição Peres da Costa, one of the co-op’s growers. “Everybody wants to earn as much as he can.”

By Andrew Downie for the New York Times

Now this is what I call a sexy salad. Hardly a lettuce leaf in sight, this salad is so substantial, you can almost hear it sing. No wonder. It’s creator is Stefan Broadley, the music producer who recorded the song ‘Sexy Bitches Like It Raw‘. Yes, you heard that right… it’s a saucy, sassy song that’s the theme tune to a new cookery show that’s all about raw food. Which makes it an un-cooking show, if you will. Rawk!

Stefan’s Sexy Salad:

red cabbage
spring mix
grated carrot
grated beets
tomatoes
onion sprouts
avocado
broccoli

with a saucy dressing made from:

flax oil
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
apple cider vinegar
curry powder
French wholegrain mustard

The indiscriminate use of toxic pesticides on banana plantations in the French Caribbean has left much of the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe poisoned for a century to come, a report to the French parliament warned yesterday. The two islands and their 800,000 inhabitants faced a “health disaster”, with soaring rates of cancer and infertility, said Professor Dominique Belpomme, a French cancer specialist.

Based on present trends, half the men of Martinique and Guadeloupe were likely to develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives, Professor Belpomme said. Birth defects in children were also becoming far more common, he warned.

Tests have shown that every child born in Guadeloupe is contaminated with chlordecone, a highly toxic pesticide also known as kepone, which was banned in many countries in 1979. It was used legally in France until 1990 and in the French Caribbean until 1993. But it was used illegally to kill weevils in Martinique and Guadeloupe until 2002, often sprayed by airplanes.

Professor Belpomme said: “The situation is extremely serious. The tests we carried out on pesticides show there is a health disaster in the Caribbean. The word is not too strong. Martinique and Guadeloupe have literally been poisoned.”

“The poisoning affects both land and water. Chlordecone establishes itself in the clay and stays there for up to a century. As a result, the food chain is contaminated, especially water. In Martinique, most water sources are polluted.”

Politicians from the islands, which are overseas departments of France, were torn between accusing the professor of “alarmism” and calling for a full inquiry.

“This must not be covered up by a conspiracy of silence,” said Victorin Lurel, the socialist leader of the Guadeloupe regional council. Christian Estrosi, the French minister for overseas territories, cast some doubts on the scientific basis of the report but said he was “wholly favorable” to an official commission.

Martinique and Guadeloupe produce more than 260,000 tonnes of bananas a year, worth US$300m. The industry, which employs 15,000 people, also receives £90m (US$180m) in EU aid. The islands, which are relatively poor compared with the French mainland, are already struggling to recover from Hurricane Dean, which devastated every banana plantation in Martinique and half of those in Guadeloupe last month. Many growers may find their soils and water tables so contaminated they will never be allowed to re-plant their crops, Professor Belpomme said. Although the banana fruit itself is not affected by chlordecone, the toxin can remain in soil for 100 years and is absorbed by humans through the skin and respiratory tract. Exposure to the powder can cause tremors, headaches, slurred speech, dizziness, memory loss, weight loss and sterility and raise the risk of developing cancer.

In early August, Guadeloupe’s appeal court accepted a complaint against “persons unknown” for “poisoning” the island with pesticides. This opens up the possibility of a criminal investigation into the responsibility of successive French governments in failing to ban, or monitor, the illegal use of the chemicals.

According to Professor Belpomme, the impact on health in the islands will be more serious than the “tainted blood” scandal of the 1980s, in which 4,000 French people were infected by blood contaminated with the HIV virus .

“In this case, it is a whole population which has been poisoned,” he told MPs. “Those people who are alive today but also future generations.

“The rate of prostate cancer is major. The French Caribbean is second in the world ranking. The rate of congenital malformation is increasing and women are having fewer children than 15 years ago. The standard theory is that this is because of the Pill, but I think it is linked to pesticides.”

But Christian Choupin, head of the Martinique and Guadeloupe banana growers’ association, insisted chlordecone was no longer used and claimed Professor Belpomme’s report had “no proper scientific basis”. “He is giving the impression that people are dropping like flies, which is not at all the case,” M. Chupin said.

By John Lichfield in Paris for The Independent UK

A new American scientific study clearly links exposure to commonly used pesticides increases the risk of asthma. Over 23 million Americans suffer from asthma, of which almost 9 million are minors.

The new scientific study of nearly 20,000 American farmers was presented on Sunday to the European Respiratory Society Annual Congress in Stockholm, Denmark. It was carried out by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Of the 19,704 farmers included in the study, 127 had doctor diagnosed allergic asthma and 314 had non-allergic asthma.

The study concludes that a history of high pesticide exposure shows a doubling of asthma risk. The link remained statistically significant after adjusting for a variety of potentially confounding factors including age, smoking, body weight, and state of residence.

During the study, 452 farmers aged 30 and over developed asthma. Farmers in Iowa and North Carolina, who used around 16 chemical sprays, were found to be most at risk.

Overall, 16 of the pesticides studied were associated with asthma: 12 with the allergic variety of asthma and 4 with the non-allergic type. Coumaphos, EPTC, lindane, parathion, heptachlor, and 2,4,5-TP were most strongly linked to allergic asthma. For non-allergic asthma, DDT, malathion, and phorate had the strongest effect.

“This is the first study with sufficient power to evaluate individual pesticides and adult asthma among individuals who routinely apply pesticides. Moreover, this is the only study to date to do this for allergic and non-allergic asthma separately,” a spokesman for the researchers said.

“The possible scope of the link between pesticides and adult-onset asthma raises a problem of broader interest, given the considerable quantities of pesticides used in the domestic and urban environments. Their impact on a population which, while less exposed, has a greater risk of allergies and a higher prevalence of asthma, remains to be determined.”

Now autumn is here, let’s enjoy some delicious baked apples! There are so many different types of apples. Some apples common to your area are rarely found in other places. Every temperate country seems seems to have a local cooking apple, whether it’s Bramley apples in England or Granny Smiths in California. Wherever you are located, reaching for organic apples means enjoying more flavor, more vitamins, more minerals, more enzymes and way less chemical waxes, chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides in every bite. Enjoy your Apple Volcanes!

Recipe by Fiona Bird

Makes 4 Apple Volcanoes

What To Find:

4 medium cooking apples
3 fresh apricots
1/4 cup (40g) seedless raisins
2 tablespoons toasted rolled oats
1 tablespoon runny honey
4 teaspoons butter
some extra runny honey

Kitchen Stuff:

Chopping board
Round ended knife
Fork
Mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
Apple corer
Ovenproof dish

What To Do:

Set your oven to 375°F (190°C /Fan 170°C /Gas Mark 5)

1. Cut a thin slice off the base of each of your apples so they sit flat.
2. Use an apple corer to remove the core. Take a fork and make four pricks around each of the apple sides. Put the prepared apples on an oven proof dish, e.g. a Pyrex dish.
3. Cut the apricots into small pieces and put them into a bowl. Put a damp cloth under the bowl to stop the bowl moving as you mix.
4. Add the raisins, toasted rolled oats and honey to the apricots and mix with a wooden spoon. Use your fingers to stuff the sticky mixture down the hole in each of the apples, working from the top. There is a maths lesson here… divide the mixture equally between the four apples. Push the mixture right down - you will be surprised how much you can push into each apple.
5. Put a knob of butter and a little extra honey on top of each apple.
6. Place the plate of apples in the preheated oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of your apples.

ALWAYS HAVE A GROWN-UP IN THE KITCHEN WITH YOU WHEN YOU COOK.

©Stirrinstuff

It is more than 30 years since an American scientist, Ben Feingold, first suggested that artificial food colors and other additives caused overactive, impulsive and inattentive behavior in children; this sort of hyperactivity is known to be a marker for later educational difficulties, especially problems with reading, and antisocial behavior.

Feingold’s work and subsequent studies, however, were dismissed as flawed or inconclusive.

Today’s UK government-commissioned research confirming that food additives commonly found in non-organic children’s food have a detrimental effect on their behavior is the largest trial of its kind. But its findings come as no surprise to campaign groups such as the Hyperactive Children’s Support Group, who have long argued that eliminating junk food can dramatically improve the behavior of some children.

One of the things that makes the latest findings so significant is that the research by the University of Southampton has been so thoroughly conducted and reviewed and cannot be argued away; it is published in medical journal The Lancet today. The study also found there was increased hyperactivity in children with no history of problems.

The leader of the research, Professor Jim Stevenson, said it provided a clear demonstration that changes in behavior could be detected in three-year-old and eight-year-old children who consumed a mix of additives. Researchers at the same department found similar effects in a study seven years ago.

The additives tested were designed to match what a child would be exposed to in a normal diet. The mixes tested included artificial colors used for decades in many products aimed at children and the widely used preservative sodium benzoate. All of the food additives in the test are banned from organic food, so choosing organic soft food, candy, cakes and ice cream means avoiding these food additives.

Since Feingold’s original work, behavioral problems among schoolchildren have risen, as have diagnoses of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Estimates of numbers of children suffering from full ADHD vary: one UK survey estimates that 2.5% of British schoolchildren are affected, and international studies put the figure at 5-10%.

The UK Government’ Food Standards Agency (FSA), which commissioned the study, was taking a cautious line yesterday. Professor Ieuan Hughes, the chairman of its expert committee on the toxicity of chemicals in food (CoT), said that since some children in the study reacted significantly to the additives but others did not, it was not possible to draw conclusions about the effect on the general population. Nor was it possible, he said, to extrapolate from these particular additives to other additives.

The FSA revised its official advice, but only to suggest that parents who think their children show signs of hyperactive behavior should avoid foods containing artificial colors and the preservative sodium benzoate by checking labels. In fact, many of the products which contain these additives - sweets, cakes, ice cream and drinks - are sold without labels.

The FSA has also not issued advice to schools on whether the additives should be banned from school food but advised concerned parents to ask head teachers.

Experts were asking yesterday why it had taken the authorities so long to act and why they had not gone further to remove the additives from food. Tim Lang, professor of food policy at London’s City University, said:

“The first calls to investigate these additives were made 30 years ago. Good for the FSA for finally doing this research but why did it take so long? The FSA must take a tougher pro-child position.”

Since EU legislation regulates the use of additives, the agency has referred the findings to the European Food Safety Authority, which has begun a review of all additives. It recently withdrew approval for one of the first colors it re-examined, Red 2G, which has been used for cosmetic purposes for decades in meat products.

Erik Millstone, professor of science policy at University of Sussex, who has studied the additives industry for many years, criticized the CoT and the FSA response as wholly inadequate. “Stevenson’s team has robustly shown that food additives do adversely affect the behavior, not only of children diagnosed as hyperactive, but normal healthy children too. The CoT pretends that these results have no implications for the general population or for food additives as a whole … The complacency of the CoT and FSA officials must now cease,” he said.

Although the FSA and the food industry stressed that the additives had been assessed for safety by the EC, some of the colors have been banned at various times in Scandinavian countries and the US. Also, some were approved many years ago when safety testing did not consider the effect on behavior. Until now, safety testing has looked at individual additives in isolation not in the cocktails in which they are consumed in the diet.

The FSA has been considering the safety of these additives since 2000, when it received the results of a study conducted by the same researchers, known as the Isle of Wight study. That research concluded that significant improvements in children’s behavior could be produced by the removing of colorings and sodium benzoate from their diet. CoT decided that this study was inconclusive, however. The purpose of the latest FSA study was to provide conclusive evidence.

Head teachers who have worked to remove additives from school meals said the research vindicated their efforts. Alan Coode, former head of a primary school in Merton, said: “We knew this all along. When we changed our school meals and removed additives there was a new calmness to the school. The science has just caught up.”

The food industry said it was already removing many artificial colorings. It argues that avoiding sodium benzoate is more difficult because it stops drinks that may have a shelf life of several years going off. The preservative is still very widely used, particularly by soft drinks manufacturers.

PepsiCo said no decision would be taken about its use of additives until it had seen the research. Coca-Cola, GlaxoSmith Kline, which makes energy drinks, and Unilever referred us to the industry’s Food and Drink Federation. Its director of communications, Julian Hunt, said: “It is important to reassure consumers that the Southampton study does not suggest there is a safety issue with the use of these additives. In addition, the way in which the additives were tested as a mixture is not how they are used in everyday products.” He said the industry would continue to reduce the use of additives.

The global additives market is worth more than $25bn (£12.4bn) a year. It grew by 2.4% a year between 2001 and 2004, when the food industry says it was transforming itself, and is growing rapidly.

Article by Felicity Lawrence for The Guardian, UK

Organic food and drink sales in the UK nudged the £2 billion (US$4 billion) mark for the first time in 2006, with a sustained market growth rate of 22 per cent throughout the year.

Launched to coincide with the start of the UK’s Organic Fortnight 2007, the Soil Association’s definitive annual Organic Market Report shows continued strong growth and dynamic public support for organic food, drink, textiles and health and beauty products.

Retail sales of organic products through organic delivery and mail order schemes and other direct routes increased from £95 million in 2005 to £146 million in 2006 - a staggering 53 per cent growth, more than double that experienced by the major supermarkets.

Organic textiles and the booming organic health and beauty sector are experiencing particularly strong growth. 2006 saw a 30 per cent increase in the number of health and beauty products licensed with the Soil Association. At current growth rates, the UK market for organic cotton products is estimated to be worth £107 million by 2008.

The report includes consumer research by Mintel which shows that more than half of those surveyed had purchased organic fruit and vegetables within the previous 12 months; one in four consumers had bought organic meat or dairy products; and one in six had purchased packaged organic goods.

Other key figures from the report reveal:

* Sales of free-range and organic outstripping eggs from caged birds for the first time. Consumer concerns over animal welfare appear to be driving changes in the poultry sector.
* An average of £37 million (US$74 million) is spent each week on organic produce in the UK with consumers living in London, the Southeast, the Southwest and Wales most likely to buy organic food.
* Households with children under the age of 15 tend to buy a wider range of organic foods than those with no children.
* Organic farmers are three times as likely to market their products locally or directly as non-organic farmers in the UK.

Despite the steady growth in demand for organic food over the past decade, some key sectors are still failing to meet demand. Organic livestock sectors are dependent on supplies of organic feed, but UK self-sufficiency in organic cereals fell below 50 per cent, during 2006, increasing our reliance on imported organic grains. The cost of livestock feed, whether for organic or non organic farmers, is rising as a result of recent poor global harvests, increasing diversion of cereals into biofuel production and rapidly rising demand particularly from China and India.

Helen Browning, Soil Association Director of Food and Farming said:
“These figures are extremely encouraging, the year on year growth in sales not just in food and drink, but also the newer booming clothing and health and beauty sectors confirm organic has moved well beyond a mere fad or niche.”

“The staggering 53 per cent growth in sales through home delivery schemes and other direct routes confirms strong public support for local, seasonal and organic food that provides a fair return to farmers and growers, boosts the local economy, and also reduces your carbon footprint – consumers are increasingly linking everyday food choice to environmental action.”

“While this year’s report confirms a positive future for organic food and farming, the organic movement faces challenges in the long-term from climate change and rising oil prices, as do all farmers and growers. Rises in feed and fuel prices will need to be reflected in food prices at the check-out that enable farmers to get a fair return on their production costs. It’s fantastic to have such strong public support for and understanding of the benefits provided by organic farming, but that must urgently extend to more widespread acceptance, by retailers as well as consumers, of the true costs of producing staple foods like eggs, milk, meat , and bread sustainably.”

“The significant short-fall in UK grown organic cereals is a major concern, forcing greater reliance on imports for livestock feed - but of course, it is also a major opportunity for current non-organic cereal farmers to convert and supply a guaranteed and growing market.”

“With the government’s own studies confirming that organic farming typically uses 30 per cent less energy than non-organic farming, it’s not surprising more and more people are choosing to purchase planet-friendly, organic food. This is confirmed by an independent poll commissioned by the Soil Association from Mumsnet, which found that 84 per cent of mums believe that organic is better for their family and 90 per cent for the planet. We’ll be using that endorsement from the nation’s mums to get Gordon Brown to wake up to the planet-friendly benefits of organic food and farming.”

In an alternative reality, Richard and The Beets had seven successive Number Ones, making them America’s most popular ska band of all time. However, here (as you can see) Richard is a happy lunch muncher, and the beets are Bull’s blood beets from our friends David and Sheri’s seed bank, sown in February and grown to their maximum deliciousness in my back yard.

Pulled out of the ground this morning, I simply washed them, cut off the greens and little tapering roots, then set the big beets to steam over a pot of simmering water for an hour or so. I then chopped them into large chunks and added blobs of soft goats’ cheese while they were still warm.

Meanwhile, I gently steam fried the chopped beet greens with a little olive oil and a clove of crushed garlic for a few minutes. Once the greens were more tender, I added the cooked roots to their tops, and doused the whole salad in a vinaigrette of 1/4 seasoned rice vinegar, 1/4 balsamic vinegar and 1/2 walnut oil.

Once everything was well mixed, I scattered a few pretty sesame seeds onto each serving and sat back in the satisfying knowledge that lunch was likely to be a big hit.

The Chinese government yesterday launched a counter-offensive on product quality controls, threatening a ban on imports of US pork and calling for a worldwide drive to improve health and safety standards. This is because US pork products may contain ractopamine, a growth hormone that is banned in China but not in the US.

Chinese officials are to send two separate delegations to the US to discuss mounting concerns about safety controls following a series of scares over food, drugs and toys exported from the country. The scandals culminated this week in the US company Mattel’s decision to recall 18 million toys made in China and sold worldwide following warnings they may contain faulty magnets on which children could choke.

The first of the Chinese delegations will arrive in Washington this month to meet the US Food and Drug Administration, Zhao Baoqing, a spokesman for the country’s American embassy said, to be followed by a second round of talks in September with the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

However, Mr Zhao warned the Chinese government would not accept suggestions that lower production standards in Asia are the only problem area that such talks should cover. “I would like to say that the question of food safety and quality is a question for all the countries in the world,” he said. “It is not just a question for individual countries.”

Chinese officials are desperate to prevent a global backlash against exports from the country and have already introduced a series of measures designed to reassure trade partners.

In particular, the Chinese exports department has begun random testing of goods from industries including food and electronics, and also begun relaxing restrictions on journalists seeking to report on the manufacturing sector.

Last month, the former head of the Chinese food and drug safety agency was executed following a corruption scandal and officials have also launched a campaign urging manufacturers to more closely scrutinise the activities of sub-contractors.

Nevertheless, the scandals have encouraged some Western politicians to step up calls for much tighter controls on imports from China.

Christopher Dodd, the Democrat senator from Connecticut, who is seeking his party’s presidential nomination, even called for a ban on Chinese imports yesterday. “Parents should be confident that the toys and food they give their children have been inspected and are safe,” he said. “I am calling on the President to use his authority to immediately suspend all imports of toys and food from China.”

Meglena Juneva, the European Union’s Consumer Protection Commissioner, also called for greater vigilance on export standards. The EU already has a system through which each member state is required to notify the Commission of product recalls so that other countries can consider whether to follow suit. The Commission also has powers to ban products sourced from countries or firms implicated in several scandals.

However, widescale bans on imports from China would almost certainly provoke a trade war with the West, with serious consequences for both sides. Trade between China and the US alone is expected to be worth $500bn (£252bn) a year by 2010.

China has already warned it is considering a ban on pork imports from America, on the grounds that some products may contain ractopamine, a growth hormone that is banned in China but not in the US. A similar ban could be imposed on chicken feet and other agricultural produce.

The pork sector could be the first flashpoint in escalating trade disputes between China and the West. China’s concerns about US hormone treatments are mirrored by increasing anxiety among Western producers about an outbreak of the potentially fatal blue ear disease in Asia. Though Chinese officials say the outbreak is under control, the authorities have had to cull tens of thousands of pigs.

By David Prosser, Deputy Business Editor, The Independent UK, 17 August 2007

by Valerie Cupillard

Published by Grub Street
ISBN 978-1-904943-90-7

This is a wonderful book that explains everything you ever wanted to know about sprouting your own sprouts from seed, and how to use sprouts creatively to flavor every type of recipe.

Regularly eating sprouts can have a dramatic effect on your general health and wellbeing. Clinical research has proven that sprouts support human immunity, improve digestion, and help prevent serious diseases such as cancer. Packed with micro nutrients,

Split into an introductory section and a recipes section, this book has stylish and modern photography, including appetizing recipe shots and practical step-by-step guides.

The introduction explores the nutritional benefits of different kinds of sprouted seeds and grains. There’s a comprehensive section about different store-bought germinators, a guide to easy sprouting using an empty glass jar, and a guide to every kind of sprout you can imagine, including alfalfa, black radish, sunflower, fenugreek, dill and adzuki.

The author seems to relish her subject, enthusiastically sharing her personal experiences with sprouting, whether it’s to let you know that a particular kind of seed is difficult to sprout (carrots) or to share her penchant for a particular flavor (dill).

There are 70 vegetarian recipes split into 8 different sections:

* Appetizers
* Soups and veloutes
* Sauces and dressings
* Raw dishes
* Main dishes
* Cheese
* Desserts and fruit
* Grass juices

The bias for this collection is modern whole food cooking. There are plenty of ideas for daily treats, but the recipes don’t stop there. Fennel Coulis With Buckwheat Sprouts would be a lovely addition to a more formal meal, and Stewed Apples Stuffed With Sesame Sprouts is absolutely heavenly. Try sprinkling fennel seed shoots onto cubes of yellow melon, or making a simple salad of sprouted red lentils drizzled with walnut oil and seasoned with salt and ground cumin.

Editor-in-chief Sheherazade Goldsmith
Foreword by Alice Waters

Published by Dorling Kindersley
ISBN 978-0-7566-2873-4

This book is a wide-ranging compendium of everyday ideas for a greener lifestyle. Edited by the wife of the founder of the UK’s Ecologist magazine, A Slice of Organic Life is a rough beginner’s guide to organic lifestyle.

The focus is firmly on the home and home garden, with some great ideas for window boxes, homemade cleaning products, eco-gifts and composting. Find out how to make your own wood floor polish out of beeswax. Learn how to distinguish edible wild mushrooms from poisonous fungi.

Get inspired to create a wildlife pond in your backyard, and while you’re outside, there are beginner’s tips for raising pigs, keeping a milking cow, tending a flock of ducks and even choosing a hive to keep a colony of honey bees.

The organic culinary ideas are simply written and very practical. The recipes are scattered throughout the book, and are all very basic and user-friendly. My favorites are the simple recipes for sauerkraut, strawberry jam, flavored oils, and goat’s cheese from scratch.

This is a fantastic book for sparking ideas, although it’s very much in a magazine style. By this, I mean that the ideas are generally first thoughts on a subject. For example, the section on bee keeping is a beginner’s guide in six pages. If you truly want to keep bees, you’ll need a whole book dedicated to the subject before you’re ready to get started.

Overall, this is a great gift book for someone who loves all things organic. Good clean design coupled with nice modern photos, it’s a good book from a good publisher.

My significant other and I have a 77 acre farm near Bloomington, IN. 4 acres are devoted to organic farming with wonderful results. My significant other is an Indiana University professor, however, his love his is garden. People love to come to visit and learn. We sleep in the back of our pick up truck in our garden to be close to the presence of the creatures who want to come to eat. We enjoy sleeping next to our garden to feel the energy of the vegetation. I am excited about finding your website, and look forward to sharing and learning from others as well.

Shel

My friend Mary Beth is one of the top fit models in Los Angeles. Her derrière is the basis for most of the designer jeans now gracing the finest behinds around the world. As such, Mary Beth is often transported to far flung capitals in order to model the very latest fashions. Recently, she was flown to Hong Kong, and during that trip she found a fantastic quality chrysanthemum tea. The big fresh dried flowers are slightly moist with resins, and pungent with the scent of chamomile mixed with honey. The big daisy-like flowers swell when drenched in boiled water, releasing their powerful liver-cleansing magic. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, chrysanthemum tea is deeply cooling for the body. It purifies the blood and detoxes the liver, and is great as an after-dinner tonic. It is wonderfully relaxing and helps clear the head of unwanted thoughts. So I’m delighted Mary Beth gave me a nice big jar, as well as some fabulous puer tea. More on that later…

Somewhere in America, word gets out that the country’s top natural foods grocer is setting up shop. Soon property prices start to rocket. Once it’s built, the Croc-wearing, Audi-driving “soccer moms” arrive, happy to pay over the odds for organically produced food.

It’s a fair bet that many of the customers are also Democrat supporters, the sort of Americans who want to do something positive for the environment. We know this because John Mackey, the chief executive of the world’s largest natural food chain, puts enormous effort into understanding what motivates the people who buy his organic carrots. And Whole Food stores, found in such Democratic bastions as Austin, Berkeley, Boston, New York and Washington DC, are all extremely profitable.

But the company is also at the receiving end of what many see as a politically motivated investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, which is trying to halt Whole Foods’ proposed purchase of a loss-making competitor, Wild Oats.

The commission revealed this week that Mr Mackey has been posting “voluminously” in online market discussion forums under the pseudonym Rahodeb, which is an anagram of his wife’s first name, Deborah.

So far there is no allegation of wrongdoing on Mr. Mackey’s part, and it is widely assumed that the chief executive of a publicly traded company would not be stupid enough to leak insider information on a stock discussion board, or make statements to pump up Whole Foods stock price.

But the commission is eager to show that Whole Foods is anti-competitive, and allowing it to buy out a rival health food chain would lead to monopolistic practices. The blocking of the merger with Wild Oats comes as Wal-Mart begins to move into the organic food business, sensing the enormous profits to be made. Wal-Mart, the number one grocer in the US, could quickly come to dominate the small organic food sector.

Mr Mackey’s anonymous blogging is but the latest of his eccentricities. He is a vegan, a libertarian and a fiercely successful capitalist who hates trade unions. He is worth an estimated $40m and, unlike so many of America’s mega-wealthy, thinks that’s enough. Last November, he slashed his salary from $1m to $1.

He dropped out of university in 1978 aged 25, to co-found his first vegetarian establishment in Austin, Texas, a vegetarian wholefood store with the ironic name Safer Way. Soon he was living in the store, using the commercial-sized dishwasher as a shower. When the store was flooded, loyal customers helped to clean up.

The company quickly expanded, becoming what the Financial Times called “the fastest-growing mass retailer in the US”. Last year, Whole Foods’ total revenue was more than $5bn and its gross profit was more than $1.6bn. The company has 181 supermarkets. It has also arrived in the UK, opening the world’s largest Whole Foods store in the centre of town.

Mr Mackey remains the driving force behind Whole Foods, and unlike other companies such as Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, which sold out to a corporation, he shows no signs of selling up. Instead he is increasingly focused on animal welfare. He has banned the sale of live lobsters in most of his stores and has developed a five-star rating for all meats sold.

“What he’s doing is educating Americans about food and sustainability,” said Bryan Meehan, who sold his company Fresh and Wild to Whole Foods. “He is intensely competitive in a positive way, but also deeply caring about the world.”

by Leonard Doyle in Washington, DC for The Independent, UK

Whether they’re ‘tom-aaaah-toes’ or ‘tom-ay-toes’, the big and fat heirloom babies at my local farmer’s market are utterly perfect right now. Wrinkled and creased, with an astounding array of colors, they’re soft and juicy and deliciously sweet. Almost bruised in appearance at times with their purple / green / black color combo, right through to classic tomato red numbers, I’ve been eating them for practically every meal this week. Here’s my breakfast, and very nice it was too! Classic San Francisco style sourdough bread spread with French style chevre goats cheese and topped with four big rounds of fresh heirloom tomatoes. Flavour set ablaze with a sprinkling of French Atlantic sea salt and some crushed black peppercorns. Quick, simple and inspiring.

A food additive used to make commercial sausages and burgers pink may cause cancer. Scientific studies suggest Red 2G, (also known as E128), causes tumours in rats and mice and might have the same effect on people. After reviewing the experiments, the European Food Safety Agency (Efsa) said it could set no safe limit for the additive.

The European Commission is expected to ban its use within a fortnight, but products containing the additive on the shelves are not likely to be withdrawn in Europe. In America, there are currently no plans to limit the use of Red 2G.

Efsa has been reviewing the safety of colourings, many of which were approved for use 30 years ago. In a statement yesterday, the agency said its scientific panel on food additives, flavourings, processing aids and materials had reviewed several evaluations of Red 2G since 1999. It found the additive, one of a band of controversial “azo-dye” colourings, converted in the body into a substance called aniline.

“Based on animal studies the panel concluded that aniline should be considered as a carcinogen,” Efsa said, adding that it was not possible to state that the cancer had developed because of the genetic structure of the animal cells.

“It is therefore not possible to determine a level of intake for aniline which may be regarded as safe for humans,” it added. “The panel therefore decided that Red 2G should be regarded as being of safety concern.”

The European Commission is “reflecting” on the assessment and is expected to act at a meeting with member states on 20 July. A spokesman said Red G was used in Britain and Ireland but was not used in Scandinavia.

Ian Tokelove, of the pressure group the Food Commission, said there had been concerns about Red 2G going back decades and it was suspected of being a carcinogen in the 1980s. “Our general view is that additives are totally unnecessary,” he added. “We don’t need them in our food. They’re there to disguise the quality of the food and in this case to make meat products look fresher and meatier than they are.”

Red 2G is permitted for use in breakfast sausages with a minimum cereal content of 6 per cent and in burgers with 4 per cent of vegetables or cereals. It gives meat a reddish-pink appearance that turns brown on contact with heat.

Feature by Martin Hickman for The Independent, UK. July 10, 2007

The fast food chain McDonalds announced that all milk for its tea and coffee sold in the 1,200 outlets in the UK will come from organic British cows, starting the end of July. So far, 500,000 liters are sold in children’s Happy Meals. After the end of July, the company will need 8.6 million liters each year - a share of 5 % of all organic milk sales in the UK. This will make the company one of the biggest buyers for this product.

OrganicFoodee.com hopes the company’s food sourcing continues to improve in the UK and around the world. It would be a huge achievement if McDonalds decided to introduce organic milk into its restaurants across the USA, creating better opportunities for American organic farmers and providing healthier options for American McDonalds customers.

A 10-year study comparing organic tomatoes with rival produce suggests they have almost double the amount of antioxidants called flavonoids that protect the heart. According to the findings, levels of quercetin and kaempferol were found to be on average 79 per cent and 97 per cent higher, respectively, in organic tomatoes.

The study was led by Dr. Alyson Mitchell at the University of California at Davis. Flavonoids can fight heart disease, blood pressure and strokes, and have been linked to staving off some forms of cancer and dementia, said Dr Mitchell.

Differences in soil quality, irrigation and the handling of harvested produce have made direct comparisons difficult in the past, she said. She had conducted two earlier studies to compare organic and non-organic tomatoes. In this latest study, due to be published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the researchers used data from a long-term project that used standardized farming techniques.

Dr Mitchell said the findings can be explained by the availability of nitrogen in the soil. Flavonoids are produced as a defense mechanism that can be triggered by nutrient deficiency. The inorganic nitrogen in conventional fertilizer is easily available to plants and so, the team suggests, lower levels of flavonoids are probably caused by over-fertilizing the soil.

Wolaver’s Organic Ales is an independent family run micro-brewery in beautiful lush green Vermont, USA. They’re celebrating their 10th anniversary by launching a special Belgian-style farmhouse ale. It’s a rich full-bodied beer, brewed with plenty of organic malts and hops. And for every bottle of Farmhouse Ale that is sold, Wolaver’s will donate 10% to the Organic Farming Research Foundation in Santa Cruz, California.

Another great reason to drink cool organic ale this summer.

A major British supermarket has dropped Prince Charles as a vegetable suppliers because it says his produce did not meet the right standards. They also dropped fresh produce from Patrick Holden’s farm, the Director of the Soil Association, the UK’s main organic food and farming organization.

The move has prompted Patrick Holden to accuse leading supermarkets of being so centralized and industrialized that they cannot deliver the local organic food their customers want.

Mr Holden said he believes that he and Prince Charles have become victims of the supermarket system’s industrial processes and imposed food miles. They were sacked as suppliers of carrots to Sainsbury’s at the end of January, 2007.

He and the Prince had been forced to truck their vegetables hundreds of miles from their farms to a centralized packing house in East Anglia before they were sent back to be sold in Sainsbury’s stores local to their area.

Mr Holden believes his vegetables were of the highest quality when harvested, but the combined effects of long-distance transport, handling to create large enough batches for the machines that wash and polish the vegetables and further storing after processing to create large enough batches for packing left the vegetables damaged and prone to rot.

The system also resulted in a crop that had been grown for low environmental impact acquiring a greater carbon footprint than conventional carrots grown on an industrial scale, according to Mr Holden. Up to half the crop from the two farms was being rejected in the grading for cosmetic appearance and quality.

Mr Holden said he had decided to speak out because his case was typical. “Everyone who has supplied a supermarket own label will have a story similar to mine to tell but most daren’t tell it for fear of being delisted. This is not confined to one supermarket. It is the unintentional consequence of the centralised supermarket distribution system.”

Sainsbury’s acknowledges that dealing with small suppliers is difficult for big supermarkets, but says it works successfully with others and is willing to try to find a solution to the problems of its highest profile organic farmers. It said its overriding concern had to be the quality of the food it sold.

by Felicity Lawrence for The Guardian, UK.

Artificial sweeteners are often bad news in terms of your health. Take aspartame, an artificial sweetener used in everything from Diet Coke to sugar-free gum. Marketed under the brand name NutraSweet, aspartame is manufactured and distributed by Monsanto, the multinational corporation that brought the world genetically modified seeds and Agent Orange. It’s been linked to cancer, brain damage, and bizarrely, is scientifically proven to cause compulsive over-eating disorders. Dieters beware of dieting products.

Erythritol doesn’t sound very whoesome or natural by name, but in fact it’s simply made from cane sugar. In the case of this new brand, Organic Zero, the sugar is organically grown.

Pure organic cane sugar is dissolved in water, and fermented with a USDA-approved fungus. This process is not dissimilar to making kombucha. Once the sugar solution has fermented for a while, it’s sterilized and filtered. This liquid is then heated to evaporate the water, leaving a white crystalline powder that looks like refined white cane sugar. You get about 1lb erythritol for every 2lbs of sugar used to produce it.

While organic food at its best is all about minimally-processed whole foods, I can see there’s a place for Organic Zero in some people’s lives. If you love coffee and hot tea with sugar, but need to cut back on the amount of sugar you eat, you should consider using Organic Zero on the way to cutting back your sugar usage. It doesn’t have any of the benefits of a good quality honey in terms of enzymes, but it has a zero glycemic index, which means it doesn’t cause any highs or lows in blood sugar levels. Essential news for diabetics.

Erithrytol isn’t a new ingredient, and as such doesn’t need to be treated with the suspicion new and novel untested ingredients often deserve. We’ve been eating erithrytol in mushrooms and cheeses for centuries. It has 0.2 calories per gram (which is pretty much the same as 0 calories), and actually helps prevent tooth decay as the bugs in your mouth can’t eat it.

It’s about 70% as sweet as sugar, so you’ll need to use a little more than usual to get the same effect as sugar. It also has a slightly strange cooling taste on the tongue, a bit like mint. While this is extremely subtle in coffee and tea, it makes it less desirable as a sugar replacement for baking cakes. I suggest you try baking a small batch of a familiar recipe to see if you’re happy with the results before baking a fancy cake.

EU acceptance of GE contamination in all crops, gives New Zealand a real opportunity and point of difference in the world as a GE Free crop producer, according to The Soil & Health Association, New Zealand.

In Brussels on Tuesday, EU Ministers at the Agriculture Council decided to allow contamination of organic food with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The Ministers adopted a new law, which allows organic food containing up to 0.9 percent ‘adventitious or technically unavoidable’ GMO content to be classed and labeled as organic.

“New Zealand has zero tolerance to genetically engineered (GE) contamination and with organic food the worlds fastest food sector growth area, there are fantastic opportunities here for both genuine GE Free organic and conventional growers”, said Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning. “BioGro organic certification standards for example would not tolerate GE contamination, and some British supermarkets are already demanding BioGro. EU consumers do not want GE either.”

“The European Parliament and environmental groups had called for the threshold of contamination of organic food to be 0.1 percent, which is the lowest level at which genetically modified organisms can be technically detected, but due to our increasingly stringent biosecurity and unique geographical isolation, New Zealand’s zero tolerance need not be altered”, said spokesperson Browning.

“Our special position with only limited field trials, that can quickly be eradicated, has to be one of the best opportunities yet for sustainable economic development, with the added bonus of addressing food miles and other environmental trade barriers. Nuclear Free, GE Free & Zero Tolerance, Clean & Green, 100% Pure, BioGro, are winners, not contamination”

“Crop and Food are likely to apply for a further field trial including onions, garlic and leeks this year, but with a likely legal challenge to the recent ERMA decision allowing a GE Brassica field trial, that may be in doubt, leaving just one pathetic GE onion trial to be ripped out, for New Zealand horticulture to be genuinely GE Free.”

“With the onions gone, removing the equally pathetic field trial of GE trees and 200 GE cattle, would allow New Zealand primary producers to walk a very tall GE Free in the world, just as the community has wanted in survey after survey,” said spokesperson Browning.

“A GE Free and Organic 2020, with economic and sustainability benefits, is a far better picture than the contaminated environment that is being hoisted on Europe, and already exists across many parts of the globe.”

Under pressure from The USA, the European governing body has decided to allow a huge amount of genetic modification to enter the organic food chain. Organic foods in Europe can be labeled “GM-free” even if they contain up to 0.9% genetically modified content, European agriculture ministers decided yesterday.

Europe’s agriculture ministers have agreed on a compulsory logo for organic food as new figures showed more and more farmers are switching to the production method in response to consumer demand. The logo will be applied to foods meeting common standards across the European Union from 2009. However, some producers say these standards have been set too low as they permit genetically modified material that accidentally enters the food chain. To be classed as organic, food must contain 95 per cent organic ingredients but can contain up to 0.9 per cent GMOs, to allow for cross-contamination from other crops.

Francis Blake, Soil Association Standards and Technical Director, is quoted, “They have shifted the responsibility and cost of compliance from the makers of biotech crops to organic producers.”

UK Conservative Food and Farming spokesman Peter Ainworth said, “The EU’s plans to allow nearly one per cent GM contamination to go unacknowledged are shocking”

You would never know there is an international bee crisis if you happen to be near my artichokes. I think maybe half the bees in California are currently frequenting the artichoke flowers in my garden, drinking the nectar and building up the cute yellow pollen bags on their tiny thighs. All day long, the deep purple flowers are buzzing with these little honey-making stripey fellows, making me wonder… Where oh where is all that delicious artichoke honey?

Here’s a photo of the artichoke plant in my garden. You can see the huge flower buds that are the artichokes we know and love. We decided to leave these artichokes un-cropped so that they can flower instead of being snipped and eaten in the bud. I’ll show you how they bloom in the next couple of days…

The USDA is considering relaxing legal standards again for organic foods in America. It has drawn up a list of 38 nonorganic spices, colorings and other ingredients that would be allowed in products it legally defines as ‘organic.’

With the “USDA organic” seal stamped on its label, Anheuser-Busch calls its Wild Hop Lager “the perfect organic experience.”

“In today’s world of artificial flavors, preservatives and factory farming, knowing what goes into what you eat and drink can just about drive you crazy,” the Wild Hop website says. “That’s why we have decided to go back to basics and do things the way they were meant to be … naturally.”

But many beer drinkers may not know that Anheuser-Busch has the organic blessing from federal regulators even though Wild Hop Lager uses hops grown with chemical fertilizers and sprayed with pesticides.

A deadline of midnight Friday to come up with a new list of nonorganic ingredients allowed in USDA-certified organic products passed without action from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, leaving uncertain whether some foods currently labeled “USDA organic” would continue to be produced.

The agency is considering a list of 38 nonorganic ingredients that will be permitted in organic foods. Because of the broad uses of these ingredients — as colorings and flavorings, for example — almost any type of manufactured organic food could be affected, including cereal, sausage, bread and beer.

Organic food advocates have fought to block approval of some or all of the proposed ingredients, saying consumers would be misled.

“This proposal is blatant catering to powerful industry players who want the benefits of labeling their products ‘USDA organic’ without doing the work to source organic materials,” said Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the Organic Consumers Association. of Finland, Minnesota, a nonprofit group that boasts 850,000 members.

USDA spokeswoman Joan Shaffer declined to comment on the plan.

Food manufacturers said this week that they were hoping the agency would approve the rules by Friday to continue labeling their products as organic.

A federal judge had given the USDA until midnight Friday to name the nonorganic ingredients it would allow in organic foods, but the agency did not release its final list by the end of the day.

“They probably don’t know what to do” Cummins said. “On the other hand, it’s hard to believe they’re going to make people change their labels, although that’s what they should do.”

Demand for organic food in the U.S. is booming as consumers seek products that are more healthful and friendlier to the environment. Sales have more than doubled in the last five years, reaching $16.9 billion last year, according to the Organic Trade Association in Greenfield, Massachusetts, which represents small and large food producers.

But with big companies entering what was formerly a mom-and-pop industry, new questions have arisen about what exactly goes into organic food. For food to be called organic, it must be grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Animals must be raised without antibiotics and growth hormones and given some access to the outdoors.

Many nonorganic ingredients, including hops, are already being used in organic products, thanks to a USDA interpretation of the Organic Foods Protection Act of 1990. In 2005, a federal judge disagreed with how the USDA was applying the law and gave the agency two years to revise its rules.

Organic food supporters had hoped that the USDA would allow only a small number of substances, but were dismayed last month when the agency released the proposed list of 38 ingredients.

“Adding 38 new ingredients is not just a concession by the USDA, it is a major blow to the organic movement in the U.S. because it would erode consumer confidence in organic standards,” said Carl Chamberlain, a research assistant with the Pesticide Education Project in Raleigh, N.C.

In addition to hops, the list includes 19 food colorings, two starches, casings for sausages and hot dogs, fish oil, chipotle chili pepper, gelatin and a host of obscure ingredients (one, for instance, is a “bulking agent” and sweetener with the tongue-twisting name of fructooligosaccharides).

Under the agency’s proposal, as much as 5% of a food product could be made with these ingredients and still get the “USDA organic” seal. Hops, though a major component of beer’s flavor, are less than 5% of the final product because the beverage is mostly water.

Sales of organic beer, though still a small portion of total beer sales, have been growing even faster than overall organic food sales. They reached $19 million in 2005, a 40% increase over the previous year (2006 figures are not yet available).

Trying to get a share of the market for green products, Anheuser-Busch introduced two organic beers in September, and soon pitched them in fliers to wholesalers.

“Environmentally conscious consumers are looking for certified organic products, including beer, the fastest-growing organic beverage,” the pitch said. “Capitalize on this growing market with Wild Hop Lager and Stone Mill Pale Ale.”

But while the two beers use 100% organic barley malt, less than 10% of the hops they use is organic. Hops are conelike flowers that grow on vines and impart a bitter taste on beer to offset the sweetness of malts.

Anheuser-Busch said it simply couldn’t find enough organic hops.

“There currently is only a small supply of organically grown hops available for purchase by brewers, and we purchased all we could for brewing these beers,” said Doug Muhleman, vice president of brewing operations for Anheuser-Busch Inc.

But that argument doesn’t wash with Russell Klisch, owner of Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery, which has been producing beer with 100% organic hops since 1996.

“If we can do it, we think Anheuser-Busch, the world’s largest beer producer with virtually unlimited resources, should be able to follow our example,” he said.

Klisch said there were enough organic hops to satisfy 90% of the current organic beer demand in the U.S., but some brewers were put off by their higher price.

There are no organic hops commercially grown in the U.S.; most come from New Zealand, Britain and Germany. But Klisch has recently contracted with two Wisconsin farmers to grow some on their land. He doesn’t understand why large brewers can’t do the same.

“You’re telling me that Anheuser-Busch can’t find a little plot of ground somewhere to grow organic hops?” he said.

In addition to hops, two other items on the USDA list have attracted particular attention: casings for sausages and hot dogs, and fish oil.

Casings are the intestines of cows, pigs or sheep, which have been used for centuries to wrap meat into sausages and frankfurters.

Although the casings are a tiny portion of the overall sausage, organic purists object to eating anything from animals that are raised on conventional farms, where livestock may be housed in tight quarters and given antibiotics and growth hormones. Further, they note that the USDA’s food safety division has identified cow intestines as a possible source of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

But the USDA has already banned part of the cow’s small intestines for human consumption because of the risk of mad cow disease. Barbara Negron, president of the North American Natural Casing Association in New York, said casings were safe to eat.

“It’s a very safe, clean and natural product,” she said. “It’s not an organic product. It’s a natural product.”

It’s very difficult to maintain pure organic eating habits, Negron added, “unless you want to lock yourself up and only raise your own food.”

Fish oil’s presence on the USDA list has drawn objections because it could carry high levels of heavy metals and other contaminants, said Jim Riddle, a former member of the National Organic Standards Board. But fish oil producers said such contaminants could be screened out through proper processing.

The USDA rules come with what appears to be an important consumer protection: Manufacturers can use nonorganic ingredients only if organic versions are not “commercially available.”

But food makers have found a way around this barrier, in part because the USDA doesn’t enforce the rule directly. Instead, it depends on its certifying agents — 96 licensed organizations in the U.S. and overseas — to decide for themselves what it means for a product to be available in organic form.

Despite years of discussion, the USDA has yet to provide certifiers with standardized guidelines for enforcing this rule.

“There is no effective mechanism for identifying a lack of organic ingredients,” complained executives of Pennsylvania Certified Organic, a nonprofit certifying agent, in a letter to the USDA. “It is a very challenging task to ‘prove a negative’ regarding the organic supply.”

Large companies have a better chance of winning approval to use nonorganic ingredients because the amount they demand can exceed the small supply of organic equivalents, said Craig Minowa, environmental scientist for the Organic Consumers Association.

By Scott J. Wilson, LA Times, June 9, 2007

The shortlists for The Observer Ethical Awards 2007 have been announced, the Oscars of British ethical products and lifestyle.

The award category that we’re most excited about this year here at OrganicFoodee.com is Fashion Product of the Year. Our long time friend and very own fashion consultant Sarah Ratty’s eco-chic womenswear label Ciel has been shortlisted for this prestigious award. America’s future president and climate change campaigner Al Gore rubs shoulders with British journalist, blogger and political activist George Monbiot in the Campaigner of the Year shortlist. Best Online Retailer sees organic food delivery service Abel & Cole shortlisted alongside eco-fashion retailer Howies and eco-lifestyle products store The Natural Collection. And in the Best Local Retailer shortlist, we’re delighted to see Brighton’s wonderful community store Infinity Foods.

The Observer newspaper will be announcing the winners on June 8th, so check back to see the final results.

Here’s my friend Brandon cooking up some fabulous bison burgers for my dinner, complete with finest Isle of Mull cheese, a cheese so strong it’s practically a heavyweight contender. Brandon’s burgers are simply a third of a pound of ground bison from our friend Kathy’s buffalo ranch. Kathy and her husband Ken own Lindner Bison and are true pioneers of highest quality grass-fed bison. Brandon’s secret is to slowly cook the pure meat patties in a pan with the lid on. When the meat is cooked, he layers slices of the cheese on top of the patties. Then he adds about a tablespoon of cold water to the pan and pops the lid back on for a minute. The steam this creates deglazes the pan and simultaneously melts the cheese to make beautifully moist and succulent patties with sticky stretchy melted cheese. Yum.

Retail food prices are heading for their biggest annual increase in as much as 30 years, raising fears that the world faces an unprecedented period of food price inflation.

Prices have soared as the expanding biofuels industry, climate change and the growing prosperity of nations such as India and China push up the costs of farm commodities including wheat, corn, milk and oils.

Food companies have started passing on these increases to consumers, but the prospect of sustained commodity price rises means the industry’s profits could be hit as it is forced to absorb the higher costs itself.

Hershey, the US chocolate maker, this month became the first big food company to cut its 2007 profits forecast because of the rising cost of milk, and Switzerland’s Nestlé warned investors last month it would not be able to cope with higher milk costs by simply raising prices.

John Parker, food analyst at Deutsche Bank, said: “There is growing concern within the food industry that the present upswing in soft commodity prices is structural rather than cyclical.”

Few countries have not felt the impact of food price rises. In the US, prices have risen by 6.7 per cent, seasonally adjusted, since the beginning of this year, compared to 2.1 per cent for all of 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If prices keep rising at these levels for the rest of the year, it would be the biggest annual increase since 1980.

The UK’s consumer price index showed annual food price inflation of 6 per cent in April - its highest level in almost six years, and well ahead of overall inflation of 2.8 per cent. Food price inflation is lower in the eurozone at 2.5 per cent but still rising more quickly than overall prices.

In China, food costs are increasing more than twice as quickly as other kinds of prices, up 7.1 per cent last month compared to a year earlier. And in India, annual food price inflation has reached its highest levels since the late 1990s, climbing above 10 per cent year-on-year.

US research firm Bernstein estimates that its Food Commodities index, which tracks a dozen agricultural raw materials including wheat, barley, cocoa and edible oils, will show cost inflation of 21 per cent this year - the biggest rise since the index started almost a decade ago.

By Jenny Wiggins, Consumer Industries Correspondent, Financial Times
May 24, 2007

Between 1940 and 1991, the typical British potato “lost” 47% of its copper and 45% of its iron. Carrots lost 75% of their magnesium, and broccoli 75% of its calcium. This is according to the British government’s own scientifically researched data.

The pattern was repeated for vitamins. A study in Canada showed that between 1951 and 1999, potatoes lost all of their vitamin A and 57% of their vitamin C.

Today’s consumers also have to eat as many as eight oranges to obtain the same amount of vitamin A their grandparents did from a single fruit.

This has to be one of the most troubling consequences of the agrochemical revolution. This is the proven nutritive difference between the intensively grown fruit and vegetables of today and their organically grown equivalents 60 years ago.

Roundup is the most commonly used herbicide in the world. It is widely used on genetically modified plants grown for food, clothing and animal feed. Most genetically modified crops are genetically modified specifically so that they can be sprayed and grown with Roundup. Roundup is a weedkiller, so crops grown where Roundup are sprayed are usually genetically modified so they can survive being sprayed with this poison at the same time as the weeds it is intended to kill. Roundup is found throughout the food chain in most countries, including America, India and France. It has contaminated rivers and waterways in all countries where it is sprayed onto crops, and so it can find its way into food even if the farmer has not sprayed his own fields.

A group of scientists in the University of Caen, France, has published a study on the previously unknown toxic effects of Roundup on human embryonic cells. The study is titled ‘Time and Dose-Dependent Effects of Roundup on Human Embryonic and Placental Cells’ and was authored by Nora Benachour, Herbert Sipahutar, Safa Moslemi, Céline Gasnier, Carine Travert, Gilles-Eric Séralini. It has scientifically proven that Roundup adversely affects human embryonic cells if used at doses that are currently legally recommended. It also finds that the human endocrine system is disrupted by this widely used herbicide. This means if you eat food that has been sprayed with Roundup, it can unbalance your hormones and adversely effect your fertility.

Read the full scientific report in English.

Fish is so good for you, salmon doubly so. If you’re in an area of the world where the main kind of salmon in your store is farmed, you need to choose organically farmed salmon. Choosing organically farmed fish as opposed to non-organic farmed fish is important for your family’s health, for the environment and for the welfare of the fish.

Salmon farms that aren’t organic are similar to battery farms for non-organic chickens. They suck. Over crowded and infested with sea lice, the fish are dowsed with pesticides every day because disease can spread so easily through the cramped tubs of stressed and under-exercised fish. Organic salmon farms have to allow greater space for the fish to swim, which is essential for these creatures, as they’re loners in the wild. It also means they’re less fatty and more fishy by the time they get to your pan.

I have Alaskan wild salmon frying in my pan, because wild stocks of salmon are still plentiful in these pristine glacial waters. Alaska isn’t exactly on my doorstep here in Los Angeles, but given the choice of locally farmed organic salmon and wild salmon from Alaska, I’d go for the wild option. Seeing as I’ve not actually spotted any locally farmed organic salmon, option anxiety has been avoided entirely. However, if you’re presented with the choice of organically farmed salmon or wild salmon and you’re not in California, it’s probably best to choose the organic option until you get more facts about the status of your local wild salmon stocks.

Remember, oily fish is great for your brain, for your skin, for your bones. It’s a quick supper that’s luxurious, delicious and nutritious. I’ve just pan-fried it over a low heat with garlic and fresh organic cherry tomatoes. Wish I could share it with you…

On May 27, 2007 it will be 100 years since Rachel Carson was born. She was one of the very first people to alert the Western world about the benefits of organic farming and the dangers inherent in spraying farms with poisonous checmicals.

Her book, ‘Silent Spring’, was published in America in 1962, and influenced an entire generation. The silence she referred to in the title was her own observation that there was less and less birdsong every spring.

Her combination of thorough research and inspiring rhetoric makes Rachel Carson one of the world’s foremost ecologists.

www.rachelcarson.org

The landlady of a small English pub on the Pennine Way has won her battle with the fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken, over her “Family Feast” traditional Christmas Day menu. The battle was joined when KFC’s lawyers at Freshfields, the leading City firm, wrote to Tracy Daly, licensee of the Tan Hill Inn, in North Yorkshire, accusing her of infringing its trademark.

Ms Daly had assumed that the letter, from one Giles Pratt, was an elaborate practical joke.

Her pub was miles from the nearest high street, and the Family Feast she served but once a year. It consisted of a traditional Christmas dinner. There was little chance, she reasoned, that it could be confused with KFC’s Family Feast, a bucket of fried chicken and chips, coleslaw, potato and gravy, with a fizzy drink?

She was wrong.

When she called Freshfields she was told that the matter was extremely serious. A spokesperson for KFC explained that Family Feast was a registered trademark to which it devoted significant resources for promotion and protection. However, the company’s professed intent to tackle the threat posed by the Christmas menu of a tiny country pub caused uproar. Firms of solicitors offered Ms Daly their services free, and commentators on Times Online weighed in behind Ms Daly as she prepared to fight her corner.

“A faceless corporation with no heart and no values . . . trying to bully hard-working pub owners over ownership of a common English phrase” wrote one Times reader.

Ms Daly suggested that the chief executive of KFC ought to make the rather long journey to her pub to experience her “Family Feast” for himself. In return she would agree to eat a KFC Family Feast.

Faced with this, and the public outcry, yesterday afternoon KFC backed down. It issued a statement: “KFC has spoken to Ms Daly . . . and confirmed that it will not take this case any further. This means Ms Daly can continue to use the phrase Family Feast on the pub’s Christmas menu. It’s an unusual situation that has been blown out of all proportion.”

Ms Daly said: “Common sense has prevailed. I’m not going to need my boxing gloves. I’ve invited KFC to come here and have a meal and shake hands.”

Story by Will Pavia for The Times, UK, May 11 2007

1990 McDonald’s served a writ against an English couple who handed out leaflets outside their restaurants, urging people not to eat there. The ‘McLibel’ battle became the longest in English legal history, ending with victory for the couple as the case went to Europe

It was a pleasure to see my friend Greg Dicum on Saturday. A resident of San Francisco, Greg had traveled the 350 miles to Los Angeles to attend the Speciality Coffee Association of America’s 19th annual conference in nearby Long Beach.

As author of ‘The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last Drop,’ you can imagine just how well he was received at this event. Like a rock star emerging from a stadium after a show, Greg appeared at my friend Richard’s house, triumphant and beat, contented, excited and undeniably slightly wired. It was at that point that I learned he’d existed exclusively on coffee for the entire day.

What could a girl do but sit him down and feed him sesame and rice vinegar puy lentils, steamed ruby rice, and a big bowl of steamed French beans, fennel (anise) bulbs, carrots and garlic. Seems it was a winning combo…

Religious people of all faiths are increasingly going organic, especially people whose religions state specific dietary requirements. Muslims and Jews have a particularly strong emphasis on food, with strict Halal and Kosher guidelines on food production stemming from the belief that the food we eat should be untainted, pure and spiritually uplifting. Adherents of both religions say blessings before eating the smallest morsel of food, so it seems an obvious step that with this awareness of the significance of food as God’s creation, Muslims and Jews increasingly want the food they’re blessing to be untainted by chemicals. Christians are also going organic. The Christian green movement is growing exponentially as believers are increasingly outraged at the environmentally destructive activities of the Bush administration, often in their name.

I’ve found some wonderful producers and purveyors of faith-based foods springing up, including this halal family-run company, this eco-kosher organisation in New York with an organic food outreach program, and this excellent Christian green magazine.

So it was with delight that I spotted freshly-baked, deliciously sweet and richly eggy organic challah bread in Le Pain Quotidien in Santa Monica, California. Challah is eaten every Friday night by observant Jews as part of a meal to welcome in the Sabbath with candle-lighting and wine. The plaited shape of the bread represents the many different kinds of people that make Jewish culture. It’s a cakey, slightly sweet bread that’s dense and moist. Perfect eaten in hand-torn chunks, or sliced, toasted and liberally buttered.

I really don’t like the look of the nectarine Adam Wakeley is proffering. More specifically, I don’t like the feel of it, because it’s as hard as a bullet and, as any fool knows, that means it will taste disgusting. ‘It’s just right for eating, absolutely lovely,’ he insists, in a way that doesn’t invite dissent. So I have to take a bite. It is the nicest nectarine I’ve ever had in my life, juicy and sweet, which proves that, despite being a consumer of fruit for 30 years (although admittedly I’ve achieved the prescribed ‘five-a-day’ about twice), I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Adam Wakeley, on the other hand, knows everything about fruit. He is joint MD of Organic Farm Foods, the UK’s biggest organic-fruit wholesaler, a £26 million ($50 million) business, supplying the main UK supermarkets with imported organic produce which they sell as fast as he can supply it. Actually it’s in his blood - his father has a large apple farm in Kent (though unlike the fruit that Wakeley deals in, it’s not organic, but more on that later).

Adam is the first cousin of celebrated fashion designer Amanda Wakeley, and his early career also involved a foray into the fashion world - as a male model in the 1980s. In the Wakeleys’ 14th-century farmhouse in Ilmington, Gloucestershire - one of those ridiculously bucolic villages that make Richard Curtis films looks grittily realistic - there are only a couple of clues to this former life: photos of Adam in the downstairs bathroom. Taken by his wife, Melanie, a onetime professional photographer, they are of the slightly film noir, Athena man-holds-baby type, very popular in the 1980s, and actually now rather cool. ‘No, they are not cool,’ huffs Adam, ‘horrible, embarrassing.’ In fact, he claims the whole modelling thing was just useful to get Mel an audience with art directors who might then commission her.

It wasn’t long before he was drawn to the apple business, like his father before him. But while Mel was pregnant with Ned (now 11), something happened that was to change Adam’s whole outlook on farming and its future. Mel was on his father’s apple farm, walking through the yard, when she was inadvertently showered with pesticide; the type of pest inhibitor routinely sprayed on British fruit (the average apple is treated around 60 times before it reaches a supermarket shelf). Just weeks later the couple attended a wedding where the entire party was struck down by salmonella in a case that made the national press - the chef was later imprisoned. Heavily pregnant, Mel was rushed into hospital, and Ned was born by emergency Caesarean, underweight and with a seriously underdeveloped oesophagus. It was touch and go whether he’d survive.

In a house full of children, running between the small orchard and bouncing on a large trampoline, Ned holds his own. But his life has involved countless operations, complex rounds of visits to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, and a number of near-death experiences - he can only eat certain things, and only very, very slowly to avoid choking. There remains little conclusive evidence on the effects of pesticide. In Ned’s case, the salmonella incident didn’t help his chances, but there was little doubt in the minds of the Great Ormond Street specialists that the missing oesophagus was entirely consistent with the apple pesticides Mel had ingested.

In any case, there was absolutely no doubt in Adam Wakeley’s mind. It was a terribly cruel epiphany, but it made him adamant that the organic system, growing without recourse to a variety of agrichemicals, was the only way that farming should or could be carried out sustainably.

You will not find a more passionate advocate of the organic system than Wakeley, but you won’t find a more commercially motivated one either. ‘Look,’ he says, ‘I’m not a hemp-wearing, toe-wiggling hippy. I’m the managing director of a £26m ($50m) organic food company. My motivation is to make a profit for my shareholders. But I can do something idealistic, very green, commercially viable and actually, highly profitable.’

In fact, Adam Wakeley has a big apple plan. One he unfurls at the outside lunch table in the courtyard behind the house. Today the Wakeleys are relying on takeaway food. But this being millionaire-belt Gloucestershire, the pies, flans and unfeasibly large artichoke hearts just happen to be from nearby Daylesford Organic.

The outside table is useful, if only because it’s rather big and the Wakeleys are the sort of family who collect extra children at meal times, as their progeny appear with their friends from various corners of the gardens. Often Mel’s parents appear too - they live in a very fine house next door. Lily, dressed in Top Shop’s best, arrives with a couple of friends, Ned appears with a tall blonde (’Ned has a huge amount of girlfriends,’ Mel informs me) and Jude appears clutching a cola ice pop (’not sure if that is organic,’ says Adam dubiously).

‘Have some more apple, girl,’ Adam says, and I’m thinking, ‘Not more fruit’, because to be honest I’ve had a month’s quota already. Actually he’s talking to Rocky, one of the hens, who likes to sit on the table around meal times. ‘She’s a lovely, lovely girl,’ coos Adam. When Rocky has strutted off, Wakeley reveals his plan: supermarkets (and obviously consumers) are desperate for organic, UK fruit, without the chemicals and the food miles. ‘Tesco had just three days’ worth of English organic apples on their shelves last year, because that’s all they could get,’ he says. ‘Through our investors we are going to buy large chunks of the right land - normally this means Hereford and Kent and plant with the right varieties. It takes three years to grow the apples, which coincidentally is the time it takes for organic conversion. At the end you not only have home-grown apples but more land in organic conversion. And the beauty of the idea is that I know the size of my markets, because I’m already supplying them with imported fruit. In a nutshell, I will take my imported off and put English on.’

Wakeley’s scheme is now under way on acreage bought by his first investor, but he won’t be growing many of the apples generally regarded as ‘classic’ English varieties. There will be no Cox’s orange pippins for example. ‘It’s the junkie of apples,’ he says. ‘It wouldn’t last a day without chemicals. Take away its fertilisers and pesticides and it will wilt. So we need to go right back and find the varieties which are disease-resistant and have good taste. This is what we have done.’

These are, apparently, varieties from the 13th and 14th century - small trees no bigger than six feet that allow the sun to get round them. I worry that delving so far back into history might make this plan seem a little regressive, a charge often levelled at the organic community. No, insists Adam, they really knew how to grow and sustain strong varieties in those days, though they did not, it is true, have to conform to the supermarkets’ demands for an apple weighing 60-65ml, free of blemish, insect damage and scab marks. ‘Historically, you’d grow fruit and people would eat it,’ says Adam.

Meanwhile, there’s hardly a stampede of UK farmers trying to get into the buoyant organic market, although the Soil Association insists that 66 per cent of organic produce is now grown on these shores. According to Adam, English farmers just don’t get organic. ‘Granted they are up to their eyes in debt, mortgaged to the hilt and on their knees, but English farmers don’t understand why you’ve got to have ponds, hedgerows, compost. They see it as a fad, and as six per cent of the retail market, which means to them 94 per cent of the market isn’t interested.’

To Adam this means 94 per cent ripe for conversion to local, organic fruit, providing it’s done properly - ie by him and his team.

‘We’ve got a team of specialists who know more about organic apple farming than anybody in the world, including Bob Barr, the world’s foremost compost expert because it’s all about the soil. At the end of the day, my future is not challenging guidelines set up by the Soil Association or the supermarkets. That’s not my job.’ Which rather begs the question, what is his job? ‘Easy,’ he says. ‘My job is to reinvent English farming and bring local, organic food into the market place.’ Welcome to Adam’s apple revolution.

Article by Lucy Siegle for The Observer Food Monthly, UK, Sunday April 29th, 2007

As an environmentalist, there’s nothing I like better than finding something fabulously useful to do with apparently useless things. As an OrganicFoodee, it’s doubly as cool when the apparently useless thing turns out to be a delicious ingredient. Of course, everybody’s grandmother knows that you should relish old bones instead of throwing them away. In just about every culture, people have been boiling up bones for as long as anyone can remember.

As an ex-vegan, I love the idea of using every part of an animal rather than sending parts of it to the landfill. It seems so wrong when we waste food, but wasting parts of an animal seems so much more immoral than wasting plant-based foods.

While making this rich brown beef stock, my kitchen went through three olphactory phases…

The first was the smell of roasting beef bones, which was a tallow-ish, beef dripping sort of fragrance. This stage made my vegan roommate slightly paler in complexion, and could be described as an acquired fragrance.

The second stage had an undeniably delicious and fresh aroma, the smell of fragrant vegetables, including carrots, celery and fennel (anise), delicate yet all-pervading, and mouth-wateringly evocative to all, whether meat eating or vegetarian.

The third stage was the longest stage, as the stock simmered and cooked for a good eight hours. The third stage prompted another of my roommates (there are eleven of them, don’t forget), to reminisce about her grandmother’s kitchen. It’s that thoroughly cooked, stewed beef, long-simmering soup frangrance that’s as homely as a picket fence and as comforting as a cat’s purr.

Here I am at Urth Cafe enjoying some nori seaweed rolls. Inside the thin thin layer of seaweed is moist Californian short grain brown rice, and inside that is some smooth ripe avocado and cool crisp cucumber. Underneath the seaweed is some umeboshi plum paste to help the seaweed paper wrap around and stick like glue. It’s also one of my favourite flavours, a sort of tart and salty and plummish fermented concoction that really does have to be tasted to be believed. And then there’s the nori seaweed itself. It’s grown in the ocean on nets made of woven rope dangled between long bamboo poles driven into the sea bed in gentle Japanes bays. The shallow waters mean that the plant can get plenty of sunlight to make the delicious and nutritious greens, while at the same time absorbing a bounty of minerals from the sea water it’s sucking from. Richly flavoured and just so good for you, it’s easy to cook with and the easiest of sea vegetables to eat.

Last weekend, OrganicFoodee took part in America’s biggest ever protest againt global warming. We organised a hike to the world-famous Hollywood Sign, which involves hiking through some beautiful little mountains in a huge wild park in the middle of Hollywood, California. This was as a part of a new kind of internet-age protest. In the past, protests meant a single march, perhaps in New York or in Washington. Then came the Iraq war, and protests meant one day of coordinated marches in cities throughout the world. And now, Step It Up has invented a whole new de-centralised way of protesting.

The guy behind Step It Up is Bill McKibben, a scholarly man and author of influential eco-books including ‘The End of Nature’. He decided in January of this year to invent Step It Up on April 14th, a week before America celebrates Earth Day.

The format of Step It Up is that volunteers sign up to organise local actions in their own neighbourhood. So a group of senior citizens in Idaho organised a tea party, a group of deep sea divers organised a dive to a coral reef, and OrganicFoodee organised a hike to the Hollywood Sign.

Whatever everyone did, they made sure to bring a banner that said:

Step It Up 2007. Cut Carbon 80% by 2050

This might seem a tall order, but actually, that’s only 2% per year, and is a figure that’s generally agreed upon to be what’s needed to reverse climate change.

So all in all, there were over 1400 local actions in every State in the Union. And in a year that saw Exxon Mobil make more money than any other company in the history of the world, it seems the very least we can do is let Congress know that we’re set on saving this beautiful planet.

Here are some easy ways you can lessen your impact on the environment:

1. Buy your organic food locally. The average American meal travels 1,500 miles from the farm to the store to your plate.

2. Replace common incandescent light bulbs with low energy compact fluorescent light bulbs.

3. Use public transport and bicycles, or ride share if possible.

4. Get a programmable thermostat and set it two degrees cooler for winter heating, and two degrees warmer for summertime air conditioning.

5. By an Energy Star washing machine, fridge, or other appliance when you replace your old one.

6. When you’re buying a car, make sure you prioritise the gas mileage, plus keep your tires properly inflated.

7. Switch to green power.

Durian is a kind of fruit that is grown and enjoyed in Indonesia. Here’s my friend Rob Ganger risking his olfactory glands by holding a box of durian hazardously close to his nose.

This stuff smells revolting. More than revolting. A combination of rotting flesh, burnt carpets and poo, the smell makes you wonder how anyone ever had the idea to try putting some of this fruit into their mouths.

Thankfully they did, as the taste is really extraordinary.

Very sweet, and then very savoury. A mixture of raspberries and sugar cane with camembert and green onions. A little goes a long way. Some people just can’t get enough, but for me, one bite was enough. I think durian is more of an ingredient to whizz into an almond milk smoothie, but aficionados would disagree.

America’s bees are disappearing. Not in a gradual way, but in a massive, completely unprecedented and shockingly abrupt manner known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). And if the bees die, who is going to pollinate the crops that feed us?

When John Chapple, one of London’s largest keepers of honeybees, opened his 40 hives after the winter, he was shocked: 23 were empty, seven contained dead bees, and only 10 were unaffected by what seemed to be a mystery plague.

Beekeepers are used to diseases sweeping through their colonies, and, nationally, nearly one in seven colonies dies naturally each winter. But this seemed very different to Mr Chapple, who is head of the London Beekeepers Association and has 20 years’ experience with the insects and their diseases.

“The problem was that most of the bees had just disappeared. It was like the Marie Celeste. There was no chance they had been stolen,” he said yesterday. “The ones that were left did not seem to have been attacked by varroa [the tiny parasitical mite that beekeepers have learned to live with since it arrived from Asia 15 years ago]. I really do not know what happened”.

Mr Chapple’s experience has chimed with other beekeepers. “Many colleagues and bee clubs tell me that they are experiencing something similar. The Pinner and Ruislip beekeepers’ group told me only this morning that they have lost 50% to 75% of their bees. I don’t know what is happening, but the bees are just going,” he said.

Many British beekeepers fear they are witnessing the start of an alarming phenomenon which is sweeping the US and mainland Europe. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is possibly the most serious disease yet faced by bees.

According to the national bee unit, a branch of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, its “symptoms appear to be the total collapse of bee colonies, with a complete absence of bees or only a few remaining in the hive”. The unit says no one has any idea what is causing CCD. Theories in the US, where 24 states are affected and losses of 50% to 90% of colonies are being reported, include environmental stresses, malnutrition, unknown pathogens, the use of antibiotics, mites, pesticides and genetically modified crops.

Because bees pollinate millions of hectares of fruit trees and crops, the implications for agriculture are enormous. “Approximately 40% of my 2,000 colonies are currently dead and this is the greatest winter mortality I have ever experienced,” Gene Brandi, a member of the California State Beekeepers Association, told the US Congress recently.

In Spain, thousands of colonies are said to have been lost, and up to 40% of Swiss bees are reported to have disappeared or died in the past year. Heavy losses have also been reported in Portugal, Italy and Greece.

Government bee inspectors met yesterday, but Mike Brown, head of the national bee unit based in York, reported no signs of CCD in Britain. “There is no evidence in the UK right now of colony collapse disorder,” he said in a statement. “The majority of inspectors said that they can put the current mortalities in honeybee populations around the UK down to varroa or varroasis.”

“I just don’t know where they get their information,” said Mr Chapple. “They took away some of my bees but I have heard nothing. All I know that something is very wrong with our bees.”

Article by John Vidal, environment editor of The Guardian UK, April 12, 2007

This a tale of two Hastings. There is New Hastings, with a seafront rocking with amusement arcades, chippies, tattoo parlours and shops selling rock candy. And there is Old Hastings, quiet, quaint, higgledy-piggledy in a pretty, orderly kind of way, with secondhand book shops, antique shops and Judges.

The front of Judges has a slightly saggy look, the way old shops should. The name leaps out of a sky-blue fascia, and the windows are filled with fat eccles cakes, curly-whirly Chelsea buns, doughnuts, Viennese hearts, pink meringue pigs, coffee and walnut cakes, apple turnovers and Easter choccies. Green & Black’s Easter choccies, to be precise.

I had never thought of Craig Sams as a curly-whirly man. He was the magus of macrobiotics, the fellow who years ago led the organic healthfood charge with Whole Earth Foods, and who persuaded the nation that you could eat chocolate and feel good about it, so long as the chocolate was Green & Black’s. Sams stood down from most of his corporate responsibilities a few years ago, to cultivate his kitchen garden in East Sussex and to become a big cheese in the Soil Association. But the entrepreneurial spirit runs deep, because two years ago, supported by his wife, Josephine, he took over Judges, a bakery and tea shop in Hastings with a good local reputation, and turned it into … what?

Well, if I didn’t think the couple might find the description objectionable, I’d say a mini-supermarket devoted to things organic. Besides the breads and pastries, it sells an intoxicating jumble of goodies. There’s a small, well-chosen cheese section, a mini-meat section, fruit and veg in baskets, coffee from the Monmouth Coffee Shop, apple juice from Oakwood Farm, Steenbergs spices and shelf after shelf of packets, pots and packages, all tip-top organic - “2,000 altogether,” says Craig, “more than Tesco or Sainsbury’s. And as much as possible is produced locally.”

“And we’ve tasted every one of them,” says Jo. “If it doesn’t taste good, it doesn’t go on the shelves”

It makes money, too - “more money per square metre than Sainsbury’s,” says Craig, dryly.

When they took over Judges, the couple didn’t announce that everything would be organic, because they didn’t want to scare off the regulars. “We let people get hooked, then we told them,” Craig says.

He is particularly proud of his eclectic mix of clientele. It’s not just well-heeled weekenders stocking up on premium products. “We get fishermen, workmen, little old ladies, and first thing in the morning the street’s lined with builders’ vans collecting sandwiches for lunch.” Craig is also working on links to schools and a primary care trust. Ethical principles run as strong in the Sams family as entrepreneurial ones.

Could Judges be a model for other shops of this kind? Put it this way, there was a man from the Soil Association who had come to see how it all worked, and he was filling a basket at the same time.

Judges Bakery 51 High Street, Hastings, East Sussex, 01424 722588

Article by Matthew Fort for The Guardian UK, April 7, 2007

I just couldn’t help admiring the rich colours that leapt out of the frying pan. Here’s the beginnings of a very simple stir fry I made with Swiss ruby chard, carrots, leeks, coriander leaves, onion, garlic and radishes, all locally grown, organic and bursting with chi.

Scientists have developed a test that can detect if unscrupulous traders are trying to pass off non-organic fruit and vegetables as organic to boost their profits.

The chemical test relies on identifying a “nitrogen signature” that is left in food by the conventional fertilisers used in intensive farming.

Organic food, which is a £15 billion global market, is currently regulated by a system of certification and inspection.

Simon Kelly, of the University of East Anglia, said that the test, reported by his team in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, could provide extra evidence when foul play was suspected.

“When the test has been made more reliable then we may get to the stage where it can be used routinely in addition to the organic certification system,” he said.

Article by Roger Highfield for The Daily Telegraph UK, April 9, 2007

As the supply of cheap fuel dwindles, organic farmers in Wales prepare the rural town of Lampeter for ‘energy descent’

There is, as the ads say, no Plan B. The age of cheap oil is drawing to a close, climate change already threatens, and politicians dither. But the people of Lampeter, a small community in the middle of rural Wales, gathered together earlier this week to mobilise for a new war effort. They decided to plan their “energy descent”.

It was in fact the biggest public meeting in Lampeter anyone could remember. West Wales has a long tradition of alternative living, but the scale of this was different. More than 450 people filed into the hall in a place where the total population is just 4,000. They had come to turn themselves into a Transition Town - one of a rapidly growing network of places that have decided not to wait for government action, but to prepare for life after oil on their own.

First, the coordinator of the Transition Town movement, Rob Hopkins, told them how urgent the crisis is. Hopkins, who helped create the earliest Transition Towns in Kinsale, Ireland, and Totnes, Cornwall, and advises the 20 or so others that have signed up, describes himself as an early topper.

He’s one of those who think that in the next five years we will have reached peak oil - the point at which half the world’s oil reserves have been used up. After that production goes into irreversible and rapid decline and our main source of energy starts running out. Since we have not so far identified another viable energy source to replace it, the only rational response, he said, is to plan our energy descent. “Life after oil will have to look very different.”

The world, he explained, divides into early toppers and late toppers. The early toppers, made up largely of former industry geological experts, calculate that world oil production has already or will very soon peak. The end of oil is nigh, in other words.

The late toppers, made up mostly of more optimistic oil companies, governments and economists, predict we have longer, with peak oil some 20 to 30 years away. “I tend to believe the people with no vested interest, but either way this is one of the most dramatic shifts humanity has had to face,” Hopkins warned.

By now the people of Lampeter, from ageing hippies to young activists, were shifting in their plastic seats (made with oil) and drawing anxiously on their water bottles (made with oil) if not reaching for their medicines (made with oil). Hopkins told them they were likely to experience a range of common symptoms that accompany initial peak oil awareness.

One might be an irrational grasping at infeasible solutions. At hydrogen, for example. No good, running the UK’s cars on hydrogen would need 67 Sizewell B nuclear power stations or a wind farm bigger than the south-west region of England. Or what about biofuels? No again, it would take over 25m hectares of arable land to run the UK’s vehicles on biodiesel, and the UK only has 5.7m hectares of arable land. We need to eat too.

Unfortunately, British farming has evolved “into a system for turning oil into food”, reliant on the energy-intensive manufacture of synthetic fertiliser, heavy use of oil-based plastics, and centralised just-in-time distribution systems that also guzzle oil.

After Hopkins, Guardian columnist George Monbiot, who lives near Lampeter, tried to cheer them up. Unlike Hopkins, he said he had been persuaded that the end of oil was not nigh, but only nigh-ish. We may have another 10 to 30 years. And there was lots of coal for energy.

The problem was that if we switched back to sin fuels that increase our emissions, climate change will undo us even faster than peak oil.

The drive for change in Lampeter has come in part from a group of local organic farmers - both Patrick Holden, the Soil Association’s director, and Peter Segger, the businessman who was the first to supply the mass market in Britain with organic foods through the supermarkets, have their land nearby. Both have decided that the future lies in selling more of their produce locally instead of having it trucked round the UK.

Segger and his partner Anne Evans have already switched from supplying the major retailers to selling half their vegetables within Wales.

Holden confessed to a touch of both survivalism and optimism. As an organic farmer who does not use artificial fertiliser, he said he had been feeling smug until he heard Hopkins speak a couple of months ago.

But he realised his produce was also part of the problem once it left his farm, feeding into the system of centralised distribution. Now he is trying to make his farm self sufficient in energy: he has already invested in burying half a mile of pipes under a field to extract heat from the soil that keeps his house warm.

Four hours into planning their energy descent and over bowls of local cawl broth the crowd in Lampeter were considering what they would like to happen - a ban on advertising that encourages consumption; turning the local supermarket into a giant allotment - and what they could they could actually do - install a community wind turbine; encourage low-energy buildings using sheep’s wool for insulation; swap skills.

Someone suggested that a local landowner give the town an acre for a community vegetable garden. There was an awkward silence until someone else remembered a playing field that would serve the purpose, if the council agreed.

There was plenty of inspiration from pioneer towns.

Transition Totnes has introduced its own currency with notes that can only be spent in local shops. Its businesses are being audited by an accountant who provides a wake-up call by identifying parts of their operations that become unprofitable as oil prices rise. The town is planting nut trees which can provide emergency food and timber for construction while also acting as carbon sinks.

Lampeter decided emphatically on a show of 450 hands that it would meet again to plan its next stage. And then its people spilled out on a clear spring night into the car park and, just this one last time, drove home.

How we use oil

· 130kg packaging made from oil-derived plastics is consumed by British households each year. Two-thirds of it is used in food production.

· 57 miles is the average distance a tonne of freight now travels by road. In 1953 it was 21 miles.

· 95% of our food products require the use of oil, and the supply of food accounts for 21% of Britain’s energy use.

· 3.5 litres of oil is needed to produce half a kilogram of steak.

Article by Felicity Lawrence for The Guardian UK, Saturday April 7, 2007

Farmers are growing genetically modified (GM) crops that contain human genes to produce insulin.

The Canadian firm Sembiosys is growing insulin in the seeds of GM safflower, a seed oil plant, in trials in Chile, the U.S. and Canada. The company claims it will be able to sell a plant-based form of insulin within three years. The plants are able to produce insulin because they have been genetically modified to contain human genes.

The GM industry see this as part of a new wave of plants which could help change public opinion in its favour. Experts already claim to have modified tobacco so it produces a vaccine for cervical cancer. However, green campaigners remain sceptical.

Sembiosys chief executive Andrew Baum said: “Sembiosys believes it will be one of the first - or the first - company to get a plant-based pharmaceutical on the market.”

Insulin is used by diabetics to control their sugar levels and maintain a healthy body.

Mr Baum claims one large North American farm growing his safflower could meet the global demand for the drug. He suggests this would lead to a significant cut in the cost of insulin, which is currently manufactured in the sterile conditions of laboratories all over the world.

Consequently, it would be more affordable to Third World nations.

Mr Baum told BBC TV’s Newsnight: “While the first wave of products were really focused on the farmer and improving agricultural economics, there’s an increasing emphasis now in the industry on products that address more direct consumer benefits and consumer needs.

“The goodness of what we’re doing is so clear. People who are dying of diabetes will eventually get insulin.”

Friends of the Earth GM campaigner Clare Oxborrow warned there had already been contamination incidents with experimental pharmaceutical plants. “It’s worrying enough when it’s a crop intended for human consumption,” she said.

“But when it might be a pharmaceutical crop in the future that contaminates the food chain, that raises serious worries and questions about the risks involved for human health.”

Article by Sean Poulter for The Daily Mail, UK

Steve Fishman is one of the world’s Lucky People. As husband to Yumiko Fishman, Steve gets to eat Yumiko’s home-made food every single day of his lucky existence. As one of Steve’s friends and colleagues and a good friend of Yumiko too, I get to eat her food on occassion as well. And let me tell you, I cherish the times that I do…

Today Yumiko prepared a delicious Greek salad (cucumber, tomato, olives and feta) and made a piping hot soup in the following way. First, she made a rue by heating some olive oil and stirring in a small amount of corn flour. Then she slowly added some cream, followed by a lot of soya milk. Into this creamy soup base she added a lovely mixture of vegetables, including onions, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots and corn. The whole soup simmered for about 25 minutes, until all the veggies were moist and melty.

Gorgeous!

Brazil’s other rainforest, the Atlantic, has also been devastated by felling - but organic soya farmers could be the key to its restoration

Clicaea Ferreira’s grandfather was a man of insight. If it hadn’t been for his vision, she says, then the fragment of forest that covers 50% of her farm in the Campos Gerais region of Parana state, southern Brazil, would have been cut down. Ferreira, speaking to a group of local farmers, gives a clear message: save the forest and go organic. But unusually for impassioned speeches about sustainability, she advocates growing soya.

The faces gathered on Farmers’ Day at the Ferreiras farm would look at home in farmers’ markets around Europe. As the barbecue smoke and sounds of the local school band drift across rolling fields and small woods, the scene owes more to the agricultural landscapes of Europe than the Atlantic rainforest - the Mata Atlantica - it has replaced. And the rhetoric on the twin pillars of organic farming and biodiversity conservation is couched in a familiar European language of environmental and social concern. But step from the recently harvested soya bean field into the forest and all that changes.

Ecological value

Under towering araucaria trees - the umbrella-shaped, monkey-puzzle trees - electric-blue Morpho butterflies strobe from the shadows, parrots and other dazzling birds yell from treetops, the skeleton of a capybara - the largest of all living rodents - lies across a path, and the ground has been raked by the powerful claws of ant-eaters. Wolves, tapir and jaguar are seen in this 500 hectares (1,236 acres) of forest, and the farmers are very proud of its ecological value.

“Once, the Mata Atlantica was a forest that spread for 1,300,000 sq km,” Ferreira says. “It contained 6.7% of all known species of plants on Earth. Now only 7.8% of the forest remains. Between 1920 and 1990, 100m araucaria trees were felled. In 2002, a law was passed protecting the trees, but there is still illegal felling going on. We must stop the felling because it’s killing our future.”

Together with non-governmental organisations, local authorities and some government help, the farmers are reshaping the future by protecting and restoring their native forest. The plan for Campos Gerais is to link forest fragments with wildlife corridors, to plant native araucaria trees instead of exotic conifers and eucalyptus, and to create a buffer zone around the restored forest of organic agriculture using non-GM crops.

Philipp Stumpe, a campaigner at the conservation organisation Preservacao, says Parana state holds most of the remaining Atlantic forest in Brazil. “We were formed two years ago to recover and rehabilitate the Mata Atlantica on private property,” he explains. “This is a voluntary project for farmers to join up the tiny fragments of forest on their land. Our target is to acquire 10,000 hectares in 10 years to add to existing protected fragments. We have set up a tree nursery and will plant 400 hectares of trees in wildlife corridors this year, and we are establishing a seed bank of forest flora, because none exists.”

Apart from the few remaining fragments of the Mata Atlantica, the land in Parana is agricultural and the farmers here are called “red feet”, after the colour of the soil. Since a freak frost in 1975 devastated coffee plantations, farmers have had to diversify, and soya has become the major cash crop. So lucrative has soya farming become in Brazil - supplying animal feed to the processed meat trade - that it spread to the Amazon basin and overtook logging and ranching as the main engine of deforestation in the planet’s most important rainforest. Following a recent report by Greenpeace, and an international campaign, there is now a moratorium on the expansion of soya growing in the Amazon, but that will not affect the intensive growing of GM soya crops in other sensitive ecosystems in Brazil.

A five-hour flight south of the Amazon, there is another side to soya: it is the link between those who reach for the non-dairy options in European supermarkets and the Brazilian organic farmers restoring their native forest.

Ferreira sells the organic, non-GM soya beans she grows to Alpro, best known for its soya milk. Her farm is part of a sustainable development initiative under the auspices of the Socio-Environmental Institute of Agricultural Research and Sustainable Development (Isapades), which is supported by the agri-environment scheme Floresta.

The soya beans are handled by Agrorganica - a fair trade company set up by local farmers and Dutch Organic International Trade, which tests the beans for any GM contamination and processes them before shipping to Alpro in Europe. Dwarfed by the massive silos of the soya giants in Parana, the tiny Agrorganica plant stands as a subversive gesture. But while the main players in the soya industry receive international opprobrium for their environmental record, Alpro’s market is quietly buoyant and growing because of its right-on credentials.

“We have 26 years’ experience of ethically sourcing our beans for soya milk,” says John Allaway, marketing director of Alpro’s UK division based in Kettering, Northamptonshire, “and we can trace the origins of all our ingredients to ensure they are GM free. Only 30% of our soya is organic at present but all the 60 growers we buy from in Brazil are now organic.”

In the 1970s, a Belgian, Phillippe Vandemoortele, hit on the idea that his preparation of soya milk, adapted from a Chinese food tradition, could be the answer to famine and starvation in the developing world. Although this did not catch on with the poor, it did become attractive to the affluent, health and environment conscious in Europe.

Healthy lifestyles

“Looking at the global food supply, plant-based foods offer more solutions to social and environmental problems,” says Allaway, “Animal-based foods use 10 times more land, 100 times more water and 11 times more fuel than plant-based foods. We are committed to healthy lifestyles, fair trade and lowering ecological impacts.”

Ben Ayliffe, forest campaigner for Greenpeace, is impressed by Alpro’s involvement in Brazil. “I think they’re doing well,” says Ayliffe. “They have a very small-scale operation but they have more control on the traceability of their products and they are streets ahead of the rest of the trade working with farmers and funding schools and other projects. It’s not greenwash, they practise what they preach.”

Back in Campos Gerais, farmers chew over what Ferreira and others have been saying about protecting the forest and going organic. A parrot perches in the rafters of the barn and butterflies drift through the hot afternoon. As shadows from araucaria trees reach across the soya fields it seems that old Europe and what looks like a new Europe in South America have a use for each other in the restoration of one of the most ancient and diverse forests in the world.

Article by Paul Evans for The Guardian, UK
Wednesday April 4, 2007

Three new European research projects have just revealed that organic tomatoes, peaches and processed apples all have higher nutritional quality than non-organic, supporting the results of research from America on kiwi fruit reported 26 March 2007.

Researchers found that organic tomatoes “contained more dry matter, total and reducing sugars, vitamin C, B-carotene and flavonoids in comparison to the conventional ones”, while conventional tomatoes in this study were richer in lycopene and organic acids.

Previous research has found organic tomatoes have higher levels of vitamin C, vitamin A and lycopene.

In the latest research, the scientists conclude “organic cherry and standard tomatoes can be recommended as part of a healthy diet including plant products which have shown to be of value in cancer prevention”

A French study has found that organic peaches “have a higher polyphenol content at harvest” and concludes that organic production has “positive effects … on nutritional quality and taste”

In a further study just published, organic apple puree was found to contain “more bio-active substances - total phenols, flavonoids and vitamin C - in comparison to conventional apple preserves” and the researchers conclude “organic apple preserves can be recommended as valuable fruit products, which can contribute to a healthy diet”

New research by Dr Maria Amodio and Dr Adel Kader, from the University of California Davies discovered that organically grown kiwis had significantly higher levels of vitamin C and polyphenols. The researchers said: “All the main mineral constituents were more concentrated in the organic kiwi fruit, which also had higher asorbic acid (vitamin C) and total polyphenol content, resulting in higher antioxidant activity. It is possible that conventional growing practices utilise levels of pesticides that can result in a disruption to phenolic metabolites in the plant that have a protective role in plant defence mechanisms.”
Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association UK, says, “This is a very rigorous study. There is clear evidence that a range of organic foods contain more beneficial nutrients and vitamins and less of things known to have a detrimental health effect such as saturated fats and nitrates.”

Rozana wrote:

Hi Ysanne,

I would like to know if there’s any special storage conditions we have to follow for organic foods. And, are the expiry dates for organic products shorter than non organic food?

Thank you for your information!
Rozana

kate wrote:

Hello there,

I’ve been researching ma huang as a weigh loss aid and after reading a wide range of reports i’ve decided I would like to try it. My health is good, there is no history of ilness in my family and i’ve slightly low blood pressure so i think I would be ok taking it in low dosage. However i’m concerned about where to purchase it. I want a high quality source of the supplement - when I buy vitamines I always buy reputable brands such as Solgar. But I’m not aware of “reputable” suppliers of ma huang. Can you recommend a brand/online seller of this supplement, prefereably in the uk? many thanks in advance for your assistance.

Kate

weight loss tips, resources, diets

My friend Dion is from Indonesia, and he makes the most delicious Indonesian food imaginable. Here are some fabulous Tofu Dumplings that he’s just steamed.

For the filling, mash together some organic tofu, minced garlic and fresh chopped mushrooms, preferably some deliciously decadent shiitake. Then assemble the dumplings by simply getting a little square of raw pasta, spooning a dollop of filling in the middle, and then pinching the pasta to loosely seal it.

Pop them all into a bamboo steamer, put the lid on tightly, dangle above a pan of boiling water, and get ready for amazing dumplings within a few minutes.

Quick food that’s delicious, exciting and deeply nutritious.

New research by Dr Maria Amodio and Dr Adel Kader from the University of California Davies discovered that organically grown kiwis had significantly higher levels of vitamin C and polyphenols. The researchers said:

“All the main mineral constituents were more concentrated in the organic kiwi fruit, which also had higher asorbic acid (vitamin C) and total polyphenol content, resulting in higher antioxidant activity. It is possible that conventional growing practices utilise levels of pesticides that can result in a disruption to phenolic metabolites in the plant that have a protective role in plant defence mechanisms.”

Peter Melchett, the policy director of the Soil Association, said: “This is a very rigorous study. There is clear evidence that a range of organic foods contain more beneficial nutrients and vitamins and less of things known to have a detrimental health effect such as saturated fats and nitrates.”

You were all so forthcoming and knowledgable when I asked you to name the mystery vegetable a while ago. I’m still blown away that you named Crosnes, the little Chinese tuber that tastes a bit like artichokes and looks a lot like maggots. So I thought you might enjoy helping me again by identifying this cute little salad crop. This is a photo of a semi-succulent juicy red salad leaf that was adorning my grilled vegetable sandwich at a cafe in Santa Monica, California yesterday. My friend Greg Wendt is the chap waving the little leaves at you in hope that you can name this salad crop. If you can name it, I can recommend it by name. Which I’d like to do, as it was very very tasty…

About 40% of British beef imports are organic and demand is likely to grow by 40% in the next three years according to the British Red Meat Industry Forum. This means even more imports will be needed unless British farmers can produce more, said RMIF advisor Bob Bansback.

I’m in a quandry. I love Superfoods. But I don’t love Superfoodmiles. Goji berries are so rich and delicious. Cacao nibs are full of sexy zest for life. Hawaiian spirulina is by far the purest and deepest green vegetable. I was a big fan of these foods a few years ago when they were radically new to the industrial world, and deeply needed. These emerging foods are full of nutrients so lacking in processed foods, and even many organic foods grown in denatured over-farmed soils. Peruvian maca is a potentially important addition to the diets of adults experiencing hormonal inbalances, and Brazilian Suma root takes care of practically everything else. Himalayan rose salt contains a fabulously wide spectrum of minerals, from which many Westerners like us are deficient. But these foods are being flown in from far, far away… It’s the balance of looking after our own interests and looking after the planet’s interests, which of course are the same thing.

The seeds are in! Long live the seeds! We toiled and dug and raked and ploughed the soil into the ground. Then we did it a bit more. And then, under a new moon in a night sky, we finally scattered the seeds into the ground before heading indoors for a nice hot cup of cocoa.

Rising temperatures between 1981 and 2002 caused a loss in production of wheat, corn and barley that amounted in effect to some 40 million tons a year according to one of the first scientific studies of how climate change has affected cereal crops.

“Most people tend to think of climate change as something that will impact the future, but this study shows that warming over the past two decades has already had real effects on global food supply,” said Christopher Field of the Carnegie Institution in Stanford, California.

Prince Charles’ green-fingered influence has extended to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen of England is on the lookout for an organic gardener. An ad for the £13,500-a-year post (about US$27,000) says the successful applicant will help phase out the use of pesticides from the Palace’s gardens, improving “environmental and conservation practices” as well as maintaining a new organic vegetable garden at Clarence House. This comes as no surprise to OrganicFoodees, as Prince Charles is a big fan of all things organic, including his own organic farm.

I have a choice of growing one of two types of peaches, but which one will be decided by Congress and President Bush. Without immigration reform, the better peach will be lost.

One peach is complex; the other is simple. One involves many hands; the other would be the product of technology that controls the process as much as possible.

One peach can have an unbelievable taste if I get it right as I work with the intricacies of nature; the other would be bred for consistency and a “good enough” standard, a uniform product designed for efficiency and longer shelf life.

One fruit requires manual labor — an intensive operation of workers constantly in my fields; the other calls for reducing the need for labor, substituting mechanization whenever possible and creating a system that is not at the mercy of worker shortages.

But whether I can grow a better peach depends on whether I have enough field workers, and that’s where immigration reform comes in. In recent years, farm labor has been tight, with some workers lost to construction jobs and others because of increased border security. Some farmers have responded by increasing wages, yet there were still not enough people willing to work the harvests. Last year, pears in California rotted on trees; two years ago, my raisin harvest was endangered, and for the last three years, I’ve struggled with peach harvests, terrified that just as the fruit was at the peak of perfection, I wouldn’t have enough workers. Some of my best fruit has fallen from my trees.

The agricultural industry supports federal legislation for a guest-worker program that would bring in temporary farm laborers when shortages arise. This remedy would fix short-term problems. However, a long-term solution lies in immigration reform that could change the nature of farming, especially when it comes to specialty crops and small-scale operations like mine.

Without sufficient labor, organic and sustainable agricultural methods are jeopardized. The choice to work with nature as opposed to controlling it demands constant monitoring of the fruit and adapting and responding to the rhythms of the seasons. These systems require many hands. I want the human character to be part of my fields and my produce.

With more hands on my farm, I can grow delicate heirloom varieties, pick riper fruit and work with “just in time” management strategies. Dismiss and devalue these hands and the final outcome changes. A peach may look the same on the outside, but the process used to create it will result in a very different end product. Imagine the taste of a sauce made with minimal human touch, substituting prepackaged ingredients in order to reduce the labor needed.

Agriculture makes a mistake, though, if our sole goal in immigration reform is to seek an abundant supply of cheap labor. Farmers must acknowledge the human capital in our fields. Investments in workers, such as training, can benefit all parties. Skilled positions can then be created for a more willing and able labor pool. With the right kind of reform, workers’ worth would be redefined; they would no longer be invisible.

As undocumented workers emerge from the shadows, new tensions will be created. Communities will change. The social contract in a region — the relationships that connect and bind us — will be tested.

New social justice issues will challenge employers. Workers with faces can’t be as easily dismissed; their calls for better wages, health benefits and working conditions will no longer be whispers. We in the agricultural community have signaled an openness to reform and acknowledged the need for labor to fill “jobs that no one else wants.” We also need to accept the responsibility for that labor.

In the future, could providing better farmworker benefits help define a region and industry? Could we create an appellation based on social justice and market a valued-added product, similar to “fair trade” coffee, which guarantees growers a designated price and decent working conditions? Could I then grow peaches with a conscience? Consumers have been willing to pay more when they understand the story behind their foods, be it organic or in support of living wages.

A grape or peach can acquire a distinctive flavor from terroir — the taste of region. Surely the way that individuals, rural communities and industries include “new Americans” in agricultural systems also will alter the delicate nuances of taste. After all, the true character of a pristine fruit is a result of multiple inputs: weather, soil and water as well as management and labor relations.

As we once again debate immigration reform, agriculture has an opportunity to educate the public about the role farmers and workers have in growing food, in satisfying our hunger. We’re all part of a food system at the dinner table, and the policy we create will affect the nature of each bite.

This article is by a Californian farmer named David Mas Masumoto who is supported by the Kellogg Foundation.

Financial Times journalist Andrew Bounds reports from Bonn on March 13:

‘The battle over biotech crops erupted again yesterday after members of the European parliament blocked a resolution calling for greater use of the technology. MEPs voted to delay the draft motion to allow more time for the agriculture committee to scrutinise it.’

Menahwile, The Irish Independent published on March 12 that the multinational corporation BASF has abandoned plans to grow GM potatoes in Ireland. It is now opting to grow them in Britain where there are fewer restrictions. A BASF spokesperson confirmed that the company would not be going ahead with field trials in Co Meath which received approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year. BASF delayed starting the trial last year citing the onerous monitoring requirements imposed by the EPA.

Friends of the Earth and GM Freeze are calling on the UK Government to suspend plans for these experimental trials of GM potatoes in the UK. The call comes after a Dutch court ordered permits for trials in the Netherlands to be destroyed because the risks to the environment had not been properly assessed. The UK trials of BASF’s blight resistant potatoes are due to take place from this spring at two locations for a period of five years. One site is a research centre in Cambridge, the other is proposed for Hedon/Preston, East Riding of Yorkshire.

I love Andrew. He is the only person on the planet who has noticed that today is Pi Day. In Europe it isn’t Pi Day, because 14th March is always written 14/3. But here in America, today is 3.14

Think about it.

Andrew thought about it, and then announced that he would make any Pi that we want. Here he is in our kitchen busily make all of the following:

Apple Pi with a butter crust (for me!)
Pecan Pi
Snail Pi (which is a banana and coconut number that is Ashira’s favourite)
Lemon Meringue Pi
Pennsylvania Shoo Fly Pi
and
Boysenberry Pi

Leave a comment if you want any of these recipes…!

With all these seeds, what we need is some really rich soil. Et voila! Some soil so nutritious I’m tempted to eat it just as it is. This stuff contain organic humus (my favourite kind!), bat guano (otherwise known as bat poo), chicken manure (also known by another name), kelp meal (as in seaweed), worm castings (which I think are the little spirals left by worms), and mycorrhizae. It turns out that mycorrhizae are little funghi spores that live symbiotically with plant roots. What happens is, plant roots ooze nutrients that mycorrhizae need to live, and mycorrhizae make it much easier for plant roots to suck in nutrition and also moisture present in a good soil. Don’t you just love win-win situations??!

I’m so excited! We’re going to plant some organic food that even I have NEVER TASTED YET… Things like:

Golden Purslane, a succulent with gold-tinged leaves that you can eat raw or steamed.

Giant Red Celery, which apparently tastes pretty much the same as regular celery, but is bright red and huge!

Huazontle, a Mexican vegetable with flowers as well as leaves that you can eat like spinach.

Amaranth, which I’ve eaten as a grain, but have have yet to eat the deep purple flowers which look a bit like pampas grass.

The beautiful heirloom organic seeds arrived over the weekend and are ready to be planted in our special inner-city garden. We’ve just got to make a trip round to the local nursery to buy some more soil. Then a bit of soil tilling and compost mulching will be in order. Oh, and some more beds are needed, as we have So Many more kinds of plant to plant this season than ever before!

I’ll let you know when we go and get the soil…

George Bush says that ethanol will save the world. But there is evidence that biofuels may bring new problems for the planet. The ethanol boom is coming. The twin threats of climate change and energy security are creating an unprecedented thirst for alternative energy with ethanol leading the way. That process is set to reach a landmark on Thursday when the US President, George Bush, arrives in Brazil to kick-start the creation of an international market for ethanol that could one day rival oil as a global commodity. The expected creation of an “Opec for ethanol” replicating the cartel of major oil producers has spurred frenzied investment in biofuels across the Americas. But a growing number of economists, scientists and environmentalists are calling for a “time out” and warning that the headlong rush into massive ethanol production is creating more problems than it is solving. To its advocates, ethanol, which can be made from corn, barley, wheat, sugar cane or beet is a green panacea - a clean-burning, renewable energy source that will see us switch from dwindling oil wells to boundless fields of crops to satisfy our energy needs. Dr Plinio Mario Nastari, one of Brazil’s leading economists and an expert in biofuels, sees a bright future for an energy sector in which his country is the acknowledged world leader: “We are on the brink of a new era, ethanol is changing a lot of things but in a positive sense.” In its first major acknowledgment of the dangers of climate change, the White House this year committed itself to substituting 20 per cent of the petroleum it uses for ethanol by 2017. In Brazil, that switch is more advanced than anywhere in the world and it has already substituted 40 per cent of its gasoline usage. Ethanol is nothing new in Brazil. It has been used as fuel since 1925. But the real boom came after the oil crisis of 1973 spurred the military dictatorship to lessen the country’s reliance on foreign imports of fossil fuels. The generals poured public subsidies and incentives into the sugar industry to produce ethanol. Today, the congested streets of Sao Paolo are packed with flex-fuel cars that run off a growing menu of bio and fossil fuel mixtures, and all filling stations offer “alcohol” and “gas” at the pump, with the latter at roughly twice the price by volume. But there is a darker side to this green revolution, which argues for a cautious assessment of how big a role ethanol can play in filling the developed world’s fuel tank. The prospect of a sudden surge in demand for ethanol is causing serious concerns even in Brazil. The ethanol industry has been linked with air and water pollution on an epic scale, along with deforestation in both the Amazon and Atlantic rainforests, as well as the wholesale destruction of Brazil’s unique savannah land. Fabio Feldman, a leading Brazilian environmentalist and former member of Congress who helped to pass the law mandating a 23 per cent mix of ethanol to be added to all petroleum supplies in the country, believes that Brazil’s trailblazing switch has had serious side effects. “Some of the cane plantations are the size of European states, these vast monocultures have replaced important eco-systems,” he said. “If you see the size of the plantations in the state of Sao Paolo they are oceans of sugar cane. In order to harvest you must burn the plantations which creates a serious air pollution problem in the city.” Despite its leading role in biofuels, Brazil remains the fourth largest producer of carbon emissions in the world due to deforestation. Dr Nastarti rejects any linkage between deforestation and ethanol and argues that cane production accounts for little more than 10 per cent of Brazil’s farmland. However, Dr Nastari is calling for new legislation in Brazil to ensure that mushrooming sugar plantations do not directly or indirectly contribute to the destruction of vital forest preserves. Sceptics, however, point out that existing legislation is unenforceable and agri-business from banned GM cotton to soy beans has been able to ignore legislation. “In large areas of Brazil there is a total absence of the state and no respect for environmental legislation,” said Mr Feldman. “Ethanol can be a good alternative in the fight against global warming but at the same time we must make sure we are not creating a worse problem than the one we are trying to solve.” The conditions for a true nightmare scenario are being created not in Brazil, despite its environment concerns, but in the US’s own domestic ethanol industry. While Brazil’s tropical climate allows it to source alcohol from its sugar crop, the US has turned to its industrialised corn belt for the raw material to substitute oil. The American economist Lester R Brown, from the Earth Policy Institute, is leading the warning voices: “The competition for grain between the world’s 800 million motorists who want to maintain their mobility and its two billion poorest people who are simply trying to stay alive is emerging as an epic issue.” Speaking in Sao Paolo, where the ethanol boom is expected to take off with a US-Brazil trade deal this Thursday, Fabio Feldman, said: “We must stop and take a breath and consider the consequences.” Biofuel costs When Rudolph Diesel unveiled his new engine at the 1900 World’s Fair, he made a point of demonstrating that it could be run on peanut oil. “Such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time,” he said. And so it has come to pass that US President George Bush has decreed that America must wean itself off oil with the help of biofuels made from corn, sugar cane and other suitable crops. At its simplest, the argument for biofuels is this: By growing crops to produce organic compounds that can be burnt in an engine, you are not adding to the overall levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The amount of CO2 that the fuel produces when burnt should balance the amount absorbed during the growth of the plants. However, many biofuel crops, such as corn, are grown with the help of fossil fuels in the form of fertilisers, pesticides and the petrol for farm equipment. One estimate is that corn needs 30 per cent more energy than the finished fuel it produces. Another problem is the land required to produce it. One estimate is that the grain needed to fill the petrol tank of a 4X4 with ethanol is sufficient to feed a person for a year.

Article by Daniel Howden in Sao Paolo. Published: 05 March 2007  in The Independent, UK

Wang Xinqiu is prepared to pay ten times more for organic vegetables than for regular produce in Beijing. It buys her peace of mind.

“Organic food seems safer,” said Wang, a Chinese medicine practitioner, after selecting organic cabbage and ginger at a Carrefour SA supermarket as her daughter, 8-year-old Maria, tagged along. “A big reason I buy organic is I’m concerned that my child could eat something contaminated.”

People in China are developing a taste for organically grown food. More than 60% of the country’s 562 million city dwellers are willing to pay more for produce certified safe or organic, according to research commissioned by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Carrefour are among those taking advantage of the trend. Sales of organic vegetables at one Wal-Mart store in Beijing soared 88 percent in the 12 months through November, the company said. Chinese people in 2005 bought or exported US$13.3 billion of food certified as green, a local standard that limits pesticide and chemical use, Chinese government figures show.

“Chinese consumers really are serious about safe and organic foods, and they’re willing to pay for them,” said Elizabeth Harrington, chief executive officer of E. Harrington Global, a Chicago firm that contributed to the Commerce Ministry research. “Part of it is the negative publicity that has come out in recent years about everything from fake foods to contaminated baby foods to pesticides in apples.”

The Health Ministry declared 144 instances of food poisoning involving 4,922 people in October through December, a 42 percent increase in those affected from a year earlier.

As wages and food production rise, “the issue has shifted from total supply to the quality of supply,” said Huang Jikun, director of the Center for Agricultural Policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. “People are concerned. There’s more information available and we know what we are eating.”

Song Guangxiong, a professor at North China Electricity University in Beijing, said he learned about the dangers of pesticides from a friend who runs an organic farm near the city. He now buys only organic vegetables.

“There’s going to be a bill for the choices we make,” said Song, 33. “It’s pretty expensive, but I think it’s worth the money.”

Cost will deter many Chinese, said Wang, 42, the traditional-medicine doctor. She can afford organic foods on her US$387 monthly wage, she said.

The US giant discount supermarket chain Wal-Mart started selling organic products in all of its Chinese stores - which now total 71 - in May 2005. Organic grain sales rose 33% in the 12 months through November and egg sales climbed 50%, said Jonathan Dong, a spokesman in Beijing.

“Organic food is becoming increasingly popular,” Dong said. “We see good growth potential in the long term.”

China’s national standard for organic products took effect in April 2005, 15 years after the creation of the green standard.

Yang Fu, 26, moved to Beijing from Sichuan province in 2004 to work for an equipment-leasing company. With more pay and access to organic produce, he has opted for the safest diet.

“I don’t have to worry when I buy organic food,” he said.

Story by Dune Lawrence in Beijing for Bloomberg News

Monsanto is under investigation amid allegations it sanctioned the dumping of toxic waste on sites across the country despite evidence that it would poison the landscape for generations.

The activities of the US chemical giant, best-known for its support and development of Genetically Modified plants (GM / GE), are being examined by the UK government’s Environment Agency and public health bodies. Monsanto manufacture GM seeds and were also the the corporation who produced Agent Orange.

The focus of the investigation is a site in south Wales that has been called ‘one of the most contaminated’ in the country. It appears that toxic chemicals were dumped in the Brofiscin quarry in the 1960s and 1970s despite the fact there was no licence for these materials and the site was not lined or sealed. This meant a cocktail of highly poisonous chemicals has been able to escape into the environment and threatens to poison local streams and rivers. The quarry, which is on the edge of the village of Groesfaen, near Cardiff, first erupted in 2003, spilling fumes over the surrounding area.

Since then surveys have found that 67 chemicals, including Agent Orange derivatives, dioxins and PCBs which could have been made only by Monsanto, are leaking from the site.

The Environment Agency says that if the dumping were to take place today there would be a criminal prosecution and civil action to raise the money needed to clean up the site. However, it appears that much of the dumping was carried out during years when Britain’s regime for environmental protection was more lax. Consequently, there are doubts as to how far any legal action can go or which companies should be liable for clean-up costs that are expected to run into tens of millions of pounds.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: “Our overall aim is to understand the current risks to ground water and surface waters and to determine the most cost-effective way forward to protect the local environment and to recover costs from those liable.” The Food Standards Agency, which has responsibility for food safety, together with the local council and health bodies are involved in the investigation.

The Environment Agency spokesman said: “The main focus has been to identify if chemicals deposited at the quarry during the ’60s and ’70s are getting into surface water, groundwater, air or affecting site users. These investigations … have confirmed that these chemicals are making their way into groundwater and surface water.”

The inquiry is looking at identifying which companies were responsible for the illegal dumping in order to make them pay for the clean-up.

The Agency said: “Various individuals and organisations are in the process of being identified as having a possible involvement. They will need to provide evidence that they were, or not, involved in the disposal of chemicals at the site.”

One of those companies under the microscope is Pharmacia Corp, which manufactured PCB chemicals on sites in South Wales in the 1960s and 1970s. Pharmacia is part of Monsanto. Monsanto insists that contractors used by the company were always advised of the type of waste that was to be removed and disposed.

A spokesman said: “We continue to work with the Wales Department of Environment and other regulatory bodies to resolve these issues. While the people involved in the manufacture of PCBs … are no longer with the company and probably deceased, a thorough, non-selective review of all of the documents will show that Pharmacia did inform its contractors of the nature of wastes prior to disposal, and that Pharmacia did not dump wastes from its own vehicles.”

Story by Sean Poulter for the Daily Mail UK, February 13, 2007

Britons spend an average £28 each on cut flowers each year, much of it on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. With the huge growth in imported blooms, a typical flower arrangement bought in the UK could have travelled a total of more than 27,000 miles to reach florist or supermarket. Most roses given on Valentine’s Day will not have been grown in English country gardens but will have come from the Netherlands.

Flowers found in more exotic mixed bouquets could include Protea or Brunia which could have travelled 2,000 miles from Israel. And many of the carnations sold in Britain come all the way from Kenya, Chile, Ecuador or Colombia.

Environment campaigners are now asking the public to think about the cost to the planet before they splash out - and go for home-grown blooms rather than those which have been transported halfway around the globe. Campaigners warn that as well as adding to greenhouse gases through aviation or road transport costs, moving flowers around the world can also put pressure on precious water supplies in developing countries.

Vicki Hind of Friends of the Earth said: “Our concerns are in terms of greenhouse gases and the use of chemicals and water.”

Andrea Caldecourt, of the Flowers and Plants Association, replied that most of the red roses given on Valentine’s Day come from the Netherlands, and travel by ferry and road rather than air. Other popular choices such as tulips are likely to be home-grown, she said, while scented narcissi often come from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Here are the places that most cut flowers in the UK are actually grown:

Roses - Chile
Tulips - Holland
Leucadendrons - Holland
Cape Greens - South Africa
Brunia - Israel
Lisianthus - Israel
Alstroemeria - Kenya
Protea - South Africa

www.proflowers.com order flowers online. Flowers delivered fresh from the fields to your loved ones. Online florists with flowers delivery fresh from the fields.

The new season’s planting will be happening soon. The garden will be hungry for new seeds the last week February / first week March. We’re going to order most of them from a very special small seed company called J.L. Hudson, and also get some additional seeds from a lovely big seed company called Seeds of Change. Seeds of Change are the people who also make organic pasta sauce and stuff, but originally they started out as a pioneering organic seed farm.

Clay and I had a good look through the seeds available at jlhudsonseeds.com and also at seedsofchange.com as these companies are owned by two couples who are my friends Sheri and David, and Howard and Nancy.

Sheri and David have lived in an old bus in the Santa Cruz mountains near Palo Alto in Northern California for the last thirty years. They have a profound knowledge of organic farming, heirlooms, the politics of food and also about local Californian growing techniques. Howard and Nancy are also totally rad and live in Northern California. Howard was Martin Luther King’s personal assistant and Nancy was on Ken Kesey’s bus. They have an amazing seed bank. Actually, I’d love to introduce these two couples to each other sometime. Maybe I’ll get to do this in the next few weeks. Hmmm…

Anyway, more importantly, Clay still has saved a lot of the following kinds of seeds from last year, either that he’s collected from our own garden’s plants going to seed, or from packets that are still here. So he’s made sure we have plenty of the following ready to go:

bell pepper
jalapeno peppers
carrots
corn (sweetcorn)
cilantro coriander
lettuce
onion

He also has a fair amount of:

pumpkin - one variety
melons - water, honeydew and cantalope
eggplant (aubergine)
radish
arugula (rocket)
sunflowers
poppies

We’ve gone through David and Sheri’s list, and this is what we like the look of in addition to Clay’s seeds:

Amaranth - Polish
Basil - dark opal; and large sweet
Bean - rattlesnake
Beet - Bull’s blood (beetroots)
Broccoli de Rapa
Burdock (arctium), Great
Cress
Celery Giant red mix
Chrysanthemum Parthenium
Corn, bloody butcher (sweetcorn)
Corn salad (mache / lamb’s lettuce)
cucumber, A & C pickling
huazontle
kale - russian red
kale - nero de philo
kohlrabi - early purple Vienna
Lavandula Stoechas (French Lavender)
okra - star of david (ladies’ fingers)
parsley - common or plain leaf
pea, dwarf grey sugar (mange touts)
pepper, Habanero
pepper, Anaheim
radish, edible-podded rat’s tail
sorrell
chives
ground cherry (psyllius)
orach, aurora
purslane, golden
quinoa, cherry vanilla
sorghum, black and white
purple goosefoot tree spinach
squash, cucuzzi caeavazzi
Swiss chard, five color silverbeet
turnip, seven top
watermelon, orangeglo

We’re also really keen to have a few more beneficial flowers, preferably ones we can eat in salads as well. So here’s a couple of collections we like the look of from Howard and Nancy’s list:

Butterfly garden seed collection
Nasturtiums mix

I am so excited about this coming season… lots of seeds to sow.

Two Scottish scientists based in Fife have developed a new material made from carrots to replace glass fibre found in everything from fishing rods to car parts. The inventors, Dr David Hepworth and Dr Eric Whale, plan to start selling fishing rods made from the material, called Curran, next month. They then hope to move on to carrot fibre snow boards.

The material is billed as a revolutionising performance product with unique strength and weight. Through a special process, nano fibres found in carrots are extracted and combined with high-tech resins enabling tough, durable components to be moulded to whatever shape, degree of stiffness, strength or lightness required. They also use colourful backgrounds, which have been taken from university research involved in advanced aerospace technologies.

Through their company CelluComp, the duo will initially enter the sporting goods market with the launch in March of Just Cast, a unique, high performance range of fly fishing rods offering lengths of 7.5ft to 10ft.

Dr Hepworth said: “Curran is incredibly versatile and we believe that we are launching at a time when companies are looking for that combination of quality and performance but achieved in a way that is environmentally friendly. The potential of Curran is enormous and if we can replace just a small percentage of carbon fibre in products the effects on the environment could be significant and wide ranging.”

Pesticides campaigner Georgina Downs has won the right to have her legal challenge against the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) heard in the British High Court. She is a member of the public who has independently decided to contest Defra’s policy on pesticide usage. Georgina decided to take this case to court after getting sick while living near fields that were regularly sprayed with pesticides.

She will argue that that there has never been a proper risk assessment into the effects of long-term exposure to pesticides in people who live or work near sprayed fields. This could mean there is no evidence to support UK Government assertions that there are no health risks from crop spraying.

In these last years of oil dependency, a new trend is emerging in which towns prepare themselves to face the challenge of being oil-free.

Following in the footsteps of Kinsale in Ireland, Totnes in Devon has recently declared itself Britain’s first “transition” town. There have been meetings about how all food and energy can be produced locally, and a plan is underway to set up a local energy company, rewrite the local development plan and persuade other towns to join the movement.

Permaculture expert Rob Hopkins is drawing up a 25-year plan to see how Totnes could support itself without oil.

Stroud in Gloucestershire and Lewes in East Sussex, have also recently become transition towns.

www.transitionculture.org
www.transitiontowns.org

Help! I bought these delicious little tubers at the farmers’ market yesterday, but have no idea what they’re called! They are tiny tubers, between an inch and two inches long, and they look like little white maggots. I’ve shown them here with a particularly nice and ripe plum tomato to give an idea of the size.

These little tubers can be eaten raw, and taste a bit like Jerusalem artichokes or asparagus.

The farmer who sold them to me said they are called ‘cosnes’, pronounced ‘cones’, but when I Google this name, nothing comes up. He also said they taste delicious when sauteed in butter or olive oil, something which I have no doubt is entirely accurate.

Does anyone have any idea what these little beauties are called?

Today a delegation representing 74 organic businesses, with a combined turnover of about £950,000,000 (US$2,000,000,000) are meeting at the House of Commons to express their grave concern at Government proposals to allow up to 0.9% genetcially modified food (GM) in organic food without it being labelled.

Last Autumn, the UK Government completed their consultation on the coexistence between GM crops, non-GM crops and organic crops in England. The Government’s consultation document, drawing on opinions expressed by the European Commission (which are not binding on national governments) presupposes a GM content in all non-GM food, including organic food, of up to 0.9%. The Government says that organic and non-GM food containing up to 0.9% GM would not be labelled, leaving consumers in complete ignorance as to the GM content.

The meeting in the House of Commons, hosted by Peter Ainsworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, and Jim Paice MP, Shadow Agriculture Minister, was organised by the Food and Drink Federation’s Organic Group and The Soil Association.

During the consultation, the Government met with a number of biotech corporations, including AstraZeneca, BASF Plant Science, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, Du Pont (UK) Ltd, Monsanto UK Ltd, and Syngenta Ltd. Not one organic business was consulted directly.

The 27 companies attending today’s meeting include: Abel & Cole, Aspalls, Community Foods, Dorset Cereals, Doves Farm, Fresh, Green & Blacks, Grove Fresh, OMSCo, Planet Organic, Rachel’s Dairies, Rainbow Wholefoods, R B Organic, Riverford, Stonegate, Yeo Valley and W Jordan Cereals.

Alex Smith of Alara, Chair of the Food and Drink Federation’s Organic Group said, “There is overwhelming evidence that one of the main reasons that consumers buy organic is to avoid eating food containing any GM. If the proposals set out by the Government were implemented, very significant new economic burdens could be placed on organic food producers, manufacturers and retailers - the Government envisage allowing routine contamination of all non-GM and organic food chains with up to 0.9% GM. Organic businesses will face enhanced risks of GM contamination, product recall and loss of their most valuable asset, the consumer trust that underlies their brand value.”

Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director said: “The Government wants the full cost of keeping organic food as it now is, at the lowest reliable and repeatable level of detection of GM (0.1% GM), to fall on organic businesses, and therefore on organic consumers. So people who eat organic food will end up paying for a GM policy designed to benefit the GM companies. The Government is putting at risk one of the fastest growing areas of the UK economy. Tesco’s organic sales grew by 39% last year. Organic farm shops and box schemes are seeing similar rates of growth. The Soil Association has pledged to keep GM out of organic food, so the public can continue to put their trust in organic food”.

Peter Melchett added: “We warmly welcome the motion tabled in the House of Commons by the Conservative Front Bench, with all-party support, which states that ‘consumers have the right to choose non-GM foods and that all foods containing GM material, or that come from livestock fed on GM, should be clearly labelled as such’, and that 0.1% GM ’should be the trigger point for GM labelling’. We hope it is not too late for the Government to change their pro-GM stance, which threatens public trust in organic farming and food.”

The 74 companies supporting this initiative have a combined turnover of about £950,000,000. Together they directly employ 8,356 people throughout the United Kingdom. They work with at least 4,790 suppliers, who in turn provide jobs for thousands of people in the UK and abroad.

With its solar heating, energy-saving devices and even a reed bed sewage system, it’s the sort of place of which his father would approve. This is the environmentally-friendly mini-mansion which Prince William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton are expected to make their first home.

The £5million house will be built on the Duchy of Cornwall’s Harewood Park Estate in the Wye Valley and, now Herefordshire Council has given it the green light, work should be completed around 2010 - just as William is expected to leave the Army.

The house will have a library, stables, an orangery, drawing room, dining room and six bedrooms. There is no nursery, but no shortage of space for one.

Prince Charles has taken a keen interest in the project and has insisted the architects marry “architectural presence” with a “strong sustainability agenda”.

A large rainwater-reservoir will be built for washing clothes, watering the garden and flushing toilets. Each bathroom will have water-saving fittings, while both the dishwasher and washing machine will be chosen from a range of energy saving devices. Waste water will be treated using a reed bed system, which breaks down sewage naturally by using the oxygen created by beds of common reeds. Heating and water will be provided by a wood-chip boiler in winter and solar panels in summer, which will be hidden on the roof. Kitchen leftovers can be turned into organic compost.

Reclaimed bricks will be used to build the house, and timber will be sourced from the Duchy’s estate. The roof, made of salvaged Welsh slate, will be insulated with sheep’s wool.

Visitors will be greeted by the sight of a large, rectangular property built around an indoor courtyard with an impressive portico entrance.

Along the outside walls are a series of triumphal arches and carvings of winged lions flanking lyres. This, according to the architect, makes reference to the Greek god Apollo who could heal, purify and promote harmony. Also dotted around the walls are several bronze classical-style heads known as caryatids, while even the four-bay garage block derives from the ‘Choragic monument of Thrysallus’ - a 4th century BC Greek monument on the slopes of the Parthenon in Athens.

News item by Rebecca English for the Daily Mail UK, January 30 2007

75% of British consumers say products have too much packaging and that they feel bombarded by the volume of wrapping and protective material, according to an online survey out today. The survey was carried out by Ipsos MORI among 1,000 adults per country aged 16-64. Packaging has increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005, and accounts for one-third of an average household’s total waste.

The Soil Association warned last week, at its annual conference, that converting more land from food to biofuel production could raise the risk of future famines. Peter Melchett said:

“This [expansion in land used for biofuels] sacrifices food security for an illusion of energy security.”

He went on to say that more could be achieved by converting 18% of arable land to organic farming. The trend for biofuels has sparked a food versus fuel debate, with concern that climate change could reduce the amount of agricultural land, coupled with a rise in the demand for food due to population growth.

John Gapper, columnist for the Financial Times, asked whether the biofuel movement is a space race or a gold rush? He suggests:

“The West wants to emulate Brazil, where cars run on ethanol refined from sugar cane. But there is no cane… [so] arable crops are being taken from people’s mouths and put into their fuel tanks instead.”

My roommate Clay is the head gardener in our household. Raised by a farmer in the mid-west of America, Clay was pruning trees and things before most city folk had learned the word ’shears’. So it wasn’t that astounding when he announced that it was time for the ornamental fig tree at the end of the garedn to have a good old prune. Assisted by his lovely girlfriend Lauren, the Big Prune happened today. You can see what’s left of the tree just to the right of centre in this photo.

Less foliage means more light on the ground. And that means more veggies and things come summertime, which we’re all very happy about.

And lo and behold, suddenly a huge cityscape was revealed!

The Welsh organic dairy co-operative Calon Wen has become the first dairy company in the UK to be awarded the Ethical Trade Organic Standards Certification by the Soil Association. This new scheme is for organic food producers who ensure fair trading and employment alongside socially and environmentally responsible practices. The certification recognises fair wages, hours of work that are not excessive, and a workforce with a say in what goes on.

Additionally, five memberrs of Calon Wen have chosen to reach out into the world of love beyond internet dating. The Welsh organic dairy farmers are looking for love by printing their photos on their milk bottles.

Ewan Jones is a director of the organic milk co-operative, and is one of the five young farmers (three men, two women) who are advertising themselves on these organic milk bottles, under the caption, ‘Fancy a Farmer?’ The lonely hearts message on a bottle is launched on the Welsh equivalent of Valentine’s Day, Santes Dwynwen Day, which is on 25 January. Ewan is a 30-year old organic dairy farmer, and is cute.

A coalition of Peruvian potato farmers has written to biotech giant Syngenta urging it to drop research into terminator gene technology.

Terminator technology means that all plants grown from a genetically modified (GM) seed stock will produce seeds that are infertile. Many poor farmers in developing countries such as Peru rely on harvesting some of the seeds from their crops in order to replant them and therefore make more food for tghe next season. Terminator technology means that this age-old process is destroyed, and leaves farmers and their communities open to famine if they cannot afford seeds.

Even though there has been a global moratorium on field testing terminator technology since 2000, research continues on a widescale by all the biotech corporations in anticipation of a change in the law to allow them to sell these GM seeds.

Peru is home to over 4,000 potato varieties, and is the ancient land where potatoes originated. The Peruvian farmers fear the process will enter the Andean potato system and destroy their traditional trade.

In 2006, worldwide plantings of Genetically Modified (GM) crops increased by 13% to 252million acres, with these crops being planted in 22 countries, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications.

Six European Union countries planted GM crops in 2006 despite a widely held resistance to GM food by European consumers. They were: Slovakia, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal and the Czech Republic. Small, resource-poor farmers in developing countries account for 90% of farmers growing GM crops.

Beatriz wrote:

Hi, I was wondering if you could clarify something for me. Are wheat berries the same thing as wheatgrain seeds? I’m looking to sprouting in order to make sprout bread. Thanks in advance.

All best,

Beatriz