Upcoming Event: The Sustainable Foods Summit

We're excited to announce that the 2011 Sustainable Foods Summit will be held this January 18th and 19th at the Ritz Carlton San Francisco. OrganicNation.tv is a proud media sponsor of the Summit and we plan to bring you the best moments via our filming, photography and live-tweeting of the events.

The Sustainable Foods Summit focuses on the leading issues the food industry faces and aims to explore new horizons in sustainability for eco-labels. Issues to be addressed include: How do organic, fair trade and other eco-labels contribute to sustainability? What role should they play in a food industry that is increasingly looking at the triple bottom line? Do they address the sustainability needs of consumers and food companies?

This special North American Summit will hone in on some of the major eco-labeling issues in the food industry, including offsetting carbon emissions, water footprints, buying local and biodiversity. For example, one session will be devoted to ethical sourcing and sustainable ingredients, assessing the ecological and social impacts of raw materials in the food industry. Another session called "The Organic Plus" will provide case studies of organic food companies who are going beyond organic agricultural practices and pioneering sustainability initiatives.

Like previous events organized by Organic Monitor, the Summit will bring together key stake-holders in the food industry and debate these major issues in a high-level forum.? We hope to see you there.

Twitter users: We will be using the hashtag #SFS2011 when tweeting about the Summit.

Our Eco-Friendly Gift Guide for 2010

The 2010 holiday season is finally here and we have some great gift ideas for you! Here are our favorite socially and environmentally conscious picks for the season:

Socks for Happy People

These brightly colored organic cotton socks will not only keep your feet toasty, they will warm your heart. With each pair purchased, the company donates socks to a child in Mongolia through their Buy One Give One Free initiative. The socks come in a variety of colors, stripes and even animal prints. They also have a series of Affirmation Socks that say: "TODAY I WILL SMILE AND FEEL GOOOOD!"

Ethically Engineered

Ethically Engineered's handmade vegan soap is packaged in compostable materials. The Chicago-based company "works to ensure a viable and sustainable product with little to no impact on the bio-sphere" and they even deliver their products by bike! They have a bunch of nice gift sets for the 2010 season including their popular No Bottle Shampoo & Conditioner. 

Greenbees

These sturdy and stylish boots are made of all natural leather, dyed using formaldehyde free methods and feature a recycled tire sole bottom.

 

The Thencha boot (pictured here) is a new take on an old classic combining the styling of an equestrian boot with the rugged comfort of a cowboy boot. A perfect gift for your favorite eco-fashionista!

 

 

 

PACT

PACT's organic cotton underwear is helping to light up Haiti during the holidays. Inspired by the stories of women in tent camps using the solar lights after the earthquake, PACT has partnered with EarthSpark International to donate a portion of profits from their 2010 holiday collection. The limited edition Winter Lights Collection was designed by Yves Behar and is available in a variety of colors and sizes.

Collective Wellbeing

Collective Wellbeing is the first consumer packaged goods company to have entirely offset its carbon footprint. They also pledge at least 1% of annual revenues to environmental non-profits. Their Holiday Detox Gift Set includes:

• Charcoal Body Wash - a sulfate-free cleanser with active charcoal and zinc
• Bamboo/Fennel Seed Body Scrub - rich in vitamins and minerals
• Aloe Vera/Chamomile Dry Skin Relief - an intensive, moisturizing treatment

Hopefully our picks will get you inspired for a holiday filled with feel-good gifts. If you prefer to make your own presents, check out Homegrown.org's Holiday Gift Guide 2010, which has tons of great food and craft ideas for you to share!

Organic Pick of the Week: Your Local Farmer

Here at OrganicNation.tv, we're always testing new organic products to review for our Organic Pick of the Week series. So it's become easy to choose organic food, beauty and clothing brands that have fancy labeling and a marketing budget to send out samples.

But I'd like to take this opportunity to feature what I consider to be the best organic product on the market: the one grown by your local farmer. In every region of the United States farmers are working hard to cultivate healthy and delicious crops with the simple goal of feeding you. Organic farmers have taken an extra step towards sustainability and invested a large chunk of money and time to grow food without harmful pesticides. That kind of dedication deserves our support.

So this week I urge you to visit your local farmer's market, join a CSA or ask for local and organic produce at your neighborhood grocery store. If you're not sure where to get organic food in your region, check out localharvest.org to search by your state or zipcode.

In the growing sustainable food movement, consumers have the power, so let's use it!

-Dorothée

New Video: Mission Pie, San Francisco

Mission Pie is an organic bakery and neighborhood café in the Mission District of San Francisco. They make savory and sweet pies all year round using fresh, seasonal ingredients. By forming strategic partnerships with local farms like Pie Ranch, they can source large quantities of produce and even organic wheat!

Co-owners Karen Heisler and Krystin Rubin believe that "businesses should operate from a values position" and have made it their mission to bring sustainable food to a broader population. As Krystin mentions in the video,

"There is something humble about pie and very accessible. A lot of what we're talking about when we're talking about engaging in local agriculture and the food system and all of that are some rarefied concepts to a lot of people, but pie isn't. It's a very gentle way to open up those conversations."

Mission Pie also collaborates with local youth advocacy organizations to provide a positive work environment to disadvantaged teenagers in the San Francisco area. As a thriving, progressive, for-profit business, they are a great example of a company that reinvests productively and creatively not just in the quality of their ingredients and equipment, but in the lives of the people and communities around them.

Fairfood International: Eat Fair, Beat Hunger

Did you know that every day, 25,000 people die from hunger related causes? That is one person every 3.5 seconds. And yet, ironically, there is enough food in the world for everyone. Fairfood International believes that part of the solution to hunger and poverty lays in establishing increasingly sustainable trade agreements.

Fairfood is an Amsterdam-based nonprofit that works on a number of social, environmental and economic issues and is committed to the improvement of working conditions across the globe, putting an end to environmentally damaging practices and making trade sustainable. I'm happy to report that the organization has recently opened an office in San Francisco and will be expanding their reach towards improving the sustainability of the American food industry. So watch out Big Ag!

How can you help? Fairfood provides a variety of ways to participate whether signing up for their newsletter, joining their online geek team or taking the Fairfood pledge. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

-Dorothée

Visiting Granata Farms, An Urban Farm in Denver

While producing a video about SAME Café, the pay-what-you-can restaurant on Denver's Northwest Side, co-owner Libby Birky suggested that we check out Granata Farms, which provides a lot of the fresh, organic vegetables served at SAME Café. So while we were in Denver, we met up with Elaine Granata at her one-acre plot on Clarkson Street.

Elaine told us that she started the urban farm, which is made up of three city plots in different locations, after she lost her own farm in the country. Remarkably, she runs the farm by herself, growing a diverse mix of greens, herbs, tomatoes, beans and squash. She sells her produce to multiple restaurants in Denver as well as her fourteen-member CSA.

Elaine uses organic farming techniques, including mulching and fabric row covers, and does not use any chemicals on her plants. She's considering applying for organic certification next year.

Urban farming hasn't come without it's challenges. Elaine deals with vandalism in her plots; recently she's had her wheelbarrow stolen and her carrots dug up. But she's optimistic about the renewed interest in organic farming among city dwellers and hopes to continue her work for a long time to come.

-Dorothée and Mark

EcoChat Video: Dorothée Talks Organics

Last week I had the pleasure of doing a live ecochat with Alicia Ontiveros about organic farming trends and sustainability issues I've seen during the OrganicNation.tv Southwest Tour. We spoke about recent news articles linking pesticides to ADHD, the Gulf Coast oil spill and how farming could be impacted by Arizona's immigration bill. We also spoke about my favorite organic products, how we prepare for our tours and what we plan for the future!

Here's a list of the different people, resources and products that I mention in the chat:

Recent News Articles

Study: ADHD linked to pesticide exposure ; Developments in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Organic Farms & Locations

Dosi Alvarez's Organic Cotton Farm ; Zia Queen Bee Company ; Cimarron Organics in West Texas ; Native Seeds/SEARCH

Organic Resources/Events

Environmental Working Group ; Shoppers Guide to Pesticides ; Organic Trade Association ; Homegrown.org ; The Green Festival ; Green Drinks ; WWOOF ; Sustainable Ag Research & Education

Favorite Organic Clothing & Cosmetic Brands

Hessnatur ; John Masters Organics ; Oblige by Nature ; Bella Floria ; Emani Minerals ; Sophyto Organics ; Hugo Naturals ; Dr. Alkaitis

OrganicNation.tv Partners & Sponsors

Ford Fusion Hybrid ; Motel 6 ; Foodtree ; Honest Tea ; Late July Organics ; Newman's Own Organics ; Mary's Gone Crackers ; Annie's Homegrown

Thanks again to everyone who joined in and feel free to leave any questions you have in the comments section below! 

-Dorothée

The Art of Urban Mobile Gardening

The local food movement has opened the door to a new crop of would-be gardeners who lack access to a patch of earth on which to plant a garden (myself included). For some, the land dilemma can be resolved by planting seeds in a shared community garden. Other space-challenged gardeners install planters and flower boxes on roofs and balconies, like this enterprising New Yorker, who developed a self-watering vegetable garden on his Manhattan fire escape last summer, using PVC buckets and two-liter soda bottles.

But what about the folks who don't have even an inch of outdoor space to call their own? Or on-the-go types, who for reasons unknown prefer to tote their pocket-size gardens around town with them? Eschewing the constraints of traditional, land-based gardens altogether, some gardening hobbyists instead choose to grow plants on mobile platforms that can be wheeled, carried or floated from place to place.

The most practical venue for a mobile garden is a wagon or trailer. In Portland, OR, for example, gardening educators use a 6- by 14-foot mobile garden that can be towed by a truck to teach about native species. Others can be pushed or pulled by hand, towed behind a car or bicycle, or chained to a street pole. Of these, the design firm Food Map created perhaps the most elegant (and at $255, easily the most expensive): a wheeled cart with a stylish white plastic planter box.

Limiting excess weight is a goal for most cyclists, but tricked-out bikes and motorcycles, laden with soil and plants are a mobile gardening staple. This prototype, described as a "bicycle window box- for the transient gardener" offers a simple solution for "the cyclist who is always on the move, or cycle tourist needing nutritious strawberries and beansprouts," according to the landless author. Other bike-garden inventions include the bicycle-mounted greenhouse, for the four-season grower, and the flower garden mounted on the sidecar of a scooter, photographed in Israel, which scores high marks for both form and function.

The French company Bacsac is the only business I know of that's entirely devoted to mobile gardening solutions. Their offerings range from cloth pots and satchels to a larger garden plot mounted on the roof of a car that looks like an overstuffed mattress (pictured above).

Click to read more ...

Organic Pick of the Week: PACT

Happy Earth Day everyone! Now that eco-friendly fashion is becoming more mainstream, more people are realizing that even their undergarments should be green. Organic cotton underwear to the rescue!

PACT offers design-driven, responsibly manufactured, premium organic cotton underwear connected to powerful social and environmental causes like ForestEthics and Oceana. 

This Earth Week, PACT is partnering with The Green Belt Movement to plant a forest. They've launched a special Green Belt print and from April 16th - 25th each purchase will give 100% of the proceeds to plant 10,000 trees. Who knew your choice of underwear could do so much?

Here are some links to make spreading the word really simple:

• Share on Facebook
• Retweet this

-Dorothee

Full Disclosure: PACT is one of the fabulous eco-fashion brands that have partnered with us for the  upcoming Southwest Tour.

Organic Pick of the Week: Excentree

It's finally spring! And that means t-shirt weather, so this week I'm excited to show you my favorite new shirt by Excentree. This eco-friendly company uses certified organic cotton to make their limited-edition shirts and gives you the chance to plant one tree for every garment sold.

How does it work? Excentree is working with seventeen agro-reforestation projects worldwide in countries like Belize, Ethiopia, India, Haiti and Uganda. Many areas have been ravaged by logging for profit, leaving the land vulnerable and infertile, reducing soil and community protection. By planting trees in these areas, communities can begin to reclaim the land, make it work for them and become sustainable once again.

Once you get your shirt, all you have to do is visit the website they provide on the garment and enter your access code to plant a tree. And as if that wasn't cool enough, Excentree garment hang tags are made from seeded paper. So after you've planted your tree online you can plant the tag and it will grow either flowers, vegetables or herbs! 

-Dorothee

Family Farmed Expo Starts Today in Chicago

Local food is on the tip of everybody's tongue in Chicago today, because the fifth annual Family Farmed Expo starts today and runs through Saturday at the UIC Forum.

Billed as "the Midwest's premier local food event," the expo is open to the public and it will feature exhibitor booths from local food producers, chef demos, and organic and local food workshops.

We'll be heading over to UIC to get in on the action this week. To learn more about the Family Farmed Expo, check out this promo video of FamilyFarmed.org President Jim Slama:

Dorothee's Interview on Millennials and Obama

Check out Dorothee's interview with Alex Steed of Millenials Changing America, who is doing a series this week called Obama, Millenials, and the State of the Union: One Year Later. In the video, Dorothee reflects on whether or not the Obama Administration has been friend or foe to the organics movement. Check out the interview here and add your thoughts about this topic in the comments section.

What's in Store for 2010? More Local Food

NOTE: A version of this post first appeared on our local sister site, The Dirt on Green. 

2009 is in the books, but as we look forward to the tweens, one trend that will likely carry over from the '90s and the aughts is the increase in the buying and selling of local food. Back in October, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the number of farmers markets in the US increased by 13 percent -- one of the biggest increases in recent history. The USDA table above shows the number of farmers markets in the country over the past 15 years. 

It's not just farmers markets that have increased in the past year; small, independent farms have cropped up too. Marion Nestle describes the phenomenon:

"The back-to-the land movement has loads of people buying local food, choosing foods produced under more sustainable conditions and growing their own food. The number of small farms in America increased last year for the first time in a century. Seed companies cannot keep up with the demand. It will be fun to follow what happens with this trend."

-Mark

Dirty Dozen: Why to Always Buy Organic Milk

Dirty Dozen is an ongoing Organic Nation series that seeks to explain the benefits of certain organic foods and products over their conventional counterparts. To see other recent posts in this series, click here.

There's been a backlash of press against organic milk recently, with a number of articles and columnists arguing that organic and conventional milk are virtually the same, and that only a fool would pay more for organic. It may all look the same, but there's a big difference between how a carton of organic and conventional milk are produced.

Numerous growth hormones, pesticides, dioxins, and antibiotics are used in the production of conventional milk, while none of them are permitted for certified-organic dairy farmers. And not only is organic milk cleaner, but it's healthier too. A recent study from Newcastle University in England found that organic milk contained 67 percent more vitamins, antioxidants, and Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids than conventional milk.

A key requirement of certified-organic dairy farmers is that they don't inject their cows with bovine growth hormone (known variously as BGH, rBGH, rBST, and POSILAC). Monsanto Corp introduced BGH in 1994, because it forces dairy cows to produce 15 to 25 percent more milk. Scientists have known from the outset that BGH contains higher levels of an insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), which is linked to cancer, but many conventional farmers continue to use the stuff.  

Click to read more ...

Organic Food, Farming and Health (VIDEO)

Check out this informative and beautifully shot video for Earthbound Farm about organic food, farming and health. I think it's an effective commercial and I hope more sustainable brands reach out to consumers in this way!

Here's the text for the video: Of all the different green options before you, the most important choice is what you eat. Not everyone can drive a hybrid or ride public transportation, but everyone can make choices about their food. Organic farming means farming with Mother Nature and the more people know about the benefits of organic, the better our environment will be. Let organic become the conventional of the future.

-Dorothee