Vote to Send Dorothée and Mark to Peru as Hessnatur Ambassadors!

Eco-friendly clothing company Hessnatur is inviting a two-person team to spend three weeks in Peru visiting their organic cotton and alpaca farms, clothing production sites and becoming acquainted with the local people, land and the culture.

We'd like to invite you on this adventure where we'll trace Hessnatur's clothing back to the source. But first, we need your help to get there! Please vote for us to be Hessnatur's ambassadors to Peru and we promise to provide engaging blog posts, video updates and candid photos from our journey.

How to vote:

1) Click on this link

2) Submit your name, email and a 5-star rating. Feel free to leave a comment as well.

3) Click on the link in the confirmation email form Hessnatur (otherwise your vote won't count!)

Help spread the word:

1) Tweet the following message: Please vote to send @OrganicNation's Dorothee & Mark to Peru as @hessnatur ambassadors: http://ht.ly/21fl0 #green #organic #ecofashion

2) Share this link on your Facebook page

Thanks so much for voting for us and we'll see you in Peru!

– Dorothée and Mark

Blogs We Like: Breaking Through Concrete

The Southwest Tour rolled to a stop late last week, and while we're anchored in Chicago, editing the videos we filmed over the past month, I'd like to suggest another site to check out: Breaking Through Concrete.  

The project is similar in many ways to OrganicNation.tv: The crew is currently taking a road trip across the country, shooting video and taking photos of farms along the way. There are a few wrinkles though. First, the vehicle is a short bus powered by diesel and veggie grease (pictured above), which looks really rad. Second, they focus mostly on urban farms (although they seem to be making a bunch of rural stops too).

Part of what makes this project great is the skill level of the team. Brothers David and Michael Hanson are at the core; David is a freelance journalist, and Michael is a magazine photographer. They got a contract to put together a book about urban farming, which will be made using material from the trip. The Hansons are joined by documentary filmmaker Charlie Hoxie.

The BTC boys are currently about halfway through a seven-week road trip. Follow them at Grist or on their own blog, and check out their first video dispatch (embedded below) that was put together by Michael Hanson:

-Mark

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

Pioneering Organics in the Texas Panhandle

The best organic farm you probably never heard of? Cimarron Organics, located within the city of Amarillo, TX. Finding Cimarron was pretty easy, because when I searched "Amarillo" + "organic farms" it was the only search result. That's because there aren't any other organic fruit or vegetable farms within a 120-mile radius.

The farm is owned by Ronnie Kimbrell, and his father, brother and son work on it, making it a true family farm. A bicycle accident eight years ago left Kimbrell paralyzed from the chest down, but he's one of the most knowledgeable and engaged farmers we've met.

Kimbrell is a true pioneer of West Texas organic farming, and he's also an innovator. Just before we arrived he had released a bunch of ladybugs into the tomato greenhouse for pest control. He also mulches with hay, uses drip tape to irrigate all of the crops, and plans to build more greenhouses and raise laying hens in the future. In addition to his work on the farm, Kimbrell acts as president of Amarillo's Golden Spread Farmer's Market where his farmstand has built a loyal following.

In the two hours we spent at Cimarron, Kimbrell gave us a tour of his two greenhouses and the surrounding fields, in which he grows fruits and vegetables including tomatoes, peppers, okra, asparagus, blackberries, lettuce, cantaloupe, watermelons, and peaches. At the end of our visit, he let pick fresh asparagus for dinner!

-Mark

Announcing the OrganicNation.tv Southwest Tour!

After two successful trips to the East and West coasts, we're very excited to be hitting the road again!

This May, we'll be gathering footage for a fresh season of episodes, filming innovative and passionate organic farmers, food producers, and environmentalists in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and some of the surrounding states. Video themes will include water rights, land management, beekeeping and colony collapse disorder, organic cotton production, and agro-biodiversity in the desert.

In addition to the those episodes, we'll be posting Flip clips from the road -- shorter video correspondences, shot with at Flip camera -- to the OrganicNation Facebook fan page.

During the trip, we will be test-driving a Ford Fusion Hybrid and we're thrilled to be sponsored by Motel 6, where we will rest our heads each night. We're also very excited about the fabulous eco-friendly brands that are sponsoring the tour by keeping us fed, clothed and looking pretty!

Any suggestions for places to go and people to meet? Leave 'em in the comments section. Here's a map of some of the stops we'll be making:

Venture Capitalists Still Betting on Organic Food?

Agriculture 2.0, "the pre-eminent gathering for the entrepreneurs, investors, food producers, and experts" in sustainable food took place about a month ago, but the New York Times is still buzzing about it. The article is short on details about actual money that's being invested in organic farming (in fact, the one farmer they interviewed hadn't found any investors yet), but it does include a handful of optimistic quotes from some venture capitalists. Among them:

"Sustainable ag smells like clean tech, but it’s not so obscure that you’ve never heard of it but obscure enough there’s no competition."

-Janine Yorio, founder of NewSeed Advisors, which hosts Agriculture 2.0

"If you’re interested in investing in energy and water, you become interested in investing in agriculture. A lot of ag opportunities are going to be driven by water, it’s availability and cleanliness."

-Amol Deshpande, a venture partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

"Sustainable agriculture is a space that looks as big or bigger than clean tech. Historically, we have not seen a ton of entrepreneurial activity in agriculture, but we are beginning to see it now, and the opportunities are huge."

-Paul Matteucci, a venture capitalist with U.S. Venture Partners

I'm still not entirely sure where there's money to be made by venture capitalists in the field of sustainable agriculture. It's true that there are several innovations (aquaponics, vermiculture, unheated greenhouses) that could be developed and commodified by the right business mind, and maybe that would help to popularize some of these techniques. But it remains to be seen if anyone will every make any money doing it.

-Mark

Today in Organic: March 29, 2010

First Tomato Seedling of 2010 / Chiot's Run

• Summer forecast: locusts. "Farmers and ranchers across the West are bracing for a grasshopper infestation that could devastate millions of acres of crops and land used for grazing," according to the Wall Street Journal. 

• Fast Company compiled a list of the top 10 most inspiring people in sustainable food. Many of the usual suspects make the list, along with a couple of vertical farming and aquaponics innovators. 

• The New York Times ran a nice story last week about rice farmer in Louisiana — a state with just 23 organic farms — who converted to organic 15 years ago. 

• The newly formed Sustainable Restaurant Association will rate restaurants according to how green and sustainable they are, TreeHugger reports. 

• Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's new TV show, Food Revolution, is shining a bright light on the amount of junk food served in schools. Read about it at The Atlantic. 

• The Washington Post published a roundup of suburban subdivisions where an organic farm is the primary amenity. 

• "Organic groups say they're not surprised by a recent audit report that faults USDA for inadequate enforcement of organic food standards, but they lay the blame on the former administration," according to the Ag rag Capital Press. Organic watchdogs are reportedly optimistic that the Obama administration can clean up the mess.

New Video: What Is Biodynamic Farming?

During our travels across America, I've been lucky to visit many beautiful farms and gardens. But none have captivated my imagination quite like Frog Hill Farm in Port Townsend, Washington. The farm's diverse acres include woodlands, an herb and flower garden, wetlands, pastures for goats, ducks and chickens as well as neat rows of vegetables. Sebastian Aguilar, who runs the farm with his family, has taken his organic certification to the next level by employing biodynamic farming practices.

An often misunderstood technique due to its roots in Rudolph Steiner's esoteric spiritual philosophy, biodynamic agriculture treats farms as unified organisms and emphasizes the relationship of soil, plants and animals. Biodynamic farms try to eliminate inputs (such as fertilizers) and instead create a closed-loop system of soil maintenance using cover crops, manure and herbal composts.

Learn more about biodynamic farming via the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association.

Special thanks to Robin Grey for the use of his music in this video!

-Dorothee

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.

New Video: Is BIG Organic the Enemy?

Consumers and activists alike tend to be nervous about big corporations taking over organic brands. Many wonder, how can we make organics available to a larger audience at cheaper prices while maintaining the standards on which organics were founded?

These are questions we brought to Ken Cook, the President of Environmental Working Group (EWG) during our visit to Organic Valley's Kickapoo Country Fair.

-Dorothee

Books We Like: The Winter Harvest Handbook

I first heard about greenhouse guru Eliot Coleman from Jesse Hopkins, farm manager of Colinwood Farm in Port Townsend and the star of our video about four-season farming in the Pacific Northwest. Jesse said that if Coleman could grow vegetables year-round in Eastern Maine, it should be even easier for him to grow salad greens in the winter on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington.

Because of his success, there's plenty of hype surrounding Coleman and his farm in Harborside, ME. Since he started experimenting with greenhouse production in the mid-1990s, rumors have swirled that Coleman grows vegetables in unheated greenhouses in the Maine winter, and that he even has a lemon tree. Those rumors are all true.

Coleman's latest book, The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses, lays out his four-season farming methods in plain English. This is Coleman's second book on the topic of greenhouse farming - his first was the self-published manual, Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables From Your Home Garden All Year Long - and it's written for serious farmers and backyard gardeners alike.

The first secret to Coleman's success is that he doesn't try to grow warm-weather crops in his unheated greenhouses. (The lemon tree is in the only heated greenhouse on the farm.) Coleman says that not only can some hearty greens tolerate cold conditions, but "they actually thrive and are sweeter, tenderer, and more flavorful." Another key is planting at the right time for winter harvest, and for Coleman, that means planting winter crops in the beginning of August, during what he calls the "second spring."

Click to read more ...

Video: The Barefoot Grower

If you need something to warm you up this week, take a look at this video from Anna Greenland, The Barefoot Grower, in her colorful garden in Cornwall, England. Anna grows vegetables, herbs and flowers without pesticides and sells them to local restaurants.

Anna explains on her blog:

I'm passionate about growing my own food and building this into my everyday life. In a fast-paced world where food convenience often comes before health, I think our future well-being as humans relies heavily on looking closer to home for our food source. No matter how small your space is, there is something so simple and natural about eating produce you have nurtured from seed. It is a process that reconnects us with nature and the planet as a whole.

You can follow Anna on Twitter @barefootgrower.

-Dorothee

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

New Video: Winter Harvest at Yale's Greenhouse

During our visit to Yale's innovative one acre student-run organic farm, Dorothee got a tour of the grounds and greenhouse. Along with special planting techniques, the greenhouse allows the farm to stay productive in every season of the year without any extra use of fossil fuels to heat the structure. Special thanks to Yale Sustainable Food Project Director Melina Shannon-DiPietro for showing us around!