Today in Organic: December 21, 2009

Snowy Bison / Flickr user hadlundc

I'll be shuffling off to Buffalo, NY this week to spend Christmas with my family, so expect a slowdown (but not a complete shutdown) of posts over the next week or so. After that, we'll be back in full effect, and we've got some big plans for OrganicNation in the new year. Thanks for reading, and happy holidays!

• ABC News takes a broad look at the rise of sustainable food in the public consciousness over the past decade.

• At The Dirt on Green I put together a list of the Top 10 Greenwashing Campaigns of 2009, which includes a few food companies.

• "There is no dangerous lead level in the White House kitchen garden," writes Obama Foodorama blogger Eddie Kohan, addressing the conspiracy theorists. "And no toxic sewage sludge was applied to the kitchen garden, either."

• Change.org interviews Tim Will, a telecommunications systems analyst who brought broadband to farming communities in the Appalachians, about the value of the Internet to farmers.

• The NYC Board of Health has moved to lift the ban on urban beekeeping in New York.

• Katie Robbins from The Atlantic writes about the dark side of Dungeness crab season. 

• Here's a strange Christmas tradition: Hide a pickle in the tree. "A very old Christmas eve tradition in Germany was to hide a pickle [ornament] deep in the branches of the family Christmas Tree. The parents hung the pickle last after all the other ornaments were in place. In the morning they knew the most observant child would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas."