Today in Organic: July 24, 2009

• Organic dairy farmers have been asking for enforcement, and it looks like they'll be getting some. According to Gourmet, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders asked Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney to investigate milk processors last week, and in particular, to take “a very serious look” at Dean Foods, the nation's largest milk processor and owner of the Horizon label.

• Wonder what it's like to work a farmers market as a grower (and why Adam looks so surly in the photo above)? The Atlantic's Sara Lipka writes about getting up at 4:30, price shifts and gleaners.

• Wal-Mart is hosting a farmers market on Chicago's South Side? Well, yes, they want to host an open-air market on a site where the retailer hopes to open a store next year, but according to Chicagoist, the produce they hope to sell there will all be "sourced, delivered, and sold by Wal-Mart." So no, it isn't a farmers market at all.

• Grist's Tom Philpott looks into how Food, Inc. came to be sponsored by Chipotle. Turns out that director Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser are critical of Chipotle's inaction on farm worker rights, but the decision to team up with Chipotle was made by the film's production company, Participant Media, and its distributor, Magnolia Pictures.

• About a month ago, the AP reported that sales of certified-organic foods and products were expected to slip by 1.1 percent this year. Now Time magazine is reporting that organic food sales are actually projected to grow by 6 percent this year.

[Photo by Melissa Weinberg]