Monday, January 29, 2007

The Mouth Revolution is Here!

The Mouths of the world are finally speaking out. They're fed up with the "garbage" we eat and they're demanding real food - organic food - now! As gateways to the human body, they're taking action and staging an international "Shut Up" until their demands are met.

Meat: Making the best choices

Whether beef, pork or lamb, meat often occupies center stage in American meals. Yet there's no reason for even the most dedicated meat eaters to add to their health risks or support inhumane and environmentally harmful practices by buying factory-farmed meat.

Why Organic Consumers Must Speak Out Against War

A greater market share for local, organic & fair trade products will amount to very little in a world of constant war, vanishing oil supplies and climate chaos. That's why the Organic Consumers Association is launching "Planting Peace", a campaign to stimulate greater cooperation and synergy between the anti-war, climate crisis, and organic movements. As supporters of peace, justice and sustainability, we have no choice but to force Washington to reallocate massive portions of federal war funding towards peace, sustainability, alternative energy, and reducing dangerous greenhouse gases. As Bush comes to Congress asking for more money for war, let's tell our elected officials: We buy local, organic & fair trade... But we're not buying this war!

What Makes a Difference? It's as Simple as Brown & White

Before opening our retail store in Brewster, there were many, many small issues over which we needed to decide. One small issue was whether or not to offer white rice for sale in the store.

Organic rice is now available in many varieties - short grain, long grain, basmati, jasmine, sweet & more. We offer all the aforementioned in brown, but we don't offer them as white rice.

What is white rice? It is brown rice that has had the most nutritious parts of the grain removed - i.e. the bran and the germ.

So, we boiled and steamed about it and decided not to offer white rice in our store. Not because it might not sell, but because we want to offer the best & healthiest choices for our customers.

Now that our store has been open for about two months we've had time to gauge customer response to our lack of white rice. Whilst asking customers if there are items they seek that we do not carry, not one has mentioned white rice (nor white pasta for that matter). And I've only had one customer directly ask for white rice. I said no and told her why not and got an undiscernible response. Oh well, an unhappy customer, I thought. But, then I see her at the checkout with her basket full of items - including brown jasmine rice.

What Makes a Difference? People who believe that businesses can be based on ethical & health principles ahead of economic-based decisions AND people who are looking to make the healthier choices. It's can be as simple as brown & white.

Solving Global Warming: It Can Be Done

It took six years but President Bush finally said "climate change" in a State of the Union speech.

Unfortunately, he left out the magic words that could save us: "mandatory limits on global warming pollution." And we can't afford to wait one more day -- much less two more years -- for this president to see the light.

Scientists are telling us loud and clear that if we don't act now to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the window of opportunity will soon shut forever, and the outcome will be devastating.

However, we have solutions in hand right now to drastically cut global warming pollution. Act now -- put clean, innovative energy technologies to use, and enact policies to encourage their rapid, widespread adoption -- and we can stop global warming in its tracks. Instead of nearly doubling U.S. global warming pollution by 2050, we can cut it in half.

Incentives for Energy Efficiency

The Federal Government provides a tax incentives for energy efficiency measures that will cover up to $2000 for the installation of a solar water or solar power system in your home. Helpful, but that's no big deal.

But, it's the State Governments that provide great tax credits AND purchase rebates that can cover up to 50% of the cost of installing a solar photo-voltaic or solar water heating system in your home.

Monday, January 22, 2007

California Freeze will affect organic crops

The five day long recent freeze in California has affected many agricultural producers and organic farmers are not immune from the effects of freezing weather.
At this current time of year, when we rely on supplies of organic produce from California, we do expect to have shortages of some crops and some prices to increase. Citrus, strawberries and lettuces will be the most affected.

The dynamics of nature & organic food

With the above-mentioned freeze grossly affecting agricultural crops, it also helps to remind us that nature plays a significant role in the dynamic variability of produce.
Wine grape growers are always relating seasonal conditions to the vintage of the wine. It is the weather variations that help to create a vintage wine year. Variations in weather also help to create not so great wine years.
The same also applies for all other fruits & vegetables. A cold spell will cause zucchini to misshapen; cold weather slows growth leading to smaller heads of celery; & prolonged cool weather will the delay the ripening and sweetening of summer fruits.
Here is a recent example that concerns pomegranates. We offer just one comprehensive brand of organic juices: Lakewood. We like their excellent quality - and also that all their juices are made from fresh-squeezed fruit and not from concentrates. However, this also makes the juices liable to vary in quality from batch to batch depending on the availability, quality, ripeness and sweetness of the fruit at the time required for processing.
So, a recent batch of Lakewood Pomegranate Juice arrived that was different to the batch before. It wasn't as sweet and the flavor profile was not as full-bodied. As well as being tart it also contained some astringency that comes from the pith of the fruit (the pith is the dry flesh inside the pomegranate that surrounds the juicy, fleshy seeds).
Does this make the juice bad? Of course not! It might mean that we don't prefer that batch (and, therefore, choose not to drink it) but as organic consumers, we can come to respect and appreciate that nature does play a significant role in providing superbly delicious (and sometimes, not so delicious) foods for us.
Alternatively, we could choose to offer juices that are standardized from concentrates and rarely vary. Hey, Big M does an impressive job of standardizing their burgers across the country (so I'm told) - if that's your beef.
We love it that our foods change - it is part of the wonderful dynamics of organic food.

Amber Fields of Bland



By Dan Barber, New York Times, January 14, 2007


THERE'S invariably something risky, if not risible, about allowing Congress to decide what's for dinner. Bad decisions about agriculture have defined government policy for the last century; 70 percent of our nation's farms have been lost to bankruptcy or consolidation, creating an agricultural economy that looks more Wall Street than Main Street.


Now, after the uprooting of a thousand years of agrarian wisdom, we chefs have discovered something really terrible - no, not that the agricultural system we help support hurts farmers and devastates farming communities, or that it harms the environment and our health. What we've discovered is that the food it produces just doesn't taste very good.


read more...

Hudson River fish found to contain radioactive isotope

By Greg Clary, The Journal News, January 16, 2007

In what could be the region's next environmental controversy or simply just a laboratory mistake, fish in the Hudson River have been found to contain traces of strontium 90.

The radioactive isotope was discovered leaking almost a year ago at the Indian Point nuclear plants, and tests on 12 fish show four with detectible amounts, according to a memo obtained by The Journal News.

read more (The Journal News)

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Healthy choices abound at new organic market

By RICH MONETTI, Correspondent, The Lewisboro Ledger, (NY),January 4, 2007

South Salem's Ian Diamond
Healthy choices abound at new organic market

Organic food costs more than its "regular" counterparts more commonly found in local grocery markets. As a result, many of us choose to buy based on the lower prices at the supermarket. But longtime organic industry consumer and retailer Ian Diamond thinks that logic does not add up.

"When you just make a choice based purely on price then it's not a particularly educated decision," he said, "something that's true for corn on the cob or the car you just bought." Mr. Diamond now hopes his newly opened The Organic Connection in Brewster can help put people 's approach to food in line with the way they make the rest of their purchases.

Mr. Diamond, of South Salem, has just opened The Organic Connection Fresh Food Market at 981 Route 22 in Brewster, where he serves all-natural and organic foods.

Those in serious or moderate consideration of trying organic foods might first join Mr. Diamond in putting their money where their mouth is. The overall mindset in large-scale conventional farming places quantity over quality and size over taste.

Chemical pesticides allow fruits and vegetables you find in supermarkets to grow larger but not necessarily better. The larger product, he said, retains much more water than that of those grown on organic farms. From there, it's easy to infer which choice is more likely to make your mouth water.

In addition, he believes beef and chicken that come under the title of organic will go over in the same manner.

"You go into the supermarket and you see this green pastured picture on the front with a contented cow chewing on grass - that's marketing nonsense," he said. Instead, factory-farmed animals are usually crammed into some corner somewhere, devoid of a good quality of life. This makes for unhealthy animals - yielding a lower quality meat with inferior taste, he said.

Taste aside, conventional farming practices have the effect of leaving behind the chemical pesticides and fertilizers for our insides - something that is especially harmful for children.

"They show up with pesticides in their systems, and as soon as they go on an organic diet," he said, "the pesticides that show up reduces enormously."

The same idea applies to the soil and the damage conventional farming does to the environment. More and more chemicals end up in the soil from a technique that focuses primarily on producing maximum yield.

"There are pollution problems from that, there are environmental problems from that, and there are sustainability problems from that," he said.

In terms of a livestock product that puts quantity over quality, health issues are also a concern. Besides the problems of animals being fed with inorganic food, the risk associated with bovine growth hormone can probably speak for itself even if the short-term effect does not, Mr. Diamond said. What can be determined more readily are the problems associated with the use of antibiotics on farm animals. The drugs then show up in our systems and reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics in our bodies when we get sick.

Mr. Diamond got his start in an organic and holistic lifestyle through his father in Australia. A doctor, his father began questioning some of the practices used in conventional medicine and extended his thinking to include conventional food choices.

From there, Mr. Diamond became an organic food consumer in 1979 and went into the industry in 1984 with an organic food delivery business. Of the products at his market, 99% are all natural, as are the prepared foods he offers.

For the future, he sees the movement continuing to grow with more and more organic markets opening and with organic sections in all the supermarkets. He feels it is important to point out that conventional farming is a heavily subsidized industry. This means that the true cost difference between the foods is an exaggerated one and the producers who farm against the grain deserve our support.

"They're not looking for subsidizing; they're looking for a fair reward for their hard work," he said.

For more information: 845- 279-2290 or organicconnection. com.

This is some of the fresh, organic food available at the new Brewster market The Organic Connection. Owner Ian Diamond of South Salem recently opened the market after years in the organic industry.

Healthy choices abound at new organic market

By RICH MONETTI, Correspondent, The Lewisboro Ledger, (NY),January 4, 2007

South Salem's Ian Diamond
Healthy choices abound at new organic market

Organic food costs more than its "regular" counterparts more commonly found in local grocery markets. As a result, many of us choose to buy based on the lower prices at the supermarket. But longtime organic industry consumer and retailer Ian Diamond thinks that logic does not add up.

"When you just make a choice based purely on price then it's not a particularly educated decision," he said, "something that's true for corn on the cob or the car you just bought." Mr. Diamond now hopes his newly opened The Organic Connection in Brewster can help put people 's approach to food in line with the way they make the rest of their purchases.

Mr. Diamond, of South Salem, has just opened The Organic Connection Fresh Food Market at 981 Route 22 in Brewster, where he serves all-natural and organic foods.

Those in serious or moderate consideration of trying organic foods might first join Mr. Diamond in putting their money where their mouth is. The overall mindset in large-scale conventional farming places quantity over quality and size over taste.

Chemical pesticides allow fruits and vegetables you find in supermarkets to grow larger but not necessarily better. The larger product, he said, retains much more water than that of those grown on organic farms. From there, it's easy to infer which choice is more likely to make your mouth water.

In addition, he believes beef and chicken that come under the title of organic will go over in the same manner.

"You go into the supermarket and you see this green pastured picture on the front with a contented cow chewing on grass - that's marketing nonsense," he said. Instead, factory-farmed animals are usually crammed into some corner somewhere, devoid of a good quality of life. This makes for unhealthy animals - yielding a lower quality meat with inferior taste, he said.

Taste aside, conventional farming practices have the effect of leaving behind the chemical pesticides and fertilizers for our insides - something that is especially harmful for children.

"They show up with pesticides in their systems, and as soon as they go on an organic diet," he said, "the pesticides that show up reduces enormously."

The same idea applies to the soil and the damage conventional farming does to the environment. More and more chemicals end up in the soil from a technique that focuses primarily on producing maximum yield.

"There are pollution problems from that, there are environmental problems from that, and there are sustainability problems from that," he said.

In terms of a livestock product that puts quantity over quality, health issues are also a concern. Besides the problems of animals being fed with inorganic food, the risk associated with bovine growth hormone can probably speak for itself even if the short-term effect does not, Mr. Diamond said. What can be determined more readily are the problems associated with the use of antibiotics on farm animals. The drugs then show up in our systems and reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics in our bodies when we get sick.

Mr. Diamond got his start in an organic and holistic lifestyle through his father in Australia. A doctor, his father began questioning some of the practices used in conventional medicine and extended his thinking to include conventional food choices.

From there, Mr. Diamond became an organic food consumer in 1979 and went into the industry in 1984 with an organic food delivery business. Of the products at his market, 99% are all natural, as are the prepared foods he offers.

For the future, he sees the movement continuing to grow with more and more organic markets opening and with organic sections in all the supermarkets. He feels it is important to point out that conventional farming is a heavily subsidized industry. This means that the true cost difference between the foods is an exaggerated one and the producers who farm against the grain deserve our support.

"They're not looking for subsidizing; they're looking for a fair reward for their hard work," he said.

For more information: 845- 279-2290 or organicconnection. com.

This is some of the fresh, organic food available at the new Brewster market The Organic Connection. Owner Ian Diamond of South Salem recently opened the market after years in the organic industry.

Monday, January 1, 2007

New Website Online Ordering at Organic Connection

We're completing our new website design for online ordering. The new design enables to recall your previous online orders and add favorite items to your ordering - enabling quicker re-ordering of your preferred items. Also, with our greatly expanded range of organic foods and products, we've separated them into category pages. Like to try ordering from our new site?

Organic Connection New Site (beta)

Jazz Sundays at Organic Connection

Exciting, enjoyable and uplifting times to be had on two Sunday afternoons per month at Organic Connection. The Diamond Jubilators will be playing their jazzy style of musical activation. Come along and enjoy music that will have you smiling and singing. 2:30pm - 4:30pm. Every 2nd & 4th Sunday of the month. Next - February 25th.