Monday, April 30, 2007

Making a Greener Organic Connection








Enjoying the prepared foods from Organic Connection's Organic Deli Bar? Have you tried one of our organic smoothies or juice? Yes, we know the fruit & drink quality is excellent & delicious, but what about the packaging?

It is surprising to see how many take-out containers and cups we go through at Organic Connection. But, we are working on ways to reduce our environmental impact.

The majority of the take-out containers that we use are made from vegetable-based materials and are greenhouse gas neutral in their production. Most notable are the clear 'plastic' deli containers - they're made from corn; they're compostable; and they contain no petroleum ingredients. Similarly, our cutlery is made from potato starch.

Small things. Small steps. Little efforts. One by one they can positively add up and make a difference.

Eco-Home Department

More changes at Organic Connection. We're creating an Eco-Home Department downstairs.

An Eco-Home Department? Yes, a place where you can obtain information about and purchase Home Improvement items & Housewares to help you create a healthier home.

As the main focus, we'll be offering Bio Shield Natural Paints & Wood Finishes. Why? Because they're plant and mineral based, non-toxic and contain zero VOC's. Clay-based paints, linseed oil based wood finishes.

When will our Eco-Home Department open? As soon as we finish the cork floor (with the Bio-Shield floor finish) and the clay paint walls. It does look great. Ask us for a sneak peek when you're next in the store.

Why BioShield?

Miracle-Gro Sues Organic Plant-Food Co.

The makers of garden products Miracle-Gro and TerraCycle are as different as mature plants and seedlings.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is a $7 billion global business with broad brand recognition, a 59 percent market share, and Roman columns framing the entry to its corporate headquarters. TerraCycle Inc. is a fledging startup with $1.5 million in annual sales, an infinitesimal share of the market, and a graffiti-covered warehouse with used tires on the lawn where the rose bushes were before someone stole them out of the ground.

But Scotts sees similarities between the two plant-food makers. So, the Goliath of plant products sued late last month, accusing TerraCycle of copying its look and falsely claiming that its organic products are better than synthetic ones like Miracle-Gro.

"I don't think their claims are valid," said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky, a 25-year-old Hungarian-born entrepreneur who dropped out of Princeton in 2003 to launch an eco-friendly company. TerraCycle's products are made from worm waste and packaged in used plastic bottles and jugs.

"They're claiming that (the colors) yellow and green are theirs," he said, referring to Scotts.

read article (BayNews9.com)

Organic Connection Website

With our ever expanding range of organic foods and other items, our online order page has become, umm, long (is that an understatement?).

So, in the efforts of trying to make our online ordering easier, we've been developing a new website and order system. It's still in development, but it is operational and you are welcome to use it to place orders (you can recall previous orders made on the new site, and you can tag items as favorites).

Use this link to go to the new (in development) Organic Connection order site.

Job Opportunities at Organic Connection

We're looking for some keen people to join the team at Organic Connection.

We have need for a Full-Time Kitchen Assistant (or part-time weekends).

We also have a retail position available for an after-school and weekend worker.

Organic Connection Menus...

are now available on both our original and our new beta website.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?

Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross, The Independent (UK), April 15th.

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

Read more

Federal Judge Halts Approval Of Genetically Altered Alfalfa Seed

A Federal judge ruled earlier this month that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) 2005 approval of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa is vacated and ordered an immediate halt to sales of the GE seed. The ruling follows a hearing last week in the case brought by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for approving GE alfalfa without conducting the required Environmental Impact Statement.

"We are pleased that the judge called for halt to sales of this potentially damaging crop," said Will Rostov, a Senior Attorney for CFS. "Roundup Ready alfalfa poses threats to farmers, to our export markets, and to the environment. We expect the USDA to abide by the law and give these harmful effects of the crop full consideration."

The preliminary injunction ordered by Judge Charles Breyer in the Federal Northern District of California today follows his ruling last month finding that USDA violated national environmental laws by approving GE alfafa without a full Environmental Impact Statement. Monsanto and Forage Genetics, the developers of the GE alfalfa seed, argued against the injunction. But while Monsanto and its allies claimed that delaying the sale or planting of their GE seed would harm farmers, the judge found otherwise. "Disappointment in the delay to their switch to Roundup Ready alfalfa is not an interest which outweighs the potential environmental harm..." posed by the GE crop, he wrote.

read more (Center for Food Safety)

Organic Landscaping Safer for People and the Environment

As the lawn chemical companies hit the advertising airwaves this Spring," the National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns is urging homeowners and land managers to reject toxic pesticides and synthetic, petroleum-based fertilizers and instead adopt organic products and practices. The Coalition is a consortium of public health and environmental groups and landscapers nationwide that points to the long list of scientific studies documenting the human health, wildlife, pet, and environmental hazards associated with pesticide products used by the typical commercial lawn care companies and sold at lawn and garden centers.

Chemical lawn pesticides are linked in the scientific literature to cancer in people and pets, and are known to be toxic to the nervous and immune system, endocrine disruptors, and tied to respiratory effects such as asthma. Organic practices rely on maintenance techniques and soil health that prevent unwanted insect and weeds.

The Coalition promotes A Simple Guide to Creating a Healthy Lawn, Read Your "Weeds," for parks, lawns and playing fields this Spring that addresses the whole turf system, including developing healthy soil, maintaining a proper pH balance, selection of appropriate grasses and other plants, aeration of compacted soil, timely thatch removal, and proper mowing, correct watering, and organic fertilizing methods.

More information

Pastured Organic Veal

Herondale Farm (Ancramdale, Columbia County, NY) have just supplied us with their first batch of Certified Organic Pasture-raised veal.
In keeping with Organic Connection's production requirements for beef, the young cattle have been freely ranging on pasture. This is a very different scenario to common non-organic veal production of keeping animals penned.

FDA Seeks to Remove Labelling Requirements for Irradiated Foods

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed new federal regulations that will allow manufacturers and retailers to sell controversial irradiated foods without labeling them, as previously required by law.

Consumers are justifiably wary of foods bombarded with nuclear waste or powerful x-rays or gamma rays--since irradiation destroys essential vitamins and nutrients, creates unique radiolytic chemical compounds never before consumed by humans, and generates carcinogenic byproducts such as formaldehyde and benzene.

Although irradiation, except for spices, is banned in much of the world, and prohibited globally in organic production, U.S. corporate agribusiness and the meat industry desperately want to be able to secretly "nuke" foods in order to reduce the deadly bacterial contamination that is now routine in industrial agriculture and meat production.

The Organic Consumers Association and other public interest groups have repeatedly pointed out that the best way to reduce or eliminate America's 78 million cases of food poisoning every year would be to clean up the nation's filthy slaughterhouses and feedlots, stop contaminated runoff from intensive confinement feedlots from polluting adjacent farms (as in the recent spinach e-coli outbreak), and to stop feeding animals slaughterhouse waste and manure.

Instead, FDA and corporate agribusiness have apparently decided, with the backing of the nuclear power and weapons industry, to take away consumers' rights to know if their food has been irradiated or not.

read more (Organic Consumers Association)

Pledge to Live a One Planet Life!

If everyone consumed as much as North Americans, we would need five planets to sustain our high-waste, high-pollution habits.

Each of us can make a difference. By learning more about our individual impact, we can significantly reduce the amount of pollution and waste we produce as a whole. It can start with something as simple as buying fewer pieces of clothing or driving one less day per week.

Watch the Care2 Video

Tell USDA Not to Require Treatment of Raw Almonds

In response to two outbreaks of Salmonella in 2001 and 2004 traced to raw almonds grown in California, the Almond Board of California and the USDA have quietly developed a new regulation mandating that all almonds undergo a sterilization process that includes chemical and/or high-temperature treatments.

The plan is angering many small-scale farmers, retailers, and consumers. This new rule is controversial for many reasons. It could force family farms out of business, ignores the underlying systemic problems with conventional agriculture that cause food contamination, and is upsetting to consumers seeking organic and raw foods.

read more

Monday, April 16, 2007

Getting Clean: Recovering from Pesticide Addiction

By Gerry Marten & Donna Glee Williams, The Ecologist, December 2006.

Around 20 years ago, a handful of families migrated from the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, southeast India, into Punukula, a community of around 900 people farming plots of between two and 10 acres. The outsiders from Guntur brought cotton-culture with them. Cotton wooed farmers by promising to bring in more hard cash than the mixed crops they were already growing to eat and sell: millet, sorghum, groundnuts, pigeon peas, mung beans, chilli and rice. But raising cotton meant using pesticides and fertilisers - until then a mystery to the mostly illiterate farmers of the community.

A quick 'high' of booming yields and incomes hooked growers during the early years of cotton in the region. Outlay on insecticides was fairly low because cotton pests hadn't moved in yet. Many farmers were so impressed with the chemicals that they started using them on their other crops as well. The immediate payoffs from chemically-dependent cotton agriculture both ensured and obscured the fact that the black dirt fields had gone into a freefall of environmental degradation, dragged down by a chain of cause-and-effect.

Soon, cotton-eaters such as bollworms, army worms, caterpillars, leafhoppers and aphids plagued the fields. Repeated spraying killed off the most susceptible pests and left the strongest to reproduce and pass on their resistance to generations of ever hardier offspring. As the bugs grew tougher and more abundant, farmers applied a greater variety and quantity of poisons, sometimes mixing 'cocktails' of as many as 10 insecticides. At the same time, cotton was gobbling up the nutrients in the soil, leaving the growers no option but to invest in chemical fertilisers.

The introduction of cotton had pushed them past an ecological tipping-point - an abrupt shift between sustainability and unsustainability. This 'tip' had landed them in the trap of agricultural addiction to chemical pesticides.

Read more (including the solution)

Mysteriously Disappearing Bees: Pesticides May Cause Bees to Forget Location of Hive

Beekeepers nationwide are opening their hives and finding them empty, a baffling phenomenon that has researchers scratching their heads and farmers worrying about their crops.

The bees are mysteriously vanishing and no one is sure why. Instead of thriving colonies, beekeepers say they're typically finding only a queen and a few attendants left -- but no trace of the other bees, not even their bodies.

Known as colony collapse disorder, the problem has affected beekeepers in 24 states and Canada, with some losing as much as 25 percent to more than 75 percent of their hives. The sudden unexplained losses have not only been a financial detriment to many beekeepers but could threaten billions of dollars worth of crops that depend on the insects for pollination.

The cause of colony collapse disorder is unknown, although poor nutrition, mites, diseases and pesticides have all been suspect. There is also concern that some genetically modified crops may be producing pollen or nectar that is problematic for the bees.

read more...

Mobile phones could lead to bee decline

Radiation from mobile phones might be contributing to the world-wide loss of bee colonies, a new study has shown.

Scientists at Landau University in Germany have demonstrated that the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile phones and base stations can interfere with the bees' navigation systems, making them unable to find their way back to their hives.

In an experiment conducted by the researchers, bees refused to return to a hive when a mobile phone was placed nearby.

Although the study is not conclusive, it does offer one possible explanation for a worldwide decline in the bee population which no-one has so far been able to explain.

read more (The Ecologist)

Organic Food Catering

Organic Connection is excellently equipped with a large commercial kitchen from where our chefs, Gerry & Tim, produce all the delicious organic food for our hot food bar and deli bar.

Our deli team also offer lovely organic sandwiches, juices and salads - so that you can get a complete meal for lunch or dinner from Organic Connection.

We also offer organic food catering - for homes & businesses - for regular lunches or dinners, in addition to the ability of providing an organic food feast for any small or large function.

For more information, speak with Heather, our deli manager. (845) 279-2290.

Do trans-fat bans miss the bigger picture?

By Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit, March 4th.

Junk-food lovers rejoice, for government officials are on the job protecting your health. Or are they? Philadelphia recently became the first city to pass legislation to ban artificial trans fat - that artery-clogging, industry-created substance used in frying oil and many baked goods. Following the lead of New York City's Board of Health, which enacted regulations in December, more than a dozen states are now considering similar laws.

As an advocate for good nutrition, I'm pleased to see major cities take action on one of the most pressing public health problems of our time - the way we eat. Given that the food industry continues to lobby hard against common-sense nutrition policies at federal and state level, we need more local governments protecting the public's health. Moreover, removing trans fat from the food supply could help reduce the risk of heart disease.

Yet the current effort threatens to overshadow the bigger dietary picture.

Focusing on this single ingredient misses the fact that most of the items prepared with trans fat are junk foods to begin with. Fried chicken, french fries, chips, cookies and cakes are unhealthy no matter what type of fat is used. What good is a trans-fat-free donut?

read more (InformedEating.org)

Jazz at Organic Connection

Due to another commitment, the Diamond Jubilators will not be playing at Organic Connection on Sunday, April 22nd.

However, come along to Organic Connection on Sunday, April 29th, 2:30-4:30 to hear the Diamond Jubilators and their jazzy style of entertainment.

Lewisboro Earth Day Fair

  • Saturday, April 21st
  • 10am-4pm
  • John Jay High School Cafeteria, Cross River

Schools, Food and Gardening: Cultivating a Healthy Future

  • Schools, Food and Gardening: Cultivating a Healthy Future
  • April 21, 2007
  • 8:30am to 6:00pm
  • Teachers College Columbia University
  • 525 West 120th St, New York City

Join 400 practitioners, parents and advocates for a very full day of panels, workshops, a resource fair and networking lunch. Explore how food, farm and gardening initiatives are taking root in schools and what's required to sustain innovation in New York and elsewhere.

Conference details

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Is Organic Food Worth It?

Sheryl Eisenberg from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in the April issue of The Green Life, answers the following Frequently Asked Questions concerning the 'worth' of choosing organic.

  1. How can you be sure that food labeled "organic" really is organic?
  2. What exactly does "organic" mean?
  3. Are some foods with an "organic" label more organic than others?
  4. Is organic food better for the environment?
  5. Is organic food safer for you to eat?
  6. Is organic food worth the extra cost?
  7. Will your purchases make a difference?

Answers to these FAQ's

Organic Boom: Why Aren't More U.S. Farms Converting to Organic?

By Tom Philpott, Grist, March 22

While consumers are snapping up organics and corporations are scrambling to give them what they want -- if not always exactly what they want -- a funny thing is happening down on the farm: growth in organic acreage isn't coming even close to keeping up with retail-sales growth. That is, existing farms aren't transitioning acres to organic -- and new farms aren't being rolled out -- at nearly the growth rate of organic-food demand.

This is an important point. One of the great motivations of "buying organic" is protecting the land, water, and air from the cascades of poison sprays and artificial fertilizers dumped on farmland each year. Shouldn't booming demand for organic food translate to a proportionate boom in organic land under cultivation?

In the U.S., organic food accounts for about 2.5 percent of all food sales. But out in the field, just 0.2 percent of farmland is under organic production. In Europe, by contrast, organic food accounts for a just-higher percentage of all food sales than in the U.S., but organic agriculture is more pervasive -- E.U.-wide, it occupies nearly 4 percent of farmland.

read more...(Grist)

“Raw” Almonds Must Soon be Steam-Heated or Treated with Toxic Chemical

Small-scale farmers, retailers, and consumers are outraged over a new federal regulation that will require all almonds grown in California to be sterilized with various “pasteurization” techniques. The rule, which the USDA quietly developed in response to outbreaks of Salmonella in 2001 and 2004, traced to raw almonds, mandates that all almonds undergo a sterilization process that includes chemical and/or high-temperature treatments.

Although the final rule was just published in the Federal Register, The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group, is asking the USDA to reopen the proceeding for public comment. Cornucopia contends that the rule was never effectively announced to the public, and that the reasoning behind both the necessity and safety of the sterilization processes should be questioned before the rule goes into effect this September.

read more (Cornucopia Institute)

Organic Food Catering

Organic Connection is excellently equipped with a large commercial kitchen from where our chefs, Gerry & Tim, produce all the delicious organic food for our hot food bar and deli bar.

Our deli team also offer lovely organic sandwiches, juices and salads - so that you can get a complete meal for lunch or dinner from Organic Connection.

We also offer organic food catering - for homes & businesses - for regular lunches or dinners, in addition to the ability of providing an organic food feast for any small or large function.

For more information, speak with Heather, our deli manager. (845) 279-2290.

The Dark Side of Kentucky: Tyson Chicken Houses

By Krishtine de Lyon, Rolling Stone Magazine

Elegant country homes stand alongside the fields of tobacco, corn and soybean that surround Owensboro, Kentucky. But as gently as the breeze ruffles the lush carpet of bluegrass, it also wafts fumes of ammonia and fecal dust from nearby industrial chicken farms. Standing on her front porch, Leesa Webster can see eight poultry houses that stand in the fields across from the property where her ancestors have lived for 150 years. Each house is huge -- longer than a football field -- and contains as many as 25,000 chickens. And outside each house is a set of five large fans that blow air polluted with chicken waste toward Webster's home. Studies have shown that each day the average chicken house can emit up to ten pounds of ammonia, a chemical that can induces nausea or worse. The houses also release hydrogen sulfide -- another toxic chemical that can cause dizziness, nausea and even fluid in the lungs after high concentrations of exposure.

The stench is overpowering. Think of the bird section in a pet store -- a pungent combination of dirty feathers, urine and sawdust -- magnified a thousandfold. "I used to have a pool for my daughter to swim in," says Webster, a vivacious woman whose hearty smile fades momentarily. "But then the pool started developing a film because of the air pollution from the chicken houses next door."

The chicken houses have cropped up like weeds since Tyson Foods, the world's largest processor of pork, beef and poultry, brought its industrial farming system to Owensboro in the 1990s. Kentucky is now home to at least 2,000 chicken houses and raises an estimated 297 million birds each year -- seventy-one times the state's human population.

read more (RollingStone.com)

Indian Point fire stirs deep-seated fears

By Noreen O'Donnell, Journal News, April 7.

For about 10 minutes yesterday morning, I wondered how much I still wanted to be a journalist.
We had just received a report in the newsroom about an explosion at the Indian Point nuclear power complex, and all I could think of doing was driving south away from the story.

Here is part of a frightening text message that came across one beeper: "Buchanan explosion. Indian Point nuclear power plant."

Was this a nuclear accident, the one you fear with a power plant only 25 miles away? Had it finally come?

read more (The Journal News)

Organic certification for salmon too fishy, say opponents

By Mitchell Clute, Natural Foods Merchandiser, April 3.

Late last month, the National Organic Standards Board Livestock Committee met in Washington, D.C., to discuss the establishment of organic standards for aquatic species. The committee recommended that organic certification be offered to noncarnivorous fish in closed systems, such as tilapia and catfish. However, the Livestock Committee did not recommend certification for carnivorous species raised in open-water net pens. Instead, they suggested excluding such species for six months to gather more input from industry and consumers.

Amongst carnivorous fish, salmon is the primary species in question. Though consumers can sometimes find products labeled "organic salmon" in grocery stores, these products are certified by non-U.S. certifiers; there is currently no definition of "organic" for seafood under U.S. organic regulations.

read more.. (Natural Foods Merchandiser)

Lewisboro Earth Day Fair

Saturday, April 21st

10am-4pm

John Jay High School Cafeteria, Cross River

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Organic Beats Clones, 12-0

From Samuel Fromartz, ChewsWise

Big win for the anti-cloning organic camp last week.

The National Organic Standards Board, which previously had a draft recommendation to ban clones in organic livestock but which left the issue of their progeny unresolved, did what many consumer groups and farmers wanted: they banned the progeny too.

The livestock committee of the NOSB - the citizens advisory panel to the USDA on organic regulations - apparently kept their pencils sharpened Wednesday night to get the language right and passed the recommendation at their meeting in Washington Thursday. So not only will clones be banned from organic systems, but also any of their offspring - which is the main way that they will enter the food supply.

Benefits of Organics Clear

By Shane Heaton, Biological Farmers of Australia

Scientific research confirms the common belief organic food is healthier than regular products, despite repeated claims there's no difference, organic experts say. Shoppers who buy more expensive organic food do so for many reasons, including a belief it's better for you, wanting to avoid pesticides, and wanting to be kinder to animals and the environment. Yet many official food bodies claim there's no evidence to support the view that organic food is better for you.

"In fact," says Shane Heaton, nutritionist and author of Organic Farming, Food Quality and Human Health, "there's a mountain of evidence, if you care to take a look."

The scientific evidence shows that organic food is, on average, more nutritious than non-organic food. Because artificial fertilization produces lush growth and swells non-organic plants and produce with more water, there is more 'dry matter' (i.e. food), weight for weight, in organic food. Partly because of this and for other reasons too, there are higher levels of minerals and vitamin C in organic produce.

Heaton is an internationally recognised expert on organic food and laments that many of his colleagues in nutrition refuse to advocate organics (even though they eat it themselves) because of a mistaken belief that its higher price may lead to reduced fruit and vegetable consumption.

"But it's a false assumption," says Heaton. "The typical household spends far more on junk food than on fruit and veg, more on alcohol than fruit and veg, more on take-out than fruit and veg, and five times more on recreation than on fruit and veg. It's all a matter of priority and it's simply not true that people can't afford organic food."

read more...

Greener Grass In Newtown

By Kendra Bobowick, Newtown Bee

A gentler natural approach to the outdoors is spreading like a secret many have begun to share.
Organic living.

Gardens, landscapes, and dinner tables are all showing increasing amounts of organic evidence. Dan Holmes of Holmes Fine Gardens LLC in Newtown is among those to notice organic interests rise. Residents can find organic products for sale at his center, for example.

"It's a time when people think of the healthy environment; it's becoming very important," he said.

Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) Executive Director Bill Duesing states that "Food is the most basic connection to this planet." Possibly, people are starting to consider the benefit of growing their own supply. Mr Duesing said, "It might make sense to invest in the productive capacity of our communities so we won't be totally dependent on distant sources of our most basic needs."

read more... (The Newtown Bee)

Organic gardening tips offered at Wilton library

By Jared Newman, Wilton Villager

Imagine a lawn without chemicals. It may seem impossible to those who call the landscaper four times a year, but speakers and presenters at the Wilton Library's environmental symposium last Tuesday night tried to show the way.

"If you tell your landscaper to stop using chemicals on your lawn, they have no idea what to do because it's so ingrained and entrenched," Christy Pennoyer, a development manager for the Greenwich Audubon, said.

Dr. D. Barry Boyd, who specializes in cancer treatment and recovery, told the audience that pesticides have become too prevalent and are harmful even in low doses.

"The chemical industry has essentially flooded us in the last 50 years," he said, adding that less than ten percent of yard care chemicals have been tested for health effects. He also said lawn care use of pesticides is ten times greater than agricultural use.

Boyd pointed to higher cancer rates and reproductive problems as proof that pesticides are harmful, especially to children. He presented a staggering list of potential health problems that at times aroused gasps from the audience.

read more..(Wilton Villager)

Whole Foods Crosses the Atlantic

To its fans, the supermarket chain Whole Foods Market is proof that green shopping can be glamorous. But its critics claim the store has got greedy and betrayed its organic ideals. And now it's moving into coming to Britain as well. By Alex Renton, The Guardian, March 27, 2007

'Love where you shop!" proclaim the signs at the entrance to the vast branch of Whole Foods Market in Austin, Texas. Yeah, right, you think. You wouldn't get that sort of tosh at Tesco - they couldn't take the ridicule. But shopping at America's only natural foods superstore chain is seductive in a way no British aisle-basher has ever known.

read more...(The Guardian)

Organic Oreos Join Junk-Food Menu

By Jennifer Harper, Washington Times, April 1, 2007

The planet has reached a kind of cultural-culinary impasse, which may cause a disruption in the space-time continuum, or at least the breadbox.

Organic Oreos.

Yes, one of the junkiest of junk foods is now available in organic form. Why, Oreo cookies are now green, sustainable, renewable, pesticide-free, dolphin-safe, whole-grain, free-range, certified, natural, Earth-friendly. They leave no carbon footprint, emit no greenhouse gases and could possibly win the Al Gore stamp of approval.

It's hard to tell.

"Organic" has come to mean many things.

[Note: Don't expect to see Organic Oreos or other organic junk food at Organic Connection]

read more (Washington Times)

Organic Hams available

Organic Connection has whole and sliced organic hams available this week.

The pork is from Herondale Farm in Ancramdale (Columbia County).

The hams have been made specifically to our requirements by Mountain Products Smokehouse (LaGrangeville, Dutchess County), fully cooked and smoked without nitrites nor nitrates and NO sugar. Excellent quality organic meat never needs sugar.

Organic Connection Closed on April 8th

Please note that Organic Connection will not be open on Sunday, April 8th.