Not much selection -- and slim pickings -- at my church's food pantry.

As many of you know, I belong to an amazing community-supported agriculture program called the Golden Earthworm Farm. This year, in fact, I am a drop-off location, which means my house is the place where 19 people come to get their just-picked organic veggies. While the price is pretty reasonable — about $20 per week — it’s still an expense, so you’d think that everyone would come and collect their boxes of swiss chard, baby bok choi and escarole. That’s not the case, though. For whatever reason people sometimes don’t come, which means for the past two weeks I have been left with big boxes of perishable veggies sitting in my garage.

Maggie, one of the farmers, told me this might happen when I agreed to be a drop-off location. People go away, they get stuck at work, they just forget, she said. She told me she didn’t want the food to go to waste so I should donate the leftovers to a worthy charity. I was so excited. I knew my church’s food bank is always in need of donations. All food banks, actually, are in dire need of food — fresh produce especially.

According to a recent Feeding America study –Hunger in America 2010 — more than 37 million people receive emergency assistance from book banks across the U.S. These are not homeless people. They are people who work hard, pay their taxes but just can’t get by. Food banks get by on donations from corporate America and from regular folks like us, but with the recession and the swelling ranks of those who are utilizing the service, the cupboards are getting bare. My local pantry is no different.

When I walked into the church this morning I was stunned to see how many people were filling up bags. It looked like the supermarket on a Saturday morning. Mostly elderly people, but there was one woman who was about my age. When she saw me dropping off food she hung her head down and turned around so I couldn’t see her face. I could tell she was embarrassed to be there. I felt terrible. I wanted to walk over, put my arms around her, give her a hug and tell her that I understood. That I know that anyone at any time can go from living well to living day-to-day. An illness. A job loss. A divorce. Any of the above can hobble anyone. She certainly has nothing to be ashamed of. I walked out thinking good thoughts for her and for everyone else who will have something to eat thanks to that food bank and others like it.

I also felt happy that I — through the Golden Earthworm Farm — was able to help. I am thrilled that at least some of those folks will have a salad or turnips or escarole with their cans of soup and tuna and boxes of pasta and stuffing. (OMG — think of all the BPA these folks must be taking in!). I hated the fact that, before I got there, there was no meat or fruit or leafy greens. No sweets, either, which is why I ran home and shopped in my own pantry. (I brought over some organic muffin mixes, sunflower seed butter, bread mix and other items I wouldn’t miss.)

And so, since I know so many of my readers are blessed, I ask you this: Do you know where your local food pantry is? Do you have food in your home that you know you won’t miss? Did you buy a big bag of apples, for example? Or is your garden already overflowing? If you answered yes, how about making someone’s day and giving back? You will be all the richer for your service. I guarantee it.

This post links me into Real Food Wednesdays, a real food movement taking place across the Web. Check out some of my fellow bloggers by clicking through.

I lived in Bath, England, just over thirty years ago, from June 1979 to the following summer. I had arrived in England in 1976 as a member of the U.S. Air Force and then stayed on after my time was up. I was attending college in Bath, hoping to get accepted to an English university. Money was tight, and I didn’t eat very well, not to mention suffering a variety of the angsty stresses idealistic young men are wont to suffer. As a result, I lost twenty pounds that winter. And at that time, unlike now, I did not have a spare twenty pounds to lose.

After leaving Bath in the summer of 1980, I lived with friends in Falmouth, Cornwall, for a few months, and that is when I discovered whole, natural foods. I learned that for the kind of money I had spent to eat badly the previous winter, I could eat well and healthily — I could eat nutritious, affordable food that tasted good. It took me a while to get the hang of cooking whole foods from scratch, but when I realized that good, filling food was available to me even if a good wage wasn’t, my life was changed forever.

It was later that I learned about organics and gained a larger perspective of what “natural” meant, both personally and politically. At first, I was excited to learn about cooking in this way; I didn’t care about the meta of it all. My first natural foods store, the one in Falmouth, was a typical hole-in-the-wall place like those familiar to many who tried shopping and eating that way all the way through the 80s. The produce selection was limited, pricey and frequently not of the best quality. There were few producers making the kinds of products we now take for granted at our local whole/natural food stores and mainstream supermarkets. To get your entire diet from such stores back then meant a hard-core commitment, not to your diet but to The Cause: organics, fighting the system, personal lifestyle-based advocacy for change. Not many people opted for that level of commitment, and I was not one of them.

I was, however, committed to moving my life in that direction. Soon after I moved to Portland in June 1982 (I had been accepted to university in England but could not afford the outrageous tuition the Thatcher government instituted to drive away non-wealthy non-white oversea students: $5,000 a year tuition — in 1982), I joined Food Front in NW Portland. I took advantage of the opportunity to be a working member and lucked out: I was assigned to do orientation. I only had to work once every few weeks, and I learned the history of the co-op movement. The gig only lasted a few weeks before work and a new living situation made it problematic (i.e., I was 25 and had better things to do with the evening).

I continued to learn about natural and organic foods — I am a knowledge pig — and I tried making that a part of my life, but it wasn’t until my first son was born that my reasons for doing so became more important than just my own health. Becoming a father turned my tepid commitment into a desire to do the best I could for my child. This is a human norm, I believe: life taking on greater meaning upon becoming a parent. With Alex’s birth, things that I was committed to in a superficial way took on new meaning. That included my commitment to eating healthy and to being a consumer who actively supported sustainable market practices.

That was over half-a-lifetime ago. My two sons are now in their twenties, I’m a grandfather, and while my commitment has grown stronger, my ability to live out that commitment has been made easier because millions of other Americans have joined me, in varying degrees, in seeking a healthier, more natural diet. We are now a large enough market that products and manufacturers are now commonplace. Organic is defined by the government (whether or not they have done that correctly is still being debated) and mainstream grocery stores, from Safeway to Kroger’s, feature organic products as prominently as the stuff made from chemistry kits.

Thirty years ago, I was an oddity, a freak. Today I’m a target demographic.

I don’t buy 100% organic, natural or whole foods; I never have. A lot of the foods I eat a lot are OG: flour, beans, rice, raisins, most fruits and veg, coffee and tea, oils, and the few canned items I buy: tomatoes, refried beans, and such (I buy these OG about half the time, depending on prices and my checking account). Dairy is almost all non-OG, and that’s both a matter of cost — OG dairy is very expensive — and the fact that fairly clean (non-bht) milk, half-and-half, and cheeses are readily available in Oregon. I am guilty of buying standard meats, and again, that’s a matter of cost. If my income allowed, I would buy naturally raised pork, beef and chicken more, but it’s a level of commitment I have yet to make.

For now, I’m cool with that. I am in the middle of making a batch of sweet rolls, and most of the ingredients are organic, including the sugars. To me, the essence of eating “natural” is to live the whole life. I bicycle everywhere; I make almost all my meals from scratch; I purchase natural and organic foods from my local co-op and local semi-supermarket. I am moderately frugal, trying to reduce my impact on the planet without living a hermit’s life. What has enable me to maintain and grow my commitment to this kind of life is not the bare idea that “this is better.” Humans cannot function on the rational level alone. I can maintain this commitment because I have learned how to make the foods I like. My black bean chili may be 80% organic, but it’s also damn good chili.

I’ll never go through a period like I did 30 years ago in Bath because of all I have learned. Not only will I keep myself healthy and well-fed, I’ll do so with foods I enjoy. That’s the big secret: make the ideal a pleasure to fulfill. Thankfully these days the variety and cost of the products necessary to do that are so much greater than when my kids were little. I wish I had had this plenitude when my boys were little. I did my best, but the opportunity to raise healthy kids in this century is wonderful. My new job will be to keep an eye on my granddaughter and make sure her folks are getting that right.

Thanks again, T.A. Beautiful story!

Earth Day meets 45th Street

I spent Friday in the city at the ASJA Writer’s Conference, which took place at the Roosevelt Hotel. Great conference, I was excited to see all the people I talk to on Facebook and on our online forum. Once I left the hotel, though, and made my way down 45th Street I was really excited. Right outside the hotel was EarthFair Outdoors, a celebration with music, booths and characters. As I walked through the crowd enjoying the beautiful weather and relaxed vibe I found a few things that have the possibility of becoming my favorites. I thought I’d pass them along…

Wicked, the play. Okay, I lied. This is already on my list of all time favorites. Still, what does Wicked have to do with Earth Day? I’ll let them explain. (From the tag on the cute baby evergreen they gave me to take home and plant: “Green. For Good. This tree has been planted in tribute to Elphaba and all the green things on earth.” So basically my favorite play of all time was giving out free evergreens for Earth Day. Outstanding!

Seed Body Care. I am a sucker for a sweet-smelling cream. And if that cream happens to have shea butter and be scented like my two favorite herbs, lavender and sage? Swoon. Seriously. And if it’s paraben-, phthalate-, presevative-, petrochemical-, and artificial color-free? I may be tempted to shell out the cash. They were showing three products — a body bar, a lotion, and a shampoo bar. I’m thinking I need to buy the body bar. (I kept sniffing my hands, scented from the tester, all the way home on the train.)

Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. What happens to livestock that isn’t well enough or hearty enough to be slaughtered? Some of the chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, and goats end up at this place, a home for the animals that don’t make it to your table. The sanctuary gives tours daily from April 1 through October 31 where children and adults can learn about how and why the animals arrived there and what we as human beings can do to reduce our meat consumption. Sounds like a nice day trip…

The New York City Compost project. Okay, so you live in a small house or — in this case — an apartment. Still, you cook. You eat. You have non-meat food scraps. What can you do to recycle them? This project, funded by the New York City Sanitation Department, teaches apartment-dwellers how to create an indoor compost bin with worms. You can learn, too, by clicking through on this link. (Yes, there were worms at the event, but no, I didn’t get a photo!) Okay, if folks in apartments are composting I will finally make it my business to create a compost bin at my house. And I plan on doing it this weekend.

The components that go into the Sprout watch.

The Sprout. I got sucked in by the tubs of bamboo, cotton, and corn pellets, which reminded me of the tactile boxes at my big girl’s Gymboree classes. Once I got closer I saw that the bin contents represented what the company makes its watches out of. The watch body is corn resin instead of plastic. Straps are made of organic cotton instead of leather, while the watch face is made of mineral crystal — a type of glass — rather than plastic. The dial is natural bamboo. The result is a watch that is either 80 or 86 percent eco-friendly. Not bad. And they’re cute, too. At $30, it was a steal, but I didn’t have any cash on me. Sigh.

Matthew Modine wants people to ride bikes -- not drive cars.

Bicycle for a Day. Hey! I know that guy! He was the guy in Married to the Mob! (I’m talking about Matthew Modine.) A celebrity hanging out in the middle of the city? Yup, and for a good cause, too. Modine started a non-profit called Bicycle for a Day to help people get out of cars and on to bikes. A noble cause, and one I should be doing myself. I love spinning so much I should be jumping on my bike when I need milk rather than jumping in my car.

CommuterLink. How do people living in the Tristate area get involved in a carpool? This is a good place to start. The site helps you find people to carpool with. Then, once you’re signed up, guarantees that if you miss your ride because the driver has to leave early, they will help you get home free-of-charge. Nice.

How was your Earth Day? Hope you have a fun, relaxing weekend!

Belonging to a CSA is sort of like going on a treasure hunt. You never know what you’re going to find. CSAs work like this: You pay a set amount at the beginning of the growing season. Our season on Long Island is 26 weeks long; the annual cost of the CSA is $550. (I’ll do the math for you. It’s about $21 per week.) Then, once crops start coming in you go to a local pickup spot with your own reusable bags and get your veggies and fruit — whatever is ripening that particular week.

You get a lot for your $21. Boxes, even in the spring, are overflowing. Lettuce is usually plentiful. Potatoes and kale are, too. My CSA plants about 45 varieties of vegetables along with an assortment of herbs. Some of the veggies are common — cucumbers, broccoli, spinach (yum, nothing like baby spinach fresh from the fields), tomatoes, and carrots. Some are, to be honest, not something I would ever think of buying. Celeriac, Chinese broccoli, fennel, the aforementioned kale, kohlrabi, and swiss chard. But these veggies old and new really help us eat better. I feel bad wasting anything, so I am always looking for new ways to cook up these items. Katelyn, who usually comes with me to pick them up, loves seeing vegetables in their natural state, and she, like her mommy, loves the way real, fresh produce tastes.

A lot of my friends tell me their kids won’t eat veggies. They ask me how I get my kids to chow down on salad and spinach and — their favorite — broccoli. I always tell them that I exposed the kids at a very early age to many tastes and textures. So now when Katelyn says she doesn’t like summer squash, I can accept that because I know it’s not because it’s a vegetable. It’s because she truly doesn’t like the taste. A CSA, I think, gives kids more of a chance because they are constantly seeing new vegetables appear on the table in plentiful portions.

If you’re interested in joining your own CSA, check out Local Harvest, a directory of U.S.-based farms. Can’t afford $21 per week? Do what I did: split a CSA share with a friend. I shared my share last year and still found myself giving away food towards the end of the week. After all, there are only so many kale chips (baked in the oven with a touch of oil and salt) that you can eat!

I’m writing this post as part of Real Food Wednesdays. Check out the other 50-plus bloggers who are supporting the real food movement by reading some of their posts.

I read another article this week. This one was from the New York Times. Appearing as the Off The Shelf column, ‘Green Gone Wrong’: Can Capitalism Save the Planet?, the article examines a new book from Heather Rogers: Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution. Ms. Rogers has a different take on voting with your wallet. She thinks, and rightfully so, that the environmental movement — when Big Business takes over — can actually do more to harm than good where the environment is concerned. I’ve reported on this, too. Right here on this blog. A lot of organic farmers, for example, aren’t acting so organically. They are nothing more than Big Agra companies wearing a green hat while hurting our environment. Many are simply clearing rain forests away to create organic farms and in the process hurting the true organic farmers out there. And don’t get me started on their carbon footprint created by producing goods a continent a way and shipping them here to the States. (You might as well just read my other blog post — Supermarket Confusion: Or Why Wal-Mart is Bad for the Organic Movement — here.)

So what’s the answer? Do you skip organic food? Do you use your own reusable bags? Do you buy natural products? Of course, but with some thought. I know that’s hard to hear and swallow. Aren’t we already thinking too much about all of this? Every time the TV comes on we’re hearing about more terrible environmental news. Every time we go to a Web site we see more disturbing images. The answer is yes. We need to be a little more uncomfortable. And, like the New York Times reporter says, we have to make good choices while simply consuming less.

And this will be my task between now and Earth Day. Every day I am going to track my buying. I’m going to share with you what I’ve purchased. I’m going to have to justify to you and to myself if my purchase was actually necessary or worth it. Essentially, I’d like to try and be spend-free for the next few weeks. (Aside from food, of course.) Can I do it? Will it be worth it? At the very least it will give us more insight into why we are in this mess to begin with.

What do you think your biggest green faux pas is? I’d like to hear about it.

Boom Boom Cards: Cards that help you pay it forward.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a true cool things-focused Favorite Things Friday, so I figured I’d go back to my roots. For all my new readers — and there are a bunch of you these days — Favorite Things Friday is my opportunity to write about things I have seen and liked recently. Sometimes I profile Web sites. Sometimes I profile food. Sometimes I profile stuff. Enjoy!

Boom Boom! Cards: I got an e-mail about this and loved it. We’re a week away from Valentine’s Day so I had to include. The premise is simple: You get a pack of cards that ask the recipient to do a random act of kindness. The cards all have tracking numbers so the people who get them can post about their kindness online for everyone to see. Great concept. Love the whole random acts of kindness thing. And if you’re going to buy paper valentines anyway, why not buy some that make the world a better place. (Just remember to recycle them!)

Sliquid Organics: Whether you’re young or old, sometimes the nether regions need a little help. (Something a wise friend once told me — of course, she said it a lot differently!) However, the whole mucus membrane thing makes it very scary to me. It’s not a place you want to put chemicals or carcinogens. These personal lubricants are made from organic, all natural ingredients, and come in a 100% recyclable packaging. The labels are even printed on 75% recycled paper stock. Sliquid Organics Natural, a water-based lubricant would be my choice, because of the company’s claim that it will “never cause UTI’s or yeast infections.” Good to know.

Organic sheets. We spend 1/3 of our life in bed, and yet most of us have traditional cotton bedding. When a place like Target is selling 250-thread count king-size organic cotton sheet sets for $89.99, you know it’s time to make a move. Don’t understand why you’d want to buy organic cotton? There’s a great primer about it from the Organic Trade Association here. The most important reason: 25 percent of the world’s pesticides are used in cotton production. Like food, residue remains. Then we sweat and those residues are transferred to our bodies. Not convinced? California Pesticide Use Reporting data shows that traditional cotton growers use 2.13 pounds of chemicals per acre when growing cotton. Scary.

Organic lipstick. Here’s the thing: Study after study keeps finding lead in traditional lipsticks. In September the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — a pretty good source — came out with a study that found lead in all 20 of the lipsticks it tested. According the the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: “The FDA noted that three manufacturers had the highest levels of lead, but they did not name those brands. In 2007, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics report also found that a few brands had consistently higher lead levels, including L’Oreal, Maybelline and Cover Girl.” The scariest part: The FDA study found an average level of lead in lipsticks of 1.07 ppm – more than 10 times higher than its own standard for lead in candy. FDA’s standard for candy is based on the lowest lead level that can be achieved. A similar standard should be applied to lipstick. So my suggestion? Get out that candy red lipstick. Just make sure it’s organic. You can even buy organic lipstick at a place such as Sephora.

Soy-based candles. I love burning candles. Love it. But when I saw the multiple studies about the dangers associated with this fun escape, I had a pause. At the September National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) — again, a pretty solid source of information — scientists explained burning traditional paraffin candles “is an unrecognized source of exposure to indoor air pollution, including the known human carcinogens…In the study, R. Massoudi Ph.D., and Amid Hamidi said that that candles made from bee’s wax or soy, although more expensive, apparently are healthier. They do not release potentially harmful amounts of indoor air pollutants while retaining all of the warmth, ambiance and fragrance of paraffin candles (which are made from petroleum).” I can’t really suggest a specific candle, but if you Google “soy candles” or “bee’s wax candles” there are a ton of options.

I am writing this post today instead of next week so you can get ready for the most made-up holiday in the world — next to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, of course. There’s no reason that you can’t have a phenomenal, romantic heart day as long as you make it a healthy one. Have you ever considered the above tips? Have any more healthy romantic options? I’d love to hear about them!

I'm going to rip my milk open instead of twist it open -- and save lots of plastic while doing so.

Fellow Mommy blogger Hip Mountain Mama Suzy has come up with a great way to get people talking about environmental issues: One Small Change. And what is it? It’s a contest and a blog-o-thon of sorts. According to the instructions, everyone who participates must make one green-related change per month between now and Earth Day. (That’s four changes all together) And blog about them. On Earth Day, several winners will be chosen. Yes, there are prizes involved! The biggest prize, of course, is that hundreds of bloggers will make said changes and tweet, Facebook, and blog about them. Which means hundreds if not thousands of people will be inspired to do the same. Talk about grassroots action!

I’m in, of course. My One Small Change hit me by accident. I was out of milk so I picked up another half gallon at Trader Joe’s. When I was putting it away I noticed the container is way more environmentally correct than the other brand I had purchased. It doesn’t have a tiny plastic cap on the outside or the plastic pull tab on the inside. By buying the rip-it-open-and-fold-it-back version I was keeping plastic out of a landfill and — even better — out of our oceans. Now that I’ve noticed this, I am going to make a big effort to avoid this type of packaging for some of my other drink purchases. In fact, I am going to try and find milk sold in recyclable glass bottles, which should be difficult since I only buy organic milk. But we shall see! In the meantime, I feel pretty good about my decision since those caps are rarely recycled. (Although I did find a post on Earth911.com about Aveda’s plastic cap recycling program.)

What’s your One Small Change going to be? Can’t wait to hear all about it! (p.s. Do you know where I can find an organic dairy here on Long Island that bottles its milk?!?)

Sunday my mom called me, asking when I was going to pick up the gifts we had left behind. (My Hybrid Escape has a small trunk, and the back seat is filled with two huge car seats.) “And are you really not going to let the girls have their nice chocolate pops,” she wanted to know. I felt the anger rising. Here we go again, I thought.

My mother is an organics naysayer. She doesn’t get why I make “such a fuss” over everything being organic. Her usual retort when I race in to keep her from giving them something outrageously bad: “You ate this stuff for years and you turned out okay.” Sigh. She is so bad that she will lie right to my face when it comes to food. “Mom, is there any meat in this sauce?” No, she’ll tell me even as I see the chunks of pork swimming in the gravy. (Italian for tomato sauce.) As many times as I explain that I don’t want my kids eating conventional meat or dairy, she will poo-poo what I say. And when I outright ban lollipops made in China or cute plastic cups from the dollar store that are probably dripping with BPA? She calls me the food Nazi, and accuses me of trying to give my kids an eating disorder. It’s very frustrating and disheartening.

She’s right about one thing: We did eat and drink plenty of stuff that my kids can’t eat today. But there is a big difference. Many of the additives and chemicals in our foods today didn’t exist when I was a child. You didn’t find high fructose corn syrup in cereal or ketchup when I was little. You didn’t have BPA in plastic baby bottles or vegetable bags. Heck, I think I had glass baby bottles, and I can clearly remember that all our veggies were either fresh from the produce section or came in those little cardboard boxes wrapped with wax paper.

But I digress. Back to hanging up on my mom. Again, it was wrong, and I was childish. However, it just drives me mad to have to not only defend my parenting skills, but also have someone who doesn’t read the studies I do telling me that what I am saying is wrong. Sorry, Mom, I’ve got science on my side for these things. Still, my mom isn’t getting any younger. I am going to try really hard not to hang up on her anymore. And I am going to make an effort to be patient and kind. But I’ll be damned if I am going to let my kids eat possibly tainted lollipops or meatballs made with conventional beef that probably came from ten different sources. I’m the mom, and in this case I am doing what I think is right. Mom, you had your chance. It’s my turn now.

Did your turkey have this much room to roam?

Thanksgiving is only three weeks away. Last year at this time, my family decided I would be the one cooking the big dinner. That’s why — two days before the big day — I found myself at Whole Foods buying an organic turkey. It cost me $75. Yes. You read that right. $75. While everyone else I knew was collecting their free-with-purchase turkeys from Pathmark or Stop & Shop, I was carrying home the most expensive piece of meat I’ve ever bought. Was it worth it? It tasted great, and, after interviewing Sharanya Krishna Prasad, U.S. Programs Officer with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), I’d do it all over again. Here’s what she had to say:

KB: Why is organic turkey so expensive?

Krishna Prasad: Organic turkey is currently more expensive for various reasons. Intensive agriculture is highly subsidized by the U.S. government, and the price of products from intensively raised animals does not consider the true environmental, human health and animal welfare costs associated with producing and consuming factory farmed meat. As the demand for more humane meats increases, and when industry standards for all animal-derived products are raised, the cost of these products will become more competitive.

KB: There are so many different options out there. If I can’t afford organic, what are some of the more acceptable labels I should be looking for?

Krishna Prasad: When shopping for a turkey, look for labels such as “Pasture Raised,” “USDA Organic,” “American Humane Certified,” “Animal Welfare Approved,” or “Certified Humane.” These labels mean animals should have been raised under more humane standard where they were given access to sunlight and fresh air and had freedom of movement. They were also spared non-therapeutic antibiotics and growth-promoting hormones. Avoid misleading labels like “Natural” or “Naturally Raised.” While “Naturally Raised” ensures animals were not given antibiotics or hormones, this label does not mean the animals have freedom, fresh air or sunlight. The term “Natural” has no relevance to animal welfare and merely indicates that the product doesn’t have artificial additives.

KB: Is it worth buying organic over pasture-raised or the other non-organic labels you just mentioned?

Krishna Prasad: WSPA has developed an easy-to-use humane classification system where labeling claims have been designated as ‘Good’, ‘Better’, or ‘Best’ depending on the level of animal welfare required by the claim standard. Under this classification system, both USDA organic and pasture-raised fall under the same category — ‘Better.’

For turkeys, the best labels to look for are Animal Welfare Approved, American Humane Certified, and Certified Humane. If products with these labels are unavailable, we recommend choosing from one of the ‘Better’ or ‘Good’ category labels such as USDA organic, pasture-raised, or free range. If a turkey doesn’t have one of these labels, it was raised without the consideration of animal welfare, and buyers may be paying a premium for products that likely don’t meet their expectations in terms of the impacts on animals.

KB: How can I get my store to carry the “Better” or “Good” categories of turkey?

Krishna Prasad: Consumers should request humane food products from their retailers by speaking with the purchasing manager of the stores they frequently shop at. Studies have shown that it only takes a few customers to request a product before a store will carry it. In addition, WSPA’s website www.EatHumane.org has a postcard that consumers can print and drop off at the comments and suggestions box at their store to request more humane products.

KB: Does organic turkey taste different than the Butterball everyone might be used to?

Krishna Prasad: While some studies have been conducted on the taste of meat from organically-raised turkeys versus meat from intensively raised animals, to my knowledge they have not been conclusive. WSPA has noticed a trend among gourmet restaurants featuring more locally sourced, humanely-raised products on their menus. Chefs are probably taking in to account both the better care and fewer resources it takes to raise animals humanely. But I am sure they are considering the good taste as well. Today most food offered for sale in major U.S. supermarkets is from animals raised under intensive confinement on large factory style farms. These animals are typically denied fresh air and sunlight, and given very limited freedom to move and express their natural behaviors. Polls have shown that a large majority of Americans think the way farm animals are raised is important to them. Consumers who choose humane turkeys can be assured that the animals were given more natural living conditions and are typically given access to fresh air and sunlight, and freedom to move and express their natural behaviors.

So there you have it. Will this affect the way you shop for meat this holiday season? Was I insane for spending so much on a turkey that was gone in less than 20 minutes? I’d love to hear your feedback.

Borrowed from Organic.org. This is one way to make sure your groceries are what they are supposed to be.

This morning I came across a smart, eye-opening story posted on ecosalon. I immediately tweeted it — it was that important.

The story’s gist: Some of the very brands I know, love and shop for are owned by giant conglomerates that could care less about the environment or the people who buy their products. The biggest shocker: Horizon is owned by Dean Foods, which dominates in about 90 percent of U.S. milk markets. According to ecosalon: “The company is currently being sued by farmers and also being investigated by the Justice Department for monopolistic practices. In other news, Horizon has long been accused of selling “fake organic” milk by the Cornucopia Institute.” Definitely not a company I would willingly patronize, and yet I have Horizon organic yogurt, milk, and cream cheese sitting in my fridge. (It’s one of the more inexpensive brands you can find at Whole Foods.) My first thought when I read the story: Buh-bye, Horizon products.

I’ve never doubted my choice to buy organic, or to forgo a specific type of food if I couldn’t find the organic option. The benefits of organic are widely publicized. Pesticides cause numerous illnesses. Kids and pregnant women, especially, are at greater risk from the residue left on non-organic veggies. But I have caught myself wondering how “organic” the organic products I buy actually are. It’s not enough to hope that companies like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, both of which sell private label organics, will do the checking for me. I realized a while ago I need to be proactive. Here are some quick tips to help you find the best organic options out there.

• Go Local. I really trust Trader Joe’s, for example, because it discontinued its organic broccoli for about six months or so because it was being sourced in China. Today, the Trader Joe’s organic broccoli is sourced in the U.S. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing about the packages of organic broccoli found in Whole Foods. I like that TJ’s wanted to give its customers the best option — something grown in our country that can be monitored better. (Certainly better than farms located across the globe.)
• Know Your Certifications. Just because something is marked organic doesn’t mean it’s all organic. Or even that it’s been certified the right way. If your product says “organic” that means it only has to be 95 percent organic. And, it’s been said many times before, just because something says it’s natural or hormone-free or sustainably harvested doesn’t mean it’s good for your body. Your best bet is to look for one of the organic certification labels. You can see a list of organic certifying bodies here.
• Read the Label. If you look at the Earth’s Best label, it very clearly states that the brand’s parent company is The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. It’s a company that owns many, many organic labels. I didn’t love it because, until a few years ago, it was also the same company that was owned — at least partially — by H. J. Heinz. Yes, the ketchup company. I was afraid that Heinz would influence manufacturing processes. Now, the largest owners of company stock are either company directors or fund investors. The lesson: If the company is public, you can see who the top shareholders are and if you agree with their ideals and directions. Private companies are a little trickier, but there’s plenty of information out there, especially if they have publicly-owned investors.
• Check for violations. There are a number of watchdog organizations out there that watch for things like unsustainable, anti-competitive, or fraudulent activities. The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is one such site. There are also sites out there that keep track of the latest organic food news such as the Organic Consumers Association, Food Navigator, The Cornucopia Institute, and The Organic Trade Association (aka the O’Mamma Report). You can search for your favorite brand, or simply keep track of what’s going on in the industry.
• Consider the venue. A lot of people aren’t going to agree with me, but Wal-Mart getting into organics is NOT a good thing. In my opinion, it’s going to lead to plenty of problems in the organic industry. Media reports have long bemoaned the company’s hold over pricing; Wal-Mart has settled in the past over predatory pricing charges. Organic growers are already stretched to the limit, trying to bring good food in at a good price. However, if Wal-Mart starts pressing suppliers for cheaper prices — which happens, according to one Wal-Mart watcher, quite often — something’s got to give. Just look at what happened to Rubbermaid. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but I doubt it. Help U.S. organic growers by buying your organic items anywhere but Wal-Mart.

Do you already buy organic? Have you ever worried about how good the products you’re buying are? I’d love to hear about it.