My introduction to organic farming began two years ago. Times were that trying to say the least at the time. I was living in a small rural farmhouse trying to eek out a living as a handyman. But as the housing boom has faded, and the economy has collapsed, work is scarce. I got a book on organic farming, with the feeling that if I could grow my own food it would alleviate some of my economic worries. You see, it would use up some of my increasingly abundant free time, cut down on food expenses, and at the same time, allow me to eat more healthily. And perhaps maybe it would even restore some of my lost sense of pride. At this particular time doing anything would have been a positive thing.

I had been eating food grown by organic farming for some time, but I really didn’t know anything about it. Truth be told, I still know very little. You see, the type of organic farming that I was doing, growing small plots of my own stuff, was much different from the agriculture that goes on at the big organic farms scattered across the country.

They need to mass produce, or in this case, grow crops and huge scale by implementing incredibly expensive farm equipment with ways in which to control pests from destroying the crops. For me, I had very little space to meet all of my needs, and I had to really use my it’s in order to contain the damage done by those pesky little rodents without resorting to a natural substances which were the bane of organic farming.

The first thing I had to deal with were slugs. Did you realize that you could get rid of slugs using beer? And apparently somehow attracts them and then the very liquid itself ends up drowning them. Dumb little monkeys. Unless you already have tried your hand with organic farming you probably didn’t even know that slugs were such a problem. Really, the only way to get these guys is constant vigilance. You really do have to stay on them.

But far worse to organic farming and slugs are those rascally rabbits. You see, unlike my neighbors, I never have sprayed my lawn, so I have always had a family of cute little bunnies living in my yard. I used to really like it till I have learned and con men as they could be. But there are two things bunnies are known for, and the lesser known one is equally impressive. My God, those cute little guys are eating machines. And yes, they do like carrots as much as everyone says. They really made my first foray into organic farming and interesting ride.

Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning recreation. Get more information by visiting Organic Farming [http://www.leisureandrecreationinfo.com/leisure--recreation/recreation-information/organic-farming-made-easy.html]

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Cooking With Organic Ingredients

The phrase “organic farming” first appeared in Lord Northbourne’s book “Look to the Land,” published in 1940. But the truth is organic farming is the oldest form of agriculture. Prior to World War II, farming without the use of petroleum-based chemicals (synthetic fertilizers and pesticides) was the only option for farmers. Experimentation to develop peacetime uses for chemicals used for wartime applications found that many could be used as fertilizers and insecticides. And so began the practice of industrial farming.

Minnesota Chefs Are Going Back to the Land

Scientific studies have shown that chemicals used in industrial farming have negative impacts on the environment and human health. By the early 1970s many people began to farm their own produce to avoid the ill effects of these chemicals. Some began to sell their goods at local farmers’ markets and the organic farming movement was born.

Today, Minnesota chefs are following the trend and using more and more organic food products in their dishes. Restaurants that feature menus of partially or wholly organic menus are opening their doors everywhere. The strong consumer desire to eat more healthily has pushed the demand for organic ingredients in restaurants.

Minnesota Cooking is Better with Organics

With research showing that organic food is both tastier and more nutritious, it is no wonder that organic food production is increasing by double digit figures. Organic food sales are anticipated to increase an average of 18 percent each year from 2007 to 2010*.

There are several considerations to be aware of if you open an organic kitchen:

* Organic Certification – The USDA requires that to become “certified organic” a restaurant must serve at least 95% organic food
* Cost – Organic foods can cost 10 to 40% more than non-organics. This will result in higher pricing for your organic fair than your non-organic competitors.
* Marketing Your Restaurant – Many people falsely equate organic food with “health food.” It isn’t. If you market your restaurant properly, you have an excellent opportunity to attract more discerning diners who are looking for organic options.
* Sourcing – Sometimes finding steady sources of organic items can be difficult with seasonal availability being a key factor. Be
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prepared to have a flexible menu that can adapt to sudden changes in product sourcing.

If you are willing to run an organic kitchen as a Minnesota chef, you could be out in front of one of the hottest trends in the food service industry. This trend, however, shows very little sign of slowing down any time soon.

This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Minneapolis/St. Paul. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Minneapolis/St. Paul offers Le Cordon Bleu culinary education classes and culinary training programs in Minneapolis, Minnesota. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit Chefs.edu/Minneapolis-St-Paul for more information.

The jobs mentioned are examples of certain potential jobs, not a representation that these outcomes are more probable than others. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Minneapolis/St. Paul does not guarantee employment or salary.

From the Organic Trade Association – http://www.ota.com/organic/mt/business.html

By: TwinCities Culinary

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Technorati Tags: agriculture fertilizer, organic agriculture

Organic farmers are often thought of as environmental guardians, protecting the land and animals from the ravages of modern living. Studies have proven that using organic practices has increased wildlife population, improved the soil, pests and biodiversity of an area. Organic farming seems to be the bandaid needed to halt further damage from conventional farming practices.

Organic systems focus on diversifying land use and natural soil improvements. Natural farming systems are implemented that work with nature so the need for fertilisers, pesticides, chemical additives and growth hormones are eliminated. The natural food chain stays intact because land, wildlife, and water ways are not polluted.

The planting of hedges and strips in and around a farm encourages wildlife and predators to the area. Hedges, bushes and trees provide a habitat for predators allowing them to live within close proximity of the pests that destroy crops. Maintenance of hedges is kept to a minimum to avoid disturbing birds and fauna, and trimming is done after the nesting period.

Livestock numbers in organic farms tend to me smaller, allowing for more exercise and free range living, and preventing soil erosion from over grazing. In addition, livestock are fed feed that is free of chemicals, additives or growth hormones, making their dung free of wormicides. This is important since dung is recycled into the soil and is a great source of nourishment for insects and other small organisms.

Mixed farming practices, rotating stock and crops, or reducing the intensity of farming create a healthy balance which prevents soil erosion, increases crop yield, improves pastures, and reduces water loss. By working with this natural system, organic farming improves native wildlife, bringing balance back to the essential building blocks of life.

Howard Farmer
Envirokind – caring for your environment
Eco Friendly Products – Tony Blair’s Guide to Farming in the Ukraine and other entertaining articles on the Environment.

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5 Ways to Grow Your Internet Affiliate Business Organically
 by: Glenn Beach

Growing your internet home business organically means there are similarities to organic farming. An organic farmer knows that if he develops healthy soil, he will have healthy plants. He also knows that “to every thing there is a time and a season.” You can’t harvest in the spring, or plant in the winter.

1. Nourishing the soil in preparation for planting your business means identifying your expertise and passion, and researching to find out what’s “hot”. What is it you want to grow? What seeds do you already have? What affiliate program suits you best? Find the product or products you can endorse, the company with a history that also offers the best commission rate, the experienced team that will support and help you all the way.

Next research your competition. Who are they? Why would a customer rather buy from you? Study their websites and find your niche. What makes your site special? The beauty of the internet is that the “playing field” is level. Big biz competes side by side with small.

2. Promoting your business is like irrigating and cultivating. How and where will you place ads? Keep exact records of where you advertise and what results you achieve. Prune back what doesn’t work. Link to like sites with good content.

3. Nourishment is adding articles, maybe a blog, tweak that website! Search engines love changes. Nourish your mind, too. Read the success stories of those who have gone before,join a business organization and connect with mentors, form partnerships. There is nothing to keep you from joining your local Chamber of Commerce. Swap ads with webmasters whose sites complement yours.

4. Before you know it, you may be swamped and need some help. The “organic” way to grow is to ask family members to pitch in. They’re already expecting to share the wealth once it’s harvest time anyways, they’ll probably be willing to help get you there.

5. After you’ve harvested, at some point you will think about planting new seeds. Once your website is getting lots of hits and your business is blooming, your articles are out there and your name is being recognized, you can capitalize on your success by developing a product of your own. It will seem natural to turn your articles into a book, or develop an internet business course or newsletter.

There’s nothing easy or effortless about developing your own business, but also nothing quite as exciting or rewarding.

Time to start nourishing that soil…

About The Author

Glenn Beach is a proud member of Work at Home Team.

He is a self-employed sub-contractor and home entrepreneur at:

http://www.work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com

email: begle@work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com

Do you grow, transport, store, or sell farm produce? Do you prepare any manner of produce in a restaurant? If so, you need to read this article!

If the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (HR 875) is passed, organic farming as we know it, will be forever changed. Once law, this bill will mandate that anyone who produces fruit or vegetables for public consumption will register and comply with new standards. The government will give birth to yet another agency which will be empowered to detain, seize, condemn and take “other appropriate enforcement action” against any person exhibiting non-compliance. Under the guise of food safety, organic farmers will be told what chemical to use, how much to use and when its use is required, and violators will be prosecuted. Furthermore, growers of organic produce will be told what kind of seeds can be “safely” used and where they must be purchased. Once law, the parameters covered by this bill could easily be expanded to cover all food grown on private property for personal use. And your input and preferences won’t matter.

Does this all sound far-fetched? There are people working hard right this minute to make it a reality! I’m not talking about a group of patients in a facility for the criminally insane – I’m talking about a member of the United States Congress who has introduced a bill which is already being studied in committee.

Let’s look at the motivation behind such an idiotic piece of legislation.

First, the bill was presented by Democrat Rosa DeLauro, the wife of Stanley Greenburg, who is an executive at Monsanto. Monsanto, as you probably know, is the world’s largest manufacturer of chemical herbicides (grass and weed killers) and genetically engineered seeds.

Can anyone say “conflict of interest!”?

Second, let’s peruse Section 3, Article 14 of this bill. Please note that the official definition of ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation. That means any farm, regardless of size– even a small family farm.

A few more high points:

3. Growers will be required to register and comply with all new regulations; non-compliance will be countered by an agency empowered to detain, seize, condemn, and take “other appropriate enforcement action.”

4. Growers will be told what chemical to use, how much to use, and when to use it.

5. Organic growers will be told where to buy their seed.

If this doesn’t sound bad enough, it’s a good bet that the paperwork and compliance regulations are going to be as easy to understand as the current tax laws. So what happens after you register as an organic grower? What are these new rules that must be adhered to? How much is it going to cost to register? What kind of fees will be imposed? The answer to all these questions is: no one knows yet, because the head of this new agency will decide and this bill specifically states that all regulations will be retroactive.

What is particularly disturbing is that this possible new agency will be headed up by a presidential appointee. (Here’s a few rhetorical questions worthy of consideration: how often, in recent memory, has a presidential appointee actually possessed the qualifications necessary for the job, as opposed to being given a plum position as a reward for some political favor? Can we expect the appointee to be anyone with experience or background in agriculture or food safety? Will the new “Food Safety Czar,” like other agency directors we’ve seen, thumb his/her nose at future congressional inquiries?)

Back to the bill: Ah, but, you’re not an organic farmer or grower, so this won’t affect you, right? Wrong! Further investigation of this bill reveals an expanded scope of authority – to the extent that persons who handle anything defined as “food,” or who are involved in the production, storage, transportation, or preparation of food must register and comply with all the regulations of this new agency.

Doesn’t this sound like something written about Russia back in the cold-war era? Can this really happen in America?

If you think not, consider that the word “terrorist” has been eliminated from the guidelines and official speech of the Department of Homeland Security. Consider that soldiers who have served faithfully with honor in Iraq and Afghanistan have been put on the Department of Homeland Security’s official watch list? The same sort of mentality that came up with those winners is now going to define “food” for us and tell us how to grow it.

If we do not raise our voices collectively and in the streets to confront this kind of silliness, we will soon wake up and find that we have lost our ability to say anything at all. Call your State’s representatives today and tell them to kill this bill in committee! We know that it’s a fact that those who fail to learn from history, will see it repeated. Let’s Roll

Greg Traver writes articles that enable anyone to be a successful organic gardener. Want to learn more about the benefits of organic gardening? Claim your free copy of the popular text Soil Test Analysis Guidelines available only at http://www.organic-gardening-for-life.com

Copyright 2009 Greg R. Traver

You can read The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (HR 875) for yourself at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billsearch.xpd

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Technorati Tags: organic agriculture

Agriculture is a $6 billion industry in the United States. To maintain it so and with the health and well-being of the national community in mind, the Department of Agriculture, as in other countries, has taken steps to induce farmers to move to organic farming. This saves money, in the first place, and has a number of health benefits as well.

SO WHAT IS ORGANIC FARMING?

Before learning the benefits, we have to discern what organic farming is. This is a system that has been practiced by very old civilizations that merely relied on the water, the sun and the ground they possessed to make the plantations develop. Just when scientists devised the pesticides and the fertilizers was that we shifted from the old technique, for the reason that it was believed that the new system would make the harvesting quicker and the crops larger.

Unluckily, the use of pesticides and fertilizers has brought more damage than benefits. The chemical products used are detrimental, though never in moderate dosages. However, if somebody consumes this in undue amounts can inadvertently develop a sickness or their baby could suffer from birth defects. Such hazards are genuine, which is why we must do something before they occur. Before the Department of Agriculture recommended everyone to go into organic farming many tests were performed.

THERE ARE MANY IMPORTANT ADVANTAGES IN DOING ORGANIC FARMING

The results demonstrate that organically developed vegetables contain more vitamins and nutrients compared to usual farming. The same goes for their savor. Organic vegetables do not have non-natural taste or skin tone, hydrogenated fats, additives, sweeteners, residual antibiotics or preservatives, meaning that everything you obtain is all natural. But do not forget to clean these before they are cooked to get rid of any remainder from the compost used to help them grow.

The government is not the only one who should drive people to shift towards organic gardening. You can also contribute by talking to your acquaintances that love gardening. You can, in addition, begin planting organically grown vegetables yourself, for the reason that it will save you money: you would spend a little more in the superstore.

START OUT YOUR ORGANIC GARDEN AND REAP THE BENEFITS

Nevertheless, before you begin planting, check how large is the spot so you get an idea what type of vegetables can be planted given your restricted space. You then need to purchase the necessary utensils or craft some of them manually. The basic information can be obtained online, in books and programs and from the gardening centers.

If you do not wish to start making an organic vegetable garden by means of seeds, you can acquire starter plants as an alternative, but be conscious that they cost a little more and also this takes the excitement out of gardening. In case cash is not an issue to you, get this from a store by all means. Just check that there is a stamp which confirms that this has been approved by an official institution.

If each one plays their role, no one will use artificial fertilizers and chemicals anymore. Everyone will eat healthy and live healthy. Simultaneously, we will be taking care of the environment, for upcoming generations to be able to use the land to plant their own crops. Organic vegetable gardening is beyond doubt the way to go. You may have noticed that some restaurants too are doing their share by letting people know that every foodstuff and ingredient they make use of is organic. If you want to learn more about organic gardening, please visit me online.

Are you sick of paying out hundreds of dollars a month for fruit and vegetables that have no nutritional value? Wouldn’t you rather produce your own healthy, fresh organic food? Get started with your organic garden and grow chemical free, vitamin filled, natural foods for you and your loved ones. At the same time, enjoy helping mother nature, savor delicious food and save money.

If you want to access all the information you need quickly and easily, please click here –> http://organic-gardening-site.blogspot.com

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Technorati Tags: Agricultural Jobs, organic agriculture

A few ’secret’ places in the Philippines are developing rapidly with new retirement villages for expats; an investment opportunity overlooked by many due to the lack of media exposure.

One of the best places to retire overseas has to be the Philippines because it is developing fast and opportunities are abundant for expats and investors, especially in Samar, Romblon and Tablas.

The Philippines is known as an overseas retirement haven for both Filipinos and non-Filipinos; cost of living is about 20% compared with the USA and Europe; for US$ 90 per month you have a maid and for $200 a private nurse.

Many Philippine retirement villages are popping up in places you never read about in the media because it is in a developing stage. However this is exactly the reason why those locations might be the best choice; prices of real estate are still low.

Huge profits are also being made in real estate investment with any new retirement community in the Philippines; however prices are going up as we speak.

As a sideline, ’sustainable organic farming’ is developing near the retirement villages; a group of non-Filipinos has started a 50 hectare farm with Pili trees. It is a welcome alternative for the usually offered Philippine investment opportunity – condotels.

The group is expanding their business with honey bees for organic honey and not only the ‘bigger players’ (they are looking for investors-) can make a good profit but really any expat or retiree who wants to buy a few hectares; this provides for a nice monthly supplemental income.

One of their secrets to success is the fact that they are ‘foreigners’ who can assist ‘other foreigners’ in any aspect of starting a business or buying real estate; they think alike. Some expats are interested in a vegetable farm, flower farm, mango farm, goat farm, rice farm, poultry farm, piggery (hog) farm, game farm, dairy farm, cattle farm or bee farm.

Samar, Romblon and Tablas as a few of the best places for retirement overseas because most beaches are comparable with Boracay (a popular tourist destination in the Philippines); the big difference is found in the cost.

You can still secure a fantastic, pristine, clean and private beach fronting land for much less than what you have to pay at Boracay. Samar, Romblon and Tablas have adopted the ‘zero waste and zero pollution policy’ to safeguard their environment so their future looks bright.

With about one million tourists per year visiting Boracay, investors are now looking at Tablas Island (less than 30 minutes by boat) to develop a golf course and resorts where tourists can ‘escape Boracay’ and enjoy the quietness of nature as it should be.

Some Philippine retirement communities are focused on ‘themes’ like Spanish Villas or American style homes while other retirement villages are catering to Japanese, Koreans, Germans, Americans, Australians or other nationals.

Do you want more in depth information about retirement living available to Expats in the Philippines? I have just completed my new book on “Retirement Living in the Philippines”, which provides a comprehensive study of opportunities for fun, adventure, love and great friendships living in the Philippines. Download it at: http://www.retirementlivinginthephilippines.com

Will Irwin is researching all aspects of this exciting ‘Overseas Retirement Venture’ to use in his soon to be released book, “The Coming Real Estate Boom In The Philippines” and as an appointed consultant he is creating a database of persons who are involved.

Just released is his new book “Making Money In The Philippines”. He can be contacted at: will@retirementlivinginthephilippines.com

Will Irwin is a powerful entrepreneur and business and life coach. He has started many online and offline businesses both in the USA and in the Philippines, residing in both Hawaii and the Philippines.

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Choosing Organic Just Makes Sense

Many people are electing to avoid the risk of chemical contamination of their bodies, families and homes. Fortunately, solutions for addressing change exist and are readily available. Choosing eco-friendly products allows us to live a natural, green lifestyle.

The benefits of organic bedding, choosing organic foods and wearing organic apparel are numerous.

Organic Foods

The Organic Food Association advises: It’s common sense; organic food is good food. Good to eat, good for the environment, good for the small-scale farmers and farm workers who produce it.

Organic farming is all about health and wellness. To assure optimum health and resistance against diseases, the natural balance in our bodies and in the environment must be maintained. The application of artificial chemical pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, fertilizers, drugs and genetic interfere with this delicate balance; with unknown and often harmful consequences! Organic farming impacts on much more than what can be tasted or seen.

Over the previous fifty years, commercial farmers have, of necessity, continued to increase the amount of these hazardous applications. Cereal crops are sprayed as many as 8 times during the growing season. Many fruit and vegetable harvests have been sprayed 10 to 15 times. Following the harvest the spraying process is repeated to prevent grow of bacteria during storage and transport. Excessive spraying of fruit and vegetable crops destroys natural bacteria, leaving the plants increasingly vulnerable to attack from unwelcome pests or disease. More insecticides and fungicides are then required to fight off infestation and decay. However, these pests rather quickly become immune to the chemicals applied and their population rapidly grows. More powerful and increasingly toxic chemicals are then required to contain the infestation.

Organic certification is the consumers assurance that products have adhered to stringent standards and have been grown and/or handled according to rigid regulations without contamination from carcinogenic pesticides, fertilizers, human waste or sewage sludge. Certification attests that the product was processed without ionizing radiation or
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artificial color or food additives. Organic or chemically manipulated, which would you rather put in your body? We are what we eat. When our diet is built upon natural organic choices we are providing our bodies optimum food, produced in optimum conditions. Organically raised vegetables and fruit provide more minerals and nutrients than commercially grown produce and are more intensely endowed with color, scent and flavor; they certainly taste better!

Certified organic meats are produced from animals that have been treated humanely and raised on certified organic pastures and feeds. Buy organic meat, it is the only meat product that guarantees that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have not been used at any stage of growth production.

Organics And The Environment

The USDA estimates that within the next ten years half of all Americas food products will come from only 1% of the farms. The EPA states that commercial agriculture is accountable for 70% of the pollution in our countrys rivers and streams. Small scale organic farmers finance innovative and far reaching research designed to minimize agricultures impact on the environment. They maintain and preserve bio-diversity by planting heirloom varieties of plants and gathering seeds for future crops. The loss of a large quanity of species is one of the worlds pressing environmental concerns. The happy news is that many organic farmers and gardeners have been gathering, preserving seeds and growing unusual and unique varieties for decades.

Organic farming methods naturally enrich the soil with manure and compost. Well balanced soils product healthy, strong plants, nourishing for both people and animals. Organic agriculture can be a lifeline for small farms as it offers an alternative market where sellers can receive fair and equatable prices for their crops. Organic farming may be one of the last ways to assure the survival of both our ecosystems and our rural farming communities .

Conventional farming endangers workers and their families. Scientific inquires confirm chemical toxicity related medical problems which include cancer, birth defects, memory loss, paralysis and death. Unsecured storage, improper application methods and unregulated handling and transportation procedures are not at all uncommon and often lead to tragic mishaps. As pests develop resistance, farmers desperate to maintain or improve crop yields often resort to more and more applications of expensive and stronger chemical products. Faced with rising costs, depleted fields and contaminated ground water, more and more small farmers have been forced to abandon their livelihood.

Organic farming is safer and healthier for farm workers, but also promotes just compensation in the supply chain. Organic farming provides a viable and socially acceptable alternative to large-scale farming and the accompanying dependence on government crop subsidies. Support of the small organic farmer supports Americas economy.

Organic production methods dramatically reduce health risks. Many EPA approved pesticides were registered and approved prior to extensive research linking these toxic chemicals to cancer and other significant medical problems. Crop dusting has often resulted in drifts of toxic pesticides and herbicides from fields to residential areas.

Organic agriculture is one way to prevent more of these chemicals from contaminating the ecosystem. An increasing amount of research indicates that pesticides and other contaminants are considerably more prevalent in the foods we eat, in our bodies and in the environment than we previously thought.

By choosing organic products we lessen this toxic burden. Organic farmers regularly rotate crops and plant cover crops to combat weeds, nutrient leaching and erosion. “Soil is the foundation of the food chain”. The focus of organic farming is to use methods that build and maintain healthy, sustainable soils.

Organic Skin Care And Personal Products

Skin care and cosmetics are the least regulated products under the US Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Whether it is soap, moisturizers or deodorants, skin care products are an essential part of daily life. Do we really understand what these products actually contain and what we are forcing our skin to absorb?

Have you ever suffered from itchy,stinging or burning skin? Chances are that your skin absorbed irritants and chemicals from your skin care products. The skin absorbs ingredients in all the products that come in contact with our skin. Consider nicotine or HRT patches. They rely completely on skin absorption.

As parents we are concerned for the well being of our children. We tenderly comfort and bathe them with a wide range of products. These include soaps, shampoos, creams and lotions, many of which are applied to babys delicate skin several times a day. The skin is the largest organ of the body and the skin of an infant can be up to 100 times more sensitive and receptive to toxic chemicals and irritating ingredients that the skin of an adult.

Without even realizing, mothers put their babies at risk daily. Did you know that applying powder to your babys skin may pose a cancer risk later in life? The principle ingredient in many baby powders is talc, which several medical studies have confirmed as a known carcinogenic.

Lanolin is a featured ingredient in many skin care products. When processed from organically raised sheep, lanolin is a wonderful healing balm. The danger lies in non organic lanolin that has been acquired from sheep that were dipped or sprayed for lice with chemical pesticides that are contaminated with carcinogenic ingredients such as DDT, dieldrin or lindane. The residue of these toxic chemicals remains in the processed lanolin and can cause severe reactions and long lasting health concerns.

Chemical free and all natural, organic products offer eco-friendly options that eliminate these dangers. You can avoid these and similar safely risks by using only certified organic products formulated from natural sources such as plants, fruits, vegetables and flowers. These products to do not contain synthetic chemicals such as lauryl sulphate, phthales, parabens, artificial fragrances or dyes.

Organic Textiles

By the end of 2008, the sale of organic textiles worldwide is expected to exceed $3 billion. Global demand for organic textiles is increasing in response to consumer demand. Organic production takes additional time, requires more skills and knowledge and costs somewhat more. But it is worth it. Organic materials do not bear hidden costs to the environment.

Choose Eco-Friendly Products! Choose Organic!

Consumption and use of green technologies is all about meeting the challenges and choices we face if we are to enjoy a sustainable quality of life within the limited resources of our world. If we become passionate about sustainability, we can make the planet a cleaner and healthier place for all of us to habitat.

Do you want to embrace a lifestyle that protects our childrens future? Do you desire to to live in the greenest environment possible with a conscience and respect and appreciation for the earth that sustains us? The quality of life for decades ahead is dependent on the choices we make today!

Polls reflect that about a fourth of the US adult population has a profound sense of environmental enlightenment and social responsibility. Almost half of us will buy organic and make earth friendly choices in many aspects of our daily living. Consumer awareness and education are a powerful force for change.

The consumption of organically raised products has grown by 20 per cent in the last year alone. Organic alternatives are readily available and the trend is escalating. Sustainability should be within everyones reach. Our choices matter and have a long term global impact. Let us decide to choose wisely!

Author Bio: M. Affeld
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is part of the Nandu Green Team – Nandu Green is a green lifestyle portal, offering quality, unique, intriguing and innovative merchandise from around the globe. Nandu Green offers a unique selection of unparalleled treasures, solutions for life’s special occasions all in one location.

Marlene Affeld writes for the Nandu Green Team of her love for the environment and all things natural. Here you will find fashion, beauty, health and wellness choices for fine living enthusiasts with a vibrant lifestyle in mind.

By: Marlene Affeld..

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Health And The Economy
 by: Dr Randy Wysong

We normally do not think that health is related to economics other than with regard to the costs of medical care. But there is another more fundamental way money impacts our wellbeing. If you could not pay your bills or had to worry about where the next meal would come from, would you be thinking about health, or survival? When we are trying to stay alive moment-to-moment we don’t think about food choices, supplements, organic farming, animal welfare or environmental issues. Those considerations are a “luxury” dependent upon economic capability. But they are a luxury we must have if we are to live a reflective life and survive on planet Earth. Without a robust economy, you can pretty much forget about people being environmental, health conscious, or even civil to one another. In starving nations, war is endemic, disease rampant and the environment is only a raw material to be ravaged to hopefully live to the next day.

The emerging world economy will ultimately place great economic stress on the United States. It already has. Thousands of jobs are being lost to overseas companies employing workers requiring a fraction of the wages demanded here. People in America increasingly try to maintain a standard of living through debt. This is great for all the banks popping up on almost every street corner, but bad for the people. Just in the past year there have been almost two million personal bankruptcies declared.

To compete in the marketplace, companies must keep their costs down. If that means shifting manufacturing elsewhere, that’s what will be done. India, China and other Eastern rim countries are the beneficiaries of this shift in manufacturing and labor pool. While American workers are clamoring for things to return to the way they were with high wages and generous benefits, workers in developing countries are happy as can be having a job for five dollars a day.

This trend will not go away with “buy American” banners or political rhetoric about treaties, minimum wages and outsourcing. The global economy is here to stay and that will mean the American standard of living will retract and the developing world’s will improve. Expect a decline in the standard of living, falling wages and investment insecurity.

Government is not the solution, since it produces nothing but only takes. Government saps an economy, it does not create it. The more that government is hands off, the better the economic vitality. A robust private sector economy (environmentally responsible), on the other hand, is not the enemy as it is so often portrayed, but is critical to financial vitality. Capitalism is not in itself a demon since it merely provides the mechanism for prosperity and with that the opportunity for a society to focus on matters of health and altruism. It works well if ambition and hard work, not merely greed, are its tools.

The inevitable decline of our standard of living is an inevitable and irreversible trend for the foreseeable future. It should concern us not because we want to see American super abundance continue, but because those who are unaware and get caught as casualties in this economic downturn will suffer in so many ways. The world is no longer business as usual.

Good health is not just about diets, supplements, organic foods and aerobics. It’s also about being safe, like driving carefully, not standing on the top of a stepladder, wearing safety glasses when chipping stone…and working hard, keeping our financial house in order and supporting societal choices that do the same.

Life is not surety, and neither is our economy. Nevertheless, hard work and prudent management will never be replaced and is as close to security as we can ever get. It, not entitlements and guarantees, is what ultimately creates the financial footing we need for good health and a sustainable, better and more peaceful world.

About The Author

Dr. Wysong is a former veterinary clinician and surgeon, college instructor in human anatomy, physiology and the origin of life, inventor of numerous medical, surgical, nutritional, athletic and fitness products and devices, research director for the present company by his name and founder of the philanthropic Wysong Institute. He is author of The Creation-Evolution Controversy now in its eleventh printing, a new two volume set on philosophy for living, several books on nutrition, prevention and health for people and animals and over 15 years of monthly health newsletters. He may be contacted at Wysong@Wysong.net and a free subscription to his e-Health Letter is available at http://www.wysong.net.

Technorati Tags: organic agriculture

Protecting the environment is a responsibility that all of us share the burden of. One way that it is helped is when foods are grown organically. There is plenty of value out there involved with it for all of us to benefit from. The growing demand from consumers for organic foods is what is driving the force behind all of it right how. Farmers that were hesitant to be on board at first are now realizing it is the right decision to make.

When foods are grown through traditional methods the soil can take a harsh beating from it. Before you know it the crops start to yield less and less due to soil erosion. There will come a point when that land will become virtually useless to grow anything on it at all. The process of growing organic foods though helps to balance it out through the process of crop rotation. That way the soil doesn’t get depleted of nutrients and when the farmer comes back to that area again they will be able to successfully grow on it.

Many experts believe that organic food growth allows for biodiversity among plants and food sources. That helps to keep a very healthy genetic balance to those foods we love to eat. They fear the various efforts of traditional farming are depleting that genetic pool. They also fear it is creating hybrids and mutations that make it hard to get that original quality back if we aren’t careful.

The elimination of the use of pesticides and herbicides with organic farming means that the water sources we have are cleaner. It also means less toxins are released into the environment. We breath that air all day long so it only makes sense that we should do all we can to make it as good quality for us as we possibly can. With more people on Earth it means more food has to be grown. Switching to organic methods of growth means that the environment won’t suffer with additional planting taking place.

Dealing with the amount of carbon that ends up in the soil also helps to offset serious issues including global warming. This is very serious because that can lead to serious changes and upsets in our seasons and climate. Instead of food being able to grow a drought could roll in and destroy it all. There are many studies about global warming and it is a huge problem that affects every living thing on the Earth.

The process of organic farming helps to reduce the overall levels of pollution out there. As a result both people and the land are able to benefit. Getting that balance back to where it was long ago is very important. There are also higher standards by the FDA for organic farming than conventional methods. That means that the quality of what takes place with the land is better – it won’t be compromised now to simply make a fast profit.

It is no secret that we have a limited supply of certain non-renewable resources out there. We need to stop using them in the mass quantities or we will one day run out. The use of organic farming methods helps to slow down the use of them. As a result we will hopefully be able to pass them on to future generations.

Once the process is in place for organic farming it is believed that the overhead costs involved are significantly lower than before. This is a great benefit to farmers so that they can make more of a profit. They don’t qualify for government funding when they grow organic foods so that safety net is being pulled out from under them.

Organic food not only mean health life but also mean care about the environment. Organic grocer is an online organic food retailer. They can delivery organic vegetables Sydney wide for you.

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Several years ago I attended a Chiropractic convention in New Jersey. There were several vendors set up outside our conference room. A small vendor, easily overlooked by most, was selling nutritional items and products. He caught my attention, probably because I was getting hungry and he was providing snacks!

As I approached his booth, I noticed a package of – cover the children’s’ eyes – Twinkies sitting benignly on the shelf in his booth. “Why would a vendor selling organic health food products have a package of Twinkies on display?” I asked myself. So, being the curious soul I am, I asked, “What’s with the Twinkies”. The man grabbed the package, tossed it down in front of me and said, “I’ve been doing these conventions for the past five years and I have taken this package of Twinkies with me to every one to show people that over five years nothing … nothing in this package has changed! Does this look like it sat on the shelf for five years? And feel it. Does this feel like it’s five years old?” he asked.

I just stood there in amazement.

Understand, I’ve had my share of Twinkies and fast food in my lifetime. Growing up, we ate what tasted and made us feel good, never giving a thought to the possible health effects later in life. But, I’ve now done the research. I’ve spent years learning and, more importantly, understanding what we’re doing to ourselves.

Consider this. Food today isn’t what it was to our grandparents. Over the last 50-plus years our food industry has changed dramatically. Many of the foods we put into our bodies contain artificial preservatives to increase their shelf life … coloring agents to improve their appearance … enhancers to heighten their taste … processing agents to manage the food during production … emulsifiers and thickening agents to affect their appearance … fortifiers to control their nutritional values. I am sure there are some consumer benefits to these substances but at what risk to our bodies? Will we ever know?

The use of these chemicals in our food supply is incredibly widespread. Worse, we may never know the threats they pose to, and ultimate toll they might take on, our bodies. Use of these chemicals is only now being questioned and not likely to decline any time soon.

My point is this. Not enough time, effort and money are being directed to investigating the affects of these chemicals on humans. What does that mean? It’s up to us; you and me! We can minimize our exposure to these chemicals. We can even help support our body’s defenses by aiding the body with the detoxification and elimination of these chemical agents, many of which are or will become toxic:

• A periodic fast will help flush out the toxins. This can be followed up with a colonic treatment to help flush out the debris.

• Supplementing our diets with digestive enzymes will help with proper digestion, which helps our natural detox systems do a better job of eliminating waste build-up.

And something else: pesticides and herbicides that are sprayed on our foods. Does simple washing with plain water really eliminate them and the possible harm they do over time? And what about the genetically modified foods that are grown in the labs? Are these yet another source of long-term contamination? The truth is, we just don’t know because science hasn’t provided enough data on long-term effects. More about pesticides, herbicides and GMF in future articles.

How We Can Minimize Our Exposure to Food Additives

The simple answer? Don’t eat processed foods. Believe it or not, avoiding processed foods is easier than it sounds and, once a person gets in the “avoidance” habit, it gets easier and easier.

Today, convenience and comfort too often determine our food choices. Little effort is spent searching for the foods that are best for our bodies. Consider this:

• Nearly 70% of food advertising is for convenience foods, candy and snacks, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and desserts. Just 2.2% is for fruits, vegetables, grains or beans (Marion Nestle, “Food Politics,” pg. 22).

• Fast food restaurants are growing in popularity because of people’s busy lives. They don’t (think they) have time to sit down and plan, then prepare a meal. Meal planning is way down on their lists.

So, here are some very simple and solid choices that we can make to avoid exposure to food-based toxins and contaminants:

• Choose organic foods and organic farming. More expensive? Probably, but how much are you worth?

• Shop at food coops or join a food coop that supplies organic meats and produce. Also, be cautious! Just because a store has an organic section or bins marked “Organic” does not mean that everything is 100% safe. Read up and get smart about what “organic” really means. You’ll feel better – literally and figuratively.

• Prepare your meals ahead of time, before you leave for the day. Weekends are the perfect time to plan, shop for and prepare many of the week’s meals. That way, they’ll be ready when you are.

• Check labels – read what’s in the can or box. And know that there are many additives the FDA does not require manufacturers to list on labels.

• Do your homework – check the foods that you already have in your house and research some of the ingredients to determine what you do not want to continue putting in your body. Recognize the chemicals that are harmful. There are volumes of free information on the Internet.

• Create a support group in your area to bring about more awareness in your community. You’ll be surrounded with consumers who share your values and concerns. This way, the benefits of healthy eating will be both physical and social.

• Always buy food that is fresh and in season.

• When in doubt, always bless your food. Don’t ever forget the power of ”intention”. Intention involves the “willing” of an outcome backed by emotion and feeling to create a pattern of energy that further facilitates the desire.

FYI: The Body and Stored Toxins

People, regardless of urban or rural living, have always been exposed to toxic chemicals and pollutants that take up residence in our bodies. Think of the living conditions in the Middle Ages. Think of what people inhaled during the early industrial revolution. Think about smog in our cities and toxic chemicals in the air we breathe, no matter where we live. Fortunately, our bodies provide us with a complex detoxification system that, for the most part, quickly defends us from most of these toxic pollutants.

That said, given the typical modern diet and the increase in new synthetic chemicals entering our bodies – an estimated 50,000 different chemicals: food additives, pesticides, herbicides, drugs and household and industrial chemicals (Source: Robert Buist, Ph.D., “Food Chemical Sensitivity”) – our detoxification systems are simply overwhelmed. They are unable to keep up with the demand that we put on them. The body can handle synthetic chemicals in very small amounts but not at the rate at which they are being introduced into the Standard American Diet (SAD diet). What’s even more sad is that research is linking cancer, behavioral problems in kids and chemical hypersensitivity to many of these synthetic chemicals.

So … ?

Let’s go back to the Twinkies … well, food additives and all potential toxins. Knowing that our bodies are being exposed to toxic chemicals on a daily basis (does anybody really eat Twinkies on a daily basis?), how can you improve your situation by lessening the effects of chemical toxicity? Here’s a start, and it is only that.

1. Many of the vitamins and minerals that we consume every day play a very important role in the detoxification processes of our bodies.

2. Nutrients, such as Vitamin’s A and E, along with the trace minerals copper, zinc, manganese and selenium are known to play an important part in the body’s chemical defense system. Without these nutrients our bodies are subject to vast destruction and damage.

3. Unless our diet consists of entirely “raw foods,” which contain active enzymes that aid in digestion, an enzyme supplement is recommended at the beginning of a meal to help with the breakdown of the food you eat.

And a final note: you can help digestion by keeping cooking times brief (ie. 30 sec. – 1 min. for stir fry).

Want Some Additional Help and Support?

Please come visit me at my site, http://www.naturalhealingtools.com for our complete lineup of products for your body, mind, spirit and heart. Take a look at our IonCleanse machine and Ashi-Flora supplement to help clear your system of toxins.

About The Author

James P Urban, DC

I’ve been working for many years on trying products and tools to help my natural lifestyle. I bring these to you at http://www.naturalhealingtools.com.

Let me know what works for you or let me know if you liked this article – jurban@naturalhealingtools.com.

Thanks,

Dr. James P Urban

Technorati Tags: Agricultural Jobs, organic agriculture

Organic produce is one of the fastest growing food retail sectors in the country. Health scares such as BSE and foot-and-mouth, plus fears of GM crops/food and synthetic dyes and ingredients such as Sudan1 have led to considerable growth in the organic and the healthy food market as worried consumers seek out more healthy and natural products.

Recent research by market analysts nVision suggests four in ten adults now choose organic options on a regular basis. Organic supermarkets in England are booming and Europes biggest organic event, the Biofach exhibition in Germany in getting bigger every year.

Unfortunately, at the moment retailers are charging artificially high prices. I was in Tesco last week which is a rare occurrence as I shop locally where possible, and I nearly died when I saw the prices being charged for organic yogurt and eggs compared to the non-organic brands. Its about time that the government started to investigate these organic suppliers and supermarkets to see who is ripping us off! Encouraging competition is not always a good idea as this can drives down prices (good for the consumer) which can put organic suppliers out of business if they have small profit margins. I understand that we have to pay more for organic produce because there are more crop failures due to the fact that the farmers cannot use pesticides, but what is an acceptable percentage and does this vary from product to product. Should organic fish be 10 percent more expensive than non organic fish and vegetables 20 per cent etc?

Once only available in small health shops or farmers markets, organic foods are becoming much more widely available. In the past 10 years sales of organic food in the UK have increased over 10-fold from £100m in 1993/94 to nearly £1.4bn in 2004/05. This large growth is predicted to continue, and many companies are jumping into the market. Sales through farmers markets and farm shops have grown faster than any other retail outlet. Organic food and drink now accounts for 1.2 per cent of the total retail market (Source Soil Association).

There are two types of organic foods.

Fresh food

Fresh food is seasonal and perishable. Vegetables and fruits are the most available type of organic, fresh food, and are closely associated with organic farming. They are often purchased directly from growers, at farmers markets, supermarkets or through speciality food stores. Organic meat, eggs, dairy are also available.

Processed food

Processed food accounts for most of the items in a supermarket. Often, within the same store, both organic and conventional versions of products are available, and the price of the organic version is usually higher as already mentioned. Most processed organic food comes from larger companies producing and marketing products like organic baby food, organic beer, organic pasta or other convenience foods.

How do I know its organic?

The term organic is defined by law – all organic food production and processing is governed by a strict set of rules. Look for symbols such as the Soil Association symbol for your guarantee of the highest organic standards. The Soil Association organic symbol is the UK’s largest and most recognisable trademark for organic produce. Wherever you see it you can be sure that the food you have purchased has been produced and processed to strict and rigorous animal welfare and environmental standards. Other symbols to look out for include the Organic Food Federation and Certified Organic Ingredients.

Most people dont have enough time to read the labels of all the different food products that they buy to check for organic ingredients. So look for the various symbols, you can then be sure that the product complies with minimum government standards.

The use of such symbols is entirely optional and a product can still be organic even though if it doesnt carry the symbol of a certifying body. That means if you want to be 100% satisfied that what you are eating or using is organic always read the label or speak to the vendor.

Where you will find the symbol? – Look out for organic symbols on almost any kind of food and drink you can think of from fresh produce like fruit, vegetables and meat to processed foods such as bread or baby food. You can even buy organic pet food!

About The Author

Davinos Greeno – I work with the Organic directory http://www.guidemegreen.com This growing green products directory lists 100s of Organic and Fairtrade food and drinks companies, jobs at http://www.jobs.guidemegreen.com and Campaigning Videos http://www.videos.guidemegreen.com

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The article only mentions the 1.3 billion number in passing: Currently, 1.3 billion people (out of a world population of about 6 billion) work in agriculture-related jobs, 450 million of whom are waged agricultural workers. …

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The concept of organic farming takes us back to the days when the early settlers were growing their foods. They took care of the soil, planted by hand, harvested by hand, and they didn’t add anything that was bad for the land or the food to it. Fast forward things though and you have conventional farming methods that allow us to get more food processed in less time.

That concept is one that came from the high demand for producing food in our society. While it has given us lots of benefits it has also led to very strong chemicals being used to keep pests and weeds out of the picture. When crops are destroyed by those types of elements then it cuts into the overall profits.

The idea of organic farming goes back to those early roots when no chemicals were added to the foods. It is a process that continues to grow around the world and to get stronger all the time. There are plenty of farmers out there that want to get involved with it. They strive to make money from it but they also want to offer people the best possible products. They want to preserve the land by using methods of farming that will help to keep the soil as healthy as possible.

When a farmer decides that they would like to be a part of organic farming methods they can’t just jump right in and start doing so. Instead they have to follow a checklist of things that need to be in place. The waiting period is at least five years because that is how long the soil must not have any types of chemicals used on it for any reason.

They also have to show a plan of action to show how they plain to meet all of the specified regulations. Detailed records must be kept ongoing and can be reviewed by the FDA at any time. The use of crop rotation methods need to be in place too so that erosion of the soil is as little as possible.

Once the FDA gets involved and does an inspection they will let the farmer know of any things that need to be changed. This can be both expensive and time consuming but the farmer has to compile or the certification will never happen. There are surprise inspections that occur too after that initial certification so that it is known that the farm is still following those strict guidelines.

Today organic farms are found in 49 state of the USA. Yet there is only about 2.5 million acres of farmland in the USA dedicated to organic farming. When you consider that there are more than 8 million acres of such land out there you can see that we still have a substantial amount of room for changes and for growth in the world of organic farming.

Most of the organic farms in the USA are in the Midwest region. A variety of products are produced there. California is the location of the most organic farm area and following right behind is Oregon and Washington. The products grown here are shipped all over the USA as well as to many other countries.

This is an area of farming though that will continue move forward. Even though it can be hard to get all the red tape out of the way it is also a rewarding way for farmers to contribute to the production of quality foods and saving the environment. Making a profit is a side bonus for them to all of that.

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Organic food not only mean health life but also mean care about the environment. Organic grocer is an online organic food retailer. The can delivery certified organic vegetables to your door.

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Technorati Tags: Agricultural Jobs, organic agriculture

REASON #1: Using GM crops, farmers can reduce pesticide spraying, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase yields.

Evidence continues to accumulate about how genetically modified food crops are helping to preserve the environment. “Here we have a very versatile technology, which has the power and the capacity to contribute to a more effective, a more benign, a more sustainable agriculture,” says Dr. Clive James, an agricultural scientist and founder of the not-for-profit International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

For example, insect-resistant (Bt) crops offer an alternative to, and reduce the use of, agricultural pesticides such as insecticides and fungicides. Since Bt corn and cotton are able to produce their own protection against specifically targeted pests, farmers can reduce the amount of pesticides necessary to control them. Since 1996, farmers have reduced pesticide applications by 172,000 metric tons as a direct result of genetically modified food crops.

“What’s been amazing to many of us is that we’ve seen advances that even were beyond our wildest expectations,” says Dr. Roger Beachy regarding genetically engineered plants. Dr. Beachy is a researcher and founding president of the not-for-profit Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. “We all knew it was theoretically possible, but to actually do it and deploy it into the field. And then, at the end of four or five years, report that this has an advantage of increasing yields and reduce the use of agriculture chemicals by 50 million pounds a year. It’s an astounding number.”

This reduction in the use of pesticides has consequently reduced the fuel, water and packaging that are used to manufacture, distribute and apply pesticides. Typical savings include the elimination of diesel fuel that is used in manufacturing, shipping and storing insecticides; the conservation of water used by farmers when applying pesticides; the elimination of tractor and aviation fuel also used in applications; and a reduction in the waste generated from the disposal of packaging.

Herbicide-tolerant crops have enabled farmers to use more benign herbicides that rapidly dissipate in soil and water. In addition, herbicide-tolerant crops have spurred the adoption of no till farming — the reduction or elimination of plowing to remove weeds and disturb the soil for planting. The environmentally beneficial tillage practices conserve topsoil, preserving soil moisture and reducing runoff; reduce the release of greenhouse gas emissions; and create and improve habitats for birds and other wildlife.

Genetically modified food crops also assist in producing more food on the same amount of land, which reduces the need to clear additional land for cultivation. This results in less impact on prairies, wetlands, forests and other fragile ecosystems that might otherwise be converted for agricultural purposes.

“Production in Brazil has increased significantly without great increases in the area required for agriculture. There is great pressure at present concerning certain environments, such as the Brazilian mountainous regions and the wetlands, the Amazon region,” says Dr. Francisco Aragão, senior researcher in Genetic Research and Biotechnology at Embrapa in Brazil. “One of the ways we help preserve these areas is by increasing productivity without having to increase the amount of land used for agriculture.”

Scientists agree that habitat destruction is the biggest single threat to biodiversity. Producing increasing amounts of food without increasing arable land has a major impact on protecting wildlife habitats.

“Biodiversity is essential for all life on earth. And all kinds of agriculture — including organic farming — is a threat to biodiversity,” says Dr. Klaus Ammann on the importance of biodiversity. Dr. Ammann is an honorary professor emeritus and former director of the Botanical Garden at the University of Bern in Switzerland. “There are many ways of doing better in agriculture, but one of the most efficient and best ways is biotechnology.”

“I’ve studied this carefully, and the evidence is fairly clear on certain points,” says The Honorable Lord Taverne on the safety of genetically modified foods. Lord Taverne is a member of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom Parliament and founder of the charity Sense about Science. “It’s reduced the use of pesticides. It produces greater productivity. And, if it reduces the amount of farmland you have to use, it can actually be very beneficial to biodiversity.”

REASON #2: Increased yield and income from biotech crops improves the quality of life for farmers in developing countries.

Small- and large-scale family farms worldwide are benefiting from increased yields, reduced production costs, or both in some instances to create significantly improved net economic returns as a result of genetically modified food crops.

“If you look at the adoption of biotech crops since 1996, it’s been on a significant upward curve in terms of the area planted. And the primary driver of that has been the economic benefits that farmers have derived from it — US$28 billion worth of extra farm income to the farmers who have used the technology,” says Graham Brookes about the advantages of biotechnology in agriculture. Brookes is an agricultural economist and director of PG Economics in England. “Now that increase in farm income has been spread across all the countries that have used the technology, both in the developed world and in developing countries.”

Of the 10.3 million farmers who planted biotech crops in 22 countries in 2006, 90 percent were small, resource-poor farmers from 11 developing countries including Argentina, Brazil, China, Columbia, Honduras, India, Mexico, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa and Uruguay. In these areas, the increased income from biotech crops makes a contribution to the economics of family farms and the alleviation of poverty.

“Poverty today is a rural phenomenon. 80 percent of the poor people that we have on this planet today are farmers or people that work on farms,” explains Dr. James. “So, therefore, if you can introduce biotech crops that will increase the income of these people, then you are making a direct contribution to the alleviation of poverty.”

“If we give important technologies to grow more food in poor places — better seed varieties, better ways to manage soil nutrients, better ways to manage plant pathogens — it’s going to create livelihoods. It’s going to create income in the villages. It’s going to convert what is now sub-subsistence agriculture into commercial farming. … helping the poorest of the poor to invest in a sustainable future for themselves,” says Dr. Jeffrey Sachs about the pros of genetically modified foods in alleviating hunger in developing countries. Dr. Sachs is the director of the Earth Institute and of the United Nations Millennium Project.

As agricultural productivity increases in the developing world, it also drives economic growth and expands opportunities to trade, resulting in more and better jobs, better health care and better education. “We interviewed 10,000 farmers spread across India,” says Dr. Laveesh Bhandari, economist and director of Indicus Analytics in India. “What our study shows is that the impact on overall development of the household and the community is quite phenomenal in Bt cotton-producing areas. Greater incomes, greater access to healthcare services, greater education, and on many different dimensions — we find that Bt cotton production makes the farmer, the household and the community better off.”

Global population projections suggest that by 2020, there will be an additional 1.2 billion people on the planet, which is equivalent to the population of Africa and South America combined. “Looking ahead to the year 2050, we will have to produce the food and fiber for something approaching 10 billion people,” says Dr. Norman Borlaug, the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient for his leadership role in the Green Revolution to increase food production. “Can we do it? I say yes. If we continue to develop technology — including more widespread application of biotechnology.”

© 2007 Monsanto Company. All rights reserved. The copyright holder consents to the use of this material and the images in the published context only and solely for the purpose of promoting the benefits of agricultural biotechnology.

About The Author

Ranjana Smetacek is the director of Global Biotech Acceptance for Monsanto. On the net at http://www.monsanto.com/biotech-gmo

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Local Or Organic? A False Choice

A couple of years ago, I visited an organic vegetable farm in southeast Minnesota, not far from the Mississippi River. Nestled in a valley that sloped down from rolling pasture and cropland sat Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables, a 40-acre farm.

Featherstone was part of a local food web in the upper Midwest, selling at a farmers’ market, through a CSA (community supported agriculture) and to co-op stores in the Twin Cities. But the partners, Jack Hedin and Rhys Williams, who began in 1995, were having a tough time economically and realized they would have to boost sales if they were to become viable. The farm earned about $22,000 a year — split between the two partners — so they had to take on debt to keep going; this, after a 60 to 70 hour work week.

Hedin told me he made some calls and eventually landed a deal with Whole Foods to supply the natural foods chain with organic heirloom tomatoes. When I visited, they were in year two of the contract, picking the tomatoes before their peak ripeness, then shipping them to Chicago for stores in the Midwest. The deal had become the biggest sales channel for their farm; while still “local,” they were not as local as when they sold in their backyard.

There was a lesson here, one that often gets lost in the debate about which is better, local or organic? Too often this is understood as a zero sum game — that the money you spend on organic food at the supermarket will mean less for local farmers. After all, the food you buy is being shipped from who knows where and then often ends up in a processed food product. I’ve heard the argument that if all the money spent on organic food (around $14 billion) were actually channeled to local food, then a lot more small farms would survive and local food networks could expand. Well, Featherstone was doing precisely the opposite: it had entered the organic wholesale marketplace and then sent its tomatoes hundreds of miles away to survive as a small and, yes, local farm.

As consumers, it’s hard to understand these realities since we’re so divorced from the way food is produced. Even for conscious consumers who think about values other than convenience and price — avoiding pesticides, the survival of small farms, artisan food, and, of course, the most basic values, freshness and taste — choices must be made. Should we avoid pesticides at
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all costs or help small local farmers who may use them? Should we reduce food shipment miles, or buy food produced in an ecologically sound manner regardless of where it’s grown? These questions arise because we want to do what’s right.

The problem, though, is that these questions set up false choices. What Hedin and others showed me was that when it comes to doing the right thing, what really mattered was thinking about the choice — to be aware, to stay informed, and to be conscious of our role as consumers. But what you actually chose — local or organic — didn’t really matter.

Hedin, for example, was competing against farmers he actually knew on the West Coast, who also supplied organic produce to Whole Foods. I met one, Tim Mueller of River Dog Farm, in the one-bar town of Guinda, California. His farm sold produce at the Berkeley Farmers Market about 90 minutes away, but he was also tied to wholesale markets. (I saw River Dog’s heirloom tomatoes in western Massachusetts.) For these organic farmers, selling wholesale was a foundation for economic sustainability.

Moreover, by expanding the organic market, we may be actually helping local farmers. The USDA surveyed farmers’ markets and found that about a third of farmers selling direct were organic — local and organic, that is. In comparison, just one percent of all American farms practice organic agriculture. So for smaller-scale farmers selling direct, organic food has become a key component of their identity. By bringing more people into the organic fold, through whatever gateway they happened to choose, the pool of consumers considering local food would likely increase too.

That’s at least what Jim Crawford, a farmer from south central Pennsylvania believed. His 25-acre operation, New Morning Farm, works two farmers’ markets in Washington, D.C., and Jim played a key role in the growth of local foods in the region, having started out as an organic farmer in the 1970s. He told me he worried when Whole Foods opened a supermarket near his farmers’ market location in Washington because he thought he would lose customers. But over time, he noticed, sales kept rising. He thought the supermarket, which stocked a lot of organic produce from California, was actually converting customers to organic food and they in turn were finding their way to his market.

But what about companies that have pursued the organic marketplace without any concern for local food? What about, say, Earthbound Farm, which has grown into the third largest organic brand and the largest organic produce company in the nation, with its bagged salad mixes in three-quarters of all supermarkets? The company fiercely competed with other organic growers who later went out of business; its salad was grown organically but with industrial-scale agriculture; and the trucks that shipped the salad around the country burned through a lot of fossil fuel.

But Earthbound was competing with the likes of Dole, Fresh Express and ReadyPac in the mainstream market to offer consumers an organic choice. It did little for local food (a saving grace, since it left the market to smaller players). But Earthbound farmed on 26,000 acres of certified organic land, which meant that 267,000 pounds of pesticides and 8.4 million pounds of chemical fertilizers were being removed from use annually, the company estimated. And as studies repeatedly show, organic farming also saves energy (since the production of fertilizer and pesticides consumes one-third of the energy used in farming overall). Earthbound’s accomplishments should not be ignored — even if they are anything but local.

Which brings me to a final point: How we shop. Venues like Whole Foods are not fully organic because people are often unwilling to spend more than a small portion of their grocery budget on organic foods. It’s too expensive. This is one reason why organic food accounts for just two percent of food sales — one percent if you include eating out. Similarly, local foods,
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though important, total 1-2 percent. So arguing over local or organic is a bit like two people in a room of 100 fighting over who has the more righteous alternative to what the other 98 people are doing. It doesn’t really matter, because the bigger issue is swaying the majority.

When I shop, visiting the Dupont Circle farmers market in Washington, D.C., on Sunday morning and then going to the supermarket, I make choices. I buy local, organic, and conventional foods too, because each meets a need. Is the local product “better” than the organic one? No. Both are good choices because they move the food market in a small way. In choosing them, I can insert my values into an equation that for too long has been determined only by volume, convenience and price. While I have nothing against low prices and convenient shopping, the blind pursuit of these two values can wreak a lot of damage — damage that we ultimately pay for in water pollution, toxic pesticide exposure, livestock health, the quality of food and the loss of small farms. The total bill may not show up at the cash register but it’s one we pay nonetheless.

So what’s my advice? Think about what you’re buying. If you want local food, buy local. If you want organic, buy organic. The point is to make a conscious choice, because as we insert our values into the market, businesses respond and things change. There’s power in what we do collectively, so is there any reason to limit it unnecessarily?

© Samuel Fromartz 2006, reprinted by permission

Author
Samuel Fromartz is a business journalist who has written for Fortune, Business Week, and Inc. Organic Inc. is his first book. He lives in Washington, D.C.

For more information, please visit www.fromartz.com

By: Samuel Fromartz

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Technorati Tags: Agricultural Jobs, organic agriculture

Organic Yields Are Better Than Conventional, Including Gm Crops

There are many claims being bruited about that organic farming yields can never produce enough to meet the food demands of the growing global population. This is a myth.

At the turn of the century, a New Scientist editorial declared that organic farming methods, using natural fertilisers and natural means of pest control, were increasing harvests from poor farms worldwide by at least 1.7 times more than the original yields using conventional methods.

University of Essex professor Jules Pretty says there is ample evidence gathered from 20 countries that more than 4 million hectares are being farmed through organic techniques and produce enough food for at least 2 million families.

In Kenya, for example, AusAID has helped the poor Makuyu community produce organically grown maize at yields that are 1.6 times higher than maize crops grown in comparable farms with chemical nutrients. Where food production was never enough before when they were using chemical fertilisers, they can now produce a surplus which they sell and the profits ploughed back. Professor Pretty has more examples of farmers in Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and other countries experiencing yield increases when they shifted from using synthetic chemicals to organic farming techniques.

But, it may be argued, this experience comes only from impoverished communities and small farms. Does it hold true for the large-scale farms of the developed world?

In fact, it does. Wheat organically grown with manure in the UK has produced higher harvests year after year than wheat conventionally grown with chemical fertilisers, writes Professor George Monbiot in the Guardian. In a Washington State University comparative analysis of conventional, integrated and organic farming systems utilised in apple production, the researchers found that organic systems produced equivalent yields to the other systems. The big difference was in the period needed to reach break-even point on investments in the farm: organic farming system had a break-even point of nine years, while conventional farming had 15 years and integrated farming had 16 years. Organic farming also had better impact on the environment than the other syst
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ems.

In trials conducted by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, researchers found that organically grown wheat had a yield of 3.23 tonnes per hectare while conventional wheat had only 2.22 tonnes.

In a separate study involving large farms in seven industrialised countries, Professor Pretty found that when a farm switches from conventional to organic farming, yields initially go down by around 10-15 per cent but these soon increase and continue rising. He observed that in the United States, the top 25 per cent of organic farms produce consistently higher yields than comparable conventional farms and yet have much better environmental outcomes.

What about genetically modified (GM) crops? The performance of organic farming practices is superior even compared to GM crops. A study on GM crops in Europe by London’s Institute of Science in Society observed so much variation in crop results that the inescapable conclusion was GM crops could not really be relied upon to produce stable yields. In Argentina, which is among the top three GM-crop producers, the focus on GM crops resulted instead in soaring foreign debt partly due to dependence on imported agricultural inputs required to support the crops.

There is much evidence that organic farming practices produce higher — and more sustainable — yields than crops grown with chemical fertilisers or from GM seeds. Many experts now believe the only way to feed the increasing population is through sustainable, organic agriculture.

By: Helen M. Disler

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Helen M. Disler
Farming Secrets
www.farmingsecrets.com/
Email: info@farmingsecrets.com

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Getting Raw Land Not A Raw Deal
 by: Dan Auito

There is more to buying raw land than meets the eye and more than a few individuals have wished they’d had a second chance upon finding themselves duped, conned, misled, ill-advised, uninformed, oversold, undereducated and often unprepared. They realize, often too late, that a raw land purchase should be properly investigated, evaluated and negotiated using a logical and rational plan.

Let me start by saying I’m not a geologist, soil analyst, surveyor, engineer or land consultant. I’m a passionate real estate investor, licensed agent, appraisal assistant and landlord who purchased various raw lots, as large as a 15-acre parcel, for investment and building projects. In addition, I have consulted with numerous individuals proficient in real estate, who have contributed to my general awareness of the conditions and merits of raw land. We, as small investors, can further use this information to our advantage in wisely choosing land and utilizing it to it’s highest and best use regarding fulfillment of our needs, wants and desires.

This chapter is not a technical sleeper and as such, it will not go so far as to tell you how much lime to add to your soil to adjust PH levels (7.0 is neutral) but it does try to get you thinking about some of the more general considerations that can lead you to further investigate your options using this material as your starting point.

With that said, the first question I’ll ask you is what exactly do you intend to do with this land once you have it? Why are you buying it? What purpose do you have in mind for land? Are you going to build a home, purchase a lot for retirement or investment? Will you acquire considerable acreage for farming or subdivision? Do you want commercial, residential, recreational or agricultural? Will it be in the north, south, east or west?

So your first question should be, what am I, or we, buying this land for? Will it satisfy my, or our, requirements? To get answers to these questions you would best be served by talking to those who will be most intimately involved with the land, such as your spouse, partner, family members, associated owners, etc. Once you have a clear understanding of what the land is supposed to satisfy, then your search can begin. So often people waste their time and effort because the significant partners have such a wide gap in what each person truly wants from the purchase that they never settle on anything or end up with much less than they could have had.

Land can be said to consist of soil, geology, water and climate. Whether you’re looking at beaches, mountains, deserts, high plains or city lots, they all have some basic components. Some of the basic requirements we most often seek are clean air, water, electricity, sewage disposal and trash removal.

Clean air might be construed as freedom from dusty roads, smog, foul smells from industry or landfills, free from noise of traffic, airports and/or neighbors.

Water availability is essential and is often desired for aesthetics as well as drinking, bathing, washing, cooking, cleaning, toilet facilities and watering vegetation. We also enjoy lakes, rivers and streams for recreation. Others enjoy the tranquil sounds that our streams, rivers and oceans can provide. Without a doubt, water availability is a major concern. Note: A 1666 square foot roof can capture 1000 gallons of water for each inch of rainfall; cisterns of all types have existed since the dawn of man.

Electricity is another necessity that we often take for granted. Is a power plant within a reasonable distance from the land or will it cost you thousands of your own dollars to run cables across public lands to get your electricity hooked up? How far are gas and oil suppliers?

Sewage disposal – 25% of our country is on a well and septic system. If you don’t have access to public utilities, will your land support a septic system as well as the water to operate it?

Solid waste disposal – how far is the landfill? Is there a collection service? You can’t burn everything; how will you get rid of it?

Those are the major necessities for modern, everyday living…things that we really need, but can often overlook until after the contract is signed. Others essentials are a telephone, mail delivery, shopping, police, fire station, hospital/emergency services, schools, churches, recreation facilities and access by good roads and highways.

You‘ll want answers to questions like those above and county officials such as planning and zoning, community development and building departments are a good place to start. I would also call utility companies about water, sewer, electric and phone, and talk to neighbors, contractors, developers, real estate agents, appraisers and a local surveyor to have some of the more important questions addressed at the beginning of my search. I wouldn’t rely on the sellers to be all-knowing, either.

Again, planning and zoning departments can offer the following: Maps of existing uses, forecasts of future development, lists of planned new roads, utility extensions, locations of planned waste disposal facilities, details on environmental areas and future land uses. They also regulate building codes, curb-cut permits, historic preservation, housing codes, subdivision regulations, tree cutting and zoning laws. They usually have aerial photographs and plat maps that can help you to better identify and evaluate the land in question.

Do you already have your location identified? Will it be in the east where the weather is often wet and humid or out west where it is predominantly arid and dry? Will you be living in cold weather in the north or gravitating towards the southern hemisphere? Concerning location, what are you least comfortable with: Avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, volcanoes and/or wildfires? You may want to investigate areas of interest by going to websites like http://www.officialcitysites. You will get a better picture of what awaits you concerning it’s economy, environment, population, recreation, educational, medical and employment facilities to name a few.

Let’s assume you know where you want to buy this land, why you want to buy it, and how and when you will use it once you have it. The following general observations, ideas and information may help you to further investigate the alternatives that are available to you in your endeavor to find the land of your dreams.

Raw land is unimproved property; it has no utilities, sewers, streets or structures and usually must be cleared.

Here are (or can be) a few drawbacks that are sometimes associated with raw land:

Negative cash flow; usually the land does not generate any income while you pay the principle, interest, taxes and costs of development.
Tax advantages are scanty as land cannot be depreciated.
Generally, raw land is considered a long-term ill-liquid investment that often takes time before gains can be realized.
Risk of loss on resale can occur if you choose poorly, fail to evaluate and negotiate properly, the economy slips or various other unforeseen events occur.
It is difficult to obtain traditional financing on or borrow against accrued equity.

Here are some possible benefits to raw land:

Land has the potential to experience tremendous appreciation if bought in the way of growth, or if a higher and better use can be achieved.
Owner financing can often be obtained through the seller at below-market rates.
Subdividing can create added value and provide for immediate returns.
Privacy and pride of ownership can provide a secure feeling to the holder.

What is considered good and bad land?

The worst you can buy is swamp or marshland. Most often flat land is the least expensive to develop and the most desired for building purposes. Land with barren rock will increase costs and virtually eliminate a basement just the same as a high water table.

Note: Loamy soil, which consists of a balanced mixture of clay, sand and some organic matter, appears rich and dark in color and is considered ideal for most purposes. As opposed to good soil, you don’t want hard cracking ground when dry and sticky soil when wet. Warning! Check with your state offices for the presence of expansive soils; this stuff cracks foundations in the most insidious ways, leading many to ruin.

Many people are literally being driven to the hills. Granted the views can be spectacular but roads, utilities, water, sewer, and foundations, such as pilings, can add 25-30% to building costs alone, further adding to this already expensive proposition. When considering going vertical, an 8-degree slope is about the limit when concerning building economically on hillsides.

Plots with trees, a view, rectangular in shape, a gentle slope or none and a good location are most often preferred, and streams can boost values by 100% in some cases.

How to determine the value of raw land

Using the appraisers standard view of estimating value can give us some clues, so let’s look at what appraisers do!

Site size and shape, represented by frontage, width and depth.
Corner influence equals visibility for commercial, or privacy for residential.
Plottage, has assembly or combining of parcels been accomplished.
How much land is excess or surplus; surplus has less value than what is required.
Topography: Land’s contour, grading, natural drainage, soil, view and usefulness
Utilities: Sewers, drinking water, natural gas, electric, telephone, cable, etc.
Site improvements: Landscaping, fences, gutters, walks, drives and irrigation
Accessibility: Parking, location, streets, alleys, connecting roads and highways
Environment: Climate, adequate water supply, air quality, streams, rivers, lakes, oceans and the absence of any hazardous materials

An old timer once gave me this advice: He said, “Dan, always try to buy land that is located as close to those amenities that an area is famous for, as that is often the reason people come to certain areas. He lived in Florida and had plenty of beachfront property located in tourist areas, which clearly illustrated his point.

Who has this raw land and how do we find it?

You may start your search by contacting farmers, investors, real estate agents, state and federal agencies, cities with odd lots they need to put back on their tax rolls, bureaus of land management, federal marshals, tax sales, bank foreclosures, developers, property heirs, the elderly, and family and friends. Use your networks and birddogs while driving areas of interest looking for further opportunities to buy.

Property is often advertised through newspaper ads, real estate brokers, For Sale by Owner signs, flyers, bulletin boards, the Internet, etc. A quick note on how not to buy is in order here. I would not recommend buying land from a glossy brochure or big development company as it is almost always overpriced to cover large overhead costs, advertising and profit. Also remember when a building boom is on, land prices rise. You will do much better buying when demand is low. Another caveat is to stay away from land that is advertised outside of its normal market as it is often overpriced or has problems; otherwise, a local buyer would have bought it!

If you want to find the deals, then most often you are going to have to dig for them. A few successful methods may include visiting the county clerk/recorder’s office to search the public records for the following:

New probate filings, use them to contact heirs
Eviction proceedings to contact out of state landowners
Arrests – these people may need money and may also be going away for a while.
Bail bondsman who may have forfeited collateral in the form of land.
Divorces filed, leading to a division of assets
New guardianships to contact disinterested heirs.
Deeds in lieu of foreclosure, private sellers may in turn sell it to you.
Lis pendens means litigation pending, often signaling foreclosure.

You will most often be contacting many of these sources by writing to them. Don’t get discouraged when you don’t get immediate replies, as the average response rate is one reply for every eight letters that you send. The pros will get on lists and pay services to monitor many of these potential sources, however, good old-fashioned detective work does pay off. When researching in this manner, secrecy is one key and fast action using all cash is the other.

A special consideration to note when hunting legally challenged property is to have a title company in addition to the regular search of mortgage. Tax and easement liens also check files for I.R.S. liens, bankruptcy filings and judgment liens.

Quick review

Up to this point we have talked about not getting conned when starting out. We also noted that it pays to understand what everyone wants from the land to start. You are aware that utilities and basic necessities are very important considerations. You know whom to contact to get further in-depth information on properties of interest. You know flat land with natural amenities is the most desirable and economical to develop. You are more familiar with the risks involved with this type of real estate and you also know that rock, marshes and hillsides can be expensive to develop. You have a better idea of how an appraiser begins to determine value and you may have a few ideas on how to find land and the people who own it.

With that said, we are ready to get down to the business of evaluating, negotiating and financing our well-sought piece of terra firma. What follows is a basic checklist. There is more to consider but this will get you off to a running start.

Basic Raw Land Checklist

Get the most recent and valid information available: A copy of the deed containing the legal description with any covenants and/or restrictions.
Get the street address, a plot plan indicating the specific property location, a survey, a preliminary title report, a recent map and any aerial or land based photographs to help you locate fence lines, trails, roads, streams, ponds, building locations, etc. Walk the land to verify, evaluate and correlate what is indicated, also looking for any signs of hazardous waste dumping, burying or burning.
Determine present use in zoning, according to what planning and zoning tells you. Symbols are used to designate uses – here are a few:

A1: Agricultural with single family home

C: Commercial business

CO: Commercial office

FP: Flood plain

M: Industrial

R1: Residential single family

R1H: Residential hillside

R2 : Residential multifamily

RT : Recreational tourist/ Residential transitional

General categories include:

Farm, Ranch and Timberland

Recreational or Resort

Industrial

Commercial/Business

Residential

Mixed use

Confirm who owns it, their full name, address and phone number
Find out what they do; are they a dealer in real estate?
Ask if anyone else is on the title or has authority to act
What are the annual taxes and assessed values?
Ask why they are selling and how long they have owned it
If the owner doesn’t want to sell, ask if they would consider selling a parcel of it.

The preceding is an abbreviated checklist. It is meant to get you started off on the right foot. Many people will research buying a new car more thoroughly than they would when buying raw land; there are many good books that are devoted solely to the subject of raw land. This type of investment is generally not the best choice for the new investor but often times people look to build they’re dream homes away from developed areas and for that reason I have included my two cents here.

Finance considerations $$$

Raw land as opposed to improved property is much more difficult to finance through traditional lenders. The main reasons are that it generates very little income, development costs can be expensive, there are no buildings or improvements that can be used as collateral and it is often considered speculative.

For those reasons mentioned we find that sellers are often our first choice regarding financing. It is typical for a seller of raw land to accept 10% down and the rest to be paid over time at a specified (below market) interest rate. This would be an example of an installment land contract. Other forms are contract for deed, mortgage and note and purchase money mortgages. In these cases, a real estate attorney usually drafts these contracts and a bank will act as an escrow agent to facilitate verifiable records of payments received. The seller often retains the deed until the property is paid for in full.

If you want to investigate bank financing, then you may start out by offering 30% down with a seven-year mortgage, with the bank getting an extra percentage point over and above the current interest rates for standard loans. This may not be accepted but it does give you a starting point to see just what they may be willing to do.

If you plan on building on your land, then having a development plan with an appraised set of blue prints for the project will help the lender in justifying your loan. If you can use equity from other property, then paying substantial down payments may also be an option.

My final words of caution here would be to know values and don’t overpay. Always offer less when possible and research recent sales of comparable properties. The larger a parcel is, the cheaper it tends to get per acre. Ask an agent what an acre of land tends to go for in the area that you are considering; try to buy more than one acre.

When buying residential lots, builders try to keep raw land costs down to 10% of the overall value of the project. If streets and utilities are already in place, then they will use 25% as their guideline. If you can combine or assemble parcels or achieve zoning changes with property, you have a good chance of immediately increasing its value. Always physically inspect the property and do your research before obligating yourself to buy it. Try using contracts with contingencies put in to protect yourself. In essence, these are really options that let you control the deal while you investigate and research the land’s potential to satisfy your objectives. Happy Hunting and buy the high grounds!

About The Author

Dan Auito is a dual-licensed real estate agent and appraisal assistant. Dan is a 20-year veteran of the United States Coast Guard. He has acquired over 1.3 million in real estate assets in 14 years while also founding a non-profit drug prevention corporation, a real estate consulting group and is the author of “Magic Bullets in Real Estate.” This 300-page power-packed book (due out in early July 2004) comes with a website that further supports its readers. Dan lives with his wife Kimberly and their two children, Brandon and Briana, on the emerald isle of Kodiak Island, Alaska. Dan may be reached at magicbullets@alaska.com or by visiting www.magicbullets.com. Call 1 907 481-6300 or write 1619 Three Sisters Way Kodiak AK 99615

I absolutley love Hickory Farms Original and Sharp Cheddar Cheese Balls and I always grab a few when I am at the mall around the holidays. I finished off the last one this weekend and was thinking about ordering another one. So I went online to their website and cannot find anywhere where they have any kind of cheese ball as an item for order. Do they only manufacture these thing durring the holiday season and stop making them for the entire rest of the year? It seems a little odd to me that they would not manufacture one of their best selling items all year long, especially when they are manufacturing other cheese products.

If anyone can clarify this for me then I would appreciate it. Also if anyone knows of a store or company which sells these cheese balls year round or if you have a recipie for how to make one at home then that would be great too.

Thanks

Technorati Tags: farms, organic agriculture

What Is Organic Food?

Authors of The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter

Using the label “organic” to distinguish one tomato from another is a big stretch from the word’s original meaning, for until the middle of the twentieth century it simply meant something living or derived from living matter. In that sense, the idea of an “inorganic tomato” is a contradiction in terms, unless it is, say, a tomato-shaped glass ornament. With very few exceptions — salt is one — all our food is “organic” no matter how it is produced.

The specific sense of “organic” we use when we speak of “organic food” today traces back to 1942, when J. I. Rodale launched a magazine called Organic Gardening. Nowadays Rodale is hailed as a pioneer, but then he was often derided as a crank and a throwback to obsolete ways of farming. He advocated maintaining soil fertility and stability by putting organic matter — animal manure or compost — back into the soil rather than relying on the “inorganic,” or synthetic, fertilizers that were then widely seen as the modern way to go. So in Rodale’s usage, it was the fertilizers, and from them, the farming methods, rather than the food, that were organic, and the concern was primarily with the soil, not with issues like biodiversity or animal welfare. But the meaning of “organic farming” soon parted company from Rodale’s original narrow distinction between fertilizers. Varying definitions spun out of control as different associations of “organic farmers” tried to set standards in accordance with their own values. Some wanted to stick with a narrow definition in terms of what you could and could not put on the soil, the crops, or the animals. Others wanted to include an entire way of life, including healthy living, an equitable form of distribution, concern for wildlife, and so on. Among organizations of organic farmers around the world, the broader view prevailed. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements settled on this definition:

Organic agriculture is an agricultural system that promotes environmentally, socially, and economically sound production of food, fiber, timber, etc. In this system, soil fertility is seen as the key to successful production. Working with the natural properties of plants, animals, and the landscape, organic farmers aim to optimize quality in all aspects of agriculture and the environment.

Such a definition does not, h
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owever, lend itself to being reduced to a label that can be put on products to show that they were produced organically. Without specific standards that could be encapsulated in a label, consumers were often unsure what the various “organic” labels used by different associations and producers really meant.

In 1990, the U.S. Congress decided to clear up the confusion by authorizing the Department of Agriculture to establish legally enforceable “USDA Organic” standards and a certification scheme so that consumers could be confident that their food really had been produced in accordance with the standards. That led, in 2002, to a set of standards that most people in organic farming considered a reasonable compromise among the various views of what organic farming is all about. Crops must be grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, and most synthetic pesticides and all herbicides are also banned, although biological and botanical methods of control can be used. Soil fertility is to be maintained by the use of animal and plant waste (but not sewage sludge, which can contain toxic heavy metals), crop rotation, and growing “cover crops” like clover between other crops. (Cover crops are plowed into the soil to restore nitrogen and organic matter.) Animals used for meat, eggs, or milk must eat organic grains or other organic food and must not be given growth hormones or antibiotics. (Sick or injured animals may be treated with antibiotics, but then their meat, milk, or eggs cannot be sold as organic.) Organically raised animals must have access to the outdoors, including access to pasture for ruminants. Neither plants nor animals can be the product of genetic engineering, and organic food cannot be irradiated.

Reprinted from: The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer and Jim Mason © 2006 Peter Singer and Jim Mason. (May 2006; $25.95US/$34.95CAN; 1-57954-889-X) Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by calling (800) 848-4735 or visit their website at www.rodalestore.com.

Author
Peter Singer is a professor of bioethics at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values. He first became well known internationally after the publication of Animal Liberation in 1975. In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Jim Mason is the coauthor of Animal Factories (with Peter Singer) and the author of An Unnatural Order: Why We Are Destroying the Planet and Each Other, which John Robbins, author of the best-selling Diet for a New America, calls “a wonderful and important book.” He is also an attorney and the fifth generation of a Missouri farming family.

By: By Peter Singer and Jim Mason

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