Organic Confidential

More Favorite Organic Things: Holiday Edition

It's the gift-giving time of year; the world seems evenly divided between those who've done all their making and shopping and ordering, and those who are just getting started. Either way, here are a few last-minute organic ideas for stockings that must be filled!

• Seeds of Change organic seeds. Every gardener knows that once the solstice hits, spring can't be far behind, and that means garden-planning. Organic seeds aren't treated with chemical preservatives or pesticides, and Seeds of Change offers hundreds of unusual varieties.
• EO personal care products. EO is a family-owned company that makes beautiful products using organic herbs and ingredients. I like these moderately-priced yet luxurious lotions and bath products very much, and I like that they quietly and consistently use certified organic herbs and ingredients without making an overarching organic claim that isn't yet defined for cosmetic products (unless they meet the organic food standards, such as Origins Organics). Aveda is another beauty product company that is moving toward using only certified organic essential oils. 
• For knitters in the family, toss in a few skeins of Vermont Organic Fiber O-Wool organic hand-knitting yarn. The colors are luscious, the yarn is beautiful (they also sell organic wool fabric and blankets). I don't think you can order directly from Vermont Organic Fiber, but try Jimmy Bean's Wool or your local yarn store.
• There are also quite a few beautiful organic cotton knitting yarns available. Blue Sky Alapaca has a lovely selection.
• It's always a good time for certified organic chocolate. There are many excellent brands.
• Celebrate with organic wines. For wines with no added sulfites that meet organic and biodynamic standards, try Frey Vineyards' selection; for wine made with organically grown grapes, Bonterra is an excellent and readily available choice. Ask your local purveyor for their favorites.
• For the family, invest in a subscription to a community-supported agriculture program at a local organic farm. CSAs deliver or allow you to pick up weekly boxes of freshly harvested produce throughout the growing season; you share in the risks and rewards of small-scale farming. Try the Local Harvest Web site to find a CSA near you.

LoCo Foods and Yoga in a Loaf

Thanks to the wonderful food revolutionaries at Ethicurean.com for linking here. While visiting there, I navigated through the Serious Eats blog to Language Log, with this post on a dust-up about "buy local" vs. "buy locally."

I can't believe I just found Language Log. They've published a book, even. I love this stuff, and I know that's a little weird, but copy editors and word people are often the funniest people around. And who else could feel my pain at indiscriminate use of the unnecessary diminutive "veggie," or understand the way that misuse of "it's' and "its" makes my insides itch?

But I digress. Buy Local vs. Buy Locally actually doesn't bother me as much as, uh, veggie, or as much as never saying what "local" means.

I want a separate word for products that are made by a locally based company with ingredients that are not local. These products are certainly pro-local economies; your neighbor may be working for the company,and that company may be sponsoring local events, and generally stimulating the social and financial engines that make our communities happy and secure. All very good. But it's not technically local food. So the itchy, curmudgeonly editor in me wants a better word. ProLocalEcon? Community food? Grown There Made Here? I think I like LoCo foods, for Local Company.

Like local foods, LoCo foods are best made organically. I got a LoCo treat myself today; I think the universal order-fulfillment department heard me talking about LOAF, because three loaves of Rudi's Bakery breads arrived at my doorstep. These breads are certified organic, Rudi's is a locally-based company, and there are surprise ingredients. I am really excited about the one called Yoga Bread. I have no idea what makes it yoga-like (shouldn't it be a pretzel?) but it looks good, and I guess I've earned it as I enter my 15th year of yoga practice. Then there's Green Tea and Goji Berry Bread, and Pomegranate and Blueberry Bread. I think these breads are so new they're not on Rudi's site yet, but check back.

To complete the LoCo-Local experience, these last two organic LoCo breads sound like they need something fruity and sweet, like organic peach preserves or local honey from the Niwot Honey Farm or organic cream cheese. The Yoga Bread might need a Zen moment in the toaster and LoCo peanut butter from Justin's Nut Butter.

The sweetest spot may still be organic foods grown locally, but a healthy diet can also have a spectrum of conscious eating choices that includes LoCo foods and many good organic brands.

Understanding the Organic Supply Chain: New Data from ERS

The organic marketplace is still so new, and evolving so rapidly, that it's hard to find reliable and up-to-date research, especially on the finer points and deeper layers of the supply chain. Often, research will examine a broad category of "natural and organic," without a breakdown of what are two distinct categories. In consumer market research and opinion polling, often there is no exploration of what consumers mean when they say they buy organic (or don't), and whether they mean organic by legal food labeling standards or some other personal definition. So it's sometimes hard to tease out exactly what's happening.

That's why the work of Carolyn Dimitri at the Economic Research Service of USDA is so valuable. Carolyn was one of the speakers at last year's Organic Summit; she is awe-inspiring at number-crunching and codifying this still-new industry, and can also deliver the data in clear, interesting ways. I like to think of people like Carolyn when I pay my taxes, and telepathically send the dollars to her instead of the war in Iraq. But that's another blog.

Yesterday, Carolyn sent out an alert on some very useful and interesting new data on procurement by organic handlers:

Procurement and Contracting by Organic Handlers, http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/OrganicHandlers/

New information is available from the Economic Research Service on procurement practices and use of contracts by certified organic handlers (packers, shippers, manufacturers, processors, brokers, and distributors). The interactive data product contains select results from the 2004 Nationwide Survey of Organic Manufacturers, Processors, and Distributors. Procurement information includes basic characteristics of organic handlers, their purchasing practices, and their relationship with suppliers, including important supplier attributes. Contracting information includes the use of written and verbal contracts between organic handlers and their suppliers.

This research examines purchasing practices and priorities by organic handlers, or the people who operate between the grower and the consumer. These food processors and manufacturers must adhere to organic standards just as farmers do, and must be certified for the final product to be sold as organic. This table is an overview of national totals for all commodities combined, and you can also view by specific commodities and regions or states.

Items of interest:

• 38% of all handlers purchase some products locally (within one hour's drive)
• 23% of all handlers buy more than half of their products locally
• 50% buy some product regionally (within the state or surrounding states) and 31% buy more than half of their products regionally
• 34% of handlers assist farmers in transitioning to organic
• 32% work with organic suppliers in business for less than one year
• 36% accept shipments that are less than a full carload
• Buying local is a high priority for 37% of all handlers and a medium priority for an additional 23%; reputation for quality and availability of year-round supply are high priority for more handlers (70% and 49% respectively) than price, which is high priority for 40%.

This paints a picture of a business environment where many, though certainly not all, organic food manufacturers are sourcing locally and from smaller farms, and are actively working to generate a greater and more consistent supply of organic ingredients. Smart organic manufacturers know that it's important to their longevity, their integrity and their brand to be farmer-friendly, and will keep taking steps in that direction. 

Food Colors, With Special Guest Orange!

First of all, a big thank-you to Sam at ChewsWise for his shout-out to this blog. It brought a lot of new readers today; welcome, and come back often.

Big food holidays pave the way for a lot of discussion about food issues, but I'm going to take a rest today from teasing out the local/organic/fairly traded labeling-and-virtues debate in favor of some other treats.

First, something luscious for my fellow art, design and color lovers: Visit this post on Colours of Global Cuisine: Thailand at the ColourLovers blog. Oh, I love this blog. Images are distilled into their color palettes digitally, with sometimes surprising results. This particular entry features color palettes generated from Thai dishes and ingredients. Look at the shades and colors in jasmine rice! And the author has included easy Thai Green Curry and Pad Thai recipes in the post. She is Boston artist Parsiri Audcharevorakul, and her design blog is parsiri.com. Look for more "Colours of Global Cuisine" articles from her.

You just can't get around the color orange this time of year, with pumpkin in season and on the A-list this week for Thanksgiving dinner appearances. Stahlbush Island Farms sells delicious canned organic pumpkin, organic pumpkin pie mix, organic butternut squash, and organic sweet potatoes. Their site offers a slew of recipes, including traditional pumpkin pie, homestyle pumpkin pie, vegan pumpkin pie, and pumpkin cake with chocolate glaze. Special thanks to Stahlbush's marketing superstar Tracy, a true organic pumpkin herself, for sending the links.

In this week's organic dish, the Organic Farming Research Foundation announced a partnership and significant multi-year grant for research to help growers increase the supply of organic fruit from Stretch Island Fruit Company. Stretch Island makes FruitaBu, an organic fruit snack that I haven't yet tried, but have it on good authority from discriminating kids that they're good. And suddenly, in one of those cosmic conspiracies for good, I'm seeing FruitaBu everywhere. Read the entire OFRF press release here. FruitaBu are also very colorful, and kudos to the company for making a great investment.

A Few of My Favorite (Organic) Things

I actually started this post a few weeks ago and my browser crashed just as I was, I'm sure, saying something wise and original and brilliant. As most of my friends know, I'm an extreme Mac loyalist and I love the Safari browser, but sometimes it's just . . .highly unstable.

In any case, in my current transitional state, I have to be more conscious of my grocery choices than I have been for the last several years. It's pushed me up against that big elephant-in-the-room for organic eaters: the price difference. Recently I found myself looking at "natural" store-brand olive oil and its organic equivalent costing a full 50 percent more, and in a quandary.

Now, mind you, I was not in any state of deprivation. This was Whole Foods Market in Boulder, and I was buying olive oil, a very healthy but arguably premium product to begin with. I had bountiful choices in front of me, none of them bad. There's obviously no local olive oil here in the Rocky Mountains, so this is a product where the organic label is extra valuable. Yet when the budget gets squeezed, the price premium can be hard to swallow, and formerly obvious choices get called into question.

This is the conundrum for organic consumers, and also the tightrope the organic industry has to walk. Everyone should have access to good food and protection from the consequences of synthetic pesticides, especially children; the externalized costs of "cheap" conventional foods are documented. The mainstreaming of organic has resulted in lower costs for some organic products. But there has also been a backlash against perceived compromises in the organic standards because of multinational-corporation interests. Unless the organic label is genuinely supportive of smaller farmers and high standards, it loses credibility. But if it's only a high-priced specialty, organic is forever a niche market for a small elite segment of the population. Other green labels like sustainable and local don't have applicable and enforceable standards, so there's a risk of cognitive dissonance or even fraud if you don't scratch a little beneath the label, or know the producer.

The olive oil episode started me thinking about the organic products I buy. Which brands have real meaning for me? In addition to my idle blogging thoughts, this is a marketing issue for the industry. Most organic brands don't have a lot of brand recognition or awareness; "organic" IS the brand in the eyes of the shopper. This may be changing as there's been so much media discussion of, for example, differences in dairy brands. It may also be changing as mainstream acquisition of brands leads to more competitiveness and more aggressive marketing strategies; I've heard marketers say that some old-school organic people were hesitant to really dig in and compete in the marketplace.

Here, then, just a few of my favorite organic things -- only a sampling, to be sure. In an imperfect system and world, there is a plethora of high-quality certified organic choices, many of them from small, regional, or artisan producers, or bigger companies that value and develop relationships with family farmers. I'll keep highlighting more favorites in postings to come.

1. Molino Creek tomatoes. I can't actually buy these red orbs of deliciousness--the original, authentic dry-farmed organic tomatoes--because they're only sold within a few hundred miles of harvest in Davenport, California. Luckily, my brother Mark Lipson is one of the members of this pioneering farming cooperative, and he sends me tomatoes once a year so I can have the ultimate organic BLT.

2. Ela Family Farms peaches. Another example of family farming and local/regional organic farming (Hotchkiss, Colorado) at its best, with fresh peaches and apples available regionally, and specialty products (incredible bottled fruit butters and jams) available by mail.

3. Dagoba Organic Chocolate. There is a lot of great organic chocolate out there, and this is one of my favorite brands, launched in Boulder. It's now owned by Hershey's but the founders are still involved, and "alchemist" Frederick Schilling is still working his flavor magic with a full commitment to both organic and fair trade sourcing. I tend to be a purist with chocolate and usually choose the New Moon 74% dark chocolate.

4. Equal Exchange Mind Body & Soul organic and fair trade coffee. As with chocolate, the organic and fair trade certifications are especially important for these non-local commodities, which have a history of farmer and ecosystem exploitation. And again, a lot of great organic coffee choices out there. This is my morning favorite these days.

5. Under the Canopy organic cotton Kimono Robe. These robes were an Organic Summit attendee gift. Though I have a special fondness for fancy silk concoctions, this is the best-fitting, softest cotton bathrobe ever, perfect for enjoying a big mug of Organic Favorite #4 on an early fall morning.