Tremendous article on the "organic-industrial complex" in NY Times Magazine

[Live_to_cook]

What does "organic" really mean when "organic" TV dinners are boosted with additives like carageenan gum, and what does it mean for the organic farming movement when the corporate farming sector is squeezing out family organic farms?

Excellent article in the Times Magazine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/13/ma...13ORGANIC.html

[shroomgirl]

I've had 3 people tell me I need to read the article....I missed last Sunday's NYT. Thanks for the post.
***My farmers are saying there will be a third teer "Sustainable". .. not only organic practices but symbiotic with animals.
A biosphere if you will.

Shroom,

I emailed you a copy of the articale at your home email. I also printed it out and will bring to chicago if you can't get it.
Live-to-cook Thanks
Cape chef

[markdchef]

carageenan from seaweed is okay - it is a natural thickening agent.

Watch out for chemically altered carageenan.

Sustainable agriculture is the way to go.
Organic as a term has been abused and overused. Third party certification is a must.

Trusted names for produce: Walnut Acres, Cal-Organic, Bunny Luv, Pavich farms, Pure Veg are just a handful.

Let's get the chemicals out of our bodies.

[shroomgirl]

I just read through it, thank you guys!!! It goes into detail exactly what's going on nationaly. My concern is open pollenators...and loss of seed varieties.
Basically~ organic farms still have problems with cross pollenating with modified plants...
Seed companies have been bought up by major companies and there has been a loss of way too many varieties, not to be a doomsayer but it is setting us up for a catastrophy if a blight wipes out one variety and that is what is grown....

[Papa]

Thank you Live_to_cook !

That is a great article!

[Devotay]

A couple of related links for everybody.

First, my friend Ericka rins Catnip Farms and is very active in the sustainable/organic movement. She is particularly intersested in the open spraying of chemical fertilizers & the like. Her farm was "accidentally" sprayed 3 years ago, and she just got her certification back today! Yay! visit her at catnip farm

The Sustainable Cuisine White Papers was published in 1999 for a Sustainable Cuisine Dinner hosted by the Earth Pledge Foundation on the occasion of the "Last Earth Day of the Century" on April 22nd, 1999 (OK, stop it now, the debate about which year really ends the century is moot for another 98 years). These White Papers are essays on several aspects of the world of eco-gastronomy, with authors as wide-ranging as Roger Berkowitz of Legal Seafoods , Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and my friend Patrick Martins, President of Slow Food USA. White Papers have been a concise and useful way to explore important issue since the 19th century (regardless of when it ended).

This book is what I sometimes call "bathroom reading for foodies", since it is made of several short essays. Each of them is another concise argument for why people should pursue quality and sustainability in their food choices.

This book is available from EarthPledge by calling 800-639-4099, or visit their website at earthpledge to read it online ('course, then it's harder to read in the bathroom)