organic

Local and organic food and farming : The Golden Standard.

by Ronnie Cummins

Director, Organic Consumers Association

More and more consumers and corporations are touting the benefits of "local" foods, often described as "sustainable," "healthy," or "natural." According to the trade publication, Sustainable Food News, local as a marketing claim has grown by 15 percent from 2009 to 2010, and it's likely that number will increase in the coming year.
But, beyond the greenwashing and co-opting of the term by Wal-Mart, what does "local" food and farming really mean? What is the impact of non-organic local food and farming on public health, nutrition, biodiversity, and climate?

Jessica Prentice coined the term locavore for World Environment Day in 2005 to promote local eating, and local consumption in general. Her goal was to challenge people to obtain as much food as possible from within a one hundred mile radius. Her success was more than she imagined. In 2007 the New Oxford American Dictionary selected "locavore" as its word of the year. Local had arrived!

Some chemical farmers claim that local is better than organic, because it stimulates the local economy and reduces the distance (food miles) that food travels between the farm or feedlot and your table. But does so-called local farming, utilizing toxic pesticides, GMO seeds and feed, chemical fertilizers, and animal drugs mean that the food is safe and sustainable? Obviously not.

We believe that there shouldn't have to be a choice between local and safe organic; but rather that consumers should look for food that is not only local or regionally produced, but food that is also organic and therefore safe and sustainable. Organic and local is the new gold standard!

The locavore phenomenon brings up several important concerns including: food miles, chemically grown food, greenhouse gas emissions, factory farming, genetically engineered animal feed, and the value of organic labeling. All of these crucial issues relate to the central question: what should be in your market basket?

Does Local Mean Safe?

Chemically grown foods produced locally may be cheaper than organic and may aid the local economy but they pollute the ground water, kill the soil food web, broadcast pesticides into the air, poison farmworkers, and incrementally poison consumers with toxic residues on their foods. "Local" pesticides, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and chemical fertilizers are just as poisonous as those used in California, Mexico, Chile, or China.

Does "Pesticide Free" Mean Safe or Sustainable?

Often, growers at farmers markets will say, "I don't use pesticides, I only use chemical fertilizers." Sadly, what many people do not realize is that chemical fertilizers are extremely hazardous. A high percentage of these fertilizers seep into our wells and municipal drinking water, or else run off into our streams, rivers, and finally end up in the ocean. Two-thirds of the nation's drinking water is contaminated with hazardous levels of nitrogen fertilizer. High nitrogen and phosphorous levels in rivers and oceans kill fish and other marine wildlife.

"Local" Factory Farms and CAFOs: Destroying Public Health and Climate Stability

According to Wal-Mart and Food Inc.'s definition of local (anything produced within a 400-mile radius), meat, dairy, and eggs, reared on a diet of GMO grains, slaughterhouse waste, and antibiotics, qualify as "local." According to the USDA, the majority of the nation's non-organic meat, dairy and eggs are now produced on massive factory farms, euphemistically called Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). CAFOs are typically overcrowded, filthy, disease ridden, and inhumane, not only for the hapless animals imprisoned inside their walls, but also for the typically non-union, exploited, immigrant workers who toil in these hellish facilities.

And where does methane pollution come from? Mainly from factory farms and the overproduction of non-organic meat, dairy, and eggs.

Food Miles and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Food miles are the average miles that food travels from the farm to the consumer. Since more than 80% of the U.S. grocery purchases are now processed foods, a huge percentage of the carbon or fossil fuel footprint of industrial agriculture comes from transporting factory farm crops or animals to the processing plant or slaughterhouse and then transporting these processed foods from the processing plant to the dinner table via the supermarket. By reducing the processed foods in our diet we can greatly reduce the food miles or carbon footprint for which our households are responsible, since the shorter the distance food travels, the lower the greenhouse gas emissions.

"Fresh food miles" indeed contribute to the high CO2 emissions from the U.S. food system, but these whole foods are certainly not the major greenhouse gas contributor in our food system. That dubious honor belongs to factory-farmed meat, eggs, and milk, which generate 30 to 50% of all of the U.S. greenhouse gasses, more than industry and fossil fuels combined.

Chemical and Local versus Organic and Local

If they are talking about comparing supermarket fresh organic with fresh chemically grown local, we should still choose supermarket organic, because, whether they are used locally or nationally, pesticides and fertilizers are more dangerous and deadly to your health and the health of the environment than chemically-free organic foods transported from outside your local region.

The Gold Standard: Local and Organic

Local organic food and farming are the gold standard. Organic farmers gladly adhere to a set of regulations, use non-toxic products, and accept the need to be scrutinized by an independent third party inspector.

There are no regulations governing "local" chemically grown or GMO-derived food. When the local chemical grower tells you that local is better than organic, tell them that they should switch to organic so that you can trust their food to be safe, clean, inspected, and environmentally friendly. Local-organic is the gold standard.

Need some stocking stuffers or want to create a holiday gift basket ??

Twin Oaks Farm preserves are the perfect choice.

 All our preserves are produced right here at the farm the old fashion way : just fresh fruits, that we either grow or pick from small local growers, and certified organic evaporated cane juice.

NO pectin, NO citric acid, No ascorbic acid or any other colorants/fillers or other "ingredients" put in a jar in today's world ...

Golden Plum
SouthernLiving December 2010 edition picked 36 artisan foods representing the South's best authentic flavors and our Golden Plum Preserve was part of them ....

We pick our plums locally at the pic of the season, to enhance their natural flavors we added a dash of the islands best spices : star anise, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg ...

3 "Agrumes"
to celebrate the citrus family we added Meyer Lemons and Florida Oranges to our own Satzuma Mandarines,
some cinnamon sticks and cardamon pods to make you forget it is tart ...

Pear - Calamondin
we sliced Calamondins into our Kieffer's Pears to give it a kick,
add some star anise, fresh vanilla beans from our friend Susan in Madagascar and just enough organic sugar to make you want to eat more of it ....

Blueberry
Made from the freshest local  blueberries, this preserve is made 100% out of fruit with only organic evaporated cane juice.
 It doesn't get any more natural than that

Peach
Sunny locally grown peaches and organic evaporated cane sugar make this farm-made preserve a Twin Oaks favorite!

Strawberry
This Strawberry preserve is made with real strawberries, locally grown in dirt for good taste and not fumigated with methyl bromide : a rare find in todays's strawberries production. We just added organic evaporated cane juice ... et voila !!!

Mango chutney
Try our fabulous Mango Chutney made from fresh Florida mango, organic evaporated cane juice, organic apple cider, organic onion, organic grapes, water, ginger, and lemon juice!

To place an order go to our web site :

http://www.twinoaksfarm.net/store/69

or you can visit us at the farmer's market :

Holidays Schedule :

Saturday December 18, 2010
9am to 1pm Farmers Market in Seaside
Wednesday December 22, 2010
Special Christmas Market in Seaside
2pm to 6pm Farmers Market in Seaside
Thursday December 23, 2010
3pm to 6pm Lafayette Steet Organic Growers Market in Tallahassee

Twin Oaks Farm
USDA Certified Organic
Bonifay FL 32425
www.twinoaksfarm.net

Please forward this email to your mailing list and help us spread the word about real food

The New Leaf Market 2010 Farm Tour

Sunday October 24, 2010.

The farm will be open from 10 am to 4 pm.
Farm tour every 2 hours starting at 11am.

Ongoing throughout the day :

Chandra Hartman of CFH Design Studio will provide an opportunity for farm-tour-goers to discover the world of permaculture (ecological design); an ethics based design system for creating sustainable communities. Chandra will also display and discuss how to create a small hugelkultur bed that can be created from readily available natural resources. This is a great way to make raised or sunk beds that retain moisture and are nutrient rich with minimal cost.

Raw food chef Jenifer Kuntz, owner of Raw and Juicy Organic Juice Bar, will show you how to make raw yogurt from cashews and coconuts and, will demonstrate how to boost your vitamin and nutrient intake by preparing kale into a delicious ready-to-eat salad.  Increase your energy, and learn new easy raw food recipes during your visit.

With Arix Zalace learn the importance of earth worms for a healthy planet.  Arix will talk about vermicomposting, and the many ways you can use earth worms at your home and in your garden.

The SoapPedaler, Celeste Cobena will be here with her line of organic soaps and skin care products. Besides using organic components and essential oils, Celeste use locally produced ingredients from local honey to our own duck eggs in her organic soap ....

Our shop will be open and all our goodies, from eggs to preserves, will be available for purchase.
(good idea to bring a cooler)

Take time to have lunch under the oak tree ...
light lunch, featuring the farm own products and some of Jenifer delicious raw food available for purchase.

A few tips :
close shoes, we will clean up the place nice but it is still a working farm.
No pets ... sorry ...
No smoking ... not sorry about that one !!!
Restroom available.
Thank you for respecting our bio security zone.

Driving to the farm :
I-10 to exit #112 Bonifay, go north on SR79 for 7.5 miles,
Pass small bridge with kids play ground at the corner of SR79 and Creek Road.
Turn left into Creek Road
3207 Creek Road
Phone : 850 547 5636

Join us for a tour of the farm ....

Please forward this email to your mailing list and help us spread the word about Real Food.

Thank you for supporting a better way to produce healthy and wholesome food.

Twin Oaks Farm
USDA Certified Organic
Bonifay FL 32425
www.twinoaksfarm.net

Jen Bronson wrote a great blog about the farm on Eat Local, America ! ... Thanks Jen we love it ....

http://eatlocalamerica.coop/node/509

Weekly Food Thoughts 02/11/2010

Good article this week in the NewYork Times about "A federal effort to push junk food out of school" (link below). While I think the effort is somewhere praiseworthy, I also think it totally miss the real problem and here is why ...
Beyond the point, the article mentionned the whole "business" of selling, let's call it junk,  to help raise money to pay for new sport uniforms or other extra cruricular programs !!! quite paradoxal : selling junk to pay for sport equipments !! it is really sad to think that schools have to go to that extend because they don't have the adequate fundings!!!
Now to the point missed: I have cookies or cake every afternoon and I would not want someone to take it away from me (make me unpleasant).
BUT I bake my cookies/cake which usually include: sugar/flour/eggs/butter and, depending the mood and the week, from nuts to dry fruits to chocolate ... in short the usual home made organic taste delicious cookies.
NOW have you ever read mass produced cookies's labels ??? (yaya I went back to the store with my little notepad) I found out that they all have more or less the same ingredients from : palm kernel oil with TBHQ for freshness (no kidding and I am quoting) (see my google result below), cocoa processed with alkali, Polysorbate 60 (often used in cosmetics to solubilize essential oils into water-based products. Polysorbates are oily liquids derived from PEG-ylated sorbitan (a derivative of sorbitol) esterified with fatty acids.) yup I did not know either !! Vanillin : an artificial flavor (sic) (all spelled out), soy lecithin (even my chickens dont eat soy) etc etc etc from yellow #5 to red #40 you got it and here where the real problem is NOBODY goes after the manufacturers of that junk, of course kids (and grownups) are going to buy it : it is available in quantities and it is CHEAP (here again) and as long as nobody will forbid the food manufacturers to put in your food the same stuff you find in your body lotion (polysorbate) why should they stop ???
If we want to stop the health problems of generations of kids let's stop to produce the crap ... if kids are not buying it at school then they will buy it somewhere else.
Let's teach the kids to bake their own cookies with real ingredients, they will love it and dont give me the "no time" crap ...  
In the meantime you can buy real cookies at the farmer's market.
See you all on Saturday ....

TBHQ is another ingredient that is in alot of food products.
TBHQ, tertiary butylhydroquinone, is an antioxidant derived from petroleum.
TBHQ is a form of butane, i.e LIGHTER FLUID, that the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food.
Ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause “nausea, vomitting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse.” TBHQ used in lab rats has cause cancer, stomach ulcers, and damage to DNA.
Ingesting 5 grams can kill.
And here’s a gross fact about McNuggests from McDonalds (they love to see you smile). TBHQ is sprayed directly on the nugget or on the inside of the box is comes in to “help preserve freshness.” They “promise” that each nugget has 0.02 percent of TBHQ oil.

The next generation of Laying Girls ...

Weekly Food Thoughts 02/04/2010

I got an email from someone looking for "ways" to produce organic chicken feed CHEAP!!!

Ok People we need to get out of Cheap Food LaLaLand, either we change the way food out there is getting subsidies or we accept the fact that real food comes at a price and we need to change the way we eat.

Here is how the system works now : MegaFarm is producing corn at $10 a bushel (please don't quote me on numbers or names this just for the purpose of the example) so their cost is $10, here comes UncleSam giving MegaFarm $10 subsidies to each bushel of corn. At this point the cost of producing corn is Zero (0), arrive HFCS inc., mega food manufacturer, willing to pay $5 for the same bushel of corn, of course MegaFarm is happy to sell and makes a $5 profit. I simplified it but this is the principle. Now let's remove UncleSam subsidies. MegaFarm is still producing at $10/bushel and still wants to make $5 in profit therefor they will sell to HFCS inc. at $15/bushel !! Right here the price of your food tripled !!! Of course I am not taking into consideration all the ugly scheme this corn will go through before hitting your plate. Now you wonder where the $10 in subsidies comes from ??? I have news from you ... WE are paying with our tax $$ and subsequent Health Royalties for ever and this is the "beauty" of it : WE pay before we even buy !!! ... There is no miracle or magic formula, Real Food cost to produce, at $6/dozen for my eggs I pay the feed for the chickens that's all !!!

I went to a workshop called "small scale poultry raising" or something like that. Given by UF, the first speaker, PhD in nutrition, spent 17 minutes bashing organic practices, stating that if you want problems, snags, headaches (his words) that was the way to go !! I was wondering what I have been doing for the last two years or so ?? of course the only way he was promoting was factory farms, it amazed me that someone at that level was not more knowledgeable or at least open to organic practices, it shows how brain wash most people are about food, pretending that the food system in this country is one of the safest in the world ... welcome to LaLaLand. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, I was part of a backyard chickens workshop full of people wanting to raise their own chickens and realizing how dysfunctional the food system is. I loved it and made me want to start having backyard poultry workshops here at the farm, I will give you full details next week ...
Back to reality I have a ton of feed (literally) to unload ... hahaha ... see you all tomorrow ...

PS: I watch a great documentary called : food beware: the french organic revolution (Netflix) about how a small village gets its school cafeteria to go all organic and the impact on the community from the parents to the local farmers, a perfect example of how when there is a political will "things" happend. Watch it you will love it ....

Happy Hour at the farm  ...

WE GOT EGGS

.... and our eggs are unique ....

let me explain why ...

First our hens are fed a USDA certified organic feed without soy added. Which  means that we know what is in the feed, all the ingredients are certified organic and there is no filler or plastic pellets (yes it does exist). The feed is made of real grains not some pelletize form of you dont know what.

Second our hens roam freely, that is called pastured (not to be mixed with free range), all day long. They scratch for greens and bugs and just have fun being hens. At night they are cooped mainly to keep them safe from every foxes, coyotes and other predators that I am sure is waiting for a free diner at every corner of the property. Their coops are equiped with nesting boxes where they lay their eggs. We moved their coops around to make sure they get new and fresh pasture.

Third our hens have never been medicated. We do not give preventive medecine (and yes most bag of feed out there as some kind of antibiotic included). We keep their coops super clean and between the fun outdoor activities and the good food they just keep healthy. We also have a strict bio security system in place.

We are not yet USDA certified organic and therefor can not sell the eggs with the organic label but we are working on it.

If you want to try REAL eggs or just taste and feel the difference we are THE place and you know we do not cut corner to produce the very best.

We sell our eggs by the dozen from $5/dozen to $6.50/dozen depending on the eggs size, the inventory/production and the volume of the order.

Production line

The pick of the day

Hummmmmmmmm.... delicious ....