Local organic producers are receiving some wonderful support from colleges throughout the U.S. What am I talking about?

There’s a new blog out there called Organic on the Green. Its purpose is to support the development of organic food programs on colleges nationwide. The initiative, which has been brought to life by Nina Merrill, a senior at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, provides a wonderful insight into the hearts and minds of the organic industry’s future leaders. Whether it’s a personal account of involvement in the SAFE program or a discussion about the relative merits of organic certification for a large university dining service, the posts are well-written, thoughtful and interesting. Well worth checking out!

In other news, Bates College recently received a $2.5 million donation that is to be used to increase the college’s use of local, organic and natural food.

The gift, which was received from an anonymous alumni donor, carries with it the requirement that it be used to meet the additional costs associated with serving more local, natural and organic food at Bates. Since 1986 about 22 percent of the Bates annual food budget had been spent on local, natural and organic food.

The gift has allowed the College to increase that number to 28 percent in the past fiscal year. For context, the national student initiative “Real Food Challenge” has as its target to redirect 20 percent of all food purchased by colleges and universities (currently $4 billion) toward “real food” by 2020.

In remarks prepared for delivery at Convocation on Wednesday, Sept. 3, Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen said: “In their own characteristically ambitious yet modest way, so many Bates faculty, students, staff members and alumni are clearly part of a quiet movement — national and international — that is tackling the problems of our food system. By contemplating food, we want to celebrate and share even more widely many powerful stories about Bates and food.”

Besides celebrating and making visible what already occurs at Bates, the initiative has a second objective, Hansen explained.

“We want to add to the understanding and knowledge about food on campus — where our food comes from, the food system at Bates, the larger food system in which Bates is embedded. So we don’t want to forget in celebrating how we all eat, that there are growing social problems associated with the food system. We want to raise consciousness. We want to educate ourselves. We want to dispel our own ignorance and complacency by considering these issues. We want to explore why, for Bates, a strong and healthy food culture is so important to the educational mission.”

Bates’ focus on food has included a summer reading assignment for this fall’s incoming first-year students and plans for a variety of panels and presentations throughout the academic year.

Bates’ exploration of food took root last spring when President Hansen gathered a small number of students, faculty and staff who share an interest in food and eating to consider the concept.

The group, she said, was “overwhelmed by how much was already going on at Bates. We felt we should develop a kind of clearinghouse, making it all more visible. With food as the thread that connects us, to each other and to our larger community, we will spend the next year celebrating and contemplating more deeply the ways that gathering together around food enhances and supports the college’s mission,” she said.

Sometimes I get asked if I think organic certification and labeling laws have gone too far. Personally, I don’t think so. As a consumer I’m pretty happy knowing that anything I purchase – believing it to be organic – is in fact organic! I am of the firm belief that this can only come about through a robust third party certification system such as the one that’s currently in place. Perhaps you feel the same?

How do you react then when you hear about a company that’s been caught trying to fraudulently pass off their wares as organic? If you’re anything like me, you’re unimpressed. You may even feel somewhat disgusted. After all, this sort of behavior undermines the entire organic certification system. Perhaps worst of all, it plants seeds of doubt in the minds of would-be organic consumers. This ruins things for all of us.

So what sort of reaction would you have if a company were trying to pass off a cigarette as “organic”? Don’t laugh – I’m serious! Think about that for a minute – an organic cigarette…

A court in Germany wanted nothing to do with it.

U.S. company, Reynolds American Inc. (RAI), argued that its cigarettes were made with “100% organic tobacco” and biodegradable paper filters and therefore complied with European Union rules for organic production.

The German court didn’t accept that. Instead, they were of the view that “the concept ‘organic’ implies that such a cigarette is not harmful”. They found that the company’s use of the term “organic” was in violation of national tobacco and business competition laws.

I tend to agree. What do you think?

Hi – my name’s Tony. My good friend Alex has called on me to add some turbo charge to his blog. I hadn’t planned to get involved – it just happened! Truth be told, it’s probably my own fault. Originally, I had planned to concentrate on writing feature articles, such as the one I wrote recently on The Organic Answer to Climate Change. But last week I let Alex know that the Organic Guide blog was in need of a dash of pepper (and maybe a few other organic spices!) To my surprise he agreed. He asked me to start writing regularly. So, here I am.

Who am I? I’m basically just an Australian guy that loves to look after his physical, mental and spiritual health. As far as I can tell the best way of doing that is to ramp up on the organic side of life, increase your vitamin intake, minimize the nasty chemicals, get a moderate amount of exercise and practice your faith.

At the moment I live in Sydney but I also spend quite a bit of time in San Francisco, where I’m heavily involved in the music and entertainment industry.

I don’t profess to be the world’s leading expert on organic standards or anything. In fact, some of my friends might even question why I’m writing about organic living at all. You see after graduating as a Chemical Engineer from The University of Sydney I worked for a few of the big fellas (multinationals) that were churning out some of the least organic, most putrid, chemically-enhanced food products you’d ever care to look at. But no more! I’ve been on the dark side and vowed never to return. I’ve witnessed first hand just how ugly large-scale manufacturing can be. To be honest, I don’t know how I did it for the four years that I did.

I guess if you were to describe me in a nutshell you’d probably say that I was a social activist, neo-classical, anti-GMO, organic-living guy that loves music with all his heart!

By the way, if you’re wondering about the “I’m blogging here…” reference in the right hand sidebar, it wasn’t my idea. I’ve got to thank Alex for that one! Dustin Hoffman’s my favorite actor and I’ve been known to watch (and re-watch) Dustin’s movies like they’re going out of style. Marathon Man, Midnight Cowboy, and All The Presidents Men are probably the three greatest films ever made… according to me!

Ciao – Tony

How many elderly folk in the U.S. depend on Meals on Wheels each day? If you said somewhere between 1.3 and 1.4 million people you wouldn’t be far off the mark. That’s a lot of people who, without the help of Meals on Wheels, wouldn’t be eating a hot meal tonight.

Even though my family and I eat modestly, it’s hard for me to imagine what it must be like not to have something warm to eat each night. It must be tough, particularly when you’re older.

Unfortunately, things are becoming increasingly challenging for Meals on Wheels. Faced with a sharp upturn in demand for its services, coupled with a shortage in volunteer labor (as a result of record-high gas prices) their task seems almost overwhelming.

The good news is that there are companies out there willing to assist where they can. Aurora Organic Dairy, a leading organic dairy company, recently donated 920lb of high quality beef to the Dumas Meals on Wheels Association. The beef came from their newest organic dairy farm – the Coldwater farm – in Stratford, Texas.

That’s a lot of beef. And it makes me feel happy knowing that there’ll be a lot of good folk in Dumas who’ll be a lot less hungry tonight. Well done Aurora Organic Dairy!

Everyone here knows that China produces lead toys, flame attracting pyjamas and the odd gyoza (savoury dumpling) made from boiled cardboard. But who knew that pesticide tainted ginger would be added to the list???

Now I know a lot about China and I must say, having visited the place many times, consider myself a friend of China. But to tell the truth, I really don’t trust Chinese organic producers. I think that is because I know the country – money is king. Now, I don’t blame the people. Why if you were living on around a dollar and a half a day, you’d probably boil cardboard and sell it too. You may not even care for the environment, as the folk over at thenvironmentalblog.org point out often enough (check that link out – 460,000 Chinese a year die from pollution – aaaargh). But my cross-cultural understanding ends when it comes to this.

Basically, there are a lot of smart capitalists in China, and they know that organic produce is big over here – so beware. My tips are as ever – buy local organic first. Know your farmer and know what you’re eating!