Fair Trade Certified(tm) Chamomile, Hibiscus, Mint Now Available in US Market; Join Booming Fair Trade Certified Tea, Rooibos Market

The caffeinated world of Fair Trade just got a little calmer. TransFair USA -- the only independent, third-party certifier of Fair Trade goods in the United States -- has introduced Fair Trade Certified(tm) chamomile, hibiscus and mint to the U.S. market, expanding an already booming Fair Trade Certified tea market -- which grew a record 187 percent in 2005 -- to include consumers who prefer a non-caffeinated brew, as well as diversify the Fair Trade Certified ingredients available to the culinary, nutraceutical and herbal supplement industries.

Don't know where to find fair trade products? Keep checking www.organic-food-and-drink.com for the best sources on the Web.

Back to the basics of organic

Organics represent about 2 percent of the total U.S. food market, yet they are the only sector of the industry experiencing sustained growth.

According to Juli Brussell, an expert with University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, organics have experienced a "25 percent or greater increase every year," while conventional markets flatlined.

Looking for something in particular? Keep visiting www.organic-food-and-drink.com as we add more and more food, drinks and resources.

Resorts and Hotels Try Growing Organically

Wal-Mart caused a stir recently when it announced it was going to push organic foods, but it is hardly alone in that marketing approach. Increasingly, hotels and resorts are featuring organic cuisine on their menus and in their guest programs.

Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico (www.rancholapuerta.com), which has a six-acre organic farm that produces vegetables, herbs and fruit used by the spa's chefs and therapists, plans to open a cooking school next spring with a focus on natural foods.

How does your vineyard grow?

Once upon a time, chemical fertilizers and pesticides were in vogue.

When they first emerged in the agricultural world, more well-off farmers hopped on the plant-steroid train, leaving others to grow their crops as they always had -- organically.

That trend has reversed in the past decade. Chemicals are out, and organic is in.

Organic wine and where to find it...visit www.organic-food-and-drink.com.

TeaForHealth Presents the Only Green Tea with FDA Qualified Health Claim at the Summer Fancy Food Show

Dr. Lee's TeaForHealth Organic Green Tea inabottle is the First Bottled Green Tea to Meet the National Cancer Institute's Standard Required for Anti-cancer Benefits

TeaForHealth(R) will present the only green tea product with a qualified health claim from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), based on the de facto standard recommended by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for effectiveness against cancer, which is 800 ml (27 oz) of green tea containing 710 mcg/ml (-) epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) per day in an adult. The new TeaForHealth 710EGCG(TM) organic green tea "inabottle(TM)" product, in four ready-to-drink flavors, will be made available for tasting at the Summer Fancy Food Show.

New organic flavour extracts hit European market

A European supplier of organic flavour extracts has added a range of new ingredients to its portfolio, designed to produce a cleaner label and boost the profile of organic products in the eyes of consumers.

The new ginger root, cinnamon and hibiscus extracts are the fist in a range of organic products, with the line due to expand within the next few months, said supplier Euringus.

Biodynamics helps wine find its inner grape

Farming a vineyard so that most of the environment is incorporated into the grapes is what terroir is all about. And, as many winemakers would have us believe, the greater the terroir, the greater the wine.

A growing number of wineries are taking that philosophy further with the concept of biodynamics, a type of organic farming that calls for more than eliminating the use of chemical sprays or fertilizers.

Biodynamic, organic, NSA...find them at www.organic-food-and-drink.com.

Change brewing at Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart is in the midst of overhauling its tightfisted image to win over shoppers searching for more than low prices.

That effort has taken the company that built an empire on the principle of high volume and low costs into previously uncharted territory, into the realm of trendy apparel and organic food.

Now, with the help of Pereira, it is embarking on one of its most radical undertakings to date: fair trade.

Shopping queues get into step

THOSE of us who love good food and wine have long been aware of the rise and rise of organic and biodynamic farming and even slow food, but now these movements are starting to touch a mainstream nerve. It seems the wider public – the mums and dads putting packaged animal products in their supermarket trolleys each day – are becoming more conscious of the health, moral and environmental consequences of factory animal farming. Not to mention the inferior flavours.

Keep on top of all the developments at
www.organic-food-and-drink.com.

Consumers buy with their beliefs

Eat chocolate, save the planet.

That’s the message of Endangered Species Chocolate, which sells organic and “ethically traded” candy bars.

And more people seem to be buying it.

Find more of what people are buying at
www.organic-food-and-drink.com.

DTI Kalinga helps farmers acquire organic coffee tag

Due to increasing demand here and abroad, Kalinga is gearing towards organic coffee production.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Kalinga is helping local farmers grow coffee the organic way.

Organic coffee farming is being piloted in three areas—one site in Pinukpuk town and two in Upper Tabuk.

The technology is in line with the “One Town, One Product” program of the government and is in response to the global trend on the use of organic products.

If you're not already in the Philippines, you don't have to go that far to find organic coffee. Visit www.organic-food-and-drink.com/coffee instead!

Organic Coffees are Perfect for Holiday Gifts and Entertaining

Consumers today are equating organic coffee with quality, driving up sales up of the product 40 percent last year to $89 million. The 12 participants in the Organic Coffee Collaboration - a project of the Organic Trade Association, hope holiday coffee purchases for gifts and entertaining will be organic and have provided recipes for both hot and cold organic coffee beverages.

Where can you buy organic coffee? Find the answer here: www.organic-food-and-drink.com/coffee/.

Olives, emus and snails

The secret of producing organic products lies in working with insects. "You need positive insects and the right variety of olive trees and flowers to make them happy," he says.

More information about organic foods and beverages: www.organic-food-and-drink.com.

One item, two prices - that's fair trade

AT CERTAIN shops in London, a cup of "fair trade" coffee costs 25 cents more than an ordinary cup. But investigations reveal that, though the Guatemalan farmers supplying the coffee are paid almost double the market price, the quantity of beans used in a cup of coffee is so small that this extra cost works out at only 2.5 cents a cup. So 90 per cent of the higher price of fair trade coffee ends up in someone else's pocket.

More information on organic coffee: www.organic-food-and-drink.com

Organic coffee loses appeal for Nicaragua growers

"There is no marked difference in the market price for organic and non-organic coffee, and that is why the producers feel unmotivated to produce (organic)," Martha Stella Gutierrez, the executive director of Cafenica, a group of cooperatives that says it produces 90 percent of the country's organic coffees, told Reuters.

"It is something we are noticing and it worries us because we know that the production costs (of organic) are higher."

More information on organic coffee: www.organic-food-and-drink.com

Beyond sugar and banana

The Mayan Indians are one of the indigenous peoples of South America. Between AD 250 and AD 900 they created an advanced civilisation. They built great cities and trading centres around palaces plazas and pyramids. And they were the most sophisticated agriculturalists of the time. But today they are a marginalised rural community in countries like Belize and Guatemala.

For more on organic food and beverages, visit www.organic-food-and-drink.com.

Dominicans stage III Organic Coffee Festival

The Organic Coffee Festival to take place on the 3-4 June in Polo, Barahona, has turned into one of the most interesting cultural and ecological tourism propositions of the Caribbean.

It is a community-oriented festivity that gathers organic producing families of the Southeastern zone, to thank and celebrate the year’s harvest.

For more information on organic coffee, visit www.organic-food-and-drink.com.

Vowing to be Green

More couples are choosing to make their weddings organic and eco-friendly — and fashionable...Engaged couples are thinking about the environmental and social impacts of their big day. They are seeking organic and ethically sound options, and that demand is creating more green choices for gowns, flowers, salons, cakes, catering, gifts, jewelry and even honeymoons.

Natural Products Sales Top $51 Billion in 2005

American shoppers spent more than $51 billion on natural and organic products in 2005, according to research published in the 25th Annual Market Overview in the June issue of The Natural Foods Merchandiser. NFM (www.naturalfoodsmerchandiser.com) is the leading trade magazine serving the natural and organic products industry and is read by more than 15,000 retailers, industry leaders and trend watchers each month.

More info...www.organic-food-and-drink.com

Cuban Organic Coffee Goes to Japan & EU

Cuba exported 120 tons of organic coffee in 2005, despite several years of severe drought, informed Pascual Caro, head of the ecological coffee and cacao project.

Violence Threatens E.Timor Coffee Industry

East Timor's resurgent coffee industry, known for its high-quality organic beans, has been badly hurt by a wave of violence in the capital that halted operations at the start of the harvesting season, officials said Thursday.