Fair is fair...or is it?

I'm looking out my window and happy to see sunshine! Contrary to the "it never rains in southern California" cliche, we had several days of light rain last week, enough to keep things wet and gloomy. I know a lot of you are buried under feet of snow and shivering in single-digit temperatures and will give me no sympathy at all! And others of you are enjoying the summer.

The next food-related holiday is Valentine's Day (no, I'm not counting Super Bowl Sunday!) , and just like everything else, our flowers and chocolate and even gifts can be organic too.

Rather than comb your local stores for what you and your sweetheart would like, why not let it come to you? Visit the web site for a list of providers in different parts of the world that can help you find just what you want. For example, in Australia, try Definitely Chocolate for chocolates and Rainbow Designs for fun gifts

In the US and Canada, check out Chocolate Source. In the US, look to Chocolate Herbals for something different or Organic Bouquet for those flowers.

Something new: I've beefed up the amazon.com storefront so that you have easy access to selections of more than food. I've loaded up on chocolates on the front page, but by searching the categories on the side you can go directly to featured items in Apparel and Accessories, Baby, Beauty, Books, Health and Personal Care, and Magazine Subscriptions. If you don't see what you're looking for, just click on the "Powered by Amazon.com" graphic and you'll go to the site itself.

Here's something new for me - want to know what I find and when I find it? Follow me on Twitter! Look for me as socaldebbie.

Looking for something else in particular? Let me know and I'll see what I can find.

Is fair fair?

While I'm buying organic, I like to look for fair trade items as well. This applies to more than just food, but on all kinds of products produced by the less developed world and sold to the more developed. But I like to present different points of view, and here's one that isn't complimentary to fair trade. It refers to coffee in particular, but it seems the principles would be the same. See what you think. (Note: question to those outside the US. Does the Fair Trade movement advertise where you are? See point #4.)

Questioning The Truth About Fair Trade Coffee:

by: George Moore

Some Interesting Facts and questions about Fair trade gourmet coffee:

1. The targeted gourmet coffee farmer who needs fair trade owns a farm less than 10 acres; his family runs and works the farm, they live in a third world country or remotely up in the mountains of a central America country like Brazil. They get about $.65 cents per pound without fair trade and make less than $10,000 annually. They desperately need fair trade to get out of their poverty.

2. Without phones, newspapers, television, telephones, cell phones, and in most cases running water and electricity - how does this farmer even know about " Fair Trade" in the first place?

3. With no savings; no banks; no loans; and no finances how does this farmer pay the fees to get certified fair trade?

4. How much advertising does Fair Trade do out side the US? Zero! If they did where and which media would they use?

5. Interesting most of the Fair Trade Coffee Companies in foreign lands are owned by Americans or large co-ops partially owned and funded by Americans.

6. Fair Trade doubles the price of coffee the farmer recieves but does nothing to ensure the laborers who work the farm receive any more money. Hence all the large farms owned by Americans but worked by locals help the Americans get much richer but do nothing for the local coffee workers.

7. Fair Trade does not do anything to ensure the coffee is any better or better quality - it only ensures that the price is higher.

8. Fair Trade is not recognized in China or Russia or Japan or any of the coffee countries.

9. Fair Trade has helped many Americans feel much better about themselves.

10. It has done very little to help the farmers who need it the most.

In summary Fair Trade makes us Americans feel good about ourselves; helps us pay higher prices for poorer coffee; helps the big and rich farmers get richer. It does nothing to help the pheasant farmer we dream it is helping. And it gives us a false marketing ploy that Fair Trade is actually a better quality coffee i=when in fact it only means its a more expensive gourmet coffee. And really it gives us a false sense of self worth and that we are helping poor farmers when we are not.It causes us to pay too much for bad coffee and to think Fair Trade has anything to do with "quality" when it doesn't. It doesn't do anything to help the labor pool who work on the coffee farms nor stop children from working on coffee farms. But it has raised up the price of coffee and our awareness. Only if it could be more truthful and helpful.

About The Author

George Moore
Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee was founded by Boake Moore is an IT Sales engineer by trade.The non profit gourmet coffee called Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee - http://www.missiongrounds.com It donates all its profits to helping orphans and impoverished children. THE Costa Rica Coffee and the best gourmet coffee in the world -surely the most satisfying cup of coffee in the world.

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Eat eco-friendly chocolate with a clear conscience

I like good coffee, and I appreciate good wine, but what I really love is a good piece of chocolate.

Unfortunately, conventional cocoa plant growing methods aren’t so wonderful for the planet.

Back in the day, cocoa was grown in the shade. Today, to get higher yields, farmers have switched to new varieties that require sun. This is bad for the animals that rely on cocoa farms for habitat.

Keeping healthy with organic foods

If the old saying that “prevention is the best medicine” is true then organic life style is just what the doctor ordered.

“The benefits of consuming organic food can only be felt after someone consumes it regularly for a long period,” Dr. Angela, a general medical practitioner, said.

She said that the primary benefit of regularly consuming organic foods was a body safe from toxins, adding that the effects were not noticeable right away.

Economic blues put green consumers to the test

The pesticide-free produce at Planet Organic sells briskly, showing no signs of the wilting economy.

Carl Ulrich has already put lettuce, cucumber and tomato into his rapidly filling cart. The recession won't eat into his grocery budget, he says.

"I'll definitely be spending less, probably on eating out and extras, but not on good food," says Ulrich, 72, who believes strongly in the nutritional value of local and organic produce.

UAE embraces growing trend for organic foods

UAE residents are becoming more health conscious and opting for a less-processed, natural diet, new research has shown.

A report conducted by Research and Markets, a trade-specific data analysis company, says the organic food market has been growing at a rate of 20-24% annually.

The company’s research predicts that the organic industry will generate sales of US $32 billion by the end of this year.

New report predicts organic boom in dairy

Boom times are expected for Australia's organic producers, particularly dairy farmers according to a report by IBISWorld market researchers.

Organic yoghurt is expected to be the number one growth product, with cheeses and chocolate also set to prosper.

CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) has reported the number of operations it's certified has surpassed the 2,000 mark, with 199 new operations

The shift to an organic diet has gained significant momentum in the US and Europe in recent years and the UAE is picking up the pace as residents become more health conscious and opt for a less processed, natural diet.

Organic Acreage Grows in 2008

CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) has reported the number of operations it's certified has surpassed the 2,000 mark, with 199 new operations certified in 2008, contributing to the agency's 11-percent growth. CCOF now certifies farmers, processors, handlers, retailers and private labelers in 35 states and four countries.

Good news for the organic industry included a growth in organic acreage of 14.3 percent, based on an increase from 488,340 acres in 2007 to 558,137 acres in 2008. Along with this trend of converting more and more acres to organic production, there is a growing number of small- to medium-sized growers expanding their operations to include post-harvest activities—storage, packaging and handling—adding value to their organic production. As a result, more than 30 percent of CCOF members handle produce in some manner, representing an increase in the grower/handler category of certification by 33.8 percent.

Save the Cocoa Tree! Buy Sustainable Chocolate

Some scientists predict that chocolate could be as rare (and expensive) as caviar in as little as 20 years.

How could this be?

Farmers have changed the way they grow cacao trees -- the source of the cacao seeds that are used to make chocolate -- to try to keep up with the world's increasing demand for chocolate. Cacao trees naturally grow in the rainforest, but because they grow faster in the sun, farmers now plant cacao trees in large, sunny fields. These trees produce cacao seeds earlier than their rainforest counterparts, but they are threatened by pests and a slew of nasty fungi.

An argument for vegetarianism

This one's a bit off topic, but it's well-written and well thought out, and the angle it takes is pertinent to a lot of us who make organic choices based on the effects on the environment. Here's the beginning:

Full disclosure: I love to eat meat. I was born in Memphis, the barbecue capital of the Milky Way Galaxy. I worship slow-cooked, hickory-smoked pig meat served on a bun with extra sauce and coleslaw spooned on top.

My carnivore’s lust goes beyond the DNA level. It’s in my soul. Even the cruelty of factory farming doesn’t temper my desire, I’ll admit. Like most Americans, I can somehow keep at bay all thoughts of what happened to the meat prior to the plate.

So why in the world am I a dedicated vegetarian? Why is meat, including sumptuous pork, a complete stranger to my fork at home and away? The answer is simple: I have an 11-year-old son whose future—like yours and mine—is rapidly unraveling due to global warming. And what we put on our plates can directly accelerate or decelerate the heating trend.

(Read the entire article from Audubon Magazine, The Low-Carbon Diet, here.)

Is your resolution on this list?

The online storefront at amazon.com has an assortment of organic foods. If you don't see anything you like, use the search box or just click where it says "Powered by Amazon.com" to go to the site itself. Check out their suggestions for the top 10 New Year's Resolutions too. "Go Greener" is one of them!

A little (organic) food for thought

I wrote a blog posting a few days ago after I listed to a podcast from one of my favorite magazines, The Economist. In addition to its usual political and economic focus, a recent issue included a special report on the world's oceans. Much of what it said wouldn't be news to any of us. The oceans are warming, becoming more acidic, and rising. We can blame human activity, sun spots, or whatever we choose for the fact that glaciers are melting fresh water into the sea and rising carbon dioxide levels are changing the pH balance of the water. (Don't think we can blame the sun for overfishing or for the Texas-sized floating patch of plastic, however.)

Sure, I was aware of the effects of dumping pollutants directly into the sea - that's kind of obvious. But something I hadn't really thought about was the effect of runoff from the land. Chemical fertilizers and other toxins find their way into waterways, and ultimately into the oceans. It's not just the effects of chemicals that are themselves detrimental to delicate sea life, but the direct effects of introducing an agent that is designed to make plant life grow (and has to be water-resistant to withstand rainfall, so it's not breaking down.)

This is where the debate over organic vs. conventionally grown food takes on a different life. Many of us are convinced that our organic food an drinks taste better and make us feel better. We can find studies to support the idea that organically grown foods are more nutritious, though we can just as easily find studies that say they're not. But we can't deny the effects that agricultural chemicals have on our planet, and that very often gets left out of the conversation.

Not to comment on Al Gore one way or the other, but the "inconvenient truth" is that our food choice here affects more than just ourselves. Organic food costs a little more, but what's the true cost of the alternative?

If you're interested in reading more, try this report I found. It's dramatic stuff.

Tough year ahead for organic farmers

Organic farmers are facing a troubled year as consumers turn to lower-priced food, with early indications from retailers suggesting the huge annual sales growth enjoyed by organic foods for 15 years is coming to an end.

Sales of organic produce soared by 26 per cent a year on average between 1993 and 2008, but this is set to fall to 7.5 per cent in 2009, according to Mintel, the market researcher. That rate of growth is still more than double that of the general food market, organic proponents are quick to point out.

Wine.com sales

Got a few of them for you. Search on "organic" - they've usually got a selection. This is in the US, and remember not all states allow wine shipments.

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Harry and David post-holiday specials

Not all going to be organic, but see what you like. Save up to 70% and Free Standard Delivery on select holiday favorites with coupon SHIPFREE, through January 30.

Fertilizing the oceans

I was listening to a podcast from the magazine The Economist today. If you're not familiar with the magazine, you should be. It's a British publication that is stuffed every week with world political and economic news, and it's always a fascinating read.

This issue is a little different. It has a special report on the world's oceans, and the podcast gave a synopsis of it. It covered some items we're probably all familiar with - the effects of warming water temperatures and overfishing, to name two easy ones.

But here's something I hadn't really thought of: the effects of agricultural chemicals on the oceans. It's so simple. Fertiizers go on crops and get into the local waterways. The local stream feeds into a river, which feeds into the ocean, fertilizer and all. Fertilizers are very good at making plant life grow, and animal life die. And they can't just dissolve in water, or they'd get flushed off crops by rainfall. Their effects on ocean life are no different from their effects on land life. Sea plant life explodes. Sea animal life suffers. And we can't see it and counteract it the way we can on land. What will the long term effects of this be?

Reading so many reports and articles on organic food, I see both logical and emotional arguments that organic foods are no more nutritious, and that chemical fertilizers and pesticides are completely safe for human consumption. Let's say that's true. Does our responsibility stop there?