"OrganicFoods" news and stories

Stroll the aisles at your local natural foods store. Notice anything? Along with the sandalwood scent and fair-trade coffee comes higher prices, especially for organic produce. When you stop to think about it, it might seem kind of odd; after all, organic farmers don't use all those conventional chemicals and fertilizers, so there would seem to be a lower overhead. Right?

Turns out it's not that simple. Citing a University of Wisconsin study, The Seattle Times points out that there are many factors contributing to the higher price of organic produce -- including start-up costs (converting land from conventional farming to certified organic takes three full years), rotation farming (to maximize natural fertilization), and hands-on cultivation (as a means of pest control). It all results in more work for a lower yield, meaning lower profits for the farmer -- and higher prices in the natural foods aisle.

So why bother eating organic? The two biggest reasons: fewer pesticides and (potentially) more nutrients. A 2007 study funded by the European Union showed that organic fruits and vegetables can contain up to 40 percent more antioxidants than their conventionally grown brethren. (Even more astounding, organic milk had a whopping 60 percent more antioxidants and essential fatty acids than conventional milk.) In some cases organic foods don't show any extra nutritional benefit (as Time recently reported), but the environmental benefit still remains.

The Big Springs region of the Missouri Ozarks has been designated as one of the "Last Great Places" by the Nature Conservancy, thanks in no small part to people like Nicola MacPherson. As owner of Ozark Forest Mushrooms, she's doing her part to preserve the unique ecology of the region while at the same time bringing its best culinary offerings to the masses. Her operation, run from a family-owned farm located along a picturesque, limestone ridge detour of Sinking Creek, grows shiitakes as nature intended: on logs, in the forest.

Read more about Ms. MacPherson's adventures in fungal farming after the jump.

The life of a golden beet isn't really a very glamorous one. We don't get out very much, we tend to be a bit grubby and we've got this embarrassing dry skin problem.

So imagine how surprised I was to find out that I've somehow become a symbol of everything that's wrong with food these days; according to this funny lady Carla Spartos, I'm nothing less than a nightstick in the hands of the food police, the so-called "Gourmonsters" who are trying to bully us all into eating our vegetables and threatening to steal our Ho Hos.

While I appreciate the shout-out -- it's nice to know that Alice Waters wants to dress me up in a fancy vinaigrette -- I've got to say that all of the attention seems a little misplaced.

Read why after the jump.

Earthbound Farm, the company that started out on a small farm selling organic raspberries, has become one of the nation's largest producers of organic fruits and vegetables. They created the bagged salads that have become staples for so many of us (although sadly, their spinach was thought to have been the source of the E. coli outbreak in 2006) and made organic foods widely available.

In 2006, Myra Goldman, one of the founders of Earthbound Farm wrote (along with Linda Holland and Pamela McKinstry) a cookbook called Food to Live By, The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook. It is a volume that embraces the organic ethos and offers up nearly 400 pages of recipes, many of which are from the Organic Kitchen at the Earthbound Farmstand or Goldman's own kitchen.

As is typically true for me when it comes to cookbooks, one of my favorite parts of this book was the introduction. Goldman takes ten pages to share the store of how she and her husband got started farming, where they came from (they were both originally New Yorkers) and how she fell in love with fresh, organic foods. Beyond the introduction, the section of the book that felt the most personal and had the most appealing recipes was the breakfast and brunch section, in which Goldman shares stories of cooking for her kids and includes recipes for savory treats like Spinach, Feta and Mushroom Quiche (the picture looks amazing) and sweet ones like Persimmon and Date Breakfast Bread.

How and when did you fall in love with food?

Gourmet's Barry Estabrook makes sense of the battle over the benefits of organic food. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.

It's never a good start to your day when the first email you open is an authoritative-sounding press release forwarded by your boss that directly contradicts something you published on the company's website.

"You know anything about this?" she asked ominously.

The release came from the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Made public on Tuesday, it was headlined: "Scientist Debunks Myth of Organic Nutritional Superiority," and, not surprisingly, it received considerable media attention.

The myth that was supposedly debunked was featured in this space a few months ago. It was a study co-authored by Dr. Charles Benbrook of the Organic Center, an affiliate of the Organic Trade Association, an industry group, which reported on the results of a review of nearly 100 scientific papers examining levels of nutrients in organic versus conventional crops. Benbrook and his associates concluded that organic food was on average 25 percent more nutrient-dense. Their work was regarded as one of the first scientifically valid research projects that clearly showed such an advantage. Earlier studies had been inconclusive. I felt some vindication for my own preference for organic foods and applauded the findings.

The release from the ACSH sharply criticized Benbrook's paper. Its condemnation of his work was based on a critical review written by Joseph D. Rosen, emeritus professor of food science at Rutgers University. To be kind, it is scathing. Some choice arguments...

The story continues at Gourmet.com: Politics of the Plate: Fighting Words