I hope this edition provides a few intriguing items to keep you busy in coming weeks!
Best, and enjoy the time with your family, friends and food.
How to eat Organic on a budget – according to Food Babe Vani Hari
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Over 75 Tips On How to Eat Organic On A Budget… The one tried and true worry I get about living an organic lifestyle is the cost. It’s likely the only immediate downside because everything else about living organically is pretty magical. Remember, non-organic food often contains cancer-causing hormones, immunity destroying anti-biotics and dangerous pesticides. Pesticides by nature are designed to kill, they are poison. So when given the choice, I don’t know why anyone could logically buy food with poison sprayed on it? Pesticides can cause neurological problems, cancer, infertility, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, allergies and asthma, wheezing, rashes and other skin problems, ADHD, birth defects and more. That’s why buying quality organic food and eating the most nutritious foods on the planet will save you BIG BUCKS down the road in medical costs, prescription drugs and doctor visits…like my friend Birke always says “We can either pay the farmer or we can pay the hospital” – It’s totally up to us.
In hopes to mitigate the initial money pains of buying organic, I want to share the top organic money saving ideas that I’ve gathered from my friends and family members. And, let me tell you, I learned a lot myself while putting together this list and combining everyone’s tips into one cohesive guide. I can’t wait to put some of these new ideas into practice. Let the savings begin!
John Taylor shares Panera’s Revolutionary Food Policy on Growing Business
Today on Growing Business Aaron Niederhelman and Nathan Roman welcome Panera Bread member of Food and Food Policy Teams John Taylor to the show. Fresh off the release of Panera’s revolutionary Food Policy, John shares how this culmination of ideas was derived by staying consistent with their core values and fortifying their commitment to taste.
Sourcing high-quality food to 8 Million guests a day, Panera has long taken on the tumultuous task of breaking-down the barriers of fast & slow food by investing in their consumers who align with the company’s proper ethos. Underpinned by higher-quality and cleaner food, John explains that taste is the result of proper practice throughout the supply chain (from soil to table), and not just an assumed result as many believe. Built on pillars of (i) Clean Ingredients, (ii) Transparent Menu, and (iii) Positive Impact, the Food Policy’s June launch will begin a lengthy rollout through-out Panera’s 1800 restaurants. The Food Policy is best framed as a roadmap for continuous improvement. It codifies their values and clarifies their aspirations and goals to ever-improve the food they serve.
Vacation is a fantastic time to sample local foods. A sampling of some of those best local options from vacation hotspots:
- The Best restaurants on THE CAPE
- and MARTHA’S VINEYARD
- DOWNEAST MAINE’s best Lobster rolls
- Burger guide for NEW HAMPSHIRE
- FINGER LAKES food & wine calendar
- Top 10 HAMPTONS restaurants
bon appétit!
Why the Local Food Movement Needs More—and Better—Lawyers
A pilot program in Massachusetts connects small farmers and producers with the legal services they need to get their businesses off the ground.
“Clearly, there’s a robust movement afoot to sustain New England’s communities with locally grown food, [and] legal services are necessary for any small business,” says Elena Mihaly, legal fellow and attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation and coordinator of the Legal Services Food Hub. “What we were finding was that a lot of farmers or food entrepreneurs were not involving an attorney in the beginning of their business, which could hurt the way they set up their business and establish the wrong foundation.”
The Legal Hub, which is operating in Massachusetts its first year but will then expand to other New England states, is unusual in that it is completely free for eligible producers, Mihaly says. Eligible clients include farmers producing food for human consumption, food entrepreneurs like Oliveira, or organizations such as food-related nonprofits. To be eligible for legal services, businesses must be just starting out or still be very small, earning less than $75,000 a year in gross income.
Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio urges NY to embrace GMO labeling
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…All this explains the crippling confusion that now confronts too many food consumers every time they enter the grocery store. We can do better — and when it comes to the powerful technology behind genetically modified foods, we must.
Advances in agricultural biotechnology have led to a dramatic and rapid expansion in the development and cultivation of genetically modified crops on American farmland. Approximately 90% of the corn, soybean, alfalfa, sugar beets and cotton being grown on U.S. farm acres are now GMO varieties.
Virtually all GMO crops on the market today have been engineered to be pest-resistant (by inserting bacteria DNA that turns the plant into a pesticide factory), herbicide-tolerant (by inserting bacteria DNA that makes them able to survive repeated sprayings with toxic weed-killers such as Roundup) or both.
This rapid adoption of GMO agriculture has outpaced the scientific community’s understanding of its impacts on human health and the environment, and has left the public in the dark. We’re in the dark because the chemical companies that make the seeds and the food companies that use GMOs have fought hard against any labeling regulations.
Not local – but IT SHOULD BE! Fly farm built to replace Soy as animal feed
The world’s largest commercial fly farm, which will harvest maggots from about 8.5 billion of the insects housed in giant cages, is under construction near Cape Town, a project developers say is a first step toward shaking up the global animal-feed market.
The 8,500 square-meter (91,493 square-foot) undercover facility, being built by Gibraltar-basedAgriProtein, is due to be completed next year and aims to produce 23.5 metric tons of insect-based protein meal and oils and 50 tons of fertilizer a day. Fish and chicken farmers have already signed contracts to buy the feed, an alternative to soy and fishmeal, according to Jason Drew, the company’s co-founder.
“The farm will take in 110 tons of organic waste, out-of date-food, uneaten food from restaurants, hotels, some animal manure and some abattoir waste” and recycle the nutrients, Drew said in a July 8 phone interview from Cape Town. “We copied the idea from Mother Nature. In 15 years, it will be as normal to recycle your waste nutrients as it is to recycle your tin, your glass or your plastic today.”
Fourth of July food by the numbers – food consumption
- More than 74 million Americans are planning a barbecue for the Fourth.
- A whopping 87 percent of American own outdoor grills.
- Americans consume 150 million hot dogs on the Fourth of July weekend.
- Americans buy 750 million pounds of chicken leading up to the Fourth of July celebrations.
- Americans buy 190 million pounds of red meat or pork in the lead up to Fourth of July.
- Americans spend $203 million just on condiments for Fourth of July. This is more than $92 million we spend on chips and $60.3 million we spend on dip.
- About 68.3 million cases of beer are sold over the Fourth of July weekend (5% of National annual beer consumption)
Grandstanding with Joey Chestnut – Concerns with Competitive Eating
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Doctors Want Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest Canceled, America & Joey Chestnut Probably Disagree.
The Fourth of July means a lot of things to America. On that day in 1776, we adopted the Declaration of Independence, establishing our sovereignty from the British Empire. On that day every year, loved ones can spend the day off together to watch brilliant colors explode in the sky. And on that day, every year, a select few Americans gather on Coney Island to demonstrate what America is possibly best known for: how much we can digest in a single sitting. But if it were up to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, then Nathan’s Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest would no longer be a thing.
The Physicians Committee is a national nonprofit of over 10,000 doctors, and they’ve decided to take a stand against this national tradition, all in the name of physical responsibility. I received an email from them containing a letter they sent to Eric Gatoff, Chief Executive Officer of Nathan’s Famous, Inc., urging them to, “Cancel the eating contest, reevaluate your menu, and help reverse America’s health crisis.” So what’s with the attack on hot dogs? Apparently last year, Joey Chestnut won the contest by eating 69 hot dogs. The nutrition on that equates to 18,270 calories, 1,173 grams of fat, 414 grams of saturated fat, 35.4 grams of trans fat, and 2,415 milligrams of cholesterol, according to the Physicians. That’s a whole lot of numbers to be eating.
Making our forefathers proud, got to love celebritism in this crazy country!
Behind the curtain of Dr. Oz ‘miracle’ weight loss claims
Dietary supplements promoted by Dr. Oz are under review at a congressional hearing. Silly Oz, “in the defense of food” is a crazy thought and unless you specifically represent a company – no one wants to hear it. Better yet, some don’t want you to share it!
Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” faced grilling by senators on Capitol Hill about the promotion of weight loss products on his show.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance, led the panel that on Tuesday looked at false advertising for weight loss products. Subcommittee members took issue with assertions that Oz has made on his show about products that don’t have a lot of scientific evidence to back them up, such as green coffee beans.
“The scientific community is almost monolithic against you in terms of the efficacy of the three products you called ‘miracles,’ ” said McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat. She said she was discouraged by the “false hope” his rhetoric gives viewers and questioned his role"intentional or not, in perpetuating these scams.“
