As you can tell, I haven't blogged in quite some time.. but I'm back (Thanks, Sloane!)

Rest assured, I've been staying up to date on all things healthy and chill and organic…

Here's the latest news from the organic food world: Companies who currently hold organic labeling rights are requesting leniency in their products “organicness” (yes, I am aware I ‘ve just made up a word). How upsetting.

Basically the more popular organic foods become the more companies like Kraft, General Mills and Wal-Mart want to get on board–but on their own slightly less organic terms.

From a recent Organic Consumers Association update:

Consumer demand for healthy and eco-friendly food has built the organic market into a $30 billion a year powerhouse, and has forced even the largest retailers, wholesalers and brand names to get into organics.

While we oppose the “Walmartization” of organic, we are happy to see that even our adversaries are being forced to market and sell organic products.

Unfortunately the big players (Monsanto, Kraft, Wal-Mart, General Mills, et al) keep trying to change the rules, which means we've got to which means we've got to keep fighting them.

In 2010, the biggest attacks organic standards came from the following companies:

*Cal-Maine Foods (the nation's largest egg producer) wants to keep so-called organic chickens in intensive-confinement factory farms and feed them synthetic supplements like methionine.
*General Mills (the world's sixth-largest food company) wants to introduce dangerous, untested, unlabeled products of nanotechnology in organic products and packaging.
*Coleman Organic (part of the ConAgra conglomerate, the 3rd largest U.S. beef and pork processor) wants to use non-organic animal ingredients (pork intestines) in “USDA Organic” products (sausage).
*Renpure Organics (subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb, owner of Clairol) wants to use the word “organic” on products that aren't certified to USDA organic standards (shampoo).
*Organic Vintners wants to use synthetic ingredients (sulfite preservatives) in organic products (wine).

Ok, so what can we do? We can continue to support local farmers that uphold true organic standards, read labels and stay away from products made by GM and Kraft.

For more info, check out this article from OCA's website: http://organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm