Upcoming Events

Looking to get your learn on? Here are a few local happenings from the Just Saying calendar. We wish we could attend them all but there are simply too many to choose from! If you are able to attend one or more of them and interested in doing a guest post, please shoot us an email.

MARCH

• Beekeeping for Beginners: Every Saturday in March at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, VA. Visit LewisGinter.org for more information.
• Mycorrhizal Fungi:  Hidden Friends of Plants, Lecture by Roger Tai Koide: March 8th at the The Vollmer Center Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore, Maryland. Details here.
• Arborist Certification Course: March 8-10th at the City of Frederick Municipal Annex Building in Frederick, Maryland. Register here.
• Tree Care Symposium: March 10th at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, VA. Visit LewisGinter.org for more information.
• Interactive Cooking Class at Crow Farm with Robbie Jester: Featuring products grown on the farm or locally. Crow Farm is in Kennedyville, Maryland. More information here.
• Institute of Applied Agriculture Open House: March 31st at Jull Hall, University of Maryland, College Park. Learn more here.

APRIL

• NACUBO Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference: April 3-5 at the Inn & Conference Center, University of Maryland University College. Register here.
• MAC-ISA Tree Climbing Championships: April 9th at the Knights of Columbus in Arlington, Virginia. Register here. (I will not be competing but if you have the climbing experience, go for it!)
• Marion Nestle's 'The Hungry Mind' Lecture Series: April 4th at the University of Maryland Campus Center. Open to the public. More info here.
• Introduction to Nature Photography: April 21st - May 3rd at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia. Visit LewisGinter.org for pricing, schedule and further information.
• Maryland Day: April 30th at the University of Maryland, College Park. More information here.

MAY

• Spring Tea featuring Maryland Massey of Maryland's Herb Basket: May 15th at Crow Farm in Kennedyville, Maryland. More information here.
• Richmond Rose Society Show:  May 28-29th at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia. Details here.

GE Alfalfa

For several years, the Center for Food Safety, the Cornucopia Institute and others have been engaged in a court case fighting the release of Monsanto's genetically engineered alfalfa. Last week, to the favor of the biotech industry, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the agency will fully deregulate the controversial seed. As you would expect, folks in the organic community are more than disappointed. Michael Pollan tweeted that the decision to cave is a "disaster for organic agriculture" and all the foodies are buzzing about the potential contamination and complications.

Because of the sensational claims made on both sides of the GMO debate, I decided to contact Associate Professor Scott Glenn, from the University of Maryland, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, a professor I've had the pleasure of learning from. His research and teaching focuses on the biology and management of perennial weeds and his perspective on conventional farming methods has helped me understand the merit in arguments for and against the innovation. Glenn explained:

"Roundup Ready® Alfalfa was deregulated (approved) [in April 2004] but shortly thereafter, several activist groups took [Monsanto and Forage Genetics International] to court stating that the pollen from the GE alfalfa would contaminate organically grown alfalfa. There was a court decision to have further scientific studies to determine if this was a valid issue. Recently, the results of those studies have been released and they indicate that there is no valid scientific evidence to suggest that this would be a problem. Furthermore, if contamination does occur it would be at an extremely low level and, according to a recent ruling, that alfalfa crop would not lose its status as organically grown.

Alfalfa is a perennial forage crop that is primarily cross pollinated. All producers of alfalfa as a forage (organic and conventional) want to harvest alfalfa (including grazing) in bud to early bloom, so if managed right it should not be producing pollen. However, sometimes due to poor management or bad conditions some pollen may be produced. However, the only time those genes would be incorporated in to the genetic makeup of non-Roundup Ready alfalfa is if that alfalfa was allowed to fertilize and go to seed. This could take place in alfalfa that is grown in the wild (very rare, but definitely not part of an organic system) or during the production of commercial seed. Commercial seed production (both organic and conventional) is grown under very closed, highly monitored conditions. Major precautions are taken to prevent extraneous pollen from fertilizing the cultivars of alfalfa that they are producing. There are strict protocols in place such as not having any other alfalfa fields (organic or conventional) within a specific area ('pollen-free zone') surrounding the alfalfa seed field."

So the case, as it has been presented, against GE alfalfa is not scientifically strong enough to limit or eliminate its use and Montsanto does not intend to persecute accidental cross-contaminations but perhaps the devil isn't in the details of this one. Perhaps the greenies, who may disown me after this post, need to broaden the argument, re-organize and out-innovate. What I mean is, the organic opposition comes across as anti-progress and innovation, and if that is the case, we're not going to win much support from the conventional side or even the civilian masses. Instead of putting our energy into the fight against a certain seed, let's put it into the race for a solution and accept the fact that we may need to bend a little here and there to find it. Isn't the bigger problem here the rampid use of products containing the herbicide glyphosate and the effect that has on everyone and everything?

WWOOFing

JustSaying just found out about WWOOFing: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. We're going to recruit an experienced WWOOFer to write first-hand about their volunteer experience but until we do, here is the website.

Elizabeth Hurley's Organic Farm

The Daily Mail reports that Elizabeth Hurley will be opening up the gates of her 400 acre organic farm in Barnsley, Gloucestershire to a reality tv crew. 

What a great way to turn reality tv into something positive and educational. Love it.

Seven Principles of a Climate-Friendly Diet

Just stumbled upon this great article from Anna Lappe summarizing methods for a climate-friendly diet expanded upon in her latest book Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork. Following in the footsteps of food luminaries like Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle, Lappe suggests:

1.) Reach for Real Food
2.) Put Plants on Your Plate
3.) Don't Panic, Go Organic
4.) Lean Towards Local
5.) Finish Your Peas, The Ice Caps Are Melting
6.) Send Packaging Packing
7.) Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Kitchen! 

You Can Start Gardening Now...

Tired of the cold? Itching to get outside? Love fresh, organic food? You can get started on a garden right now. In fact, early spring is the best time to do all the prep work. As soon as you can take a shovel or garden fork and dig into the soil you can be on your way to totally healthy and tasty vegetables that beat anything you can buy, even at a farmer's market.

Any spot, no matter how small with at least 6-8 hours of full sun per day can be turned into a garden. You can also grow some vegetables in pots and planters on a patio or balcony.

There are plenty of websites to help get you started with easy step by step instructions. I recommend Grow It Eat It but you can Google many others. Also, there are many gardeners around who can lend advice, some are even recognized as "Master Gardeners" by local gardening groups. These experienced folks regularly volunteer their time to help others.

I've been working on my garden for a few years growing tomatoes, green beans, swiss chard (similar to spinach but stands the heat of summer), peppers and onions. This year, I've already tilled the areas to be planted and added more peat moss to help loosen the clay soil we have. This work is the most physically demanding part of gardening, especially if you're making a new garden, so take it slow. Just work a few minutes each day. If you have a large area you can most likely find someone with a roto-tiller to do the dig-up phase for you for a reasonable fee instead of doing the work by hand using a spade or garden fork.

The most exciting parts of having your own garden are.... all of them! Every part, from preparing the soil to harvesting fresh, organic vegetables is rewarding. There's nothing that comes close to the satisfaction of being able to raise some of what you eat.

So at the end of week one, the onions have been planted. They take up little space and are dual-purpose: when they form small bulbs they can be pulled from the garden and used as green onions (scallions). Those left to form regular sized onions will be ready in August. The easiest way to plant them is to buy what's called onion sets: miniature onions that will give you a head start time-wise and are easier to handle than actual onion seed (available at Wally-Mart, Meyer Seed Company in downtown Baltimore, and many garden centers).

Other vegetables that can be planted now include carrots, lettuce and radishes, since they grow best in cool weather. But between now and the end of April, there's not much else to be planted. So now I have some time to decide and buy the seeds of each vegetable to plant since in some cases there are 50 or more variations of a particular vegetable. And much as I'd like to plant every vegetable, I just don't have the space.

Stay tuned for my next post: My Choices.

Diggin' Stew Leonard's

Stew Leonard's has been in the dairy biz since 1921 and praised by the press for decades now, yet somehow JustSaying only learned of the Connecticut-based, family-owned, fresh food grocer because it was featured on the History Channel's Modern Marvels episode "The Supermarket."

In 1960, brothers Jim and Stew Leonard inherited Clover Farms milk delivery business and nine short years later they opened their first store in Norfolk with two registers and seven items. In the following decades a little advertising (and some trademark cow trucks equipped with "moo" horns) went a long way. Their product line expanded to include meat direct from Colorado, an in-store bakery and our fave: Newman's Own Salad Dressing.

Now they've got a store in New York, a wine shop, and a steady position on FORTUNE magazine's "Top 100 Companies to Work For."

And as far as food safety goes, Stew Leonard's mottos is: "If you wouldn't take it home to your mother, don't put it out for our customers."

While I obviously admire their practices and natural/organic product line, truth be told, it was the happy cow costumes and giggling children that really sold me. As pointed out in the Modern Marvels episode, so many supermarkets use calming music and dim lighting to create a certain type of desired shopping experience but Stew Leonard's is rather the opposite. They're the Southwest of supermarkets - fun, lively, and uber-customer-focused.

There are only a handful of Stew Leonard's stores so far (three in CT and one in NY), but with revenues hitting $300 million a year expansion is in the works.

Check out their website for more information (and the awesometastical live Cow-Cam!) and join me in suggesting they expand right on down the East Coast!!

Luvin' LUSH

My super-hip gal pal gave me a glorious, fresh, organic, vegan, handmade bath bomb in my birthday gift-bag last week and was surprised to learn that I had not yet heard about the company that created it: LUSH Cosmetics. Naturally, I visited one of their U.S. stores to learn about their ethics, products and get a little holiday shopping done.

Here's what I found out and why I am adding LUSH products to my list of holiday gift suggestions:

The aforementioned bath bomb/ball is one of many made in their Vancouver factory with a mold made from recycled plastic.

In fact, all the bins and totes in that factory are made with recycled content and products are packaged with recycled paper, not bubble wrap. Not to mention they use electricity cautiously and wisely and encourage their employees to bike to work.

No virgin materials are used for packaging. Their liquid and cream products are packaged in 100% recycled plastic bottles and pots.

The shampoo bar (that my sis/research partner bought from the Annapolis store during our visit) is an awesometastical way to reduce one's carbon footprint because: "Solid products last longer and weigh less than bottled liquids which take more energy to transport... One truckload of LUSH solid shampoo bars is enough for about 800,000 washes. It would take 15 truckloads of liquid shampoo to do the same job.If 1 in 5 people in the US switched from liquid shampoo to solid, about 22 million plastic bottles would be saved from the landfill. On top of this, 6 million tonnes of preserved shampoo would be prevented from entering the environment."

Absolutely no animal testing. LUSH  specializes in making effective, 100% vegetarian products (more than 70% vegan actually) with minimal preservatives.

Although I tend to preach against over-consumption and consumerism, truth be told - giving thoughtful gifts and experiencing new skin and haircare products may be two of this blogger's guiltiest pleasures. Find LUSH's fun holiday products here. If you can't find what your looking for, here are a few other skin and haircare brands JustSaying highly recommends: Aveda, Burt's Bees, The Body Shop, Jurlique (especially the Biodynamic Beauty line) and Skin Preparations.

Invasive Sci-Fi Flaxseed

Genetically modified Triffid seeds that were reportedly given out by developer Alan McHughen, now a biotechnologist at the University of California, Riverside "for educational purposes only" and thought to have been destroyed in 2001, are popping up and contaminating Canada's organic crops causing their value to plummet. There are no health concerns but that hasn't stopped European importers from shutting their doors, The Globe and Mail reports:

"...Since early September, confectionery companies there have been yanking pastries and other baked goods containing flax from their shelves, blaming imports from Canada for the contamination. The genetically modified seeds have been found in 34 countries, according to the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network.

...Terry Boehm, a flax grower near Saskatoon and one of the approximately 15,000 prairie farmers who produce the crop, is worried about the fallout from the food scare. The cause of the contamination is “the $300-million question,” he said, adding: “I really can't hazard to say how it's there, but there's a huge amount of questions that need to be answered in regard to that.” 
 
The genetic contamination also undermines the image of a product widely extolled for its health benefits as a rich source of artery-friendly omega-3 fatty acids and often grown organically to further its cachet. In organic farming, using genetically modified organisms is a big no-no..."

I suppose it's possible that a few farmers planted the seeds despite McHugen's instruction but come on, folks. Are we going to believe that only organic flax growers need be concerned? Nice try, authorities. Clearly a genetically modified plant has escaped and may soon take over the world.

I kid, I kid. And I shouldn't because this "contamination" is truly threatening the livelihood of quite a few Canadian prairie farmers. What a mess. Perhaps the lesson here is that not all organic growers are created equally trustworthy and therefore releasing the GM seed for any purposes is the big no-no. And that European pastry chefs might be a acting a tad too doomsday. Read more here and here.

transparency

Rachel Leven wrote a great investigative post for Slate, Green Eggs and Plastic, regarding the reasoning behind the use of plastic in the organic food market. From the article:

...And the ultimate question: Why does organic food involve so much plastic packaging? Doesn't that defeat the purpose? Yes, it does...

...Enter the plastic. Thanks to the USDA's seal, hippies and Luddites were no longer the major consumers of organic food. The game had changed. Organic shoppers of the mid-millennium now cared less about the sustainability and ethical concerns surrounding organics. Instead, they were concerned with the quality, healthfulness, and (unproven) nutritional benefit. Organics also entered the market as luxury (read: expensive) items, which meant consumers expected more convenience. In this environment, the biggest advantage of plastic cartons was literally clear. See-through packaging revolutionized the egg industry by eliminating the tiring task of opening the carton's lid to check the eggs for quality. The result was comforting and easy transparency, promising a superior product. The plastic carton itself is neither better nor worse for the egg...

Obviously the organic trade isn't the only agricultural sector utilizing plastic packaging and there are plenty of perks to doing so - like guarding against bugs, oxygen, and extending shelf life therefore enabling mass consumption - but at some point branding comes into play and that is why I say: Question everything, folks. Are beautifully packaged "organic" eggs from across the country in any way better than those from the local farmer who can't afford the organic certification label? Probably not. Think globally. Act locally.

Paul Roberts on the future of food

In my opinion, Paul Roberts ranks right up there with Michael Pollan and Thomas L. Friedman when it comes to influencing positive change in the global food economy, so I am happy to link y'all up to a great article he wrote for Mother Jones, Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008 that examines the lesser known realities and complexities of alternative farming practices. It's sort of like a condensed version of his recent book, The End of Food. There is definitely a disconnect between the mass media push of organic and local foods and the actual impact, or reduced impact, that these choices may or may not represent.

I am particularly fond of what Fred Kirschenmann, former director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture had to say to Roberts about sustainability: "Real sustainability is defined not by a food system's capacity to ensure happy workers or organic lima beans, but by whether the food system can sustain itself—that is, keep going, indefinitely, in a world of finite resources. A truly sustainable food system is inherently resilient—more capable of self-correction and self-revitalization than its industrial rival."

Definitely read the entire article (found here) because there is far too many important pieces for me to highlight here on JS. For now, as always, I offer the following excerpt:

Food is not simple. To make it, you have to balance myriad variables—soil, water, and nutrients, of course, but also various social, political, and economic realities. But because our consumer culture favors fixes that are fast and easy, our approaches toward food advocacy have been built around one or two dimensions of production, such as reducing energy use or eliminating pesticides, while overlooking factors that are harder to define (and ditto to market), such as worker safety.

Consider our love affair with food miles. In theory, locally grown foods have traveled shorter distances and thus represent less fuel use and lower carbon emissions—their resource footprint is smaller. And yet, for all the benefits of a local diet, eating locally doesn't always translate into more sustainability. Because the typical farmers market is supplied by dozens of different farms, each transporting its crops in a separate van or truck, a 20-pound shopping basket of locally grown produce might actually represent a larger carbon footprint than the same volume of produce purchased at a chain retailer, which gets its produce en masse, via large trucks.

And for all our focus on the cost of moving food, transportation accounts for barely one-tenth of a food product's greenhouse gas emissions. Far more significant is how the food was produced—its so-called resource intensity. Certain foods, like meat and cheese, suck up so many resources regardless of where they're produced (a pound of conventional grain-fed beef requires nearly a gallon of fuel and 5,169 gallons of water) that you can shrink your footprint far more by changing what you eat, rather than where the food came from. According to a 2008 report from Carnegie Mellon University, going meat- and dairyless one day a week is more environmentally beneficial than eating locally every single day.

South Lawn Garden

With the Obama family (and yet-to-be-chosen pup) moving into 1600 Penn in a few short weeks, I suppose it is about time I join the camp that is lobbying for an organic, sustainable, inspirational, victory garden on the South Lawn.

In case you haven't heard about the "first family garden," the Washington Post published a great article earlier this week. Check it out here.

I just signed a petition on Eat The View and (of course) encourage you to do the same.

Heavy metal compost lot?

At first I wanted to post about James E. McWilliams article because of the following paragraph that quite nicely sums up conventional vs organic agriculture:

Conventional agribusiness, after all, is a chemically dependent, resource-intensive venture that contributes to global warming, aquatic "dead zones," and massive land degradation. Organic systems, by contrast, restore soil health, foster biodiversity, and recycle organic matter rather than lading the land with synthetic chemicals. Whereas conventional agriculture follows the law of supply and demand, organic agriculture follows what its founder, Sir Albert Howard, called "the law of return." Potential waste, according to this dictum, ends up enriching the soil.

But as I read on I thought, "Geez... Is nothing safe?"

So we know that chemical fertilizers used in conventional agribusiness result in the presence of excess metals like lead, nickel, mercury, copper, arsenic, zinc, and cadmium in soil but it turns out that the same toxins are in organic soil. Great.

So what is going into the compost pile? Animal manure, rock phosphates, fish emulsions, guano, wood ashes, etc. Doesn't sound so bad to me. James E. McWilliams' conclusion, as he wrote about in Slate, is that we should read the organic labels with more skepticism. But here's the thing, scientists have not conducted enough research to say that organic soil has higher counts of these heavy metals than conventional. I get the sense that the news here is that there is still a presence of these metals in organic soil and products and people should be aware of that. Thankfully, the Organic Trade Organization and the Organic Materials Review Institute are keeping a close eye on the issue.

As far as I'm concerned, it is hard to know exactly what we are putting into our bodies but I do know that the environmental impact of conventional industrialized farming is reason enough to opt for local, organic foods. I also like to believe that my Chinese foot detox patches pull excess metals out of my body regardless of how much heat I take for using them.

Organic versus Natural: What's the difference?

I spent a few minutes last night trying to explain the difference between produce labeled "certified organic," yogurt "made with organic ingredients," and a "natural" skin care product. I'm not an expert but I am a nerd so I did a little research (big surprise) and thought I should share my findings on the blog. So here goes:

Organic and Certified Organic
The term "organic" suggests that a botanical product was grown in an environment free of chemicals, fertilizer and pesticides. Chemical products are replaced by natural ones making the organic item bio-compatible with our bodies, more readily absorbed. The final product must be at least 95% organic in order for it to receive the Certified Organic stamp of approval. The Certified Organic label also assures that the producer passes regular inspections of their facilities, ingredients and practices as well as pays a fee for the certification. Some products will boast that they are "made with organic ingredients." This means that at least 70% of the material used is organic. The other 30% (or 5%) may or may not include additives and preservatives.

Natural
Now it gets complicated. Products labeled "natural" ensure that the final product is made solely from botanical resources without any use of additives or preservatives. We often see the term natural used in regards to meat and poultry. This means that the livestock was raised without the use of sub-therapeutic levels of antibiotics, growth stimulants, etc. The USDA says:

"...the term 'natural' may be applied only to products that contain no artificial ingredients, coloring ingredients, or chemical preservatives; and the product and its ingredients are not more than minimally processed. Minimally processed products that do not contain these types of ingredients, such as fresh meat and poultry, will automatically qualify for the use of the term 'natural' on product labeling."

Bottom Line
Look for the certified organic seal of approval on produce and anything packaged. When it comes to meat, which it's my my understanding should be consumed sparingly, opt for natural or free range. For more information, look around on http://www.organic.org/

(thnx Niko)