Free Republic

I have a new hero: Eden Foods founder and CEO Michael Potter. Eden Foods is an organic company popular among the “crunchy, liberal crowd” which has filed suit against the Obama administration over the HHS mandate. Potter is getting slammed over it, thanks in part to a hit piece last week in Salon magazine which publicized the suit and framed Potter as a man with an anti-birth control agenda. Don’t waste your time on the original article. Instead, enjoy the refreshing quotes from the no nonsense, plain-speaking Mr. Potter in Salon’s follow-up piece from Monday relating a telephone conversation between...

“There’s so much malevolence in your approach to this, I really don’t see a lot of value in talking to you, Irin,” said Michael Potter, the CEO of Eden Foods, back on the phone on Wednesday. Over the last week, I’d reported that his organic food company (marketed to the crunchy, liberal set) was suing to avoid having to cover contraception in employee health plans — as well as his subsequent phone call to me in which he doubled down by saying he didn’t actually care about birth control, because he’s a man, but is suing because “Obama’s in your...

Genetic engineering in agriculture has disappointed many people who once had hopes for it. Excluding, of course, those who’ve made money from it, appropriately represented in the public’s mind by Monsanto. That corporation, or at least its friends, recently managed to have an outrageous rider slipped into the 587-page funding bill Congress sent to President Obama.[1] The rider essentially prohibits the Department of Agriculture from stopping production of any genetically engineered crop once it’s in the ground, even if there is evidence that it is harmful.

Organic products make people feel more secure about their own morality, which weakens the desire to act altruistically, the US findings suggest. The effect also makes people judge immoral behavior more harshly, psychologists report in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. But comfort foods such as chocolate can lead to us being more social and making "kinder moral judgments".

I’m not sure which is my favorite part — probably where the young woman explained that “food is free, all you have to do is pay the farmers” — but I think the “vegetable trees” was the best. Actually, I think the most edifying part was watching the Santa Cruz, California city council sit impassively to the very end, or maybe the strangled applause just before they asked for the next speaker.

Consider it a modern take on the legendary tale of Johnny Appleseed. Vancouver, B.C., has announced plans to plant 150,000 fruit and nut trees on city streets, in parks, and on city-owned lands in the next eight years, reports the Vancouver Sun. At the moment, the city has about 600 fruit and nut trees on city streets, and another 425 can be found in the city's parks, community gardens, and pocket orchards. "Street trees play an important role in helping Vancouver adapt to climate change, manage stormwater run-off, support biodiversity, and even provide food," Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a...

for dinner. Last week, researchers from Stanford University published the results of the most comprehensive study to date on organic and conventional foods. Their conclusion? Organic foods have no more vitamins and nutrients than traditionally grown produce. I can’t say I’m surprised. Chicken is chicken, with the same nutritional content, whether it is organic, free range or mass-produced. But now scientists have confirmed it, perhaps we can begin to have a proper conversation about the food we put on our table. The Stanford University team reviewed more than 200 studies which compared either the health of those who ate organic...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Organic produce and meat typically isn't any better for you than conventional varieties when it comes to vitamin and nutrient content, according to a new review of the evidence. But organic options may live up to their billing of lowering exposure to pesticide residue and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, researchers from Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System found. "People choose to buy organic foods for many different reasons. One of them is perceived health benefits," said Dr. Crystal Smith-Spangler, who led the new study. "Our patients, our families ask about, ‘Well, are...

Ever get the sneaking suspicion that corporations -- or hell, even the mango vendor at the local farmers' market -- are conspiring to use your fear of ingesting chemicals to get you to spend more money on food? Those who worry that they're being misled about the veracity of certain "organic" claims will soon have a pricy tool to protect themselves; at least in theory. Lapka has created a personal environmental monitor via a sleek iPhone accessory and app that claims to be able to test for radiation, electromagnetic fields, humidity, and organicity by way of four separate plug-ins. The...

President Obama told reporters today that mortgage refinancing should be made easier “because they’ve got an extra $2,000 in their pocket. Then they can buy more hoagies or go shop for some outstanding organic foods,” according to pool reports. The president was speaking at a small business roundtable attended by the owners of D.C.-based Taylor Gourmet, a sandwich shop, and Yes! Organic Markets. The president spent $62.79 on sandwiches at Taylor Gourmet, and ordered a foot-long “Spruce Street” hoagie, “which has roast turkey, prosciutto, roasted red peppers, and sharp provolone,” according to the pool.

Old MacDonald had a farm. Until the Marxists stepped in, that is. With the American dream of the Constitutional Republic fast fading from view, the family farm is next on the Obama regime’s ever expanding hit list. ...The agenda to wipe out the family farm is being set by a deadly duo, George Soros, who is buying up farmland like some folks buy Black Friday goodies, and the Communist-cheered Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. We the People can count on food being the new frontier for takeover by control seeking Marxists frontier for takeover by control seeking Marxists installed...

We were told our food was unfit for consumption and demanded that we call off the event... Quail Farm The evening was everything I had dreamed and hoped it would be. The weather was perfect, the farm was filled with friends and guests roaming around talking about organic, sustainable farming practices. Our guests were excited to spend an evening together. The food was prepared exquisitely. The long dinner table, under the direction of dear friends, was absolutely stunningly beautiful. The music was superb. The stars were bright and life was really good. And then, …for a few moments, it felt...

Monsanto has announced it will scrap plans to sell an insect-resistant maize in France, the second move in a week by biotech company to retreat from the genetically modified foods market in Europe. Monsanto's announcement on Tuesday (24 January) came a week after Germany's BASF said it would suspend the development of GM crops in Europe and move its plant science arm to the United States. BASF's move is a particular blow for Europe, said Carel du Marchie Sarvaas, director of agricultural biotechnology at EuropaBio. "The BASF decision is not good for Europe because I think it is the reaction...

DENVER (AP) — Charles Palmer is a hardy 71-year-old former Marine and Vietnam veteran who trains cockatiels to say "Semper Fi" and "Whatcha doin', man?" He also loves fruit — and especially melon for lunch. "He's never one to get sick," said his wife, Tammie. The Colorado Springs man ate a cantaloupe that was purchased in mid-August, his wife said. Within several days, he was overcome by an excruciating headache. The next morning he was extremely weak and gripped by dry heaves, his wife recalled. "I started slapping his face and saying, 'You've got to talk to me,' but he...

The Who’s Who of Munich Cultural Life (1937) proclaimed “all of Germany has become his garden” for Alwin Seifert, the organic-first gardener was fashionably green and fascist. In How Green Were the Nazis? Thomas Zeller adds, “Seifert, however, was constantly trying to extend his influence. The chaotic style of governance in Nazi Germany matched his strategy of molding alliances, especially since he enjoyed the tacit protection of his two most powerful patrons, Hess and Todt.” As I’ve noted, there’s a wide difference between peaceful made-for-television environmentalists and reality, or power-hungry greens. “With Hess, he shared an interest in Steiner’s methods...

E. Coli Not Found in Initial Testing of Sprouts By JUDY DEMPSEY and JAMES KANTER Published: June 6, 2011 BERLIN — A day after German agricultural officials identified locally grown sprouts as a possible cause of the E.coli outbreak that has killed 22 people and sickened more than 2,200, the officials said Monday that initial tests had failed to show conclusively that the bacteria originated with the sprouts. Results from the first 23 of 40 tests on several varieties of sprouts came back negative, said officials from the agriculture ministry in the state of Lower Saxony. The ministry did not...

German Organic Farm 'Behind E.coli Outbreak' 4:13am UK, Monday June 06, 2011 The E.coli outbreak could have been caused by vegetable sprouts grown on an organic farm in Germany, an official has said. German beansprouts are said to be behind the E.coli outbreak Preliminary tests found that bean sprouts and other sprout varieties from the farm in the Uelzen area, between the northern cities of Hamburg and Hannover, could be traced to infections in five German states, Lower Saxony Agriculture Minister Gert Lindemann said. "There were more and more indications in the last few hours that put the focus on...

From a runner-bean spotted spiralling along the balcony balustrade of a Beijing apartment, to long waiting-lists for allotments, a plethora of gardening websites and a mushrooming of organic farms and shops, Chinese families are increasingly looking to "grow their own". In recent years China has been hit by a number of food scandals and fears about safety have lingered. In 2008, 300,000 babies became seriously ill and six babies died after being given formula contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. In April this year, police seized 40 tons of beansprouts which had been treated with dangerous growth promoting chemicals and...

Four weeks after the government moved to shut down Amish farmer Dan Allgyer for selling fresh, unpasteurized milk across state lines, angry moms who made up much of his customer base rallied on the Capitol’s grounds Monday to demand that Congress rein in the food police. The moms milked a cow just across the street from the Senate and served up gallons of fresh milk, playfully daring one another to drink what, if sold across state lines, would be considered contraband product. “The FDA really screwed up this time. They got between a mom and a farmer,” said Mark McAfee,...

Gemeinnutzgeht vor Eigennutz. (The common good supersedes the private good.) ~ Nazi slogan Prologue Fanatical environmentalism, vegetarianism, animal rights and public health are four progressive policy initiatives that most people would not readily associate with Hitler and the Nazis. "Unlike Marxism, which declared much of culture and humanity irrelevant to the revolution, National Socialism was holistic," wrote Jonah Goldberg. Indeed, "organic" and "holistic" were the Nazi terms of art for totalitarianism. The Mussolinian vision of everything inside the state, nothing outside the state, was organic-ized by the Nazis. In this sense, the Bavarian cabinet minister Hans Schemm was deadly serious...