Special Series: The Secret to Success for Organic Apples in Washington State
Part I: A Tipping Point for Organic Apples in the Pacific Northwest?
Part I: A Tipping Point for Organic Apples in the Pacific Northwest? The remarkable growth since 2016 in organic apple production in Washington State has received almost no attention in the media, food industry, and public health communities. I paste in below a recent update from two Washington State University faculty members who follow closely […]
Different Dynamics Drive Growth in the Market for Organic Apples and Chicken
Out west in Washington State, Stemilt is rapidly expanding the acreage producing organic apples. Its supply of organic apples will be up 55% in 2017, compared to the 2016 crop. Honeycrisp volume will rise 250%, and fuji volume will be up 90%. Today, about 30% of Stemilt’s extensive apple acreage is managed organically. Virtually all […]
Guest Blog: Finding the Root Cause of Organic Fraud
By: Brian Baker Brian is a scientist specializing in organic practices, standards, and regulations. He has analyzed the impacts of organic food and farming on the environment and human well-being for several decades. Demand for organic food in the US continues to grow, but the domestic supply has been unable to keep pace. Sales […]
Guest Blog: Organic Food & Pesticide Residues, One Grower’s Perspective
Note from Hygeia — We invited Larry Jacobs (far right in photo), founder and president of Del Cabo and Jacobs Farm, to share his experiences in producing organic herbs and vegetables free of non-compliant pesticide residues. His history with illegal pesticides on organic foods spans decades. He has lost crops and markets in his company’s […]
Special Coverage
PCC’s “Sound Consumer” Calls the Question — “Eat organic, lower cancer risk by 25%?” What is Washington State Waiting For?
In October 2018, the highly regarded medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine published the results of a large French epidemiological study assessing the impact of organic food consumption on cancer. Their remarkable and encouraging core finding is that individuals who consume the most organic food have a 25% lower chance of facing a newly diagnosed cancer, […]
U.S. Organic Food Exports Set to Double to the EU
The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) issued a February 11, 2019 report highlighting information from its post in Berlin. The focus — US exports of mostly fresh organic fruits, vegetables, and milk. Data on processed organic food exports to Europe from the US is not as readily available, so many product categories are not covered […]
UK Program to Provide Fresh Fruits and Veggies to Schoolkids Needs Improvements, Report Shows
By Rachel Benbrook The state of kid’s nutrition is getting some renewed attention in the U.K. in response to a new report released by the UK Soil Association‘s Food for Life program. In particular, the British government’s program that provides free, fresh produce to young children in state funded schools, the School Fruit and Veg Scheme, is […]
Imagine…
There is a new epidemiology paper in JAMA Internal Medicine by a team of French government scientists that reports a 25% decrease in overall cancer risk from relatively high levels of organic food consumption, compared to little or no consumption, among a large cohort (just under 69,000 individuals, with 1,340 incident cancer cases four years post study […]