Some residents of Madison, Wis., are no eligible for a groundbreaking program that allows doctors to prescribe organic fruits and vegetables.

The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program, or FVRx, is focused at the neighborhood level and started earlier this month. It comes from the financial support of Wholesome Wave, and from a partnership between Willy Street Co-op North, and UW Health Northeast Family Medical, which are within a block of each other.

Wholesome Wave is a national group that is dedicated to affordable, healthy, local food for all. Its mission is to empower underserved consumers to make healthier food choices by increasing affordable access to fresh, local food. It funded the pilot with a $23,000 grant to the city of Madison.

Im extremely pleased that the city of Madison was awarded a Wholesome Wave grant to implement a Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program, said Madison Mayor Paul Soglin. By collaborating with partners at Public Health Madison and Dane County, Willy Street Co-op, Second Harvest Foodbank, and UW Health Northeast Family Medical Clinic, the city continues to illustrate how government and the community can work hand-in-hand to increase the well-being and health of all of our residents.

A patient can qualify for aid to help purchase produce and join the co-op if their doctor deems that they don't food security, or reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food.

To qualify for the aid, a patient has to answer yes to one of two questions: In the last year, have you worried about having enough food until you could buy more, or have you actually run out of food before you could buy more?

A Boost to Co-op Membership The aid comes in the form of a packet that includes a coupon to become a co-op owner, and 60 $2 coupons that can be used in the produce department until the end of the year. Participants can also join a program at the co-op that offers an additional 10 percent off groceries, and a free coupon to attend one of the co-op classes, which would normally charge a fee.

FVRx coupons can be used in conjunction with other co-op sales and coupons, including those redeemed via another new co-op program, known as Double Dollars, or any time a customer shops at any of the co-ops three locations.

The co-op is invested in continuing to expand the ways in which we can help address food security in Dane County, said Kirsten Moore, director of cooperative services. In addition to our established Access Discount Program, we are excited to work with our public and private partners to test new programs like Double Dollars and FVRx.

Moore added that the data collected from the pilot will help the co-op determine how to continue and fund these type of programs for the future. We already have some great ideas to share in the next few months, and we look forward to launching new initiatives to expand these offerings, she noted.

Founded in 1974, Willy Street Co-op, with more than 34,000 owners and three retail locations,is the Madison areas largest consumer-owned neighborhood grocer offering organic, locally produced and conventional foods.

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Willy Street Co-op to Dispense Organic Produce Prescriptions - Gourmet Retailer

Organic food has never been so popular among American consumers. Ironically, thats bad news for the brand that made organic a household name namely, the Austin-based Whole Foods.

On Wednesday, Whole Foodsreported what is arguably itsworst performance in a decade, announcing its sixth consecutive quarter of falling same-store sales and cutting its outlook for the year. The company is closing nine stores, the most it has ever closed at one time. A mere 16 months ago, Whole Foods predicted it would grow its 470 U.S. locations to more than 1,200.

[Your favorite organic brand is actually owned by a multinational food company]

The problem is one that chief executive John Mackey probably didnt predict when he first opened Whole Foods as a neighborhood natural foods store 36 years ago: Organics, then a fringe interest, have become so thoroughly mainstream that organic chains now have to face conventional big-box competitors. Mass-market retailers were responsible for 53.3 percent of organic food sales in 2015, according to the Organic Trade Association; natural retailers clocked in just north of 37.

And Whole Foods is hardly the only store feeling the squeeze: Sprouts and Fresh Market, the second- and third-largest publicly traded organic stores, have also seen falling stock prices.

Whole Foods created this space and had it to all to themselves for years, saidBrian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones. But in the past five years, a lot of people started piling in. And now there's a lot of competition.

In many ways, the story of Whole Foods decline is also the story of how the organic movement took over the United States. Between 2005 and 2015, sales of organic food increased 209 percent, according to the Organic Trade Association. Last year, organic sales topped $43.3 billion.

The driving force behind this growth, most analysts agree, is none other than millennials: Consumers aged 18 to 34 are the largest buyers of organics, and theyre the most likely to consider themselves knowledgeable about their food. As they came of age, mainstream grocery chains have been forced to adapt, too.

Walmart ramped up its organics selection in 2006. Kroger introduced its Simple Truth brand in 2012 the stores chief executive, Mike Ellis,later said it was the stores most successful brand launch ever. Earlier this week, Aldi announced plans for a $1.6-billion U.S. expansion, with much of that growth aimed at offering a wider range of organic and gluten-free products.

By volume, the largest organic retailer in the United States isbelieved to be Costco,which in 2015 sold $4 billion of organic produce and packaged foods. Like Walmart, Kroger and Aldi, Costco sells organic produce for considerably less than do natural food stores, farmers markets or Whole Foods. In fact, lowering prices has been one of Whole Foods primary strategies for dealing with competitors.

Apart from shuttering stores and stalling expansion plans, the company is continuing to focus on 365 by Whole Foods, a two-year-old division aimed at launching stores for value-conscious consumers. Its also been dropping prices at its regular locations and mailing out national discount circulars, something it had not previously done. Speaking to investors Wednesday, Mackey indicated that he did not want to see too big of a gap between the prices at Whole Foods and those at stores like Costco and Kroger.

Whole Foods is hoping millennials can revive the company's lagging sales by opening a new store, 365 by Whole Foods, which has lower prices, a vegan restaurant and robots. (Jayne Orenstein,Dani Johnson/The Washington Post)

[What to expect from Whole Foods' new, low-price grocery chain]

But some organic advocates are concerned that lowering the prices of organic foods an apparent prerequisite for mainstream popularity can only happen at the expense of the movements early principles. This fear is not entirely new: Michael Pollan fretted about it in the pages of the New York Times when Walmart began selling organic Rice Krispie treats 11 years ago. But with results like Whole Foods, it is becoming more urgent, said Ronnie Cummins, the co-founder of the Organic Consumers Association.

Cummins pointed out that some of the most successful, most mainstream organic products dont meet his organizations strict definition of what organic should be. Those include the ubiquitous Earthbound Farms, which grows its lettuces in monocultures, and Aurora Organic Dairy, which has been criticized for running its operation like an industrial factory farm.

If youre a publicly traded corporation, you have no choice but to maximize short-term profits, Cummins said. But we are going to be complaining to Whole Foods if they decrease their quality to keep up with the competition.

That approach may be most profitable now, he acknowledges but Whole Foods needs to think long-term. After all, when the company was founded, there was barely even a market for organic foods.

More from Wonkblog:

The simple mistake people make when they try to eat healthy

Is organic food safer and healthier? The guy in charge of U.S. organics wont say.

You could soon pay more money for worse food. Thanks, Donald Trump.

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Why Whole Foods is now struggling - Washington Post

The Freedom Caucus is a rowdy band of GOP US House members most famous for triggering government shutdowns, pushing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and driving former GOP Speaker John Boehner from his post on the theory he wasn't conservative enough. And now they're coming for your certified-organic food.

Back in December, the Freedom Caucus released a "recommended list of list regulations to remove." Among its 228 targetsranging from eliminating energy-efficiency standards for washing machines to kiboshing rules on private dronesthe group named the National Organic Program.

Merrigan warned that "forces of darkness" are "coming together and saying, 'Let's sharpen our knives on organic.'"

Operated by the US Department of Agriculture, the NOP was established by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 to set uniform national standards for foods and agricultural products labeled "USDA Organic," replacing the patchwork of state-level standards that had held sway for decades previously. The NOP ensures that food labeled organic really is raised without synthetic pesticides and fertilizersit also oversees USDA-accredited organic certifying agents and takes "appropriate enforcement actions if there are violations of the organic standards," according to the USDA.

As of 2015, annual organic food sales stood at $39.7 million, representing nearly 5 percent of total food sales. And sales for organics are growing at an 11 percent annual clipnearly four times the rate of overall US food sales.

It's not clear what the Freedom Caucus meant by putting the National Organic Program on a list of regulations to "remove"; the staff of US Rep. Mark Meadow (R.-NC), the Freedom Caucus stalwart who authored the list, has not returned my calls and emails asking for clarification. Organic food makes a strange target for deregulation, because organic regulations only apply to farms and food processors that voluntarily accept them. They prohibit, say, the spraying of synthetic pesticides only for a very certain kind of operationones that want to be certified organic.

Maybe it's a budget-cutting move? The Freedom Caucus document claims that the NOP's "cost" stands at $256 million, without naming how it defines cost. But the NOP's annual budget is just $9 million. And dismantling the NOP would generate massive chaos in the food market. A federally enforced, uniform, and fairly stringent set of rules would give way to a hodgepodge, leaving consumers flummoxed about what "organic" means.

The NOP's appearance in the Freedom Caucus' cross-hairs has caused alarm in organic circles, and it's not hard to see why. The Freedom Caucus' zeal for deregulation is nothing new, but until a few week's ago, the veto pen of Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate meant that the group could obstruct legislation and make plenty of trouble, but not actively legislate. Now there's a new new sheriff in towna fast-food scarfing Republicanand the GOP runs both aisles of Congress. Suddenly, the Freedom Caucus has jumped from fantasy island to a perch quite near the center of Washington power.

Dismantling the National Organic Program would generate massive chaos in the food market, leaving consumers flummoxed about what "organic" means.

Kathleen Merrigan, who served a long stint a deputy USDA secretary under Obama, has sounded the alarm. Merrigan is a canny DC operator who chooses her words carefully, and she knows the politics around organics as well as anyone. In addition to her recent USDA experience, she served as the head of the USDA agency that oversees the NOP under Bill Clinton, and she helped craft the federal act that created it while working as a Senate staffer in 1990. According to aPolitico account of her remarks at a food conference last week, Merrigan warned that "forces of darkness" are "coming together and saying, 'Lets sharpen our knives on organic.'"

Merrigan declined to be interviewed for more detail on what she meant by her "forces of darkness" remarks. She did confirm that she had the Freedom Caucus document in mind, as well as a Jan. 12 op-ed by the father-and-son lobbyists Marshall Matz and Peter Matz, of the powerhouse DC agribusiness lobbying firm Olsson, Frank & Weeda. In recent years, Marshall Matz's clients have included Nestle, agrichemical/seed giant Syngenta, and FMC, which makes carrageenan, a seaweed-derived food thickener that has emerged as a controversial additive in processed organic products like almond milk.

In their op-ed, the Matzes applauded the Freedom Caucus' naming of the NOP. But rather than call for the USDA's oversight of organics to to be nixed, they call for it to be "reformed." They acknowledge that organic food now represents a "significant market." And rather than focus on the NOP, the Matzes instead raised questions about another key USDA organic component, the National Organic Standards Board, a 15-member panel that, among other things, has a huge influence over what non-organic substances can be added to organic food.

The National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, as it has been known, has long been contentious terrain, pitting Big Food companies with organic subsidiaries against watchdog groups like the Cornucopia Institute. Broadly speaking, the corporations want wide leeway on additives, while the watchdog groups demand strict limits. In their op-ed, the Matzes declared that the "NOSB should leave the issue of food ingredient safety to the FDA."

In an email exchange, I asked the Matzes to clarify their position. Do they mean that food companies should be able to put any additive they want into, say, organic cookies, as long as the Food and Drug Administration deems is safe? They declined to say.

So what Merrigan called the "forces of darkness" coming for organic are indeed pretty obscure about exactly what they want. Does the Freedom Caucus really want to nix the National Organic Program to save $9 million per year? The $39.7 billion organic-food industry, whose participants include giant companies like General Mills and Nestle-owned Gerber organic baby productswould likely push back pretty hard. But with lobbyists like the Matzes operating in Trump's Washingtonand looking reasonable compared to Freedom Caucus deregulatory zealotsthe time might be ripe for making organic standards more friendly to corporations.

Originally posted here:

"Dark Forces" Are Coming for Your Organic Food - Mother Jones

Organic food products have an 8.4 percent market share in Denmark, the highest anywhere in the world. Photo: Sisse Stroyer/Scanpix

A new international report highlights just how popular organic food has become in Denmark.

Organic products account for 8.4 percent of the total food market in Denmark, a higher percentage than in any of the other 178 countries included in the report. Switzerland and Luxembourg followed Denmark, with 7.7 and 7.5 percent organic market shares respectively.

At the same time, our organic first place position is a clear signal to the export markets around the world that Danish organic companies are producing exciting quality food products that are popular with consumers, he added.

The FIBL report also showed that Danes have the second highest per capita spending on organic products at 191. Switzerland topped that category with 262 in per capita spending. The country with the biggest overall market for organic products was the United States by a wide margin.

The report was released in conjunction with the Biofach organic food trade fair in Germany, which a record 54 Danish organic food companies will attend.

Its not just within Denmark that the countrys organic revolution can be felt. kologisk Landsforening reported that exports of Danish organic foods have set a new record in each of the past ten years. In 2015, organic exports accounted for roughly two billion kroner, a 15 percent increase over the previous year.

Read more:

No one buys more organic food than the Danes: report - The Local Denmark

Size of organic food market is around Rs 3,350 cr, industry estimates suggest its growing 30% a year

Arnab Dutta | New Delhi February 10, 2017 Last Updated at 01:00 IST

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is drawing up guidelines to regulate organic food.

The regulator will put up draft guidelines for organic packaged food and commodities in the public domain for suggestions next month.

Organic food exporters are now required to obtain approval from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. There are no guidelines for domestic players.

The draft will propose setting up of a committee to suggest changes in the certification method being followed now.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is drawing up guidelines to regulate organic food.

The regulator will put up draft guidelines for organic packaged food and commodities in the public domain for suggestions next month.

Organic food exporters are now required to obtain approval from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. There are no guidelines for domestic players.

The draft will propose setting up of a committee to suggest changes in the certification method being followed now.

Arnab Dutta

http://bsmedia.business-standard.com/_media/bs/wap/images/bs_logo_amp.png 177 22

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FSSAI drafting organic food norms - Business Standard

Colorado consumers show with their pocketbooks their desire for organic foods. An increasing number of Colorado farmers are working to ensure stores and farm stalls are stocked to meet the demand.

In three years, Colorados organic agricultural industry has more than doubled in sales, growing from $66.2 million in 2012 to$155.2 million in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Agricultures annual Certified Organic Survey.

Consumers are more and more engaged in their food purchases than ever before and are not only wanting to know where their food comes from but also how it was produced, wrote Tom Lipetzky, the director of marketing programs and strategic initiatives at the Colorado Department of Agriculture, in an e-mail.

In 2011, the USDA reported that about 100,000 acres of Colorado farmland were certified organic, meaning it met specific requirements for farming and ranching methods. Now, organic farmland covers more than 155,000 acres statewide, with another 70,000 acres dedicated to organic pastureland and rangeland.

Transitioning from traditional to organic farming methods can be expensive. It takes about three years to gain organic certification, and there are expenses attached to complying with regulations. Many farmers transition slowly, beginning with a few acres.

The Hungenberg farm started on 7 acres in Greeley in 1907 and now covers 4,000 acres, largely planted in cabbage and carrots. Last year, for the first time, Hungenberg Produce dedicated about 62 acres to growing carrots using organic farming methods.

With the market trends, its not going away, co-owner Jordan Hungenberg said of consumers desire for organic foods. People buy organic a lot, so we decided we were behind the eight ball and decided to try it.

For farmers who sell to major supermarkets, the ability to put USDA certified organic stickers on produce goes a long way to ensuring financial success, said Becca Jablonski, an assistant professor and food systems extension economist at Colorado State University.

Tim Ferrell, owner of Berry Patch Farms in Brighton, has seen positive results. That (sticker) carries weight in the consumers mind, he said.

Ferrells farm has been certified organic for decades. He chose to grow organic for ethical reasons. We just do not feel comfortable using fertilizers that would infiltrate the water table, he said.

Ferrell also was drawn to the higher sales prices of organic foods.

Organic farming has a reputation of being expensive, but producers say that technological innovations have allowed them to grow and protect their crops efficiently and cheaper than in previous years while still using certified organic methods.

As more and more research is done, we can use products on the plant that arent chemical, said Kaylee Armstrong ofAbundant Life Organic Farms in Hotchkiss. People complain about costs and say organic is so much more expensive. We actually increase our prices to meet with conventional growers.

Hungenberg said his company expected to lose 25 percent of its organic crop the first year, and he knew hed have to hire more people to work the fields. Last season the company paid about 200 workers, as opposed to the usual 150-180, to work the fields, he said. Hungenberg lost about 65 percent of its organic crop, partially to a mid-summer hailstorm, but it remained profitable.

All in all it was a success, Hungenberg said of the first year of organic farming. We made a little bit of money on the deal not as much as we hoped, but we were still flush and that was a good thing.

Hungenberg plans to triple its planting of organically grown carrots next season, becoming the largest source of organic carrots in Colorado.

There are other concerns in the industry. One step in the evolution of organic farming that concerns Amstrong is the introduction of large corporations to the market.

We dont want to see them lobbying the government to make regulations lower, she said, which could lower the general quality of organic food. Weve already seen it in the egg industry, she said.

Programs exist to assist farmers with the costs involved in transitioning to certified organic farming methods, Jablonski said. In addition to a thriving market, Colorados dry climate is particularly hospitable to growing organic crops.

We have less humidity less diseases There are nota lot of organic sprays that one can use to combat mold and fungus, Ferrell said. We are in an ideal situation. Colorado is a fine state for farming organically.

Samantha Fox of the Greeley Tribune contributed to this story.

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Colorado farmers going organic to meet rising demand - The Denver Post

The management shake-up at SunOpta Inc. continued Monday, with the global organic food company revealing the name of its new president and CEO.

David Colo, a former executive at Diamond Foods who helped engineer the $1.9 billion sale of the snack foods company last year, started as SunOpta's chief executive on Monday. He will also become a member of the company's board of directors.

Meanwhile, Katrina Houde, who had served as interim CEO since Rik Jacobs stepped down from the position Nov. 11, will continue as a member of the company's board of directors, a position she has held since 2000.

Among the employees Colo will lead are 114 people who work at the company's manufacturing facility on Daniels Drive in Upper Macungie Township. Ontario-based SunOpta opened a consumer foods plant there in 2012 and, in 2015, completed a $25 million expansion of the facility to include aseptic processing capabilities.

"I'm honored and grateful to the board for the opportunity to lead SunOpta," Colo said in a news release. "Having worked in the industry for many years, I have long respected SunOpta's business and talented employees. The company has tremendous potential and I look forward to continuing the value creation plan set forth by the board."

It's been a busy last several months at SunOpta, starting in late June when the company announced it had hired financial and legal advisers to support a review of the company's operating plan and evaluate a range of strategic actions that could maximize shareholder value. That announcement came about a month after Tourbillon Capital Partners, then SunOpta's largest shareholder, urged SunOpta to sell itself after becoming frustrated with the company's performance.

Then, in early October, SunOpta announced a partnership with Oaktree Capital Management, a global investment management firm based in Los Angeles. Oaktree invested $85 million in SunOpta, which was used to reduce debt and boost financial flexibility.

In a news release, SunOpta Chairman Dean Hollis said Colo was "intimately involved" with Oaktree during his time at Diamond Foods, so the company expects an "extremely efficient integration into his role of leading the company and its value creation plan."

More details on that plan were disclosed in the company's third-quarter earnings release. In addition to Jacobs leaving, the changes included a swap atop the board of directors Chairman Alan Murray stepping down, with Hollis being appointed and the closure of the company's juice processing and packaging facility in San Bernardino, Calif.

Also disclosed was a third-quarter net loss of $3.4 million.

jon.harris@mcall.com

Twitter @ByJonHarris

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Organic food company with Upper Macungie plant names new CEO - Allentown Morning Call

We'll help you decide if you should buy organic.

KUSA , KUSA 10:50 PM. CST February 05, 2017

(Photo: KUSA)

KUSA - Walk into a grocery store and youre faced with a choice: do you buy costly organic food or cheaper traditional food?

Its easy to join the skeptics and wonder if the health boost is worth it. After all, organic food can cost you 30 to 60 percent more.

Theres not much difference in terms of quality, safety and nutrition between conventional and organic foods, registered dietician Malena Perdomo said.

The main difference between traditional and organic food? How its produced.

Its made without synthetic fertilizers, synthetic chemicals, and its also not being used with radiation, and not genetically engineered, Perdomo said.

Just because you might not have a full bank account doesnt mean you have to skimp on organic food.

Perdomo says there are lists that contain the foods with the most pesticide residue, and you can decide which foods you think are most worth getting organic.

Is buying organic worth it? It depends.

If you have money to spend on organic foods and vegetables, go for it, Perdomo said.

But if youre trying to be healthy, just eat more fruits and vegetables period. And even though somethings organic like a package of cookies that doesnt mean its healthy.

( 2017 KUSA)

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Organic food: Is it worth it? - WFAA.com

[Amrit] Pradhan is one of 66,000 farmers from Sikkim [a state in northeast India] who are part of a far-reaching experiment. Since last year, the states farmers have become 100% organic their produce is free of [synthetic] chemical pesticides or genetic modification [Editors note: there are no approved genetically modified fruits or vegetables approved or grown in India, anywhere].

It also means their fruit and vegetables are smaller, less colourful, and more expensive than the imported, non-organic produce from the city of Siliguri in the neighbouring state of West Bengal.

Last year, prime minister Narendra Modi lauded Sikkim for its organic farming, a programme that had gradually been rolled out across the state since 2003.

The farming techniques [in Indias Green Revolution] produced dramatic increases in yield, and new prosperity for farmers, especially in northern states such as Punjab and Haryana. India went from being a food-deficient country to a leading agricultural power.Food prices fell, but the farming methods took their toll on the environment increased water use, soil degradation and chemical run-off raising questions about the sustainability of such practices.

Amrit Pradhan

In 2016, Sikkims state government made the use of chemical pesticides a criminal offence, carrying a heavy penalty of 100,000 rupees (1,170) and up to three months in jail.

In India, where at least half of the countrys 1.25 billion population rely on farming as a primary source of income, and more than 15% of inhabitants are undernourished,according to the global hunger index, experiments with organic farming could come at a huge human cost.

In Sikkim, years of failed crops could affect tens of thousands of families while the land adjusts to the new methods.

[Farmer Amrit] Pradhan says the organic crop he produces does not sell well in Sikkim.Pradhan supports the governments organic initiatives, but fears the project will fail unless Sikkims residents start buying into the idea.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Sikkims organic revolution at risk as local consumers fail to buy into project

Read more from the original source:

India's consumers rejecting state's experiment to produce 100% organic: Food too expensive, less appetizing - Genetic Literacy Project

By News Desk | February 5, 2017

Loblaw Companies Ltd. is recalling one flavor of PC Organics baby food from retailers nationwide in Canada after a consumer complaint triggered an inspection that revealed the product could contain the toxin that causes botulism poisoning.

The recall includes only one lot of Presidents Choice (PC) Organics branded apple, blueberry and green pea strained baby food sold in pouches with twist-off caps, according to the recall notice on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website.

Check to see if you have the recalled product in your home. Recalled product should be thrown out or returned to the store where it was purchased, the government recall notice states.

Food contaminated with Clostridium botulinum toxin may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick. Symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness, blurred or double vision, dry mouth, respiratory failure and paralysis. In severe cases of illness, people may die.

Consumers can identify the recalled baby food pouches by looking for the following codes on the product packages:

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is investigating the situation and will post public recall warnings for additional products if necessary. The CFIA did not provide details about the nature of the consumer complaint or its investigation thus far in the recall notice posted Friday.

Consumers with questions can contact Loblaw Companies Ltd. toll-free by calling 888-495-5111 or by sending email to customerservice@presidentschoice.ca.

(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)

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Organic baby food pouches recalled for botulism risk - Food Safety News