October 2020 -

We are in for one wild ride!
Photo by 立志牟 on Unsplash

I’m as tired of sheltering in place as almost everyone is by now. It’s been months of not touching or seeing beloved friends and family. Zoom receptions don’t cut if – where’s the wine?

If the experts are right, we are ill-prepared for what’s yet to come ahead. This pandemic isn’t over, nor is the social unrest and discord in our political circles.

If you ask me, all people deserve the right to nutritious organic food, health care, education, clean energy and a planet that isn’t degraded.

While we sort this out and deal with a global pandemic, here are a few tips to keep us safe, sane and strong, while making the planet a better place.

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Culinary Delights, Environment, Organic Policy and Regulations, Social Implications in Agriculture, What is Organic

An Ode, an Ask and a Recipe for The Early Girl Dry Farmed Tomato

October 21, 2020October 21, 2020 Melody Meyer

Those early girls, they get me every time.

Those sweet young firmed-skinned beauties, blushing with the deepest blood-red fluids

that issue forth from their skin.

Punctuating and protecting a burst of seed and flavors that take me to the early taste of spring entranced with hints of late summer.

Their tasty tentacles embrace my culinary imagination.

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What is Organic

From Organic Gardening to Farming – You’ll Need More than a Green Thumb

October 19, 2020 Melody Meyer

Growing a crop is much different than gardening. Photo by Tony Pham on Unsplash

The summer is over and growing your own food in the garden has been fun and rewarding. If you have the land and inkling to move forward to actual farming, you’ll need some tools and tips to graduate to a full-fledged organic farm.

As exciting as it is, you need to work on making your farm as functional and profitable as possible. Organic farming is a big task that requires know-how, business acumen, and the right tools to get it right. Having a green thumb doesn’t hurt either!

From farm barn sheds to vehicles, you need to look at the nine things below so that you get it all right and your farm can run well.

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Organic Policy and Regulations, Social Implications in Agriculture, What is Organic

Albert Lusk: My Friend and Pioneer in the Organic Produce World

October 16, 2020October 18, 2020 Melody Meyer

My profession and personal life have been interwoven and influenced by Albert Lusk over the decades. He was driven by his passion for organic agriculture and founded Albert’s Organics in 1980 when Whole Foods had one location.

I was working at Community Foods, a Natural Food Store in Santa Cruz, in the early 1980s. When Albert began delivering organic produce from Southern CA, our store expanded its organic offerings.

He came to be a friend and a mentor, sometimes a competitor, and he married my good friend, Claris Ritter.

Over time his company became the largest certified organic wholesale distributor of organically grown fresh produce in the United States. It was purchased by United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) in 1998. A few years later, UNFI purchased my company, Source Organic. I became part of the Albert’s Organic family and carried on his legacy there.

Albert retired and moved to Costa Rica. He was fond of hiking to a wild waterfall in Braulio Carillo National Park.

In late September, he went missing with his car as the only clue to his whereabouts near this densely forested region.

Albert loves hiking in the Mountains of Costa Rica

While the search is not over, the story of this organic pioneer can be heard from the many produce veterans who helped him build a nationwide organic produce network.

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What is Organic

How Retailers Can Make a Difference in the Fight to Save Pollinators and Our Food

October 7, 2020 Melody Meyer

Pollinators responsible for one in three bites of food we eat!
Photo by Vladimir Haltakov on Unsplash

It’s the beginning of fall here in the Northern Hemisphere. My garden is in its final throes of budding with stubborn late-season beans, squash and cucumbers. The pollinators are still hungrily at work, careening about with great pantaloons of golden pollen.

The earth has tilted as it has for a millennium, yet all is not as it once was. Our pollinators, honeybees and butterflies, are in the midst of a great epoch of decline. In fact, it’s the same for all winged insects.

This “insect apocalypse” includes the decimation of bees and butterflies—the very pollinators responsible for one in three bites of food we eat.

Food retailers are just beginning to address the routine use of toxic pesticides in their supply chains that contribute to pollinator decline. Friends of The Earth aims to accelerate their progress.

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