The Organic View

What would you do if you lost your dog or cat? Most people would be devastated. Domestic animals have become such a part of our lives, it is almost impossible to even think about what it would be like if they were no longer a part of our lives. This is all the more reason why pet owners really need to think about what kind of food they are feeding their animal companions. Last year, there were over 60 million cans and pouches of pet food recalled from China that it literally sent Americans into a panic, as they raced to their vets to make sure their pets were in good health. People learned the hard way that they cannot just opt to buy anything that is available on the shelf. If people made some effort to make their own pet food, their animal companions would live a longer, healthier life, without so many trips to the vet. In this day and age, just one trip to the vet has become a small fortune. It just is not worth it! In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, my guest will be Dr. Harvey Cohen, Founder and CEO of www.DrHarveys.com Dr. Harvey is a renowned expert on animal health and nutrition. He lectures extensively throughout the United States, Japan, Canada and Europe, on the health and nutrition of all creatures, great and small. If you want to learn more about keeping your animal companion healthy and happy, stay tuned!

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but what would you do if you found that all of your favorite cosmetics irritated your skin? Then to top it off, you found out that they were tested on animals? In this segment of The Organic View, I have the pleasure of interviewing Katherine Corkill, President of Sterling Minerals (http://www.sterlingminerals.com) Katherine has embraced the challenges of finding cosmetics that actual work well with a mature woman. In fact, she even launched her own series of videos that really help women to understand that beautiful women can be of any age. If you want to find out how one woman decided to overcome an obstacle and help other women, stay tuned!

The Ancient Egyptians used honey for medicinal purposes as well as for beauty. In Hawaii, there is a very active apiary community. Hawaiians are making a concerted effort to promote organics as well as the importance of bees in nature. In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, I will be talking to a bee keeper named Anthony Maxfield that decided to share his knowledge and the healing potential he discovered while working with directly with honeybees. His wife Gwen, actually noticed the softness of his skin and asked him to create a skin cream for her so that she also have skin as soft as his. The cream was amazing! So, Anthony and Gwen collaborated with their long time friend Christina Sirlin to create Honey Girl Organics. Honey Girl produces a wide variety of skin care products that are made in Hawaii and derived from their very own honey. Honey, beeswax, pollen and propolis are great antioxidants as well as anti-inflammatories. They scavenge free radicals and are collagen stimulators. These ingredients are natural emollients and humectants that also supply your skin with nutritious amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Honey Girl uses ingredients that are collected from their own hives located in forested areas on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii which are also organically maintained. So, whether you are a bee keeper and want to learn more about different things you can make with honey or just simply want to find out about the wonderful benefits of honey, stay tuned!

Not too long ago, people thought of organic food as mostly consisting of tofu, bean sprouts and granola. I honestly can tell you that tofu is not exactly I think of as being a top choice for an ingredient with meal planning. The times certainly have changed! Today, there are so many varieties of organic foods available, that it is amazing how much the industry has grown. One key player in the organic industry is Nature's Path which has clearly become a household name. Founded in 1985, Nature's Path Organic Foods is headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia and employs over 300 people at its four facilities in Canada and the United States. The privately held, family-owned company produces breakfast foods and snacks sold in specialty foods stores and retailers in 40 countries around the world. The company's innovative brands include Nature's Path®, Flax Plus, EnviroKidz® and Optimum®. Nature's Path truly follows my heart. They produce foods that are not only organic, but really make a concerted effort to change the perception of what organic foods consist of. ?Healthy foods don't need to be boring and tasteless. Which is why we spend our days and nights dreaming up new recipes, tracking down exotic new ingredients, and researching the latest (or most ancient) superfoods.? Talk about a vision! In this segment of The Organic View, I have the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Arran Stephens, Founder of Nature's Path. (http://www.naturespath.com) He truly lives up to his company's vision which is to be a trusted name for quality organic foods in every home; socially responsible, environmentally sustainable and financially viable. If you want to find out how the family got started and learn about the story behind greatness, stay tuned!

Oregon Tilth, Inc. is one of the leading certifying agencies that issues organic certification to farmers, manufacturers, etc. The certification is issued providing that all of the requirements are met in order to be deemed certified organic. It is by far a very difficult certification to obtain and is also very expensive. There is a lot of work that actually goes into certifying something to be organic. Earlier this month, the folks from Trump International Hotel & Tower® Chicago announced that they will now be the first luxury hotel in North America to offer a certified organic, in-room dining menu. Oregon Tilth was responsible for that certification and it is a hard certification to obtain. It is not a matter of filling out some paper work or paying someone a little extra green but it is an entire process that is checked and double checked by people who really are very thorough. In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, my guest will be Ms. Gwendolyn Wyard. She is a seasoned expert in the certification process and will discuss in detail what exactly the role of a certifier entails. She will also discuss the inspection process, why consumers can trust their process and how consumers can influence regulatory changes. If you want to get a better understanding of what the certification process is all about, stay tuned!

Have you ever been out for breakfast, on the road, or just reached into the fridge only to find that the orange juice you are served is not only watered down but gives you heartburn from all of the acid? Cause? - the quality of the orange as well as other additives which preserve freshness, color and flavor. Odd thing is the flavor always seems to be missing. Face it, orange juice has been and will remain a breakfast staple in the American household. Good orange juice is not easy to find. That's because most orange juice is not only from frozen concentrate, which is going to immediately distort the flavor but also has other things in it that will offer at best, a hint of what an orange is supposed to taste like. Why is it that when you buy orange juice, for the most part it is from ?concentrate?? Why can't we just get some pure juice from the fruit without all of the junk in it? Ever notice that these juices from concentrate also have a dark orange color but no flavor? Are the marketers confusing the consumer by adding food coloring to make the juice more appealing? Even with the juice that is ?not from concentrate? why does it seem as though the majority of the juice you drink seems to have more pulp and added vitamins than anything else? Orange juice by ?conventional? standards is just too confusing to most consumers. Thank God, we have a growing number of organic citrus farmers that have decided to do something about it! In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, Matt McLean, CEO &Founder, Uncle Matt's Organic, Inc. (http://www.unclematts.com) will be my guest. Matt McLean ventured into the organic juice business in 1999 with a passion for healthy living as well as a long family history of growing citrus in Florida. Matt's goal was and still is, to produce the highest quality juice, using only premium 100% organically-grown fruit that is free from synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Everywhere you go, you will find all sorts of lattes, flavored specialty coffee, and coffee flavored treats. They are even appearing at the infamous golden arches. These new fancy beverages are actually the last hope conventional coffee has in order to save market share. The average cup will cost anywhere from $3.50-$5.99 per cup. While the conventional coffee prices are skyrocketing, coffee connoisseurs can now afford to explore all of the wonderful flavors of organic and Fair Trade coffee. In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, Mr. Dave Weber, Vice President, Mountanos Brothers Coffee Company will be my guest. Dave is a 30 year veteran of the specialty coffee industry and will discuss the importance of the organic certification, Fair Trade certification and the current trends in this very competitive market place. Stay tuned!

Sept 15, 2010 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA). This is the landmark law that standardized organic food and farming systems across the U.S. which will be commemorated by testimony at a special Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing to publicly acknowledge the many environmental and health benefits of organic agriculture. This is a call for more government funding and participation in increasing the amount of organic food produced and consumed in the U.S. In this segment, my guest is Mr. Steve Gilman. Mr. Gilman was an organic farmer growing for Farmers Markets, restaurants and a CSA in the Saratoga, NY area for 30 years before becoming the Managing Director of an on-farm organic research project in the northeast, from Maryland to Maine from 2002 -- 2005. Since then he's been the Policy Director for the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Interstate Council, the representative to a number of national groups including the National Organic Coalition and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition working with farming and environmental groups across the country. Stay tuned!

Often, many people that I meet tell me that they would love to live on a farm the way I did as a child. In a heartbeat, they would gladly escape the concrete jungle to breathe in fresh air and be able to see the stars in the heavens in the moonlit sky. Farming really does have many wonderful advantages and is also very therapeutic. There really is nothing like growing your own food and being able to sink your hands into the soil. Many people have often thought about taking the plunge and relocating to the country but are not sure how or what to do. While we have well established paths to train qualified plumbers, accountants, electricians, doctors and more, there isn't the same kind of path for farmers. The Northeast Organic Farming Association otherwise referred to as NOFA is just one of many organizations that are working together to create a first rate collaboration to make the region a great place to learn to farm. As public interest in local and organic food grows, the number of farmers who produce food to meet that demand needs to increase dramatically. Growing food, especially organic food, requires a lot of knowledge and a wide variety of skills. However, it is something that is not too difficult to understand, it is a matter of learning. In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, my guest will be Mr. Bill Deusing, Executive Director of CT NOFA to talk about some of the steps the northeast is taking to encourage organic farming.

Ever wonder why organic food costs more? Some people think it is just some kind of a marketing scam and thanks to clever marketers which utilize ?green-washing? techniques, consumers are confused now more than ever. What exactly should you buy? Why is it worth the money? Who really benefits from organic? In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, my guest will be Ms. Harriet Behar. She is a specialist with the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service otherwise known as MOSES (www.mosesorganic.org ) Harriet co-authored the ?Good Organic Retailing Practices? manual, which is copyrighted by the Organic Trade Association. She is also a member of the IOIA inspector training coordinator pool that has led IOIA organic inspector trainings around the US and Latin America since 1996. Because of her work with MOSES, Harriet Behar has conducted training, on-site farm tours which introduced organic agriculture and organic certification requirements to farmers, feed mill operators, bankers, extension agents, NRCS personnel, and other agriculture education professionals. She runs the MOSES Farmer to Farmer Mentoring Program, as well as co-coordinating the MOSES Organic University each February prior to the MOSES Organic Farming Conference.

Everyone that eats organically and understands the importance of eating high quality organic foods from the USA has atleast one Eden Organics product in their cupboard. Eden Foods, Inc., (also known as Eden Organic), is the oldest family owned organic food producer in the United States and the largest supplier of organic dry grocery items. Mr. Michael Potter, President of Eden Foods will be on the show to discuss how his company started off as a co-op and grew to become the largest company to impact the organic industry!

What would you do if you found out that a drug you were using was causing harm to your animals and was also toxic to humans? Would you still continue to use it knowing that ethically it is wrong to profit from the pain and suffering of others? This was just the case with John Kinsman, when he blew the whistle on Monsanto’s prized drug, (trade name) Posilac, which was being sold to dairy farmers. It is more commonly known as the Bovine Growth Hormone or rBGH. John Kinsman is President of the Family Farm Defenders (FFD). John is also a life-long dairy farmer from Lime Ridge, Wisconsin. On his farm he raises 36 cows on his 150-acre farm. 80 of those acres are devoted to hay and pasture. The other 70 acres are devoted to woodland management. John is clearly a man who leads by example. Through the FFD, John works to forge new consumer-farmer direct marketing strategies for dairy products. His organization is now marketing Cedar Grove cheese, which carries a label that clearly identifies that the cheese is produced by family farmers and is free of genetically engineered products. John also advocated for efforts to ban use of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) and educated farmers and consumers about its negative effects. As a result of his efforts, the Food and Drug Administration forestalled the rBGH approval for seven years and bovine growth hormone is now struggling in the marketplace. He has traveled around the world to talk with farmers about the potential dangers of genetic engineering in agriculture and the need to change US dairy policy. Today on The Organic View Radio Show, I am going to interview Mr. Kinsman, who is one of the most outspoken dairy farmers in the USA. He will talk about his experience with Monsanto and his work trying to help dairy farmers of America. Stay tuned!

Honeybees have been under severe stress for several years. One of the key reasons is the loss of control options for the invasive parasitic mite varroa destructor. The Varroa mite is the parasite with the most pronounced economic impact on the beekeeping industry. It may be a contributing factor to colony collapse disorder (CCD), as research shows it is the main factor for collapsed colonies in Ontario, Canada. NOD Apiary Products has developed an organic treatment product using formic acid as the active ingredient, in a bio-degradable matrix. It is currently under the pesticide review process at the EPA. My guest in this segment of The Organic View will be Mr. David VanderDussen. David has been a beekeeper since 1975. By the time he finished high school he had 75 colonies of bees. Obviously, his parents were very accommodating. David started working with commercial beekeepers in 1979, and in 1981 started his own commercial beekeeping outfit. David has been active in the Ontario Beekeepers Association. He served on the Board of Directors and is a past President. Varroa mites were found in Canada in 1992. NOD Apiary Products was founded in 1997, to be a vehicle to register organic treatments for bee diseases, and to encourage the adoption of sustainable beekeeping practices. David was a founding partner in NOD Apiary Products, incorporated in 1997. He is the CEO of NOD Apiary Products, which manufactures Miteaway, http://www.miteaway.com

Imagine if you live in an area where drug dealers and gang members were killing animals randomly in order to sell more drugs and commit more crimes with the money they gained? A group of people are dealing with this very issue in South Africa and they decided to do something about it. They pooled their resources and reached out to the community and started Africam.com. Millions of people now tune in to this live stream that is coming directly to their PC's, blackberries, etc in order to view these beautiful creatures as they exist in their natural habitat. Each of the cams has a unique history and infrastructure that supports it. Africam.com requires the commitment of many people and organizations that include the nature reserves, conservation bodies, game parks and dedicated people whose passion it is to share their love of wildlife. One of the most heinous situations that this group is dealing with is in regards to poachers who are mercilessly and cruelly slaughtering rhinos just for their horn and hooves. These poachers are very sophisticated and are armed with night vision, automatic weaponry as well as chain saws to hack off the animal parts while the poor creature suffers a very painful death. Often, these low lives will kill the mother and leave the calf behind with no hope of survival. On this segment of The Organic View, I will interview Mr. Paul Penzhorn, founder of Africam.com who will talk about the efforts of the organization which is dedicated to the preservation of all wild animals in their natural community. Stay tuned!

Annie Christopher founded Annie's Naturals in 1984 and has produced some of the most popular organic foods that kids absolutely adore. The company has come a long way and has also introduced its new line of healthy, yummy and organic fruit snacks which have become a much welcomed part of every kid's lunchbox. In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, I am going to talk to the folks from Annie's to discuss why organic snacks are so important to children and how to introduce organic foods into your child's diet. Stay tuned!