[RebeccaK]

This past Wednesday, Congress witnessed the first-ever hearing about organics before the House Agriculture Committee.  According to the article, "Organic farmers are vying this year to gain a toehold in the vast sprawl of federal farm aid programs as Congress rewrites its mammoth five-year farm bill set to expire later this year."

See link below for entire article.

Congress hears from organic growers over farm bill
Small farmers seek piece of spending that typically goes to big commodities
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Thursday, April 19, 2007

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/19/MNGD8PB4H91.DTL

Enjoy,
Rebecca

[CathyF]

In other organics news, today's Chronicle had an article entitled, "Switch to Organic Crops Could Help Poor." (Full article: http://tinyurl.com/2x228e)

"Organic food has long been considered a niche market, a luxury for wealthy consumers. But researchers told a U.N. conference Saturday that a large-scale shift to organic agriculture could help fight world hunger while improving the environment."

It's amazing that organics (and climate change, also again in today's news: yay) are really coming into the forefront; and many people seem willing and ready to jump onboard. This turning tide really makes it an exciting time to be promoting great health.

Also, just wondering, where people are finding the tastiest organics in Sonoma County. Whole Foods is fine, but some of their organic fruits and veggies are just so-so tasting (their organic apples never really do it for me). It's probably time to pull out my Farm Trails magazine. But are there other markets that do a great job with organics?

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