1% For the Planet

You may not be familiar with Clif Bars. They are similar to many other energy bars, but they are made locally of mostly organic ingredients right here in the Bay Area. In this author's humble opinion, they are pretty good.

Once day, I realized this small logo on the back of the packaging. 1% For The Planet, it read. What does it mean?

This solution is dead-simple, but elegant. It also says a lot about the companies involved. How many of us would agree to donate 1% of our income to charity? Even just 1%? Now take that same idea, and apply it to the profits of an entire company. That's big.

There are currently 1,386 companies donating to 2,158 environmental organizations worldwide. And you don't have to donate 1% of your income to help. Just buy anything these companies make. Simple.

Humane Certified Egg Whites

These egg whites purport to be "humane certified." That led me to the American Humane Certified site. While I'd heard of free-range eggs, I had never seen this before. I didn't know what to think. At first, I thought this must be good for the consumer. However, once I looked at the requirements of becoming a certified producer, I found a byzantine maze of legal and scientific jargon. Those farms that make it through the gauntlet of tests then have the privilege of signing a license agreement to use the logo in their products. While American Humane does not appear to make a profit from the fees it collects for the certification process, there are some interesting allegations on the Peta site and others questioning AHA's practices.

While I question it's impartiality as well, perhaps it's time for the FDA to step in and regulate organic and free-range produce? It's the devil we know.

Belly Burger - Niman Ranch Beef

I can't be out all of the time saving the world one tree-stranded cat at a time. Even I have to eat. This particular evening I found myself at Belly Burger on Geary. I wound up getting a turkey burger with avocado. But for the sake of argument, let's consider the Niman Ranch beef served (upon request, with surcharge) at Belly Burger.

The cattle are handled according to strict protocols from pasture to plate, from field to fridge. Even the slaughter is regulated. Every individual animal is traceable to an individual farm.

All of this is good. However, they don't make Niman Ranch beef like they used to. In August 2007, founder Bill Niman was forced out of the company by a hostile board of directors over the operations and animal handling procedures. Substances which Bill Niman refused to use began to be used soon thereafter. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss much worse than the old boss.

Certified Organic

What does this phrase mean, "certified organic." It depends on who you ask. There has been significant legal wrangling over the term "organic," and what must be done (or not done) in order to lable a product as such.

With the "USDA Organic" seal stamped on its label, Anheuser-Busch calls its Wild Hop Lager "the perfect organic experience."

But many beer drinkers may not know Anheuser-Busch got the organic blessing from federal regulators even though Wild Hop Lager uses hops grown with chemical fertilizers and sprayed with pesticides. [...]

[...] Many nonorganic ingredients, including hops, are already being used in organic products, thanks to a USDA interpretation of the Organic Foods Protection Act of 1990. In 2005, a federal judge disagreed with how the USDA was applying the law and gave the agency two years to fix it. [...]

[...]

"There is no effective mechanism for identifying a lack of organic ingredients," complained executives of Pennsylvania Certified Organic, a nonprofit certifying agent, in a letter to the USDA. "It is a very challenging task to 'prove a negative' regarding the organic supply."

All of this is quite frustrating. The law was clearly not intended to be used in this way, and yet here it is being twisted by large moneyed interests.

Fortunately for me, the certifying authority for the apple, IMO Control, is using the a standard adapted from and meeting two European Union organic certification standards. While this may not be to the caliber of Demeter International organic certified grapes, we are moving in the right direction, but it seems like it's two steps forward and one step back with organic certification.

Articles like "Towards a post-materialist understanding of science – lessons learnt form the interface of biodynamic agriculture and research"give me hope for the future of this movement:

Sustainability-oriented development research aims to contribute to reshaping current relations between ecology, society and economy as part of a social learning process. This requires that the role of science be redefined as part of a societal form of knowledge production. This means to integrate science and so-called ‘local knowledge’. Local forms of knowledge cover a wide range of issues related to organic and biodynamic agriculture, complementary medicine, solidarity based economy and currency systems. Science and scientists are playing an important role in these movements. But by bringing science into a process of social change science becomes transformed form a disciplinary towards a transdisciplinarity framework of orientation.

Prepackaged Nightmare

I found this gem in Burlington Coat Factory in San Francisco, of all places. They appear to be s'mores, but not like you know them. The dubiously named Fun Pack Foods ships these from their factory… somewhere in the USA. This isn’t even the most recent iteration of this roasted-marshmallow chocolate treat. Look what I found online with a little detective work:

I find this product fascinating. The prospect of conveniently processed s’mores is not completely unappealing to me. However, I only use the finest ingredients. How can I trust this product? There isn’t even a discernible brand name logo on the product. This is a red flag. Second is the name of the product. Even generic food isn’t this bad. With such low production values on the packaging, I can’t be too confident about what I find inside. There appears to be nothing at all appealing about this design.

From the product page:

Everything you need for all camping fun. Kit Includes: 4 roasting sticks, 1 bag of chocolate, 1 bag of marshmallows, 1 package of graham crackers, campfire songs and the history of s’mores

I don’t know where to begin. I find it laughable that I need nothing more for camping fun. However, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. I had neither the opportunity nor the desire to sample the product.

I find the non-food items to be most interesting. Campfire songs are an obvious value-add to the product. Many products use this technique, usually to better effect. I can only imagine what the history of s’mores entails, but I’m sure it’s a great yarn to tell around a campfire. Maybe this would be fun? We could throw up the tent in the backyard, maybe build a fire. The kids would have a good time, and my wife would turn to me and say, “Honey, I love you.”

The preceding is a work of satire. Of course, we probably don’t think consciously think about all of these things when we look at a product, especially one as important as food. Processed foods dominate most grocery stores, and even the most selective consumer would find it difficult to avoid them entirely. That is why it’s so important to concentrate while shopping. Entire marketing departments spend millions of dollars to design packaging that creates an emotional bond with the customer: you. Critically analyzing what you are buying is vital.

Chinese Ginger Truck

This truck or another one like it comes every morning to the Chinese food wholesaler next door to my sister's house. Unsurprisingly, all of the food has been imported from China. However, that in itself is interesting. This food has been shipped, flown and rolled halfway across the world. Yet it is still cheap enough to be sold at least twice more at a price the public will pay. How is this possible? The workers growing this food are unlikely to be paid well. Is it even possible to know where this food was grown, really? China is a big country. This company may have multiple operations. This kind of abstraction is bad for the environment, it's bad for the workers, and it's bad for our health.

Dole Organic Bananas

Perhaps you have seen this label on a bunch of bananas at the grocery store. Dole is a household name, yet the organic label is somewhat new, only being introduced in February 2007.

According to The Organic & Non-GMO Report,

Dole is launching this innovative system in response to demand from consumers who increasingly want specific information relative to the farms where the Dole organic bananas are grown or purchased from growers.

Using the tool, found at doleorganic.com, I was able to "visit" the Marplantis farms in Ecuador. The company's procedures of organic banana production are described in detail and photographed. There is prominently displayed address and contact info on the page. The bananas are certified organic by both Ecocert and Global Gap. All of this serves to build confidence in the end product - the bananas themselves. This kind of transparency is notable from a company such as Dole. They are no stranger to pesticides and their devastating effects on the farm workers exposed to them. I sincerely hope that these steps toward organic production methods include at least a modest improvement in the workers' conditions.