CHECK THE NUMBERS

When buying your fruit at the grocery store rather than a greenmarket, you will notice the little stickers on fruits and vegetables. They actually have digits that let you know whether they're conventionally grown or organic, and if they're genetically modified (refers to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques. These plants have been modified in the laboratory to enhance desired traits -- yikes).

GM foods have been in stores only since the 1990s, so we don't know the long-term health risks, and in a 1998 EPA sampling, 29% of the foods tested contained detectable pesticides.
Less of an eco-gamble. Scientists are concerned that GMOs will reduce biodiversity.

Eaters all over the world agree that the range of possible flavors is greater when we just let Mother Nature do her thing.

A four-digit number means it's conventionally grown.
A five-digit number beginning with 9 means it's organic.
A five-digit number beginning with 8 means it's GM.

Source: Daily Bite

Produce and Local Products: Coming to a Indoor Permanent Market Soon

Set up just outside one of the former Fulton Fish Market buildings by a nonprofit group called New Amsterdam Public, the one-day event was meant in part to build support for a permanent indoor public market selling pristine local food. Similar events are planned for the spring and summer.

Many New Yorkers have to piece together a cook’s pantry from Chinatown shops, farmers’ markets, FreshDirect, Fairway and other stores. Soon New Yorkers may be able to have a large, permanent market with local and seasonal produce, cheesemongers, butchers and a selection of staples including canned vegetables, oil, and granola. We may start to see this happen. For one thing, the infrastructure for getting local farm products into the city is about to change drastically. In a speech in December Gov. Eliot Spitzer told the New York Farm Bureau that ground would be broken this year on a wholesale farmers’ market somewhere near the massive wholesale food complex in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. The governor called it the Pride of New York Wholesalers’ Market, but it would also sell food grown in surrounding states. A big, modern warehouse with good storage facilities and a steady stream of buyers could assure schools, hospitals and grocery stores of a reliable supply of local produce. And it could finally give local farmers a new way to bring their produce to town, particularly those with midsize farms of 50 to 200 acres. Selling wholesale could work for growers who are too small to make direct deals with big chains or not specialized enough for a stall at one of the city’s 46 Greenmarkets.

Lots of debate about who,where, what, and when, but it seems like there is a move to finally provide a one-stop center for all your local needs!

Source: Michelle V. Agins, NYTimes

Non-Exclusive Food Co-op

A little natural, organic, vegan, macrobiotic, insert anymore hippie descriptive words, heavenly food co-op in Manhattan. This tiny little shop has bulk laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, pasta, beans, nuts, spices, and even chili lime mangoes. They have a produce section and lots other interesting things to buy. Also, if you become a non-working member at $35 you get a 10% discount all year. ICheck it out. 4th Street between Bowery and 2nd Avenue (south side of street). They are open daily from 11-9.

http://www.4thstreetfoodcoop.org

Farmers Markets

Lately I been trying to do lots of my shopping at the farmers market at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. Usually you can find organic produce, honey, cheeses, natural meat, fish, milk, etc. Here is a link to a map which lists all green markets in NYC as well as thier hours, compliments of the Council on the Environment of NYC. Remember when you go to bring some plastic bags inside a tote so you don't have to take ten million new plastic bags home with you.

www.cency.org/site/pages/GMKT/map2007.pdf



Amanda