Sound Consumer archive
September 2009

Organic food integrity starts with seed integrity

by Matthew Dillon

We are in the midst of a revolutionary food epoch unlike any other in history. It’s rich with potential, creativity and passion. And it’s rife with conflict, despair and danger. To many it appears to be a mythic war between Agribusiness Goliaths and Homegrown Davids, or the systems of genetic engineering (GE) and that of organic.

PCC #1 for sustainable seafood

Greenpeace USA has announced that it ranks PCC as the #1 retailer in the United States for our sustainable seafood policies and initiatives. Read more about PCC's canned seafood too.

The organic dairy business: the land of milk and money

by George Siemon

You may have read that the dairy world is imploding, that the price non-organic farmers get for their milk has fallen 50 percent since last December — the fastest, deepest drop since the Great Depression. As many as half the nation’s dairy producers — 20,000 — may call it quits by the end of 2009.

Recipes from the September issue

Corn and Tomato Salad · Express Ratatouille

Bitter and sweet: agave syrup

by Goldie Caughlan, PCC Nutrition Education Manager

Recently, upon return to the office after a few days away, I thought it odd that I had a cluster of e-mails and voice-mails all asking similarly suspicious, troubling questions — mostly about agave syrup. Additional questions about agave have been raised by other shoppers, including participants in PCC’s Free Walk, Talk and Taste tours in our stores.

What's new in store — September 2009

We have all kinds of new products making their way to our stores this month including PCC Organic Beef, grass-fed beef, two raw salads in our deli, creamy nut butters and a locally made line of organic body care.

Notes from the Cellar

Just a beverage

by Jeff Cox, Beer and Wine Merchandiser

It’s just a beverage. That’s all. It shares table space with Our Daily Bread. It’s a comrade to the salt and the pepper. True, when it’s on a roll it can be the sip of a thousand facets, launching fleets of adjectives to sail on seas of inspiration.

Seasonal produce

Tomatoes grown with pride

The perfect tomato has the flavor of sunshine: juicy and exuberant, an encapsulation of all that is ripe and lovely about summer. Summertime is what’s inside each fresh, organic tomato from Pride of Umpqua Organic Produce — the family farm of Harmon and Noreane Walker in Roseburg, Ore.

Saving farmland with Conservation Easements 101

by Kristin Vogel, Office & Outreach Coordinator

When we at the PCC Farmland Trust talk with donors and community members, we find many people have a very good sense of why it’s so important to save local organic farmland. On the other hand, understanding how the trust actually goes about saving land sometimes remains a little vague.