From Dave Smith

Nell Newman’s Organic Thanksgiving (from Eating Well)
Fifteen years ago, Nell Newman, then age 33, decided to make an all-organic Thanksgiving dinner for her father and mother, the actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, and her sisters. That meal helped launch Newman’s Own Organics, the offshoot of the company her father started in 1982. Kathy Tracy, personal chef to the Newman family, caught up with Nell in Westport, Connecticut.

How To Have An Organic Thanksgiving (from iVillage)
-11 Thanksgiving menus, from traditional to low-carb
-Easy Thanksgiving entertaining and recipes
-Get holiday advice and favorite recipes
-Organic wines to go with your meal
-Shopping for organic food on a budget

Heritage Breeds Spark Small Farm Revival (from NewFarm)
A trio of geese or a box of baby chicks isn’t a typical farmers’ market purchase like a pound of onions or a watermelon, but the procedures in place at this market are actually quite conducive to such transactions. The sales aren’t as rushed as at an auction, and unlike having to make orders from a catalog—the way much poultry is sold new—the buyer has much more control over and input into the purchase. He or she can see the birds or stock prior to the transaction and buy as few or as many as are actually desired. There are no minimum purchases and often there are birds of several ages from which to select.

Suggested Thanksgiving Recipes For Vegetarians (from Organic Consumers Association)
Mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, cranberries and UnTurkey? For a growing number of Americans, Thanksgiving doesn’t include the traditional poultry bird at the table, but a Thanksgiving “meatloaf” or tofu turkey. Whether one special dish or a whole meal, there are a growing number of resources and recipes for a vegetarian Thanksgiving. (Also see: Tofu Turkey)

Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes, Menus and Cooking Tips (from Eating Well)
Thanksgiving is all about abundance, or, often, overabundance. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With healthy updates to classic dishes, the recipes showcased here use high-impact flavors like fresh herbs, spices and seasonal fruits and vegetables to minimize the need for gobs of butter, cream and salt. Some dishes are healthy updates on classic dishes, while others are twists on traditional fare.

Positive perseverance enables a young couple to live out their dream (from NewFarm)
When Brendan Holmes and Katia Clemmer started farming three years ago they had education, experience and not much else—a wheelbarrow, a pitchfork and a pickup truck. Surely they had no idea how their own determination and resilience would be put to the test in the course of living out the dream of many young-and-educated agrarian-hopefuls.

Organic Undersupply Stunts Market Growth
Unreliable organic supplies are stunting the growth of over half of US organic food manufacturers, according to a new report by the nation’s industry association. But despite supply challenges, the market continues to see strong growth, mirrored by the expansion in the range of organic products available, and the retail outlets that carry them.

Taiwan’s First Organic Farmer’s Market
When he returned to Taiwan with an American Ph.D. and began teaching agriculture at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, Ray Tungnever guessed he would go on to establish Taichung’s first organic farmer’s market. He taught his students as his professors had him - that agricultural chemicals in the appropriate amounts do no harm. A student came up after class one day to ask why he wasn’t considering that even if applied in safe doses, those chemicals accumulate in the soil, the riverbeds, and even the human body - until they reach levels where they do cause harm. A farmer may apply herbicide to his orchard only twice a month. But that’s 24 times a year. This student was a farmer and invited Ray to come see his organic farm. It turned out to be a big surprise. Ray saw that organic farming wasn’t just about putting no dangerous chemicals in the soil and the water and no poisons in the food supply and the body. It boiled down to an issue of basic integrity: Do we care more about profit or about the health of the environment and the value of human life?

London Joins Plastic Bag Ban
British shops hand out a staggering 13 billion every year. But after a decision by 33 London councils yesterday, plastic bags could be soon be consigned to history, unmourned by anyone who cares about cleaning up the environment. Eighty villages, towns and cities, including Brighton and Bath, have introduced or are considering a ban on them since shops in the Devon market town of Modbury went “plastic bag- free”. But yesterday represented the most significant move yet. The capital is now on board.
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Dave Smith is author of To Be Of Use - The Seven Seeds of Meaningful Work and lives in Mendocino County, North California.
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