This week's dose of organic headlines, updates, resources, goodies, and recipes courtesy of Doug Snodgrass...
Cornucopia's Mark Kastel, one of the American organic movement's most important voices, brings us the following news.
Dean Sells Out Organic Farmers With Release of New "Natural" Horizon Milk
The rumors have now been confirmed. Dean Foods' WhiteWave division has now announced that they will bring out "natural" (conventional) dairy products under the Horizon label. This at a time when organic dairy farmers around the country are in financial crisis due to a glut of milk.
They are in essence creating a new product category, "natural dairy products," that will directly compete with certified organic farmers and the marketers they partner with.
This move comes on the heels of the recent decision by Dean/WhiteWave to switch almost the entire product offerings of their Silk soymilk and soyfoods line to "natural" (conventional) soybeans. They made the switch to conventional soybeans, in Silk products, without lowering the price. Sheer profiteering.
The likelihood is that they will create this new category and enjoy higher profits than they currently realize having to pay those pesky organic dairy farmers a livable wage.
A funny thing happened on the way to the new White House organic garden. File this one under cleaning up messes from more than just the Bush 43 years.
Did Sewage Sludge Lace the White House Veggie Garden With Lead?
In March, Michelle Obama delighted locavores when she planted an "organic" vegetable garden on the White House's South Lawn. For years, Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, and other sustainable food activists had been pushing the idea as a way to reseed interest in do-it-yourself agriculture. Less than two months later, the National Park Service disclosed that the garden's soil was contaminated with toxic lead, and the plot's educational value took on a new flavor as the New York Times and other papers discussed how to make urban backyards that are laced with old lead-based paint safe for growing kale and cauliflower. But those stories might have fingered the wrong culprit. 
Starting in the late 1980s and continuing for at least a decade, the South Lawn was fertilized by ComPRO, a compost made from a nearby wastewater plant's solid effluent, a.ka. sewage sludge. Sludge is controversial because it can contain traces of almost anything that gets poured down the drain, from Prozac flushed down toilets to lead hosed off factory floors. Spreading sludge at the White House was a way for the EPA to reassure the public that using it as a fertilizer for crops and yards (instead of dumping it in the ocean, as had been common practice) would be safe. "The Clintons are walking around on poo," the EPA's sludge chief quipped in 1998, "but it's very clean poo."
Perhaps not as clean as we thought. The same ComPRO fertilizer, now renamed Orgro, was used in a controversial, 2005 lead abatement study conducted in a predominately African-American neighborhood in Baltimore. Scientists wanted to know if lead in the soil of inner-city backyards could be immobilized by mixing it with sludge. Though the study found "significant reductions in the lead level in the treated yards," the initial levels of lead in the soil had been astronomical. Even before being applied to the yards, the sludge was already contaminated with lead at up to 237 parts per million, which is about 23 times normal soil levels.
The example of the White House organic garden has really made more impact than a simple photo-op. Exhibit 1.
On Governors Island, an Organic Farm with a View
The sustainable garden with the most exclusive real estate in Washington is no doubt the one at the White House. The sustainable farm with the most exclusive view in New York City is the one that opened on Governors Island last week.
On Thursday, the volunteers who planted squash plants and sunflowers on the three-acre farm on the southern tip of the island had arguably what is the best vantage point of the Statue of Liberty from pretty much anywhere.
“It’s pretty trippy to see plants growing and the Statue of Liberty,” said Leslie Koch, president of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, which oversees the island. She had brought three (originally four) tomato plants from home to contribute to the 600 or so others on the farm.
The organic three-acre farm, one of a handful of commercial organic farms within the five boroughs, is a collaboration between the corporation and a Brooklyn nonprofit group called Added Value, which teaches teenagers about sustainable and local food by training them to work on urban farms.
...and in exhibit 2, Kathryn Rem of the Springfield, IL State Journal-Register looks to Vermont as a model, and asks what if?
A Vegetable Garden at the State Capitol?
When first lady Michelle Obama broke ground in April for an organic fruit and vegetable garden on the White House’s south lawn, she did more than help plant lettuce and beans. She inspired others to do the same.
Now there’s a movement afoot to get an organic garden planted on the grounds of the capitol buildings in all 50 states.
Vermont was the first to embrace the concept, at least in modern times. The Vermont State House Food Garden — designed and managed by the state’s citizens — was dedicated in May. It’s meant to educate Vermonters about the benefits of food gardens and encourage them to grow their own.
The harvest will be donated to food pantries in the capital city of Montpelier. High school students grew the plot’s 150 lettuce seedlings and assisted with the planting. Also sowed were chives, parsley, cabbage, peas, carrots and scallions.
The Statehouse-garden movement is largely symbolic, a way to show that public spaces cultivated by citizens can provide food for those in need.
Related Reading:
6 Steps to a Greener Diet
The Organic Milk Debate: Is Big the Same as Bad?
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