It is heartening to see so many concerted efforts and collaborations toward sustainable community development.  One of these I have become more involved with lately has been the effort to raise awareness around the health benefits of whole and organic foods as opposed to conventional, commercially produced vegetables.  This topic speaks to breaking out of traditional distribution venues for organic produce - including niche stores like Mustard Seed Market in Akron, Wild Oats in Beachwood, and the Food Co-Op near Euclid and 12Oth.  This would support mainstream distribuiton and availability of organics to the public at large.  As long as there remains a signinficant price disparity between organics and non-organics true uptake and consumption levels won't be likely to shift - especially among price-sensitive buyers in underprivileged communities.  This is why programs like those being championed by Maurice Small of the Cleveland Botanical Gardens which work to subsidize costs of organics brought to underprivileged communities - are so critical.

Have any of you thoughts on how to ramp up availability and distribution of organics - and just as important - shifts in creating healthier lives for people, positively impacting the ability to perform better academically, and creating support for local food economies are all profound.

One thing is it's hard to tell what food is really healthy, and really organic. On one of those Friday national PBS newsertainment programs they had a feature on the grainwashing of American by General Mills in particular - many food companies in general. General Mills has a huge campaign plastering "Whole Grain" on all their cereals, including mega-sugar-busters liks Trix - and these unhealthy cereals actually only have 1 or 2 grams of fiber and very little whole grain.

The talking-head doctor in the report said look for products where the first word listed in the ingredients is "Whole" and the dietary fiber is at least 2 grams - more the better.