Fresh Organic LInks

• What's the worst bottled water you can buy? Hmmm... One is from Whole Foods.
• What does it mean when chicken is labeled "free range" or "organic"? Organic definitely seems better:

So, when you're shopping for chicken, what do labels like "free range" or "pastured" really mean? . . . I called two experts, Tom Schneller, who teaches meat identification and butchery at the Culinary Institute of America (and the man who taught me how to break down chicken), and Mark Kastel, co-founder of the Cornucopia Institute, an advocacy group for family farms and a fierce "organic" production watchdog.

The first thing Mr. Kastel said to me was kind of dispiriting: "Well, some of those labels just mean whatever the marketer happens to want them to mean."

• CAFO The Book. CAFO, of course, refers to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Watch a short movie about it:

• Organic dairies in danger from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Specifically, the USDA is considering, today, whether to deregulate genetically modified alfalfa. GM alfalfa, if fed to dairy cows, would prevent dairy farmers from labeling milk from those cows "organic". Organic milk would suddenly be much harder to come by, and formerly-organic dairy farmers would suddenly find it much harder to compete in the factory milk market.