The Organic View

Owning and operatng a successful business in this economy is a tough call. Small businesses have had to slash profits drastically in order to keep up with big companies that are flooding the American market with cheaply made and potentially environmentally hazardous products manufactured in China. Unfortunately, Mr. Mom and Pop Shop will not be afforded a government bail-out to save them from declaring bankruptcy when they are deep in the red. Such is the fate of most small business today, regardless of the empty campaign promises that have been made. Thanks to the amount of corruption, expenses are going up, our utilities rates are soaring and along with our taxes. People are losing their homes left and right. What options do we really have? Is it possible to move out of the big cities, the suburbs and head to the country? When you mention the term “living off the grid” most people think you live in a cave and are foraging nuts and berries as you drink water from a stream in your cup carved out of a tree limb. That is clearly not the case with our favorite organic “Soapman”, Mr. Larry Plesent, CEO of Vermont Soapworks (www.VermontSoap.com) Larry, who is actually a pioneer in the organic industry, developed the world's first certified organic pet shampoo, shower gel, and nontoxic cleaner, continues to impact the organic industry with his knowledge and skills. Larry also owns and operates a restaurant in Middlebury, Vermont. In a very depressed economy, Larry has managed to keep his businesses thriving while still maintaining his ethics as he lives off the grid. So, what exactly is it like to move up from the city to the charmed life of the country? How does one go about building a home that is self-sufficient? What kind of maintenance is involved? Do you use candle light if the sky is cloudy or are there any reserves available? Just how expensive is it? If you are wondering if perhaps “living off the grid” is for you, tune in!

It is that time of the year again when people are scrambling not only to find the perfect gift but are also trying to outdo last year’s festivities. This year, it is especially hard to buy anything with the economy being as weak as it is. However, there are so many great gifts you can make in your own kitchen! If you can boil water, you can definitely make hand crafted gifts that are sure to please all of your friends and family. The best thing about it is you can control what ingredients you use to keep it simple and keep it green! In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, our favorite Kitchen Chemist, Kayla Fioravanti, Chief Formulator and Registered Aromatherapist from Essential Wholesale Labs (www.EssentialWholesale.com) will talk about how you can make some really great gifts in your very own kitchen! This is also a great way to learn about different hand crafted items if you are looking to start a small business or simply just make extra money! Kayla has a very unique and successful YouTube video series called Kitchen Chemistry with Kayla (http://www.youtube.com/user/essentialwholesale) and will share some of her recipes with our audience. Stay tuned for some fun in the kitchen, the old-fashioned way with Kayla!

The average clothes shopper usually considers three important factors prior to purchase: the garment must be stylish, must fit and must be reasonably priced. Most people generally have become accustomed to the fact that clothing was not built to last. With garments being so cheap, quality has not been the main concern because if it rips or fades, it can easily be replaced. Subsequently, with the manufacturing of these cheap garments comes the exploitation of cheap labor combined with the negative impact on the environment. Stories of child labor factories and brutal working conditions were not just fairy tales but are real. For years, people have been exploiting others to work under horrific working conditions just to make a buck. Although the exploitation has not stopped entirely, manufacturing has been gradually changing for the better, impacting entire communities. Thanks to a very weak economy, people are now paying attention to quality and actually where the garment is made before they buy. The days of buying cheap garments are over. People are shopping smarter and demand the quality that used to come only with something that was hand-made. Maggie's Organics was founded in 1992 on the premise that workers should be treated ethically, clothing should be durable, affordable, and constructed of environmentally sustainable materials. Recently, Bena Burda, CEO of Maggie’s decided to go the distance, relaunching the entire line by taking organic to the next level – Fair Trade Certified™ apparel. In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, Bena Burda and Mike Woodard, from the Jubilee House Community, will talk about the entire process: this year’s harvest, the success of the implementation of this program and how it is changed so many lives. It's an example of what we can expect in the future when the highest quality standard has been met by incorporating certified organic with certified Fair Trade. Stay tuned!

For most people with food allergies and sensitivities, it is very hard to dine out much less buy food that you can heat and enjoy. Although the organic industry is growing rapidly, there are certain kinds of foods that have a long way to go before connoisseurs of certified organic gourmet foods will even consider reaching for them much less making room in the fridge. Sometimes, it is just nice to have someone else do the cooking. This is not an easy task, even for the most skilled chef. Pleasing the masses is one tough job! However, Chef Massimo Di Sciullo, CEO of Massimo's Organic Gourmet (www.MassimosOrganicGourmet.com ) is determined to change this. His foods are hand crafted and not made in a factory but rather in his very own kitchen. Chef Massimo is very particular about the ingredients he uses and insists upon the freshest certified organic ingredients available. After working in the catering business for many years, with clients ranging from upscale cruise liners to the Vatican, Chef Massimo decided to bring his love of food to the Americas and pursue his own Organic American Dream as he diligently works to bring his gourmet masterpieces into your kitchen. In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, Chef Massimo will talk about what it is like to come to America and pursue his American dream as he makes Organic Italian gourmet foods for all to enjoy! If you love Italian food, love to talk about Italian food and want to learn how to make organic Italian food, stay tuned!

When it comes to the Christmas season, people look forward to specialty traditional dishes, desserts and delicacies that require a lot of time, energy, and effort. As always, everything is prepared with careful attention to all of the ingredients used in anticipation of outdoing the efforts of the previous years. However, one of the most common concerns about holiday feasting is the over indulgence of too many artery clogging foods. What if this year, you decided to incorporate other options into your Christmas fare? In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, we will talk about how easy it is to make organic dishes, how inexpensive it is and talk about some loved recipes which we will post on our site. Stay tuned!

The fashion industry in the USA is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is highly competitive and a hard industry to break into. Yet, in the middle of one of the worst recessions ever, in the heart of Detroit where the unemployment rate seems to be as high as the number of people losing their homes, two young women, Fotoula Lambros and Emily Thornhill, followed their hearts and decided to pursue their dream of creating a company that produces zero waste, uses certified organic fabric and very proud to proclaim that all of their garments are “Made In the USA!” Fotoula Lambros and Emily Thornhill are the owners of Femilia Couture. They use 100% Natural and Certified Organic Fibers (Organic Cotton, Bamboo, Silk, Viscose, Soy, Hemp and many varieties of blends). They decided that it was time to follow their passion for fashion and take a stand against the cheap, environmentally hazardous garments that are being dumped on Americans by companies that exploit cheap Chinese labor overseas. Femilia Couture is making great strides and is rapidly becoming a highly sought after name by fashionistas who demand quality, fine stitching, and Made in the USA! So, what is it like to create a business in a very bad economy when most small business owners cannot get a loan much less keep their doors open? Just how difficult is it to find your niche in an overly saturated market and still succeed? How is it even possible to afford certified organic fibers much less create a zero waste business environment? In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, Fatoula Lambros, CEO of Femilia Couture will talk about her success as well as the struggles she has faced as she pursues her American Dream. Stay tuned!

Every region is different. The people are different, the environment is different and so are the animals that dwell in the natural habitats of each region. What if there was a way to create animal welfare awareness for regional issues as well as global issues? That is exactly what Michelle Buckalew did when she founded AnimalWorldUSA.org (http://www.animalworldusa.org/) Throughout the year, different states and countries are being celebrated with events that are organized and promoted for an entire weeklong celebration. This week happens to be Hawaii Week. Hawaii Week for the Animals is scheduled to run this year from December 4-12. The special governor-proclaimed week will highlight the importance that animals play in our lives and bring communities together on behalf of the animals throughout the great state of Hawaii. This statewide event is designed to celebrate and build awareness on behalf of all animals, as well as recognize the organizations and citizens who support them. The exciting week will feature pet adoption festivals, wildlife activities, educational events and an exciting variety of community events statewide. All of these events will shine the spotlight on the amazing animals, beauty & history of the islands and compassionate people of Hawaii. The week presents a unique opportunity to change the history for the animals by collectively coming together through goodwill. IF you are an animal lover and also love to learn about animals in different regions all over the globe, stay tuned to find out about how you can participate in this wonderful initiative.

Everyone loves chocolate! However, there are so many issues with the conventional chocolate industry that range from child labor factories, quality of resources for ingredients to the myriad of pesticides that are used to grow the crops. It seems hopeless to find a good old fashioned candy bar that isn’t going to poison you, isn’t going to exploit someone else’s kid or cost you an arm and a leg just to buy it. To top it off, what if you have allergies or special dietary requirements and can only eat gluten free or vegan foods? It is a nightmare just finding foods that haven’t been contaminated with wheat or dairy and actually don’t taste like cardboard much less finding a decent candy bar. This is exactly what Christopher Angell and his wife Suzanne thought about when they decided to make their own candy bars. With all of the “greenwashing” out there, they wanted to start off on the right foot and decided that the candy had to be not only Certified Organic and Fair Trade Certified but also had to be affordable! But how could they do this without actually losing their house over it while so many other companies were dropping like flies during a very weak economy? In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, Christopher Angell, CEO of Angell Bars (http://www.angellbar.com) will talk about: his experience with the Organic Certification and Fair Trade Certification process, finding a high quality source for chocolate, turning something that he and his family loved into something that is affordable enough for everyone to love. Stay tuned!

The holidays are constantly evolving when it comes to how we incorporate nature into our celebrations. Long ago holiday celebrations included such bizarre things as the use of parasitic plants, the seasonal celebration for Saturn and lighting the darkness around the solstice to name a few of the traditions which color our holiday landscapes. If you walk into any local grocery store, discount merchandise retailer, hardware or nursery, you will be greeted by the red vibrant color of the poinsettias. Did you know that the Poinsettia is also called the Secretary of War? Just where did it come from and how has did it evolve into a core component for our holiday dinner table arrangement? With the popularity of mixing cultures, we are now finding blue and white Hanukkah plants, ostentatious naked ladies (aka: Amaryllis belladonna) with confusing names are just a few of the seasonal flowers that we associated with this festive time of the year. In this segment of The Organic View, horticultural expert, John Peter Thompson, who is President of The National Agricultural Research Alliance (http://www.NARA-B.org ) will my guest to talk about the origin, selection and care for some of our favorite holiday plants, trees and flowers and how you can get the most value for your money. We will also discuss how to pick and care for a “live” cut tree and how to properly care for it throughout the Christmas season. Stay tuned!

Joseph Augusto has been a dairy farmer for the past 30 years. Joseph is the president of the California Dairy Campaign, which represents over 250 dairy farmers. The organization lobbies dairy farming issues and is currently focused on raising awareness for the milk pricing manipulation by Dairy Processors as well as special interest groups. He has also served on the Board of Directors of Dairy Farmers of America, which is the largest dairy cooperative in the United States. So, what is the real value of milk? There seems to be a huge gap between the actual value and what the producers are being paid. At one time, the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) had the confidence of dairy producers in that it had a real value. Today, things have changed. We have record milk prices at the supermarket, record profits for the milk processors and the worst in record losses for dairy farmers with no hope for recovery. The CME is supposed to mimic a market and there is a handful of entities that have no interest in seeing the price of milk go up. The CDC maintains that there is a conflict of interest with the CME in that the entities trading on the CME have no interest in seeing higher milk prices but do have an interest in futures contracts and/or over the counter contracts. This is unregulated and is destroying the dairy industry. In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, Joseph Augusto will talk candidly about the crisis dairy farmers are facing and the monopoly destroying the dairy industry. Stay tuned!