Exporting vegetable-focused V Street to D.C. may be just the opening salvo for Philly restaurateurs Richard Landau and Kate Jacoby, who tell Eater they may also export experimental sandwich shop Wiz Kid to the area.

The vegan power couple behind award-winning Vedge last month announced plans to bring their global food bar, V Street, to the Apollo development on H Street NE in late 2017. Bringing fast-casual sibling, Wiz Kid, along for the ride appears to now be on the table.

Were all about making people rethink vegetables, Jacoby said. You can do anything under the sun with vegan. Korean street tacos, Chinese food.

Set to debut June 1 next to the flagship V Street, Wiz Kid puts a vegan spin on Philadelphias iconic cheesesteak, loading its potato rolls with shredded mushrooms, seitan, fried onions, pickled pepper relish, and rutabaga wiz. Additional menu items include the KFT (Korean fried tempeh sandwich), and a Reuben with sauerkraut, pickles, tomato, and caraway.

Wiz Kids concise menu has been teased inside a Whole Foods Market in Philadelphia while its brick-and-mortar location gets up and running. Landau confirmed that hes in talks to plant additional Wiz Kids into one or more Whole Foods in the District, though he declined to discuss specifics.

There is interest down there, so we will see. We dont want to get too far ahead of ourselves, said Landau, adding that their D.C. debut has been years in the making.

V Street is the dressed-down sibling to Philadelphias Vedge, considered one of the top vegan restaurants in the U.S. (Landau was a semi-finalist in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category at this years James Beard Foundation Awards).

Landau said D.C.s V Street will have an expanded noodle bar section, with the capability to whip up twice as many (four to five) noodle dishes as its predecessor. He billed the dan dan noodles featuring five spice mushrooms, zucchini, and red chile-sesame sauce as a destination dish. Another hit: the zaatar grilled corn with zhoug butter and grilled tomato, as well as charred broccoli salad with togarashi, burnt miso mayo, and fried rice.

The D.C. location will also be bigger, accommodating up to 65 patrons; theres even an opportunity for patio dining. Were in a narrow, little Colonial Philadelphia town home, Landau said of the existing space. In D.C. were working with new construction.

Having just returned from Vietnam, the duo is full of ideas they got while snacking on the street. We arent trying to reinvent falafel or anything just get inspired by great flavors and capture the soul of the street, Landau said.

The original V Street just nixed lunch service and is moving to a dinner-only model. The plan is to replicate those hours in D.C., with dinner nightly and brunch on weekends.

We hear brunch is a big thing in D.C., said Jacoby.

Read more:

Vegan Sandwich Shop Wiz Kid Could Join V Street in D.C. - Eater DC

Thursday, May 18th: Vegan Eats

Healthy juice and bountiful bowls and treats to top it all off.

Updated: 10:43 AM EDT May 12, 2017

Veganism is a growing lifestyle and not eating or using anything with animal products can be tough. We found two local businesses that say not only can vegan eating be delicious, it can also look almost too beautiful to eat.

There is a comeback of old fashioned board games in this world of technology. We aren't talking Monopoly, today's games are stopping the spread of disease and build medieval European Towns and they play them all at The Granite State Game Summit.

On Fritz Wetherbee's New Hampshire: Potatoes Come to Effingham.

For more information on tonight's stories:

Milk & Honey Juicery + Caf Manchester, NH (603) 420-9308 http://milkandhoneymanchester.com/

Hippie Cakes Vegan Bakery Raymond, NH (617) 460-7065 https://squareup.com/market/hippiecakes

Granite Game Summit http://www.granitegamesummit.com

Hosting this week from:

SkyZone Trampoline Park Manchester, NH (603) 413-3533 https://www.skyzone.com/manchester

Read the original here:

Thursday, May 18th: Vegan Eats - WMUR Manchester

Want to travel to space? Well currently theres no easy way unless youre really loaded to do that in real life, but with virtual reality (VR) there a plenty of options available. Launched back in March,Spacetours VR Ep1 The Solar System enablesyou to travel to our closest planetary cousins on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Originally exclusive to Steam and Viveport, developer Vibrant Visuals has now released the experience on Oculus Home through the Gallery Apps section.

Featuring all eight planets in photo-realistic detail, created from NASA and ESA/O images along with Epic Games Unreal Engine,Spacetours VR Ep1 The Solar System is an interactive learning app where you can freely navigate the solar system at your leisure.

With full motion control support for Oculus Touch, you can select planets to go to or even pick them up in the palm of your hands in gentile surroundings with calm relaxing music playing away.

Spacetours VR Ep1 The Solar Systemretails for 7.99 GBP on Oculus Home with Steam selling the experience for 6.99.

There are plenty of space-based apps and videogames available for Oculus Rift depending on how interactive you want the experience to be. Discovering Space 2, VR2 Space, Mission: ISS, Apollo 11 VR, Star Chartand ADR1FTare just a few examples.

For all the latest VR videogame releases, keep reading VRFocus.

Staff writer at VRFocus who enjoys bringing the latest news to our keen readers all over the world. Obsessive gamer since the days of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, when Peter does step outside he's off to practice Bruce Lee's Jeet Kun Do, or see the latest local live bands.

E-mail: pgraham@vrfocus.com

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Fly to the Moon and Beyond with Spacetours VR Now on Oculus Home - VRFocus

When: 3 p.m. today

Where: California Theatre of the Performing Arts, 562 W. Fourth St., San Bernardino

Tickets: $25-$60; students and military with ID are $10

Information: 909-381-5388, http://www.sanbernardinosymphony.org

Anne Viricel, the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestras executive director, has a gift suggestion for Mom.

What better way is there than to spend a Mothers Day afternoon with the family, doing nothing but relaxing and enjoying beautiful classical music, she said, referring to ensembles performance at 3 p.m. Sunday. Taking Mom to the concert will be a truly special way to treat her.

Most season-finale concerts are programmed for a Saturday night, to be celebrated with champagne and balloons. The schedule at the California Theatre of the Performing Arts in San Bernardino didnt allow for that, but opened the door to the notion of creating a special Mothers Day event.

Besides, this is a really beautiful concert, Viricel added. The music is absolutely wonderful.

The program includes Franz Schuberts Symphony No. 6 in C Major, Beethovens Symphony No. 1 in C Major, and Jacques Francois Antoine Iberts Flute Concerto, to be performed by the orchestras principal flutist, Patricia Cloud.

First on the program will be the Schubert symphony.

We believe audience members of all ages will love hearing this piece, said Frank Paul Fetta, conductor. Each instrument is beautifully highlighted to be easily identified and showcased.

Although Schubert died at age 31, his work was discovered and championed by 19th-century greats Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms. Today, he is ranked among the outstanding composers of the late Classical and early Romantic musical eras.

We titled the entire season A Season of Firsts, Viricel said. The programmed work had to be a work this orchestra would perform for the first time, or a first composition by a particular composer. For this concert, we will perform Beethovens first symphony.

Still under the heavy influence of the Classical composers including his teacher Joseph Haydn, Beethoven premiered this symphony in 1800. According to Fetta, the work still bears many of the composers unique and identifiable characteristics, especially the frequent use of sudden, strong musical emphases.

Nestled between the two very familiar works, the Ibert concerto fits into the first category, as the orchestra will be performing it for the first time.

This is a modern piece, Viricel said. Ibert composed this in 1934, but its beautiful, full of gorgeous melodies. Its so difficult for the soloist, and its really long. The audience will really appreciate the artistry which Patricia Cloud brings to the work.

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Musicians of Patricias caliber are rare, but San Bernardino is incredibly fortunate to have an orchestra full of some of the finest musicians in the country, said Fetta in a press release.

Cloud is a native Southern California performer and teacher, and has played with Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony and Mozart Orchestra, as well as serving as principal flute for the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra.

Our mission, in short, is to present accessible music that is fun and good, Viricel said. This concert is well-established classical music fare, and for a good reason. Simply put, it is beautiful music that has proven itself over the centuries to endure and still attract audiences, whether they are aficionados or new to the scene. Thats why we believe this is a marvelous Mothers Day gift.

As a bonus, every mother at the concert will receive a flower.

See the rest here:

San Bernardino Symphony presents a musical treat for Mother's Day - San Bernardino County Sun

Step into any supermarket these days and youre sure to find a wide variety of organic foods on the shelves. From produce, milk and meat to breakfast cereals and snack foods, consumers have their pick of certified organic productsa far cry from the time when you could only find them in natural foods stores. The demand for organic foods continues to soar: According to theOrganic Trade Association, organic food sales saw their biggest dollar gain ever in 2015 with more than 10 percent growth.

Certified organic foods have been linked to manyheath benefits, but they can sometimes be more expensive than conventionally farmed produce. Try these tips to make an organic diet more affordable.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently completed an analysis of conventionally grown (non-organic) produce to measure pesticide residue levels. Based on the results of almost 34,000 samples taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and federal Food and Drug Administration, EWG estimates that eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables, referred to as The Dirty Dozen, exposes the average person to about 15 different pesticides each day, while someone eating the least contaminated will be exposed to fewer than two pesticides each day. By avoiding these most contaminated foods, consumers could reduce their pesticide exposure by almost 90 percent.

If you have budget constraints, get more health for your money by choosing organic varieties of the following fruits and vegetables (listed in descending order, starting with greatest levels of pesticide contamination). Download a pocket guide to the Dirty Dozenhere.

If going totally organic is too difficult or pricey, play it safe and eat the following conventional produce items to minimize your exposure. These are known to have the least amount of pesticide residue (listed in ascending order, starting with lowest levels of contamination):

When eating conventional foods, be certain to peel away edible skins and outer leaves (such as those on lettuce), as pesticides are often concentrated there. Remember to wash all produce (conventional and organic) thoroughly with a natural fruit and vegetable cleanser. Peeling and washing can helpreduce (not eliminate) pesticide exposure, but can also cause the loss of valuable vitamins and nutrients, such as fiber.

When you have the choice between an organic item and one thats conventionally grown, choose organic as often as possible. To see EWG's complete study results and the rankings of different produce items, visittheir website.

More here:

When to buy organic & when to save your money - Atlanta Journal Constitution

A shipment of 36million pounds of soybeans sailed late last year from Ukraine to Turkey to California. Along the way, it underwent a remarkable transformation.

The cargo began as ordinary soybeans, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Like ordinary soybeans, they were fumigated with a pesticide. They were priced like ordinary soybeans, too.

But by the time the 600-foot cargo ship carrying them to Stockton, Calif., arrived in December, the soybeans had been labeled organic, according to receipts, invoices and other shipping records. That switch the addition of the USDA Organic designation boosted their value by approximately $4 million, creating a windfall for at least one company in the supply chain.

After being contacted by The Post, the broker for the soybeans, Annapolis-based Global Natural, emailed a statement saying it may have been provided with false certification documents regarding some grain shipments from Eastern Europe. About 21million pounds of the soybeans have already been distributed to customers.

The multimillion-dollar metamorphosis of the soybeans, as well as two other similar grain shipments in the past year examined by The Post, demonstrate weaknesses in the way that the United States ensures that what is sold as USDA Organic is really organic.

The three shipments, each involving millions of pounds of organic corn or soybeans, were large enough to constitute a meaningful proportion of the U.S. supply of those commodities. All three were presented as organic, despite evidence to the contrary. And all three hailed from Turkey, now one of the largest exporters of organic products to the United States, according to Foreign Agricultural Service statistics.

Agriculture Department officials said that they are investigating fraudulent organic grain shipments. But the agency declined to identify any of the firms or shipments involved.

We are continuing the investigation based on the evidence received, it said in a statement.

The imported corn and soybean shipments examined by The Post were largely destined to become animal feed and enter the supply chain for some of the largest organic food industries. Organic eggs, organic milk, organic chicken and organic beef are supposed to come from animals that consume organic feed, an added expense for farmers that contributes to the higher consumer prices on those items.

While most food sold as USDA Organic is grown in the United States, at least half of some organic commodities corn, soybeans and coffee come from overseas, from as many as 100 countries.

USDA officials say that their system for guarding against fraud is robust.

Under USDA rules, a company importing an organic product must verify that it has come from a supplier that has a USDA Organic certificate. It must keep receipts and invoices. But it need not trace the product back to the farm. Some importers, aware of the possibility of fraud, request extra documentation. But others do not.

Regardless of where organics come from, critics say, the system suffers from multiple weaknesses in enforcement: Farmers hire their own inspection companies; most inspections are announced days or weeks in advance and lack the element of surprise; and testing for pesticides is the exception rather than the rule.

These vulnerabilities are magnified with imported products, which often involve more middlemen, each of whom could profit by relabeling conventional goods as organic. The temptation could be substantial, too: Products with a USDA Organic label routinely sell for twice the price of their conventional counterparts.

In recent years, even as the amount of organic corn and soybeans imported to the United States has more than tripled, the USDA has not issued any major sanctions for the import of fraudulent grain, U.S. farmers said.

The U.S. market is the easiest for potentially fraudulent organic products to penetrate because the chances of getting caught here are not very high, said John Bobbe, executive director of the Organic Farmers Agency for Relationship Marketing, or OFARM, a farmer cooperative. In Europe and Canada, he said, import rules for organics are much stricter.

Moreover, even when the USDA has responded to complaints of questionable imports, action has come too late to prevent the products from reaching consumers.

Four months after the soybeans arrived in California and after The Post began making calls about the shipment, county officials acting on behalf of the USDA showed up at the warehouse where the soybeans were being stored. The officials took samples to test for exposure to pesticides.

By that time, about 21million pounds of the 36million-pound shipment had already reached farms and mills. The customers who have purchased the soybeans said they were unaware there may have been a problem until a Post reporter called.

Gauging the extent of fraud in imported organics is difficult because there is little incentive for organic companies to advertise their suspicions about suppliers.

To test USDA claims that organic imports are rigorously monitored, The Post examined pesticide residue testing conducted on organic products in China.

China is the leading source of organic tea and ginger in the United States, and its food exports have drawn repeated scrutiny.

In China, farmers have trouble following their own laws, said Chenglin Liu, a professor at St. Marys University School of Law in San Antonio. So how can Americans expect Chinese farmers will follow U.S. organic rules?

As in the United States, farmers in China seeking the USDA Organic label hire an inspection agency to certify that they meet the organic rules.

Using public-records laws, The Post obtained the results of pesticide residue tests conducted on farms with USDA organic certification in China. Although pesticide tests are not mandatory, inspection agencies are required to take samples from 5percent of their clients, and The Post requested the results from the three most active inspection agencies overseeing Chinese farms.

The pesticide results showed very high levels of pesticide residue on some organic Chinese products. They also showed that the pesticide residue tests are applied unevenly.

One of the largest inspection agencies, a German company known as Ceres, appears to do rigorous testing.

Ceres conducts most of its tests on plant leaves, rather than on fruits, a method that can be more likely to detect pesticide use.

Their results from China, as a Ceres official said, were quite shocking.

Of 232 samples that Ceres tested from the Chinese organic farms, 37percent showed more than traces of pesticide residue.

This is the reality we are battling with in China, said Albrecht Benzing of Ceres.

Some of the problem arises from pesticides from neighboring farms drifting over, experts said, and some is contamination from Chinas polluted soil and water.

For example, in Shandong province, the Laiwu Manhing Vegetables Fruits Corp. harvests ginger that has been grown organically. But the water available for washing the ginger is so polluted that it leaves pesticide residue.

After the ginger is washed, the water leaves behind pesticide residues too high to be considered organic in the United States, said Li Hongtao, a sales manager at the company. He said the ginger is sold as organic in some countries but not the United States or Europe.

The pesticide residue results that were obtained by The Post also indicate that enforcement of USDA Organic rules for pesticides are uneven and possibly arbitrary, with results depending on the inspection agency.

While Ceres found remarkably high levels of pesticide residue, others reported extremely low levels.

For example, Ecocert, a French inspection agency, reported pesticide residue on about 1percent of 360 samples from China in 2015 a level of cleanliness remarkable for any country, let alone China and its well-documented pollution.

This wide range of pesticide use detected by organic inspectors in China nearly 40percent at one company and 1percent in another suggests a variety of methods and standards at work. Ecocert said their results may be low because they chose samples from a large number of farms. Different firms may also use different thresholds for what constitutes a positive result. The next year, Ecocert said, its testing criteria changed slightly, and the percentage of samples with pesticide levels rose to 8percent.

Critics say the disparity in results shows that certifying agencies can make any farm look organic.

The certifying agencies can choose who and when they test, said Mischa Popoff, a former USDA organic inspector turned critic. Thats why the results they can get are completely arbitrary.

Each of the questionable organic shipments of corn and soybeans examined by The Post passed through Turkey, a country whose organic exports have provoked criticism from international authorities.

In 2013, for example, a report by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture found that half of European importers and Turkish handlers had detected pesticide residue on organic products from Turkey.

The United States has seen large spikes in the amount of organic corn and soybeans entering from Turkey, according to USDA statistics. Between 2014 and 2016, the amount of organic corn arriving from Turkey rose from 15,000 metric tons to more than 399,000 metric tons; the amount of organic soybeans coming from Turkey rose from 14,000 metric tons to 165,000. (The three shipments examined by The Post represent roughly 7percent of annual organic corn imports and 4percent of organic soybean imports.)

Such sudden jumps in organic food production draw scrutiny because the organic transition process is slow it can take three years for conventional land to be converted into organic farmland.

Where did all this big production come from? Where are these organic farmers? Miles McEvoy, chief of the USDAs organic program, said to a group of U.S. organic farmers earlier this year.

The rise of imports has helped drop prices by more than 25percent, hurting U.S. organic farmers, many of them small operations.

My neighbor, small farm, lost $30,000 last year on 100 acres of organic corn, said OFARMs Bobbe. In fact, theres so much coming in, were finding buyers who wont take any corn.

To piece together the three questionable shipments, The Post was given records of the transactions by an industry expert who requested anonymity because they may conflict with the mandates of his employer. The documents included company invoices, shipping records and health certificates accompanying the shipments. Warehouse operators, importers, exporters and Ukrainian officials verified key documents and added details.

The first of the shipments arrived at the port of Wilmington in Delaware a year ago. It consisted of 46million pounds of organic corn.

The Romanian company that provided the corn is not a certified organic company, and receipts show that the corn was initially purchased at the conventional price, not the organic one.

The shipper is listed as Hakan Organics, a Dubai-based company with operations in Turkey.

Hakan Organics is listed as an organic handler in good standing with the USDA.

The first intended customer for the corn, Perdue Agribusiness, asked for additional paperwork and then refused to accept the shipment, because we could not confirm all the proper documentation that Perdue requires, a company spokesman said.

The Post could not determine who ended up purchasing the organic corn.

Since then, Perdue has not received any shipments from Hakan Organics, a Perdue spokesman said.

Hakan Organics continued to ship agricultural products to the United States.

Hakan Bahceci, the chief executive of Hakan, indicated by email that he would answer questions but then did not respond further.

The second shipment, the soybeans from Ukraine and Turkey, arrived aboard the Four Diamond at the port of Stockton in December 2016.

A set of health certificates that accompanied the soybeans allowed The Post to trace the soybeans from California back to Turkey and to their origin in Ukraine.

The health certificates and associated receipts indicate that they were not really organic. For one thing, the soybeans were fumigated with tablets of aluminum phosphide, a pesticide prohibited under organic regulations; some of the soybeans originated from ADM Ukraine, a company that does not produce or trade organic soybeans and did not sell or label them as such, a company spokeswoman said; and finally, the soybeans were originally priced at the level of conventional soybeans.

Invoices and other documents for those soybeans showed that they were originally priced at about $360 per ton. By the time they reached the United States, the price reached almost $600 per ton.

Global Natural, the Annapolis-based firm that was marketing the soybeans in the United States, said it has stopped selling all potentially affected product. Company officials declined to answer further questions.

The importer of the soybeans is Agropex International.

Ashley Anderson, who is listed as the president of Agropex International, insisted that the soybeans that arrived in Stockton are legitimately organic.

The third shipment involved 46million pounds of organic corn that sailed from Romania to Turkey and then to Baltimore, arriving in March.

The Romanian producers of the corn, a company called Belor, is not a certified organic company and sold the corn at conventional prices, according to receipts. But by the time the corn from Romania reached the United States, it was labeled organic. Its price had risen 72percent. As with the cargo aboard the Four Diamond, the value of the shipment increased by millions.

Dennis Minnaard of DFI Organics said his company had been set to buy some of the corn but rejected the shipment because the broker did not take away our doubts about its authenticity.

Yet that organic corn continued to be marketed to other customers, according to industry officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the deals.

With the complex supply chain of organic grain, McEvoy, the USDA official, told concerned farmers at the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service conference earlier this year, there are challenges.

Follow this link:

The labels said 'organic.' But these massive imports of corn and ... - Washington Post

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the popularity of organic food continues to grow, so too will the challenges associated with maintaining organic food supply chains. Organic food supply chains are too often faced with heavy pressure to increase their output to keep up with consumer demand for organic food products, and supply chain management is becoming increasingly complicated.

This is according to SpendEdge, in their blog titled Challenges in Maintaining Organic Food Supply Chains.

A major hindrance to supply chains, says SpendEdge, is the complexity and risk that comes with organic farming. They say, In addition to the real physical risks posted by the increased threats of pests and other crop-destroying influences, its costly and time-consuming for farmers to convert to organic farming. In the US, land used for organic farming cannot have had prohibited substances, including many pesticides, used on it for a period of 36 months before produce grown on it can be sold as organic. There are less organic farmers than non-organic farmers, and that it is more of a challenge to find reliable and steady suppliers of truly organic produce that can meet industry demands.

SpendEdge continues, The seasonality of certain organic crops and the inability to grow sufficient amounts to meet customer demands in specific regions is also a challenge for the supply chain Often, businesses will have to use multiple suppliers in order to procure all of the ingredients, crops, or products that they need.

For more insights, get in touch with SpendEdge procurement market intelligence experts

Businesses must optimize their food supply chains and procurement strategies in order to remain successful and generate profits from organic food products.

Read the entire blog here: https://www.spendedge.com/blogs/challenges-maintaining-organic-food-supply-chains

More information on the latest procurement trends and how Fortune 500 companies are adopting procurement intelligence to their advantage can be found using resources from SpendEdge. These resources are compiled from SpendEdges team of 500+ procurement solutions experts.

About SpendEdge

SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are a preferred market intelligence partner for leading Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across a variety of industries. Our strength lies in delivering actionable insights that help sourcing and procurement professionals get the right information in the right format, without any unnecessary frills.

Our procurement market intelligence coverage extends across critical processes of sourcing strategy planning and helps clients achieve more than just monetary savings. Our procurement insights are well-defined to meet the information needs of procurement organizations, and are aimed at helping category managers extract hidden values out of sourcing teams, suppliers, contracts, and processes.

The rest is here:

Organic Food Supply Chain Management Becoming More Complex ... - Business Wire (press release)

The reply by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (Certificate required to prove food is organic; May 8) to the letter (Who checks on claims of foods being organic?; April 29) raises even more concerns and questions on the authenticity of food labelled and sold as organic in Singapore.

I have seen organic corn that is supposed to be grown locally, but there was no mention on the label as to who certified that farm to be organic.

A conventional farm needs to undergo three years of stringent and expensive checks by certifying bodies in order to be qualified as organic.

There are organic vegetables in our supermarkets that are imported from as far as Holland and Peru, aside from Australia, Malaysia and Thailand.

So my questions are:

Is it not possible for a certified organic farm to produce a small amount of organic food for show and authentication purposes, but then supply many tonnes more from an adjacent non-organic farm and lump them all together as organic?

Is it not possible for the suppliers to Singapore supermarkets to import a small amount of certified organic produce, and then mix this with non-organic produce and label all as organic? Who checks on this aspect and how is it done?

As an agronomist, I can safely say that it is technically and agronomically near-impossible to produce truly organic food consistently, season after season and year after year, and in large amounts.

This is especially true in the tropics where pressures from diseases and pests are extremely high, as there are no cold winters to break their life cycles. The limited arsenal of organic pesticides is not robust and efficacious enough.

The AVA says original organic certificates are needed for verification and even then, "when required".

This can certainly lead to fraudulent behaviour along the organic food supply chain.

The AVA needs to have a more drilled-down and robust system to ensure the organic food that consumers are paying for is indeed organic.

Liew Ching Seng

View post:

More stringent checks needed on organic food - The Straits Times

Mindfulness and meditation are often used to mean the same thing, which can be confusing, while not many are clear on what mindfulness meditation is and how it differs from either of the above. So heres our version:

Mindfulness isnoticing and paying attention to thoughts, feelings, behavior, and everything else. Mindfulness can be practiced at any time, wherever we are, whoever we are with, and whatever we are doing, by showing up and being fully engaged in the here and now.

That means being free of both the past and futurethe what ifs and what maybesand free of judgment of right or wrongthe Im-the-best or Im-no-good scenariosso that we can be totally present without distraction.

Mindfulness is the awareness that arises when we non-judgmentally pay attention in the present moment. It cultivates access to core aspects of our own minds and bodies that our very sanity depends on, says Jon Kabat-Zinn, from The Unexpected Power of Mindfulness Meditation.Mindfulness, which includes tenderness and kindness toward ourselves, restores dimensions of our being. These have never actually been missing, just that we have been missing them, we have been absorbed elsewhere. When your mind clarifies and opens, your heart also clarifies and opens.

Mindfulness also releases happy chemicals in the brain; it lowers blood pressure, improves digestion, and relaxes tension around pain. It is simple to practice and wonderful in effect. When we do pay attention, then change becomes possible.

Einstein said that we cant solve our problems from the level of thinking that we were at when we created them, says Marianne Williamson. A different level of thinking doesnt mean just a different emphasis in our thinking, or a more loving kind of thinking. It means what he said, a different level of thinking, and, to me, that is what meditation is. Meditation changes us, as it returns us to our right mind.

Mindfulness and meditation are mirror-like reflections of each other: mindfulness supports and enriches meditation, while meditation nurtures and expands mindfulness. Where mindfulness can be applied to any situation throughout the day, meditation is usually practiced for a specific amount of time.

Mindfulness is the awareness of some-thing, while meditation is the awareness of no-thing.

There are many forms of meditation. Some are aimed at developing a clear and focused mind, known as Clear Mind meditations. Others are aimed at developing altruistic states, such as loving kindness, compassion or forgiveness, known as Open Heart meditations. Others use the body as a means to develop awareness, such as yoga or walking; others use sound, as in chanting or intoning sacred words.

I could never still my mind. And then, as I was approaching my seventieth birthday, I thought the time has come. Part of getting older is that as the externals begin to fray so you are beckoned inward. As my mind became quieter in meditation, I discovered this place that seemed to be suspended behind my forehead, like a chandelier hanging from the top of my skull. It was a place of complete stillness, says Jane FondainThe Unexpected Power of Mindfulness & Meditation.

Mindfulness Meditation is a form of Clear Mind meditation. Attention is paid to the natural rhythm of the breath while sitting, and to the rhythm of slow walking. This alone can have an enormous impact. Ultimately, the method is simply an aide; its not the experience itself. A hammer can help build a house but its not the house.

In the same way, meditation practice is not an end in itself. We may wander off and do all sorts of other things, but stillness will always be there. It is a companion to have throughout life, like an old friend we turn to when in need of direction, inspiration, and clarity. Theres no right or wrong way to practice, we all do it differently. Most important of all, meditation is to be enjoyed!

Extracted from The Unexpected Power of Mindfulness & Meditation.

***********

Ed & Deb are the authors of The Unexpected Power of Mindfulness & Meditation. Deb is the author of Your Body Speaks Your Mind, now in 19 languages. They have six meditation CDs. See more at EdandDebShapiro.com

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

More here:

Mindfulness & Meditation: What's the Difference? - Care2.com

Everyone had recently encountered a frightening example of road rage before the meditation class.

One person was driving and saw someone yelling at another driver. I had walked by two people arguing over no-parking signs. And the meditation teacher recounted that the day before, on her way to class, she saw a man stop his car, get out and walk menacingly toward another driver.

She wondered, she recalled, did he have a gun? Others shared similar anxieties and agreed that, overall, the level of anger among strangers seems to be high.

Chill, a meditation studio in River North that opened in April, wants to help calm those anxieties.

This year has offered a steady drumbeat of blaring headlines, from concern over North Korean missiles to this week's abrupt firing of FBI director James Comey. With headlines rotating so quickly, the studio hopes to bring relief to stressed-out Chicagoans.

"I notice a shift in my energy," said Susan Ifergan after taking Insight, Chill's advanced meditation class. She said she has taken four classes in a week, and they are helping her during a difficult time.

Thursday's class was nearly full, with a dozen people stopping in at lunchtime. Instructor Kimberly Dunn began by recounting the story of road rage and explained that the class would focus on compassion. She guided meditation by suggesting how to bring awareness to thoughts and telling the class to think of someone who needed compassion a friend or a person with whom we had a grievance.

When the 30-minute class ended, people languidly stood up from their cushions and slowly walked out, some saying they wanted to come more often.

The studio's River North location is intentional, says co-owner Laura Sage. She wants downtown cubicle dwellers to feel they can drop in before, during or after work.

"I am perpetually in a state of frenzy, which I'm not proud of," said Sage, who also founded the Lynn Sage Foundation, dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer. "I had always wanted to meditate and have a consistent practice, and I couldn't find a place in Chicago that made that convenient for me."

The rooms are softly lit with a variety of cushions and blankets, but not much else.

"We intentionally made Chill very minimalistic," Sage said.

Along with Insight, the studio offers a variety of classes including Breath, an introduction to meditation; Rest, a night class aimed at calming the body before bed; and a class that's a combination of yoga and meditation. Single sessions are $22, and an unlimited monthly membership is $150. The studio also offers massages.

Like many beginners, my mind wandered noticing an itchy eye, wondering whether my contact was the issue, pondering how strange it would be to remove a contact lens in the middle of a meditation class.

But Sage offers the comforting analogy that meditation is like running a marathon.

"You wouldn't assume you could run 26 miles day one. You would incrementally grow to that level," she said. "Meditation is exercising your brain. If you haven't done it before, give yourself a break."

abowen@chicagotribune.com

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Stressed by current events? Chicago meditation studio aims to help - Chicago Tribune