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Promoting Health Through Organic Agriculture as a Leading Sustainable Organization
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Market Report
What's Growing On |
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We're all hanging out at the downtown Portland Hilton for the Organicology conference and sure hope you are headed down here to join us!! This is shaping up to be an excellent conference - it's wonderful to be around so many intelligent and engaged folks excited to learn about and help create sustainable food systems! We would love to see you here. If you are not registered, we are still accepting walk-ins at the door, space permitting.
Anna Peeples
Marketing Team
We love feedback! Let us know what you like or
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 Weekly Produce Report
After an eventful start to 2015 on the supply side, we're heading into month number two with a far more favorable outlook. Most key vegetable items are back in stable supply; markets are moving down on most items, including power items like kale, broccoli, celery and even leaf lettuce. Now is the time to get back into promotional mode in this category and reward anyone who's maintained their New Year's resolutions beyond January. On the fruit side, citrus is still the driver. The much anticipated Honeygold grapefruit from South Texas Organic is slated to arrive early next week. If all goes well, volume will slowly pick up and these could provide a new promotional centerpiece for your department. Another potentially exciting development is the significant increase in supply of organic young green coconuts. Promotional pricing may be available. Ask your OGC sales rep for details!!
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Weekly Organicology Spotlight
Friday Special Events
 Wine/Beer/Spirits & Winter Veggie Tasting
 Indulge in the abundant varieties of winter vegetables. Discover the wonder of fair-weather produce, and relish samplings of wines, beers and spirits. We'll be sampling six cabbage varieties (3 hybrid and 3 open-pollinated) in raw, raw in slaw and fermented kraut formats.
Black Republican Cherry Shrub
Ins  ide your registration bags you will find a voucher for one free, Black Republican cherry shrub cocktail or mocktail. The shrub drinks will feature the Black Republican cherry, a Slow Food Ark of Taste product, which were grown organically at Tamiyasu Orchards in Hood River, OR, and Peak Forest Fruit in Banks, OR, and have been preserving in a shrub syrup since being picked in July. Chef Timothy Wastell from Firehouse Restaurant in Portland, OR, preserved them as a shrub. It will be served with organic whiskey from Koval Distillery. Learn more about this special item here.
Movie Night
 A documentary film that examines the role of urban farming in America and asks how much power it has to revitalize our cities and change the way we eat. In their search for answers, filmmakers Dan Susman and Andrew Monbouquette take a road trip and meet the men and women who are challenging the way this country grows and distributes its food, one vacant city lot, rooftop garden, and backyard chicken coop at a time.
Live Entertainment: The Pheremones
 Classes are over, school is out, now it's time to let loose and rock it out! Organicology welcomes once again, The Pheromones! Jam to a mix of jump blues, rockabilly, and eclectic fusion, featuring a great group of farmers and plant breeders: John Navazio, Martin Diffley, Billy Black and Jason Mealhow.
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Late registration still available at the door!
Organicology is an interactive educational curriculum designed to advance organic trade knowledge. Seed producers, farmers, distributors and retailers, researchers and educators, chefs, food policy activists, and eaters of great food, all find topics of interest and sources of inspiration at Organicology!
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On the Road with OGC  OGC produce now at WinCo -Longview. We are excited organic produce is now available to a community without much prior access!
OGC staff attended the soft opening of the new Kure juice bar in downtown Portland. This is their 3rd location, and OGC is one of their main suppliers. 
Kure soft opening - Rocky is wearing the hat, and Nate is cashiering. It's a beautiful new spot to get fresh, organic juices!
Mission accomplished - 1,000 Organicology registration bags stuffed by OGC staff and great volunteers. The conference can begin!
Presenting the result of group discussions in the From Apples to Zukes: Creating the Best with Fresh produce department intensive at Organicology.
Jeff Fairchild from New Seasons and Tom Lively from OGC presenting at the managing the produce department intensive.
 Group discussions in the Continued Transition to the Next Generation Organic Leaders intensive at Organicology.
OGC's Natalie Reitman-White presenting at the Continued Transition to the Next Generation of Organic Leaders intensive at Organicology.
Bena Burda, founder of Maggie's Organics, at the Next Gen Organicology intensive.
New Seasons - Mountain Park flower arrangements patiently await their Organicology debut.
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¿!trivia?!
Keep playing for your chance to win!
From Last Week: The cucumber is one of the earliest cultivated crops. Technically, it is a fruit, because it contains the seeds of the plant to be cultivated; it belongs to the same plant family as pumpkins, zucchini, and watermelon. Refreshing and low in calories, the cucumber's most remarkable quality is its exceptionally high water content. All that water gives the cucumber it's unique refreshing quality and even it's own phrase, "cool as a cucumber." What interesting scientific fact about the cucumber's temperature makes "cool as a cucumber" literally true?
Answer: The inside temperature of a cucumber can be up to 20 degrees cooler than the outside air.
How does trivia work?
Each week we tuck a juicy bit of organic knowledge into our produce report. Everyone who answers will be entered into our monthly drawing. Then, the first week of every month we'll pick a winner and announce it here in the Market Report. The monthly winner will get to choose between an OGC t-shirt, apron or hat. Reply with your answer by Wednesday after receiving your Market Report to be entered in the drawing.
Send your answers to: trivia@organicgrown.com
We encourage everyone to join in the fun--the more the merrier!
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Organic Organizations of the Week
Organicology Conference Team
Our mission at Oregon Tilth is to make our food system biologically sound and socially equitable requires us to find practical ways to tackle big challenges. For more than 30 years, Oregon Tilth has been a part of conversations that have influenced local, regional and national organic practices and policies. With focus on core areas of organic certification, conservation, health, public policy, and the marketplace, we're committed to sustainable initiatives that support how we produce our food and products with people and planet in mind. Our work looks for opportunities to bring everyone to the table - government agencies, farmers, nonprofits, businesses and citizens - to find sensible solutions. And through our certification program, membership and partnerships, we embrace sharing knowledge and learning from each other to spur discovery and accelerate innovative responses to today's big issues.
 Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) advances the ethical development and stewardship of agricultural seed. We believe seed is part of our common cultural heritage - a living, natural resource that demands careful management to meet food needs now and into the future. We are building regional seed networks that address the harmful impacts of seed concentration, resulting in transformative change at the national level.
We accomplish our mission through research, education, and advocacy that closely engages farmers and the broader organic community. Our collaborative research emphasizes diversity, ecology, and shared benefits. Our education builds the base of knowledge necessary for stewarding seed and enhancing diversity through on-farm innovation. And our advocacy promotes the benefits of organic seed while simultaneously confronting threats.
Founded in 1978, employee and grower-owned Organically Grown Company (OGC) is the largest organic produce distributor in the Pacific Northwest. From its facilities in Portland and Eugene, Oregon, and Kent, Washington, OGC serves over 500 natural and fine foods stores and restaurants located throughout the Northwest, as well as retail and wholesale accounts in other western states and Canada. Over 95% of OGC's product line comes directly from over 400 growers; 32% of products sold come from Northwest farms. OGC's trademarked LADYBUG brand represents more than 30 family-owned, organic and Salmon Safe certified farms in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia and is sold in markets throughout the United States. OGC has been recognized as a leader in sustainable business practices including sourcing 100% renewable energy in facilities, support for fair trade and charitable giving. Our mission is, "Promoting health through organic agriculture as a leading sustainable organization."
 The Sustainable Food Trade Association (SFTA) is a non-profit organization uniting businesses and aligned partners to define and drive excellence in environmentally sound, socially just business practices using a systems-based approach.
We serve as a hub for businesses to learn, improve performance, communicate results, and share common metrics and best practices. We advocate for the adoption of sustainable business practices within the organic trade and in government policies. Since 2008, SFTA has worked with organic food companies, from farm to retail, to create and implement innovative, sustainable business practices throughout their supply chain.
SFTA provides:
- Education: Trainings, webinars, workshops, resource guides, other learning opportunities.
- Networking: In-person and online forums to share questions, challenges, best practices, shared initiatives.
- Sustainability Metrics: Industry-specific metrics, and peer-reviewed reports that facilitate learning, benchmarking, and progress.
- Consulting Program: Staff support, resources, and guidance to plan and implement sustainability programs. Customized consulting available.
- Communications/Marketing: Increased visibility through SFTA communications.
- Tool Kits: Step-by-step guidance for sustainability programs: strategy and goals, implementation, reporting, and communications.
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