Remineralize the Earth (www.remineralize.org) has been an ongo­ing part of the Natural Revitalization pro­gram since 2007. RTE spon­sors edu­ca­tional and action pro­grams designed to pro­mote the use of glacial gravel and rock dust to restore nat­ural min­er­als to our depleted soils. This cost-effective, non-petroleum-based fer­til­izer results in both enhanced organic growth and enhanced nat­ural min­eral con­tent in our food crops. The revi­tal­iza­tion of our soils with the sub­se­quent enhanced crop, plant and for­est growth will give us greater oxy­gen pro­duc­tion as well as greater absorp­tion of CO₂.

For more infor­ma­tion about Remineralize the Earth, see http://organicconnectmag.com/wp/2009/10/seer-centre-scotlands-remineralized-oasis/.

Originally a project of Remineralize the Earth, the Bionutrient Food Association is headed by sec­ond gen­er­a­tion organic farmer Dan Kittredge. A recent report, based on US agri­cul­tural records, found that the nutri­ent con­tent of fruits and veg­eta­bles has been drop­ping since records were first kept. You would need to eat five apples today just to get the same nutri­ents from eat­ing one apple back in 1965!

The objec­tive of the Bionutrient Food Association is the pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of food grown so that it is nat­u­rally and mea­sur­ably high in nutri­tional value. This means grow­ing food for qual­ity rather than quan­tity. The process involves work­ing closely with farm­ers, dis­trib­u­tors, retail­ers and con­sumers. The BFA has already trained over 700 farm­ers and other grow­ers in the nat­ural method­ol­ogy of grow­ing high bionu­tri­ent produce.

High bionu­tri­ent fruits and veg­eta­bles have very high lev­els of vit­a­mins, car­bo­hy­drates, min­er­als, enzymes, antiox­i­dants and trace min­er­als. They also have excep­tional fla­vor and are nat­u­rally pest resistant.

For more infor­ma­tion see www.bionutrient.org.

Natural Vitality is a sig­nif­i­cant sup­porter of the Center for Food Safety (www.truefoodnow.org).

The Center for Food Safety works to pro­tect human health and the envi­ron­ment by curb­ing the pro­lif­er­a­tion of harm­ful food pro­duc­tion tech­nolo­gies and by pro­mot­ing organic and other forms of sus­tain­able agriculture.

For more infor­ma­tion about the Center for Food Safety, see
http://organicconnectmag.com/wp/2009/11/nanotechnology-the-secret-you-cant-see/.
http://organicconnectmag.com/wp/2009/10/healthcare-the-high-cost-of-the-american-diet/.

Food Tank: The Food Think Tank is an orga­ni­za­tion founded to help fix our bro­ken food sys­tem. Some peo­ple don’t have enough food while oth­ers are eat­ing too much.

Food Tank is for farm­ers and pro­duc­ers, pol­icy mak­ers and gov­ern­ment lead­ers, researchers and sci­en­tists, aca­d­e­mics and jour­nal­ists, and the fund­ing and donor com­mu­ni­ties. It’s a space to col­lab­o­rate on pro­vid­ing sus­tain­able solu­tions for our most press­ing envi­ron­men­tal and social prob­lems. Natural Vitaity is proud to be a Founding Member of Food Tank.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.foodtank.org

Heifer International was started 68 years ago by a vol­un­teer relief worker. After ladel­ing out mea­ger rations of pow­dered milk to orphans and refugees of the Spanish Civil War, Dan West, an Indiana farmer, real­ized that peo­ple needed “a cow, not a cup.” From that sim­ple idea, Heifer International was born. Since 1944, Heifer International has expanded to 30 dif­fer­ent types of ani­mals it pro­vides and is now work­ing with fam­i­lies in need across the globe to over­come poverty and hunger. The goal is to give fam­i­lies a hand up, not just a hand­out. It helps bring com­mu­ni­ties together and links them to mar­kets in their area, and helps to bring sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture and com­merce to areas with a long his­tory of poverty.

Natural Vitality is proud to sup­port Heifer International. To learn more about Heifer International, go to http://www.heifer.org

American Forests is a world leader in plant­ing trees to restore for­est ecosys­tems. Founded in 1875, American Forests was piv­otal in cre­at­ing con­ser­va­tion strate­gies that have become widely accepted poli­cies sup­port­ing for­est advo­cacy, refor­esta­tion and pub­lic edu­ca­tion in the US and across the globe.

American Forests cre­ated Global ReLeaf in 1988 with the objec­tive of rein­tro­duc­ing only native trees into areas that have been dam­aged by drought, fire, infes­ta­tion, pol­lu­tion, urban devel­op­ment, war and other nat­ural or human causes. The pro­gram is dis­tinc­tive com­pared to other tree-planting pro­grams in its efforts to involve and edu­cate the local com­mu­nity. Since its incep­tion, over 32 mil­lion trees have been planted in every state in the US as well as in 33 other countries.

Natural Vitality is very proud to sup­port American Forests’ Global ReLeaf pro­gram and its goal of plant­ing 100 mil­lion trees world­wide by the year 2020.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.americanforests.org.

Founded in 1989, non-profit Slow Food USA advo­cates ways of life that con­nect the plea­sures of good food with aware­ness of food pro­duc­tion and respon­si­bil­ity for the envi­ron­ment. It is part of Slow Food International, which was formed in Italy in oppo­si­tion to the “fast cul­ture” char­ac­ter­ized by the indus­tri­al­iza­tion and stan­dard­iza­tion of food pro­duc­tion tak­ing hold in Europe in the mid-1980s.

Slow Food USA over­sees 200 local chap­ters through­out the US, where mem­bers par­tic­i­pate in edu­ca­tional and out­reach pro­grams such as pre­sen­ta­tions by organic farm­ers, din­ners show­cas­ing local ingre­di­ents, farm tours, regional lore dis­cussed by food pro­fes­sion­als, and the cre­ation of com­mu­nity gar­dens. Slow Food USA believes that shar­ing the daily expe­ri­ence of cook­ing with local pro­duce, and under­stand­ing the rela­tion­ship of farm and plate, can restore the impor­tance of the fam­ily din­ner table and build com­mu­ni­ties rich with tra­di­tion. The orga­ni­za­tion also pro­motes pub­lic pol­icy that sup­ports bio­di­ver­sity and safe prac­tices in agri­cul­ture, and offers pro­grams to schools and food pro­fes­sion­als about the val­ues of sus­tain­abil­ity, pro­tec­tion of foods in dan­ger of extinc­tion, and the cel­e­bra­tion of the many food tra­di­tions in North America.

The phi­los­o­phy of Slow Food USA is closely aligned with the core val­ues and cor­po­rate mis­sion of Natural Vitality. We are proud to be a spon­sor of their unique and effec­tive efforts.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.slowfoodusa.org.

TheOrganic Farming Research Foundation is the lead­ing farmer-driven organic advo­cacy group in the US. Founded twenty-one years ago, OFRF ded­i­cated itself to devel­op­ing a com­pre­hen­sive body of knowl­edge pro­mot­ing science-based meth­ods for organic pro­duc­ers. Today, OFRF works to trans­form agri­cul­ture by sup­port­ing the con­tin­u­ous improve­ment and wide­spread adop­tion of organic farm­ing sys­tems and con­ser­va­tion prac­tices. Through its com­pet­i­tive grant pro­gram, OFRF pro­motes organic farm­ing research and edu­ca­tion projects, and pro­vides farm­ers with the infor­ma­tional tools they need to be suc­cess­ful grow­ers of highly-nutritious, organic food. OFRF also works to cre­ate fed­eral farm pol­icy designed to bring more farm­ers and more acres into eco­nom­i­cally viable organic production.

Natural Vitality is very pleased to be a sup­porter of the Organic Farming and Research Foundation and its grass­roots efforts toward the expan­sion of organic production.

Learn more about OFRF at ofrf.org.

Natural Vitality is a found­ing sup­porter of Farm Forward (www.farmforward.com).

Farm Forward imple­ments inno­v­a­tive strate­gies to pro­mote con­sci­en­tious food choices, reduce farm ani­mal suf­fer­ing, and advance sus­tain­able agriculture.

For more infor­ma­tion about Farm Forward and its work, see http://organicconnectmag.com/wp/2010/01/farm-forward-against-animal-abuse-in-factory-farming/.

The Frontera Farmer Foundation is a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion com­mit­ted to pro­mot­ing small, sus­tain­able farms serv­ing the Chicago area by pro­vid­ing them with cap­i­tal devel­op­ment grants. The Foundation envi­sions a year-round inter­change between sus­tain­able farm­ers and con­sumers, includ­ing farm­ers’ mar­ket patrons and chefs, in which sea­sonal local agri­cul­ture pro­vides the foun­da­tion for sus­tain­able regional cuisine.

Established in 2003 to attract sup­port for small Midwestern farms. Rick and Deann Bayless, founders of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, along with the restau­rants’ staff, cre­ated the Foundation out of their con­cern for strug­gling farm­ers and the impor­tance of local pro­duce to the vital­ity of Chicago’s culi­nary cul­ture. Small local farms pro­mote bio­di­ver­sity by plant­ing a wide range of pro­duce, are more likely to oper­ate using organic prac­tices, and add immea­sur­ably to the fab­ric of their com­mu­ni­ties. For more infor­ma­tion visit: www.rickbayless.com/foundation

For three years we sup­ported Conservation International (www.conservation.org), which has pro­grams to pre­serve trop­i­cal forests from being destroyed. CI is also very active in pro­grams to cur­tail the amount of CO₂ being released into the atmos­phere. Their over­all mis­sion is to con­serve the earth’s liv­ing nat­ural her­itage, our global bio­di­ver­sity, and to demon­strate that human soci­eties are able to live har­mo­niously with nature.

During this period, Natural Vitality, as part of Conservation International’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, was able to pro­tect 5,000 acres of trop­i­cal rain for­est.