5@5: How General Mills & Organic Valley plan to grow organic dairy supply | Raley's planning new store format

With demand outpacing supply of organic food, big producers like General Mills and Organic Valley get creative

Supply of organic dairy is so short that General Mills is offering financial support to farmers transitioning some 3,000 acres of land from conventional to organic by way of dairy cooperative Organic Valley. In the deal, General Mills agreed to pay the difference between what conventional and organic markets would pay for milk for 20 large farms in transition. It's also planning to more than double the organic acreage from which it sources other ingredients to reach its goal of selling $1 billion in natural and organic foods by 2019. Read more at StarTribune...

Natural foods store owned by Raley's coming to downtown Sacramento

A new store format that's smaller than Raley's grocery stores and more reminiscent of a farmers market is expected to open this spring in Sacramento. Called Market 5-ONE-5, the store will "strive to source products that meet the highest quality standards—minimally processed, organic (when available), sustainably sources and free of elements not found in nature," Raley's said in a press release. Read more at The Sacramento Bee...

IARC scientists defend glyphosate cancer link; surprised by industry assault

Last year, when the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that the main ingredient in Monsanto's roundup was probably carcinogenic, it sparked a debate that's still raging. Read more at Huffington Post...

Hey, looks like Americans are finally eating more fish

Americans' per-capita consumption of fish and shellfish was up nearly a pound between 2014 and 2015, according to NOAA's annual Fisheries of the United States Report. That's the largest increase in about 20 years, but we're still not anywhere close to eating the recommended 8 pounces per week. Read more at NPR...

To see food waste in a new way, start with your plate

A new app being developed by Ohio State and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center called FoodImage would allow researchers to measure food waste as well as where and when it happens once food gets to consumers. "If we can conduct studies that really tease out how the different approaches alter household behaviors, then we can help prioritize which of these will deliver the biggest impact," says Brian Roe, a behavioral economist at Ohio State. Read more at National Geographic...