harrumph

I thought I had saved a post as a draft, but it appears to have vanished. Drat. In order to fill the void until I rewrite the darn thing, I will give you this:

USDA waters down organic standards Despite protest, the USDA has ruled to allow 38 new non-organic ingredients in products with the "USDA organic" seal. You can find more info about it here, and you can fill out a form to send a protest letter.

In happier news, hats off to San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom for banning the use of city funds in purchasing single-serving bottled water. I had missed the fact that San Francisco banned petroleum-based plastic checkout bags in large markets and pharmacies. Unfortunately the replacement bags are not a huge step up; hopefully they will encourage the use of reusable bags.