A study by the French environmental campaigning group Robin des Bois found that a typical two-hour barbecue can release the same level of dioxins as up to 220,000 cigarettes. BBC

The next time you order a salad out, ask if the greens are organic. Chances are the answer is no, but chef Michel Nischan wants you to ask anyway. The kitchen might take enough notice to start giving more business to local farmers who make the effort to grow organic fruits and vegetables.

"Asking for organics is not about being a pest," says Nischan, a Fairfield resident at the forefront of the New American Farming Initiative, a national organization intended to encourage the use of organic produce, meats and dairy in restaurants.

"Consumers vote with their dollars," Nischan says. "And the good restaurant is going to take note if their customers start asking for something."

The Hartford Courant

While organic farming research has increased significantly over the last two years, the amount of land delegated to that research still lags far behind the demands of the growing certified organic industry, according to a recent report by the Santa Cruz-based Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF). Zwire

In a risky reversal of marketing tactics, some of the world's best-known packaged-food companies have planted their brand names smack-dab onto organic versions of their products. Until recently, big food makers looking for a foothold in the growing organic industry have made it a point to keep their names and logos off organic offerings. Last year, when General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, introduced Cascadian Farms organic cereals, the Big G logo was conspicuously absent from the box. The rationale has been that consumers who try to avoid pesticides and additives may not trust big corporate brands. The Wall Street Journal

Mild to moderate levels of depression symptoms combined with feelings of hostility in healthy men may raise their levels of a protein that is associated with clogged arteries and a greater risk of heart attack, according to new research in Psychosomatic Medicine. Center for the Advancement of Health

Happy people are three times less likely to get a cold, according to researchers who squirted cold virus up the noses of volunteers. Psychologist Sheldon Cohen and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania, also found that the positive thinkers who do develop symptoms complain about them less. NewScientist.com

Scientists study it. Doctors recommend it. Millions of Americans—many of whom don't even own crystals—practice it every day. Why? Because meditation works. TIME Magazine

Children who are healthy but abnormally short will be able to have injections of growth hormone in hopes of gaining 1 to 3 more inches of height, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday, deciding an emotionally charged issue. The drug, called Humatrope, is not for normal kids yearning for a few extra inches, the FDA cautioned. It's for the shortest 1.2 percent of children. Salon

Government and news-media scrutiny recently has focused on trans fatty acids as the latest food villain, but many food companies are steering clear of drawing attention to their efforts to reduce trans fat in their products, in part because they're not sure consumers actually care. AdAge

Eating a diet similar to that of our ape ancestors can have as much of an effect on cholesterol levels as modern medicine does, a new study suggests. Results published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicate that a strict, low-fat vegetarian diet high in specific plant products can lower levels of bad cholesterol as much as widely prescribed statin drugs can. Scientific American

"The Hunt For Red October" actor has narrated a new documentary short for the activist group People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals that shows images of animals raised for food. In a grass-roots bid to disseminate the short, neither PETA nor Baldwin copyrighted the film, hoping people who buy a DVD or VHS for $5 from the group's Web site will make bootleg copies for friends or post it on the Internet, said PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich. The Associated Press

For Dave Jakubowski, vice-president of business development for Internet service provider United Online (UNTD ) Inc., the job isn't what it used to be. Instead of an unlimited expense account and stays at the plush Chateau Marmont, the 31-year-old Manhattanite now brown-bags his lunch and stays at a Hyatt when he's in Los Angeles on business. He logs 18-hour days to help his Westlake Village (Calif.)-based company hit its quarterly sales targets of around $8 million. How to cope? Jakubowski is no breathe-like-a-tree kind of guy. "I'm in business," he says, "and I need results." So he recently turned to a mat and 60 minutes of silence. "It's amazing," he says of his new meditation practice. "I'm able to sort through work challenges in this state of calm much faster than trying to fight through it. And I make fewer mistakes." Increasingly, the overstretched and overburdened have a new answer to work lives of gunning harder for what seems like less and less: Don't just do something -- sit there. Companies increasingly are falling for the allure of meditation, too, offering free, on-site classes. They're being won over, in part, by findings at the National Institutes of Health, the University of Massachusetts, and the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Harvard University that meditation enhances the qualities companies need most from their knowledge workers: increased brain-wave activity, enhanced intuition, better concentration, and the alleviation of the kinds of aches and pains that plague employees most. BusinessWeek

Victoria's 300 certified organic farmers have long claimed they are 100 per cent organic, but now they have the science to prove it. In the first study of its type in Australia, more than 300 different types of organic fruit and vegetables were tested for pesticide residue by the Victorian Government; with the results coming back 100 per cent clean. ABC News

A Norfolk, Virginia, woman has taken her love of vegetarianism to the extreme by changing her name to GoVeg.com. The-vegan-formerly-known-as Karin Robertson changed her name to the same as that of a vegetarian information website to encourage meat-eaters to become vegetarians. NCBuy.com

Young women who eat more red meat and full-fat dairy products such as cheese may be raising their risk of breast cancer, researchers reported on Tuesday. They said their study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, provides yet another incentive for women to shun fatty foods and consume fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Reuters

Genetically engineered corn and soybeans are becoming so widespread that organic growers - who count on selling their crops for two to three times as much as conventional varieties - say they are having trouble keeping biotech contamination out of their crops. DesMoines Register

Two British mothers frustrated with the lack of wholesome baby food on supermarket shelves have launched their own line of high fruit content organic yogurts. AP

A widely read natural products trade publication, The Natural Foods Merchandiser (NFM), is printing fraudulent "organic" cosmetics ads while refusing to run an ad that exposes the deceptive practices of these companies, according to the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a nonprofit watchdog group for organic shoppers and retailers. Press release

CROPP, also known as the Organic Valley Family of Farms, broke ground Saturday for a new $4 million, barn-shaped headquarters on the north side of La Farge. CROPP, the nation's largest organic farmers cooperative, hopes the new headquarters will be completed by March 2004. It has more than 150 employees in La Farge and expects to have about 250 there by 2008 because of continued growth. La Crosse Tribune

New research found that foods high in fat and sugar can cause significant changes in brain biochemistry similar to drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Researchers believe once people are hooked, many find it impossible to switch back to a healthy diet, often leading to obesity. The evidence is to be taken up by lawyers preparing multi-million dollar claims from people who allege their that addiction to fast foods has damaged their health. Scotsman.com

Vegetarians are unwittingly eating GM-contaminated food, including certain products which claim they are GM-free. Some of the most popular brands for Britain's 2.2 million vegetarians and vegans, food safety authorities have found, contain GM soya beans and maize - a fact rarely disclosed on the label. The Independant

"Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes because kids didn't get it," says Dr. Catherine Davis, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia. "Now, kids are getting it in record numbers." In fact, 10 times more kids have diabetes today than in 1990, she says. HealthDay

After a dozen years of hearings and deliberation, the U.S. Agriculture Department issued official standards for organic foods last October. And -- surprise, surprise -- a government agency actually did a pretty good job. Unfortunately, there's been some bad tinkering... BusinessWeek

William Straus, a pioneer in land conservation and co-founder of one of the country's first organic dairy farms, has died. He was 88. Associated Press