What’s the saying - no good deed goes unpunished? It’s easy to forget that wisdom when you’re trying to save the world. Case in point - the local food movement. Popularized by Berkeley professor Michal Polland and a few other passionate and observant thought leaders, local food is not only sweeping through your natural and health food stores, but it’s also invading conventional grocery.

Today, however, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bill Moseley highlighted another ethical food movement at odds with the local - fair trade. His article is entitled, Farmers in developing world hurt by ‘eat local’ philosopy in U.S.

William’s conclusion follows: “While the local food craze is all well and good, we should not be so quick to denounce organic and fair trade foods that are imported from the developing world. By shunning these products, we do not encourage local markets to flourish in these countries, but we condemn these farmers to the ills of conventional production for the global market (the only other real alternative at this time). We should remain open to such products in the short term, but also work for broad scale changes in the rules of the global market place to ensure that even conventional agricultural production is safe and fairly compensated.”

I tend to agree.

Improving the world we live in is never easy. Hopefully an open discussion of the issues will help these two movements find common ground.

Always trying to stay ahead of the trends driving the U.S. market, this article from the South-Florida Sun Sentinel about black foods caught my attention today.

In Japan, certain food colors are associated with different organs. Black foods are associated with kidney health. Perhaps there is an opportunity for Red Bull to launch Red Bull Black…conveniently and easily mixed with vodka…and marketed on college campuses. Red Bull’s growth has slowed……

I do my best to keep an eye on the popular press. I read Time, The Economist & BusinessWeek every week…as well as reading about 10 enewsletters on a daily basis.

Today, I came across an article in USA Today entitled: Got Omega-3? Not so much

It’s an interesting article and worth reading if you are in the business of the nutrition industry. The consumer press can do alot to swing product sales one way or another.

For more information on Omega-3 fatty acids, go to the website for the Global Organization for EPA and DHA omeag-3s www.goedomega3.com

This group is led by Adam Ismail, one of the leading analysts in the nutrition industry, and a close friend of mine. Enjoy!

The editorial team of Nutrition Business Journal is working around the clock to finish up the October Consumer Research issue of NBJ. While scanning al the consumer study headlines coming out these days, this one caught my attention. Apparently, Wal-Mart is tops with organic consumers.

“Wal-Mart Supercenter is the top grocery store for organics users, according to a recent analysis by Scarborough Research. Twenty-nine percent of organics consumers shopped Wal-Mart Supercenter during the past week. However, organics consumers seem far more passionate about shopping at Whole Foods. The store has the nation’s highest concentration of organics consumers in its aisles. According to the study conducted from August 2006 through March 2007, organics consumers are 272 percent more likely than the average consumer to have shopped Whole Foods during the past week. They are 21 percent less likely than average consumers to have shopped in Wal-Mart Supercenter during this timeframe.”

For more on this consumer study, click here.

There is no denying that organic is the latest driver of growth for the greater “healthy foods” category, which Nutrition Business Journal defines as organic, natural, lesser-evil and functional foods. More definitions are available here.

What is interesting, is how many different consumer types (as defined by Harris Interactive) buy organic foods on a regular basis.

Harris finds, “Some segments of the population are more likely to buy organic foods regularly: college graduates (11%), Liberals (11%), Westerners (10%), Echo Boomers (those aged 18-30; 10%), and Gen Xers (those aged 31-42; 9%).”

For many years, organic was just a niche frequented by the very wealthy or the core, organic food “passionates”. That has changed, and now there is a piece of research to prove it.

NBJ also publishes annual research on the organic foods market in the form of an issue of the journal, a report and downloadable data charts.

Check them out! NBJ’s market figures on organics are broad and deep!