This year’s All Things Organic conference and expo showcased necessity as the mother of invention. Slumping sales and a weak economy have forced the industry to innovate just to hold onto customers.

In a 2009 briefing on the organic packaged food market, Euromonitor International said the largest threat to the future growth of organic products is price sensitivity among U.S. consumers in the current economic climate.

“In previous years, many consumers were willing to trade up to premium products,” the briefing said. “However, more consumers are looking to trade down, as they can no longer afford to even try some premium products, much less purchase them on a regular basis.”

The response has been for some companies to expand their product offerings, such as Clorox’s Green Works laundry detergent, hitting store shelves this summer, and Rain Organic Vodka’s new lavender flavor.

Others are expanding their reach as they try to drive sales. Safeway’s O Organics line, for example, is now in other grocery chains, such as Albertsons.

Still, people were all smiles, saying that while their sales were down, their companies had still experienced growth. In their eyes, weathering the economic storm means that they’re just that much more prepared for the recovery.

Watch the audio slide show below:

(Video by Reuters/Ian Sherr)

(By Ian Sherr. Originally published June 22, 2009 on the Reuters News “Shop Talk” blog, here.)

Part I:

Part II:

This project represents the majority of my work while interning at KCBS between January and May of 2009. I organized, produced, edited and implemented this multimedia project from beginning to end.

See the full centennial website, here.

More of china’s people wander their country and the world seeking work, love and community. Yet Beijing’s new magnetism pulls at them. Watch stories of hustle, stress, and solace on the streets of Beijing and beyond.

“Nesting”

(Beijing Beat was produced for the Washington Post’s “Emerging Voices” project, and published on the front page of the Washington Post website for nearly a week during the Beijing Olympic Games. The entire project is available at the Post’s website, here.)

By Ian Sherr

PALO ALTO, California (AFP) — Two US men on Friday claimed to have found the body of “Bigfoot,” the legendary ape-like creature that has been the subject of decades of hoaxes and dubious sightings.

Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer claimed before a crowd of sceptical reporters that they were hiking in a northern part of the US state of Georgia in June when they stumbled upon a body near water.

“I recognized it was unusual right away,” Whitton told the press conference in Palo Alto. “The first thing that pops into your head is that it’s Bigfoot.”

The body was said to be seven-feet, seven-inches tall and weigh more than 500 pounds. The men claimed to have stored the body in a freezer.

Photos of the “corpse” were posted at www.searchingforbigfoot.com. Advertising on the Web page Friday offered Bigfoot T-shirts and films.

Reports of Whitton and Dyer’s “find” appeared across national print and US media on Friday, with many experts suspicious of the men’s claims.

Jeffrey Meldrum, a prominent Bigfoot expert and professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University told Scientific American.com he doubted the find was legitimate.

“I’m extremely skeptical about this bigfoot claim,” he said. “What I’ve seen so far is not compelling in the least, and I think the pictures cast grave doubts on their claim. It just looks like a costume with some fake guts thrown on top for effect.”

Bigfoot, also referred to as “Sasquatch,” tells of a gargantuan, elusive furred creature that walks upright and lives in remote forests in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada.

Georgia is in the country’s south.

Many scientists believe Bigfoot is folklore instead of fact.

Biscardi says he has been tracking Bigfoot since 1971 and speaks of his efforts on an internet radio show.

(By Ian Sherr. Originally published Aug 15, 2008, on the wire with the Agence France-Presse, here. Photos published with the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and CNN .)

By Ian Sherr

The Beijing Olympic Torch made its only appearance in North America on Wednesday. After protests disrupted the torch relay in Europe, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom changed the planned route without an announcement to the public.

Click to watch the video

Video produced by the Center for Digital TV and the World with April Dembosky, Marnette Federis, Julie Johnson, Alison Satake, Kerry Seed, and Ian Sherr.

(Originally published April 10, 2008 with the Washington Post, here.)