Do you have it in you to cut the cord?

If you have an iPad, at least most of the work is done for you. With help from a few subscription services, you may never feel like having cable again.

All you need to get started is a television with an HDMI port.

You need an Apple Digital AV Adapter ...

One of the best ways to get video off of your iPad and onto your television is with Digital AV Adapter. They're $33.70 on Amazon.

... and an HDMI cable like this one from AmazonBasics.

You need an HDMI cable to connect your adapter to your television. A 3-meter cable is $7.49.

Get a Hulu Plus subscription.

If you're most concerned with making sure you have access to current television shows, you need Hulu Plus. It costs $7.99 per month and you can sign up right here.

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Samuel L. Jackson may not be ranting about NBC's tape-delay, but he sure has a lot to say about the Olympics. 

And, it's hilarious. 

Jackson's critiquing everything from water polo to gymnastics. He's even making jabs at NBC's commentators and clothing attire. 

The actor's tweets have become such a spectacle some followers have even called for NBC to hire him as their color commentator. 

With the Olympics not even half-way through, we're sure the best is yet to come, but here's a look at some of the actor's takes on the various sports. 

On America beating out Russia for the gold in Gymnastics:

Where did they go wrong?

Tearing apart the commentators ...

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If you're looking for concrete evidence of the ever widening gap between America's rich and poor, here's a hint: check your area code.

Now more than ever, American neighborhoods are more likely to be segregated by income, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.

That means the rich are living near the rich and the poor are packed together in large sections of the country's biggest metropolitan areas.

"With fewer households now in the middle income group, it’s not surprising that there are now also more census tracts in which at least half of the households are either upper income or lower income," the report says. 

Houston is the most economically segregated city in America. Income segregation here has gotten twice as bad since 1980. [Red is low income. Blue is high income.]

Houston earned a RISI score of 61. Pew's Residential Income Segregation Index (RISI) is calculated by adding the rate of lower-income households living in a majority lower-income tract and the rate of upper-income households living in a majority upper-income tract. The maximum score is 200.

Along with Houston, Dallas has been among the nation’s fastest-growing cities. That includes many low-income, low-skill immigrants as well as well-to-do retires, which is a contributing factor to its income segregation. [Red is low income. Blue is high income.]

Dallas earned a RISI score of 60. Pew's Residential Income Segregation Index (RISI) is calculated by adding the rate of lower-income households living in a majority lower-income tract and the rate of upper-income households living in a majority upper-income tract. The maximum score is 200.

New York is far more economically segregated than the average Northeast metro area. It's overall segregation score jumped nine points since 1980. [Red is low income. Blue is high income.]

New York City earned a RISI score of 57. Pew's Residential Income Segregation Index (RISI) is calculated by adding the rate of lower-income households living in a majority lower-income tract and the rate of upper-income households living in a majority upper-income tract. The maximum score is 200.

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Apple's newest operating system has only been out for a week, but we're already in love with it.

We've been poking around and found these little known features that you just might have missed.

You can access Notification Center from the trackpad.

It's easy to access Notification Center using your trackpad. Take two fingers and slide from the top right corner toward the top left corner and the notification pane will pop into place.

Two-finger gestures are also now in the App Store and iTunes. You can swipe with two fingers to navigate between pages.

You can send a file of any size through Messages.

iCloud lets you fully sync Gmail calendars

The updated Calendar app now lets you properly two-way sync all your Google calendars natively in the program. This includes your preferences, accounts, and delegation.

Previously, it would only show your main account, or use CalDav, which didn't work properly.

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By all early accounts, Gov. Mike Huckabee's "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day" seems like a wild success. 

Conservatives are lining up in droves. Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is offering his support and urging supporters to visit a restaurant. One Wendy's franchise owner expressed his support for Chick-fil-A at a North Carolina Wendy's.  

Chick-fil-A originally incurred a backlash when COO Dan Cathy affirmed in an interview that the company did not support gay marriage. 

"We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit," Cathy said.

Some mayors around the country — including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino — have publicly supported the boycott of Chick-fil-A. 

According to its Facebook event page, more than 630,000 people planned to go to Chick-fil-A today.

Many of them took to Twitter and Instagram to document the craziness. As of this writing, there were almost 60,000 Instagram photos tagged with #chickfila. 

An Ohio Chick-fil-A.

A restaurant in Illinois.

Texas.

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The gymnasts from Team USA gave a stellar performance yesterday, beating the Russians to the gold.

McKayla Maroney's near perfect vault is definitely something sports fans will remember forever.

It also reminded us about some stunning Olympic performances in gymnastics.

Olga Korbut's Back Flip on Uneven Bars (1972)

Nadia Comaneci Scores a Perfect 10 (1976)

Shun Fujimoto Continued On Rings After Breaking His Knee During His Floor Routine (1976)

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For years, East London was an industrial wasteland, known for its run-down warehouses, gritty streets, poverty and crime.

But ever since London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics in 2005—and even before then—this neighborhood has changed beyond recognition, becoming one of the coolest areas in town.

This formerly gritty area is now home to hipsters, artists, and techies. It's also one of the most culturally diverse areas in London, serving as a gateway hub to immigrants looking to make London their home.

Some might equate it to New York's Lower East Side or Paris's 19th arrondissement. Like those hipster havens, East London attracts the young and hip. Besides the sparkling new Olympic Park, the area is home to cutting-edge art galleries, affordable restaurants that push the envelope, unique shops, organic food markets, ethnic restaurants, and a rich cultural scene.

East London is also quickly becoming London's version of Silicon Alley, home to internet startups, bloggers, and more. Old Street Roundabout, a roundabout located on the border of Hackney in East London, has even been nicknamed "Silicon Roundabout" since it's home to so many startups. These tech-savvy folks often conduct business in the cafes and coffeeshops around the area.

Keep an eye out for the incredible street art in the area: the walls of most buildings are adorned with priceless graffiti and murals, including some by famously elusive street artist Banksy.

In honor of London hosting the 2012 Olympics, here are some photos of London's hip East End.

Once a gritty, downtrodden neighborhood, Shoreditch has become one of the hottest neighborhoods in London.

There's tons of great and irreverent street art, much of which was inspired by street artist Banksy.

Few Banksy originals still exist in Shoreditch—they're too valuable to be exposed on the street—but a few of his works survive.

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John Nelson of IDV Solutions is an expert at turning raw data into visually-stunning risk maps.

You may remember his maps of the the world's earthquakes since 1898 or the biggest tornado risks. 

"Once a really interesting data set pops up, mostly it's just me wanting to see what it looks like," Nelson tells us.  

For his latest masterpiece, the designer culled information from an instrument on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites called Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers. Along with taking images of Earth, the sensors collect thermal information twice a day. It can even detect unusually high temperatures associated with burning fires.   

Click here to see the maps > 

Retaining information of fires greater than 100 megawatts, Nelson mapped the location and intensity of major fires for the last 11 years.

"Each dot represents a moment of pretty extreme heat, down to the one square kilometer level," Nelson explains on his blog. 

The fires' magnitude is compared to the typical summertime output of an American nuclear plant, which is around 1,000 megawats. The colors move from purple to pink to red to orange to yellow as the fires strengthen in intensity.  

A chart in the bottom right-hand corner shows the proportion of fires by year, which illustrates an overall upward trend. Over the last decade, 2011 had by far the largest number of major fires and even though 2012 is less than half way through it seems to be on track to outpace last year.  

2001

2002

2003

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Between 1979 and 2010, jobs paying at least $37,000 per year and having health insurance and a  retirement plan fell from 27.4 percent in 1979 to 24.6 percent in 2010.

It never should have happened — the American workforce is older and better-educated than ever before right?

The Center for Economic and Policy Research's John Schmitt and Janelle Jones wanted to know what went wrong. 

In their study Where Have All The Good Jobs Gone? (via Matt Yglesias), they blame falling unionization rates, deregulation, trade policy, immigration and an obsession with inflation at the expense of job creation.

Whether you agree or disagree with that conclusion, the following 9 charts show a clear decline in "good" jobs began right around 1980, and that rather than clotheslining an apparently perpetual boom, the 2008 financial crisis caused us to return to a mean.

Using the current distribution of workers by age and education in 2010 and substituting the corresponding rate of good jobs held by each group in 1979, they show that if not for those harmful factors, the country's "good" jobs rate would today be at 34.2 percent, not the 24.6 percent at which it currently stands.

First, the workforce snapshot. Education levels have gone way up

Well, so has the average worker's age

But looking at the past 30 years, it's basically gotten us nowhere

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July auto sales numbers were just released, and every major manufacturer gave us the scoop on just how many of each vehicle they sold last month.

Toyota dominated the list of best-selling vehicles in the U.S. with six models in the top 27 vehicles sold.

Ford Motor Company and General Motors each had five models in the top 27 sold in the U.S.

Chrysler, the other "Big Three" Detroit auto maker, had three models in the top 27 bestsellers.

#27: Toyota Highlander

July sales: 10,669

Change from a year ago: 11.7 percent

Sticker price: $28,240

Source: Toyota.com, press release

#26: GMC Sierra

July sales: 11,105

Change from a year ago: -11.8 percent

Sticker price: $22,195

Source: GMC.com, press release

#25: Ford Explorer

July sales: 11,313

Change from a year ago: 14.3 percent

Sticker price: $28,870

Source: Ford.com, press release

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The girls of the US women's gymnastics team have became huge stars since their gold-medal performance yesterday in London.

It's a strange type of stardom — just a week ago, they were private teenage girls who were only "famous" in small gymnastics circles.

Now, they're households names.

Most of the "Fab 5" are active on Twitter and Instagram, so we took a look at their tweets and photos to see what their post-gold victory lap has been like.

They're famous now, so they get to hanging out with other famous people, like Carmelo Anthony

And Bruce Jenner

And even Ryan Seacrest

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A 13,500-square-foot home on the water in Pacific Palisades, Calif. is on sale for $26 million.

The home belongs to actress Pia Zadora, best known as a child actress on Broadway, according to Trulia. Zadora first listed the home in 2010 for $10 million, and now it's back on the market for more than double the original asking price.

The home has eight bedrooms and 13 bathrooms. The property also has two guest houses.

The home is made for entertaining, with room for 22 in the dining room and an outdoor fire pit and pool.

Welcome to San Remo Drive.

We love the shades of gray on the entrance way.

Watch out, because property taxes are $27,300 a month for this pad.

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Parisian photographer Thomas Jorion has made a career of shooting urban ruins and condemned buildings, exploring environments as they decay.

For a recent gallery series, Forgotten Palaces, he explored abandoned villas and castles in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. Once grand, these buildings are now forgotten shells.

Jorion's photos are at once sad and beautiful. He's been kind enough to share some photos from the recent series with us—see more of his work on his website.

Villa, Italy, 2010

Villa, Italy, 2009

Villa, Italy, 2010

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Taking an odd ingredient and finding even more unusual uses for it.

It’s not so much that the following uses are particularly unusual, but rather that nutritional yeast itself is an odd ingredient.

It’s gaining popularity among foodies for its cheesy taste and nutritional benefits, but it still has a way to go in terms of becoming the pantry staple it’s meant to be.

Check out the creative uses for yeast here >

Nutritional yeast (nooch) is one of the only non-animal sources of vitamin B-12. It only takes 1/2-1 tbsp of nutritional yeast to get the daily requirement for B-12. Nutritional yeast is also an excellent source of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, chromium, selenium, and other minerals as well as 18 amino acids, protein, folic acid, biotin, and other vitamins.

And don’t worry about the yeast fermenting in your gut. It’s deactivated, so it will not give you the bloat. This is what distinguishes it from Brewer’s Yeast, which has not been deactivated.

Check out the creative uses for yeast here >

More from EcoSalon:

• Umami Boosting Secretes To Making Vegan And Vegetarian Fare Tasty
• 10 Essential Items For A Vegan Pantry
• 20 Foods To Give You Energy

Pop Corn

As if popcorn couldn’t get any more addicting, nooch had to get involved. Sprinkle the powder along with a drizzle olive oil and a dash of sea salt onto popcorn just popped for a cheesy touch. Add other spices, such as garlic powder, dried thyme or dried rosemary for an even more gourmet experience.

Pizza

Skip cheese and sprinkle a light layer of nutritional yeast onto pizza just after it leaves the oven. Cheese is hard to digest, especially when cooked, but that doesn’t mean you have to cede the taste completely. If you top a pizza with diverse textures and flavors, such as a robust marinara sauce, roasted vegetables and nutritional yeast, the cheese component is unnecessary.

Macaroni & Cheese

We’ve already given macaroni and cheese a serious makeover, and nutritional yeast was an crucial player in this feat. Not only is this recipe vegan, but thanks to nooch, it offers cheesy comfort to a creamy, sweet potato base.

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Charlie O'Hay spends every afternoon talking to and taking pictures of the homeless in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia man is not a professional photographer. His main interest instead is to portray homelessness in all its stark diversity.

"The reaction I get most often is, 'Thank you,'" says O'Hay, a recovering alcoholic who was nearly homeless himself. "(They say) thanks for not ignoring me. Thanks for not passing me by. I can't tell you how many times I've heard those sentences." 

The pictures and interviews are published in his Flickr project, Everyone has a Name. Some of them are shared with permission in this slideshow.

I've known Ray for nearly 20 years.

When I met him, he was a young, married school teacher and talented poet who owned his own home.

When his marriage broke up, he became my next-door neighbor. Over the years, he has struggled with personal issues that led him to homelessness.

Today, I saw him for the first time in a decade. We walked and talked awhile, and caught up on old times and old friends--some living, some dead.

Fortunately, Ray isn't on the streets anymore. He has a place, a roommate, a counselor, and is getting some of the help he needs.

Photo and text from Everyone Has A Name.

"I'm not gonna lie to ya," Russ said, "I'm a drunk. But I got other problems too."

He took a long pause. "Ghosts," said in a half whisper. "I got ghosts."

He went on to explain that he was a Vietnam vet and that he'd been on the streets for four years. He's been to the VA Hospital in town but says they really can't help him.

"And how are they gonna help all these guys comin' home now, if they haven't even dealt with Vietnam?"

Photo and text from Everyone Has A Name.

"People pass by in the street," said Lemuel, "and they don't see the need--they just see a number."

This was my introduction to Lemuel Davis.

"Working people pass by and they ask ME for change, for the meter or a paper or whatever, and I see the need, so I give it to them."

Lemuel was born in 1950 in a small town about 60 miles from Raleigh, NC. His parents, he said in a yet noticeable Southern accent, were both alcoholics, and his mother gave him and his four siblings over to his grandmother to raise.

"I was the baby boy," he said. "We lived all of us in a one room cabin, and my grandmother received $250 a month from Social Security. But you know, we were never raggedy, we were never hungry, and we were never broke."

In 1972, after a stint in the army, Lemuel came north to Philadelphia and began work as a line cook. He worked at Bookbinder's on 15th Street, and at Pocono Manor upstate. He was, he said, the first African American honored with membership in an association of Italian chefs.

In the 1980s, he owned a 5-floor building on Poplar at 15th in Philadelphia, along with two cars. But addiction to crack robbed him of his possessions. He's now been clean seven years.

Lemuel recently lost his government benefits due to an arrest, but because the charges were withdrawn, he hopes to have his checks flowing to him again soon. He's been on the street for four months and tries to panhandle enough each day to get a room at a North Philly rooming house for the night. On days he can't, he sleeps beside City Hall.

Davis showed me a ticket he'd received from a Philadelphia Police Officer, for panhandling and failing to move on. I'm not sure what the city hopes to achieve by ticketing the homeless.

We also discussed the recent problem of "flash mobs" of young people robbing and beating people in the street. Lemuel said, "I was standing right here when a flash mob walked up. I said, 'all ya'll gotta gimme some money.' The laughed but then they started reaching in their pockets. Some gave me 50¢, some a dollar. It's all about fear. You can't show 'em no fear. I'm from where they're from: the street. So they say, I know you, old G. And they don't mess with me."

Photo and text from Everyone Has A Name.

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Night markets — held after dark on side streets and in parking lots — are some of the most popular tourist spots in China. 

The reason? They're home to cheap and plentiful merchandise that are blatant rip-offs of famous branded items, like the Longchamp "Pliage" tote, RayBan aviators, and even Coach wallets.

Tourists can risk buying the usual bootleg DVDs of movies or chance their arms with Apple products that are clearly fake.

And while we don't condone buying fake designer products, these images collected by YouTube user dj0c91 of blatant Chinese knock-offs are hilarious, to say the least. 

Some of them we think got lost in translation, some of them are pure rip-offs of North American and European brands, and some of them — "Pizza Huh"? — well, we don't really know.

"Adadis"

"Arm & Hatchet Natural Baking Soda"

"Adidos"

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Swimming is perhaps the most highly-anticipated event in the entire Olympics.

The best swimmers become international superstars overnight and end up on our TV screens throughout the duration of the games.

London 2012 has been no different.

On top of being a glamour sport, Olympic swimming also takes center stage when it comes to providing incredible photos.

These are some of the best from the first few days of competition.

Missy Franklin becomes one with the water during her backstroke semifinal

Tomas Klobucink of Slovakia competes in the men's 200-meter breaststroke heat

Lithuania's Ruta Meilutyte (center) on her way to gold in the women's 100-meter breaststroke

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As you speed along the ship’s top-deck raft ride, waves break at the ocean’s surface 150 feet below. It’s an acrophobe’s nightmare—and could be the most thrilling moment of your next cruise vacation.

We’ve come a long way in the century since the Titanic, when that ship’s heated swimming pool was a mind-boggling luxury. Now it’s AquaDuck, the cruise industry’s first water coaster, that’s making a splash on board the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. From within the raft ride’s clear acrylic aerial flume (which extends 12 feet over the side of the ship), you’ll experience that heady ocean view.

Click here to see the world's craziest waterslides >

It takes pluck to stare down the AquaDuck and the rest of the world’s craziest, record-breaking waterslides. Some, like Brazil’s 135-foot-high Insano, are traditional body slides, while others resemble intricate roller coasters and showcase innovation in waterslide technology and design. Case in point: Italy’s new Divertical, which features a unique elevator lift system and speeds more than 65 miles per hour.

Like the Divertical, which is also now the world’s tallest waterslide at 197 feet, many of the craziest rides have set new records. Title of longest slide now goes to Mammoth at Indiana’s Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari, where six-person rafts are propelled up and down hills across three acres—and partially in the dark.

Then there are the aquatic attractions making waves for their aesthetic appeal. Consider the slide that cascades down a replica of a Mayan temple at the Atlantis resort or Beijing’s colorful RideHouse, with its corkscrews, climb nets, and other quirky design elements. It was customized for the Happy Magic Water Cube Waterpark, a new use for the Water Cube, one of the most iconic venues at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

“This level of theming is relatively new to the water park industry, and what we did with RideHouse was groundbreaking when we put it in the Water Cube,” says Brad Goodbody of ProSlide.

The lavish theatrics of China’s water parks have earned them praise—and patrons. Guangzhou’s Chimelong Water Park entertained nearly 2 million visitors in 2011, making it the second most popular water park in the world (Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon takes the top spot). 

More From Travel + Leisure:

World's Coolest Pools

America's Best Swimming Holes

America's Favorite Cities: 2012 Survey

World's Strangest Beaches

The Best Secret Beaches On Earth

RideHouse, Beijing

Where: Happy Magic Water Cube Waterpark, Beijing

When news broke that the cutting-edge Beijing National Aquatics Center (a.k.a the Water Cube) would be converted into a theme park, expectations were high. And sure enough, China’s first themed indoor water attraction debuted in 2011 tricked out with valves, cranks, jellyfish, buckets, water cannons, giant bubbles, climb nets, and spray tubes—and that’s the short list of design elements.

Crazy Fact: RideHouse is made up of 12 separate slides (the most of any water-play structure in the world) and boasts its own giant water-filled cube that periodically soaks those waiting for their turn.

Toboggan, Italy

Where: Città del Mare Hotel Village, Palermo, Italy

Eleven slides form Sicily’s most scenic water attraction, which runs down a cliff on the northwest coast of the island. On a sun-drenched summer day, the turquoise slide, which is open to guests of the resort, complements the clear-blue waters of the Gulf of Castellammare—the end point of Toboggan. Keep your eyes open: the slide passes three decks, and each level delivers spectacular views of the 67-acre property.

Crazy Fact: A full top-to-bottom journey down this seaside slide will send you into four separate bodies of water: three pools and the Mediterranean Sea.

King Cobra, New Jersey

Where: Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, Jackson, NJ

The king cobra is the world’s longest venomous snake, so it makes sense that this eponymous ride, which opens in mid-July 2012, promises to be one of the craziest theme-park attractions. Resembling a massive cobra, the ride makes an intimidating first impression with its oversize black, yellow, and bold orange scales and allows two tubes to zip up to 32 mph.

Crazy Fact: The ride’s finale features a sudden 25-foot drop at a 50-degree angle that creates the illusion of riders being swallowed by the King’s massive mouth.

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In his second go at the presidency, Mitt Romney's campaign staff are firing on all cylinders to get their man into the White House this time around. 

With the clock ticking down to Election Day, we've compiled a list of four of the campaign's most visible faces, who are leading the charge to get Romney a win in November. Romney's rising superstars and what they're doing to win in November.

With the exception of Romney's senior advisor Eric Fehrnstrom, these high-level staffers represent a clean slate for the former Massachusetts Governor, with no hold-overs from his 2008 loss to Sen. John McCain in the Republican primary. 

These energized leaders not only snagged wins in swing states for the presumptive GOP candidate in a vicious primary earlier this year, but also provide a window on to a dressed-down version of the Republican candidate.

Garrett Jackson, Personal Aide

Jackson rocketed to campaign stardom as "Mitt's Body Man," tweeting out casual, behind-the-scenes remarks and photos of life on the campaign trail.

Jackson tweeted this picture of Ohio Senator Rob Portman and himself caught in the same outfit, adding, "@robportman and I are wearing the same shirt today. The man has good taste" on June 17.

Source: Twitter

For Jackson, his interest in politics started with golf.

Jackson worked at the Brookhaven Country Club in his hometown, Brookhaven, Mississippi, in high school. Jackson's mother, Jennifer, told their hometown newspaper that "the men who golfed there referred to her son as the 'governor' and told him he was going to be a politician."

There are some golfing perks to his new job, including meeting golf legend Arnold Palmer. He tweeted, "Gov just met with a living legend, Arnold Palmer," on July 17.

Source: Daily Leader, Twitter

Jackson first teamed up with Romney during the candidate's 2010 book tour.

Following his 2009 graduation from Ole Miss, Jackson was hired by Mitt Romney's political action committee, Free and Strong America Political Action Committee before he was tapped to join Romney on tour. 

"I was the young, single guy on the team. So when Romney went on a nationwide book tour they stuck me out on the road with him," Jackson told the Daily Leader in 2011. 

Source: Daily Leader, Twitter

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Buying organic food might be good for your health, but it’s not always so good for your wallet. Fortunately, we’ve uncovered strategies for buying organic produce and other organic items without breaking the bank. Amy McCoy, author of Poor Girl Gourmet, and Gary Foreman, editor of The Dollar Stretcher, offered the following tips. 

1. Buy In Season

Thanks to supply and demand, produce that is in season will cost less than other times of the year. McCoy knows a farmer who does a second planting of zucchini after most farmers have harvested their zucchini crop. Because zucchini is so scarce in the fall, he can practically name his own price, which gets passed onto consumers. The other benefit of buying in season is the produce is fresher and more flavorful. “Try not to buy tomatoes in the middle of the winter,” says McCoy. “They’re going to be expensive and they’re not going to have as much taste, but butternut squash will be cheaper in the winter and fall than the summer.” Find the best deals on produce in your area.

2. Plan Your Meals Around What You Buy

Produce that sits in your fridge and eventually rots costs you money, so McCoy urges consumers to plan ahead and only buy what you need to avoid waste. “As you’re planning your meals for the week, figure out how many vegetables you need,” she suggests. “A half pound per serving size per person for vegetables is a good rule of thumb.” Also look for sales and plan your meals around those items. “Don’t leave the house before you know what’s on sale," she adds. “If organic blueberries and organic spinach are on sale, I might make a spinach salad." Stay healthy and eat well with these health food stores near you.

3. Go Straight To The Source

Instead of shopping at large chain grocery stores, Foreman suggests getting more creative. “Ideally, and this probably goes with the locavore trend, you want to get as close to the source as possible,” he says. “Start researching organic farms within a reasonable distance of where you live. Some of those farmers may sell direct to consumers, or they may sell to local farmer’s markets or local health food stores, or through a CSA.” Even if a farm isn’t certified organic, the farmers may still follow organic practices. “The reason why farmers don’t always certify organic is it costs thousands of dollars to do,” adds McCoy. A chat with farmers at a local market can offer insight into their farming practices. Plus, as McCoy points out, they’re more likely to offer better prices once you’ve established a relationship.

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