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The Provender Journal March-April 2009 Organic Summit —from New Hope Natural Media, www.newhope.com Nell Newman, co-founder and president of Newman’s Own Organics, will be the keynote speaker at the Organic Summit (www.theorganicsummit.com), June 3-5, 2009, in Stevenson, Washington. Ms. Newman will participate in a presentation with Bob Scowcroft, Executive Director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) where they will discuss engaging a social-networking generation in the important social, economic and environmental values delivered by organic food production. Nell’s commitment to organic food and sustainable agriculture helped her persuade her father to let her establish an organic division of Newman’s Own. She won him over by creating a completely organic Thanksgiving dinner, and then suggesting organic food products for the Newman’s Own line. “All of Newman’s Own products are ones that Dad enjoyed, so we chose ones that he really loved,” states Nell. She credits her parents, too, with teaching her by example to be socially responsible, politically involved, and philanthropic. For more information about the gathering, please visit www.organicsummit.com The 33rd Annual Provender Alliance Educational Conference is heading north again this year to Bellingham, Washington. The conference will be held Thursday and Friday, October 8 and 9, with additional events on Wednesday, October 7. The conference will be held at the Lakeway Inn. The conference theme this year is From Dreaming to Doing. One of our confirmed keynote speakers is author and mycologist, Paul Satmets, founder of Fungi Perfecti. We are deep in the planning stages of the conference and have some great sessions in the works. One of this year’s offerings will be a day-long intensive dealing with Human Resources, specifically for businesses without dedicated HR departments. There will be multiple presenters addressing a variety of topics relating to this particularly challenging aspect of any workplace so plan now to attend. It will be very worth your while. Another idea we are working on is a farm tour of some of the nearby farms providing goods to the local region. We are hoping for decent weather so you don’t have to trudge through the mud! We are keeping the Wednesday through Friday format as that has been quite popular for several years. Workshop scheduling is in full swing and we have another great line-up shaping up. It is not too late to make suggestions or requests for topics or presenters. Contact the office or one of your representatives listed on page 31 of this Journal. The conference is the place to recharge your energy. Don’t miss it! Fair Trade Federation Conference —from Fair Trade Federation, www.fairtradefederation.org As Fair Trade Federation (FTF) celebrates its 15th birthday, we will bring together leaders in the field of fair trade to discuss key issues and offer practical training to improve operations. The conference will be held March 27-29, 2009 at the Doubletree Hotel in Portland, Oregon. Friday will include a welcome dinner and birthday celebration where all participants are welcome. Saturday begins with a breakfast and opening welcome by FTF Executive Director, Carmen Iezzi. The opening plenary follows immeditely with presenters to include Jeff Goldman, Executive Director, Fair Trade Resource Network, David Funkhouser, Coordinator, Fair Trade Towns and TransFair USA, and Paul Myers, Chair, World Fair Trade Organization who will outline their work and offer ways for fair trade organizations to engage in the broader movement. Four morning workshops follow and include Living FTF Principles: Building Capacity in Producer Communities, Styles and Trends in Interior Design, Enhancing Relationships with Customers Old and New, and Strategic Business Planning in an Economic Downturn. The lunch keynote will be Scaling Your Business Without Selling Out Your Principles and will be presented by Jill Bamberg, founding member of Bainbridge Graduate Institute for Sustainable Business. Four afternoon workshop after lunch include Creating Marketing Materials that Work, Living FTF Principles: Creating Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chains, Legal Responsibilities toward Employees, Contractors, and Volunteers, and Strengthening A New Retail Operation. Presenters at the conference include PL.Ramasamy, Market Manager, SIPA India, Gordy Molitor, Executive Director of Green Empowerment, Cheryl Janis of Cheryl Janis Designs, Tex Dworkin, Marketing Manager, Global Exchange, Tom Hanlon Wilde, Co-Owner, Equal Exchange West, Jon Down, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Portland, Kevin Ward, Co-Founder of Global Crafts, Dalya Massachi, Founder of Writing for Community Success, Dave Rochlin, Founder of Climate Path, Eric Brody, Founder of Shift Advantage, and Candi Smucker of Baksheesh. Saturday afternoon offers a Fair Trade Expo, open to participants, buyers and the public. Exhibitors will include members of FTF, producer members of the International Fair Trade Association, and recognized partner or vendor organizations have the opportunity to exhibit their products, business services, and activities. After the expo, there will be a presentation and introduction to Fair Trade, an optional brewery tourand tasting as well as a Fair Trade film viewing on Saturday evening. Sunday morning the Federation will launch an awards program to celebrate members’ good work. All are welcome to nominate Federation members in the following categories: Excellence in Product Design, Best Public Education Program in 2008, and Most Positive Change Created in a Producer Community in 2008. This will be followed by the second plenary session presented by Shobna Dhewant, Lending Manager, RSF Social Finance and Michael Wray, Co- Founder, who will offer practical advice on ways to plan cash flow, what credit is currently available, tips for improving receivables and managing payables, and insights into how to survive shortfalls. The final plenary will be presented by Lee Collinge, Strategic Communications Director, and Tanya Zumach, Senior Director, of the Metropolitan Group who will discuss how to create a brand, how build that brand around value, values and voice, and how to capitalize on a Fair Trade Organization’s identity. Over lunch, Marcie Boyer, owner of Flavours of Life, and Manish Gupta, director of marketing for Handmade Expressions, will lead a discussion of key questions from the perspectives of retailers and wholesalers, in an effort to create a shared understanding about how to positively develop fair trade in both arenas. For registration and more information please visit www.fairtradefederation.org. Prepayment Solution for Conference Attendance —by Mel Minton, General Manager, Santa Rosa Community Market Is cash flow a concern when it comes to sending people to the Provender Conference? We, at Community Market, decided that we wanted to ensure we could send as many folks as possible to the conference each year, but found that it was hard on the cash flow in September to do so. What did we do? We decided to prepay $200 a month for the whole year to help out the bank account, plus it helps Provender to pay its bills all year. It’s a win-win situation. So if you want to ensure you can afford the cost of the conference in September I invite you to try out the prepayment plan. Contact Susan to set up arrangements. Provender can now send you your Journal as a PDF. If you would like to reduce the amount of paper you receive, and save Provender the cost of postage, please contact the office and we will send the Journal to your e-mail address. If you would like to receive both the paper copy as well as the electronic version, we can do that too! Contact the office at 888.352.7431 or 503.859.3600 by phone or send an e-mail to info@provender.org with your preferences. Sustainable Lifestyles Festival: Interview with Event Organizer – by Lou Fiore First of all Sharol, tell our readers who you are? You are putting on the Sustainable Lifestyles Festival for the first time this year. What gave you the idea to create such an event? What kinds of experiences will people have at the festival? What can people expect to gain from this event? Second, our intent is for people to leave this festival with their newfound skills and a developing enthusiasm that will help them to create the social change that we are all striving for. When is the event? How much does it cost and where can people learn more about the event? —from Food & Water Watch, www.foodandwaterwatch.org It’s not déjà vu - there really is another massive recall of peanut butter products. Why does this keep happening? Well, a big reason is that the Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency that is supposed to create a safety net to protect consumers from unsafe food, can’t handle the job. The current Salmonella contamination in peanut butter is far-reaching, including granola bars, cookies and crackers. As of late January, over 200 products have been recalled, hundreds of people are sick and there have been several fatalities. This is the most recent failure of FDA’s ability to inspect and regulate our food system. Here are a few examples of their lax or non-existent enforcement: • FDA inspects domestic food facilities only once every five to ten years. The Government Accountability Office has said for the past two years that immediate action needs to be taken to modernize our food safety system, as a steady wave of foodborne illness outbreaks involving both domestic and imported foods have sickened and even killed consumers. Now is our time. We have a new Congress and a new President who can make real change and overhaul our broken food safety system. Tell Congress not to wait for another food safety crisis before taking action to fix the FDA. Visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org and click on the “Take Action” navigation button. Launch and Maintain a Successful “Green Team” —from Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association, www.ftsla.org The primary job of a “sustainability” or “social responsibility” team is to dig deep into the fabric of the business to flesh out problems and to create a road map for redesigning processes and products to better align with sustainability objectives. Effective Sustainability Teams should: • Have upper management support for the purpose of establishing the team. Addressing the following questions in the team launching process will greatly increase the chances of achieving your objective: Why? Who? What? When and Where? How? How to Guard Against Greenwashing —from Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association, www.ftsla.org The rise in “green” marketing claims has been unmistakable. Consumers Union now reviews more than 150+ eco-labeling claims on their website www.greenerchoices.org. This leaves many consumers and producers alike wondering how to distinguish real claims from “greenwashing” - false or misleading green marketing claims. TerraChoice Environmental Marketing Inc. conducted a survey of six category-leading big box stores in an effort to understand and quantify greenwashing claims. Based on the survey results, TerraChoice identified six patterns in the greenwashing: 1) Hidden Trade-Off 2) No Proof 3) Vagueness 4) Irrelevance Read the Full Report “The Six Sins of “Greenwashing” at www.terrachoice.com. More Dairy Companies Say No to rBGH —from OR Physicians for Social Responsibility’s Campaign for Safe Food, www.oregonpsr.org For the last five years, Oregon PSR has promoted rBGH-free yogurts through our rBGH-Free Consumers Guide. On September 24, 2007, three postcards were dropped into the mailbox asking Yoplait, a division of General Mills, to go rBGH-free. They were signed by individuals that attended one of the public presentations or tabling events on rBGH. This was the humble beginning of a coordinated nationwide effort between Oregon PSR and numerous organizations and individuals to persuade Yoplait to go rBGHfree. In early February, Yoplait announced it will do so by this August. Congratulations and thank you goes to Yoplait for taking this important step toward making the U.S. food supply safer and more sustainable. Yoplait said their move was prompted by consumer demand. Oregon PSR sent a total of 1,102 postcards directly, nearly every weekday for a year and a half, plus many more. Yoplait is the 19th largest dairy processor in the nation and has a 35% market share for yogurt. Its action will have a major ripple effect on the entire U.S. dairy industry. Additionally, Agri-Mark, the parent company of Cabot Cheese and the 27th largest dairy processor in the country, announced that Cabot will go rBGH-free by Aug.1, 2009. Based in Massachusetts, Cabot is well-known in New England and New York and is marketed throughout the country. Sustainable Agriculture Organizations Merge —from National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, www.sustainableagriculture.net After more than a year of purposeful discussions and negotiations, we are excited to announce that the Board of Directors of the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture and the member organizations of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition have both voted to approve the final documents constituting a final commitment to merge the two organizations and create the new National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). We are very excited about the ability of the newly created NSAC to give voice to the broad and vital grassroots efforts across the country to bring real change in policies for a more sustainable agriculture. The timing is right to bring fresh ideas and energy and enthusiasm to a changed atmosphere in Washington. The work of the new organization began on January 1st and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition was publicly unveiled in early January after all legal requirements for moving forward had been met. We want to be sure to engage all of our dedicated Partners to provide direction and energy for NSAC. Membership information for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition was sent to National Campaign partners and SAC members in early January 2009. The following individuals are the inaugural members of the NSAC Organizational Council (akin to Board of Directors): Traci Bruckner (Center for Rural Affairs), Don Bustos (New Mexico Acequia Association), Frank Casey (Defenders of Wildlife), Kristen Greer (Just Food), Scott Marlow (RAFI-USA), Brett Melone (ALBA), Brad Redlin (Izaak Walton League of America), Kathy Ruhf (Northeast SAWG), Jeff Schahczenski (NCAT), Lydia Villenueva (CASA del Llano). The inaugural meeting of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition will be March 15-17, 2009 in Alexandria, VA (just minutes from Capitol Hill and USDA). At this important business meeting and fly-in, the members of NSAC will set the new organization’s policy priorities for 2009, strategize farm bill implementation and appropriations work, visit with key legislators and new Obama appointees at the Department of Agriculture, and sharpen grassroots policy advocacy, and media skills. More information about registration was sent in early January. Nominations Open for 2010 NPA Awards —from Natural Products Association, www.naturalproductsassoc.org Each year at the Natural Products Association’s Natural MarketPlace trade show and convention, members and industry supporters gather to salute dedicated individuals who have contributed to the association and the natural products industry. Individuals and companies are honored in various areas of achievement including science, the environment, and the legislative arena. The Natural Products Association is currently accepting nominations for its 2010 association awards. Members are encouraged to submit names for any of the awards, and are welcome to nominate themselves for any award for which they are qualified. Nominators should review the criteria for the award, posted on the association’s web site, complete the universal submission form, and fax or mail it to the association with any background information requested. Nominations are being accepted for: • Burton Kallman Scientific Award, for outstanding achievement in science with relevance to the natural products industry. • President’s Award, recognizing long-time contributions to the industry. • Rachel Carson Environmental Award, for significant contributions to the environmental community. • Statesman/Stateswoman Award, for individuals outside the industry who have been an ally to the natural products industry in the political and legislative arenas. • Natural Products Association Industry Champion Award, for notable contributions to the industry above and beyond commercial success. • Natural Products Association Clinician Award, recognizing a licensed healthcare practitioner whose work exemplifies the best standards and dedication to responsible holistic, non-invasive and integrative/ complementary/alternative-medicine modalities. • Socially Responsible Retailer Award, presented to a retail store(s) within the industry demonstrating key aspects of social responsibility. The nomination packet, containing the form, criteria, past winners, and judging information, is available online at www.naturalproductsassoc.org/ awardnominations, or through the mail or fax by calling 800.966.6632, ext. 104 to request a packet. All nominations must be submitted through the form in the packet beginning February 1, 2009 to March 31, 2009. Vegetarians of Washington is pleased to bring you Vegfest, the annual healthy vegetarian food festival. This year’s event will be held March 21 and 22, 10 AM to 6 PM at Seattle Center’s Exhibition Hall. Admission is $7 for adults and children under 12 are free. Vegfest offers lots of free food samples, cooking demonstrations, presentations by doctors and dieticians, book sales and more. Visit www.vegofwa.org for more information about the event. —from Pesticide Action Network Updates, January 08, 2009, www.panna.org Dogs and cats may be more vulnerable to pesticide poisoning than their human companions, according to the The Daily Green. Household pets spend more time playing on lawns and in gardens that have been sprayed with pesticides, and are routinely doused with flea and tick repellents. According to Beyond Pesticides, “Numerous studies have documented the risk of pesticides to pets over the years. A 1991 National Cancer Institute study finds that dogs whose owners’ lawns were treated with 2,4-D, four or more times per year, are twice as likely to contract canine malignant lymphoma than dogs whose owners do not use the herbicide.” Many veterinarians have been aware of the risks to exposure, and a recently launched American Veterinary Medical Association web site now makes reporting cases easier. The hope is that the website will help identify the chemicals that put out animals most at risk. Visit www.avma.org/ animal_health/reporting_adverse_events.asp for more information.
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