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The Provender Journal May-June 2010 Provender's Annual Conference The 34th Annual Provender Alliance Educational Conference is heading to the Columbia River this year and will be held in Hood River, Oregon. The conference will be held Thursday and Friday, October 7 and 8, with additional events on Wednesday, October 6. The conference will be returning to the Hood River Inn. The conference theme this year is Know Impact: Rethink Consumption, Nuture Generosity. Our keynote speaker for Thursday morning is writer, activist and academic, Raj Patel. Visit his web site, www.rajpatel.org for more detailed information about this knowledgable and well-versed presenter. We will be offering a Marketing Intensive this year, to take place on Wednesday, October 6. The Intensive will be designed for all business types; retailers, manufacturers, brokers, distributors and others. There will be multiple presenters addressing a variety of topics addressing this challenging aspect of successful business. It will be priced seperately from the rest of the conference so you can attend just the Intensive or a combination of Intensive and conference. If you have interest in presenting a portion of this day-long session or would like to recommend a presenter for it, please contact the office. We are also hoping to offer farm and manufacturer tours again this year (Columbia Gorge Organics and Turtle Island Foods were a great hit Be sure to check out the web site for One Person Can Make a Difference Scholarship applications. We will be holding a silent auction this year to support the scholarship fund. If you have a hand-crafted or unique item you would like to donate to this auction, please contact the office. 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 27 of this Journal. The conference is the place to recharge your energy. Don’t miss it! Yes, it’s finally happened! Provender has a Facebook Fan Page. Search for “Provender Alliance” and become a fan. You’ll get up to the minute updates on who’s coming to the 2010 Conference including keynote speakers, workshop leaders, and musical entertainment. You can learn about our new manufacturer event and catch a sneak peek of some of the Scholarship Fund silent auction items and the logo raffle goodies. Plus you can keep in touch with all the great folks you met last year! Become a fan today! Love Provender? Run for the Board —Kelly Miles, 2010 Provender Nominating Committee Chair The Provender Nominating Committee is pleased to announce the opportunity for employees of Provender members to self-nominate for the 2010 Provender Board of Directors election process. Potential candidates must meet the following requirements: • Currently a Provender member or employee of a Provender member Additional information is available by contacting 2010 Nominating Committee Chair, Kelly Miles: kelly.miles@ncga.coop or 503.928.0908 Interested individuals must confirm participation with Kelly by Friday, May 28th using the contact info listed above. Potential candidates will be screened, vetted and nominated to the 2010 ballot by the Nominating Committee using established evaluation criteria. Self-nomination does not guarantee nomination to the ballot. The 2010 Nominating Committee is determined to provide our Membership with the best possible candidates for the Provender Board of Directors. We appreciate your consideration and look forward to hearing from you! Steering Committee Member? What Does That Mean, Anyway? —by Roxanne Magnuson, Provender Alliance Steering Committee Member Well, it means suggesting direction, offering feedback and participating as much as you want (as long as it’s at least once a year) in the ‘behind the scenes’ part of our unparalleled organization. And it’s all without the responsibility of being a board member. I used to joke that it meant all the fun and none of the work; but that’s not quite accurate. I was on the Steering Committee before I was on the board, so I had time to figure out if I wanted to be on the board and what that would mean. Then, once I’d served my terms I chose to stay on the Steering Committee. As a steering committee member I go to the board meetings as often as I want to, as long as it’s at least once a year. Personally, I like to attend the conference planning meetings the most. Those are the meetings where we decide what seminars we’d like to have, offer suggestions for leaders of the seminars, figure out who we’d like to see as our keynote speakers, what music we’d like to have at the dance, if we even should have a dance this year or what other activities we might want. We decide what extra pre-conference classes we might want to have, what new activity we might want to try, who’s going to be responsible for what activity, and figure out logistics. You can sign up for whatever level of responsibility you feel comfortable taking on, as long as you actually can do what you say you’re going to do. That could be anything, like taking photos, heading up or working on the Recycling Team, maintaining the snack room, organizing late night poker or working the registration table, one of my favorite things, since that’s when we get to see everyone when they’re first arriving. The meetings are usually in Portland on a Friday and Saturday. Provender can help defray some of your transportation costs if needed. You don’t have to attend both days, but they’re two-day meetings. One day is for operations which generally means the nuts and bolts of the conference, or maybe the web site or newsletter. The other day is for board function during which we discuss the meaning of what we do, how we should go about doing it, what steps need to be taken to assure we meet the goals we set for ourselves. We eat breakfast and lunch, provided by Provender funds, chat and commiserate with each other, laugh and occasionally even bicker, snack on cheese, crackers, fruit and chocolate, drink coffee, tea and other assorted bevies and eventually go to dinner. It’s a good time, provides a closer link with our greater community and gives a wonderfully satisfying sense of accomplishment. That comes especially when, at the conference, you look around, see all the smiling faces and know that you actually helped make it so! It’s easy to be a part – just come to one of the meetings. Call or email Susan or anyone on the board or steering committee. We’re all listed in every Journal along with the date and location of the next meeting. Be sWell, —from David Lively, Organically Grown Company, Oregon Organic Coalition Leadership Councilperson, www.oregonorganiccoalition.org In April, the Oregon Organic Coalition (OOC) welcomed the formation of its Distributor Advisory Committee, with an initial membership of Glory Bee, Hummingbird Wholesale and Organically Grown Company (OGC). Other Oregon based distributors of organic foods may join the committee by contacting David Lively, Marketing Director for OGC and the committee’s representative on the OOC’s Leadership Council, at dlively@organicgrown.com. Additional OOC Advisory Committees include: Science, Policy, Certification and Retail. Members of the retail advisory committee are currently drawn from Lifesource Natural Foods, Ashland Food Co-op, New Seasons Market and First Alternative Co-op. These committees serve as watchdogs, alerting the OOC Leadership Council of developments that might impact Oregon’s organic foods trade, and help carry out efforts at advocacy and promotion. If you are interested in the Oregon Organic Coalition’s activities, or participating in an Advisory Committee, contact Kim Leval, OOC Chair, at 541.344.5044 or kleval@pesticide.org. The OOC was also happy to hear that Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski will shortly declare September 13-19 as Organically Grown in Oregon Week. The OOC’s Advisory Committees will soon be contacting their peers within Oregon’s organic trade to organize and coordinate opportunities to promote, educate and celebrate during the weeklong event. Bob’s Red mill Becomes an ESOP —from Bob’s Red Mill, www.bobsredmill.com On behalf of his partners in the business, Bob Moore, founder of Bob’s Red Mill announced on February 15, that through the creation of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), Bob’s is now an employee-owned company. This means that Bob’s has secured its own destiny, committing to the long term that the values and high standards we all cherish will last into the future. Nothing in the company’s day-to-day operations will change. An ESOP provides an opportunity for the partners in the company to reward employees for their contributions to the company’s ongoing success and growth. “It’s been my dream all along to turn this company over to the employees, and to make that dream a reality is very, very special to me. This is the ultimate way to keep this business moving forward. I get to spend every day with our many loyal and long-time employees who will now share in ownership,” said founder, Bob Moore. The company, which produces more than 400 products, including a full line of certified gluten-free products and 50 certified organic products, has been a leader in triplebottom-line business, with its facilities contributing zero waste to landfills. Reaping the Tax Benefits of the New Energy Economy —by Natalya Griffith, Senior Manager, Food Processing & Agriculture Group, Moss Adams LLC, www.mossadams.com Agricultural producers and rural small businesses investing in alternative energy generation or energy efficiency can take advantage of a number of federal and state tax incentives, credits, and exemptions as well as an array of rebates, loan guarantees, and grants. These targeted programs will help improve financial results for scores of companies, but in the process they’ll also stimulate the new energy economy— creating new jobs, new industries, and new growth. At the federal level, there are three key tax incentives to consider: the production tax credit (PTC), the investment tax credit (ITC), and the federal grant in lieu of ITC and PTC. It’s important to note that each of these incentives is mutually exclusive; choosing one means forgoing the other two. There are a number of factors that can influence a company’s choice between the PTC, ITC, and the grant: • Project cost versus capacity. The higher the project cost, the more likely a taxpayer would select the ITC or grant over the PTC. • Cash flow. The PTC is claimed over a period of ten years, while the ITC can be claimed in the year the facility is placed in service. • Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Businesses can offset the PTC against the AMT for only the first four years, but the ITC and the grant can be fully claimed against the AMT. • Investor versus developer benefit. Only the operator of the facility who sells electricity to an unrelated party can claim the PTC. The ITC and the grant offer greater flexibility when it comes to investment structures. • Reduction for grants, credits, and subsidized financing. The PTC must be reduced by a prescribed percentage for any other governmental grants, federal credits, and federal, state, or local bonds or subsidized financing. No such reduction is required for the ITC or the grant. • Recapture provisions or basis reduction. The ITC or grant option requires the taxpayer to reduce the depreciable basis of the property by 50 percent of the credit. The PTC requires no such reduction. In addition, if a company claims the ITC or grant and disposes of the facility in the first five years, part of the credit must be recaptured. • Interaction with state incentives. Using Oregon as an example: The depreciable basis of the facility eligible for the state’s Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) will be reduced by the amount of the grant; the ITC doesn’t work this way. It’s important to keep in mind that most of these incentives are scheduled to expire in the next several years. The ITC and PTC are generally available only for projects placed in service before 2014. In order to qualify for the federal grant in lieu of PTC and ITC, businesses should begin their project construction by the end of 2010. In the meantime, it’s worth considering how your company—and the gradually emerging post-petroleum economy—can benefit from each of these programs. Natalya Griffith, CPA, Moss Adams LLP, provides tax saving solutions to agricultural and manufacturing entities. She has practiced as a CPA for over 6 years developing a specialization in energy related tax issues. She can be reached at natalya.griffith@mossadams.com or 541.686.1040 Moss Adams LLP was founded in 1913, is headquartered in Seattle, and has 21 locations in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. It is the 11th largest accounting and consulting firm in the United States and has staff of over 1,800 including more than 240 partners. —by Vicki Reich I’m on the board of directors of Provender Alliance. The purpose of the organization is to educate and inspire our members about healthy food and products. We serve all aspects of the Natural Food Industry: retailers, manufacturers, distributors, and to some extent farmers and consumers. We put on a annual conference of workshops and speakers. This year our keynote speaker is Raj Patel. His name sounded familiar when it first came up as a possibility. A quick internet check revealed that he was quite good looking and had a lovely English accent. Aside from those two very important facts, I learned he had recently written two books: Stuffed and Starved; The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and The Value of Nothing; How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy. When we got word that he was going to be our keynote speaker, I immediately got on the Sandpoint Library web site to see if his books were available. I put a hold on both of them and, of course, they both came in at the same time and I had only two weeks to read them. I’ve been trying to read both of them simultaneously, which, it turns out, isn’t too hard. The concepts in both books overlap nicely and they both deal with a subject that is near and dear to my heart: the myth of cheap food, why it exists, the harm it does, and what we can do about it. Cheap food (or as Patel calls it “cheat food”) is neither cheap nor food and Patel posits that multinational corporations are at the heart of the problem. Here’s why: If you look at a picture of the distribution chain that gets food from a farm to our plates it’s shaped like an hourglass. At the wide top are lots farm operators and workers. There are a few less farm owners and suppliers, and, at the waist of the hourglass, quite a few less raw product wholesalers and distributors. The glass widens with manufacturers and finished product wholesalers. The base of the glass is the grocery stores and consumers. The narrow waist is where the problem lies. That is where power is concentrated and where decisions about how much the farmers get paid and how much we pay for food are made. In the US there are 4 major meatpackers which account for 80% of all the meat sold. The top four flour millers control 60% of that market and recent consolidations of the grocery business means that the top 4 companies control almost 50% of that market. You need a lot of capitol investment in infrastructure to be a grain miller or meatpacker and transport your goods across the globe. It’s hard for the little guy to compete let alone get a foot in the door. These companies are in the business to make money. It’s part of what it means to be a corporation. They are legally liable to their stockholders to make a profit. If feeding cattle poultry litter and packing them in to the smallest lots possible can eek out a few more pennies of profit then they must do it or be sued by their stockholders. They might want to treat their animals better. They might want to pay farmers what it cost to grow grain and pay slaughterhouse workers a decent wage. They may even want to sell you a burger that has no possibility of E. coli contamination because it wasn’t mixed up with the meat from thousands of different animals. But all these things cost more so they don’t do them. Industrial food corporations also like to ex ternalize their costs. They don’t pay for the environmental damage they do. They get subsides from us, the tax-payer, in the form of social programs like Medicaid and food stamps for their underpaid workers. Much of the crops used in industrial food production are also subsidized by our tax dollars. In one study, if all these external costs were accounted for in the price of a Big Mac, it would cost over $200. As government money for education falls, corporations have been there to fund university research, making sure that research turns out in favor of the existing system. And they use a hefty amount of their profit to lobby the government to make sure laws are not changes to adversely affect them. In 5 years, food system industries spent over $400 million lobbying the government. Concentrating the power of our food system in just a few corporations limits our choice as consumers. Choosing between Coke and Pepsi isn’t really a choice. With giant corporations buying up organic companies and using their political muscle to water down the organic standards, we don’t even have much of a choice between nonorganic and organic processed foods (although it is still better for the planet not to have all the pesticides and herbicides that are used in non-organic food). If we have only a few dollars to spend on food, our choice can’t be between fresh fruit or candy. We can get hundreds of more calories per dollar if we go with the candy but only because the industry lobbies the government to keep subsides high on the ingredients that go into candy and not to support fresh foods. Someone else can pay for the negative effects on our health from eating a diet of cheap food. Processed foods bear little resemblance to real food but make a hefty profit for the corporations that produce them. They require little effort on our part to consume which leaves us plenty of time to sit in front of the TV and be bombarded with advertisements for cheap processed food. Cheap food has been around in some form or another for centuries. It has been used by the rich to pacify the poor and keep them from revolting. It has been grown and processed with slave labor. It has impoverished communities in the global south. But until recently, cheap food was at least food and we spent time preparing it. Our habit and culture of wanting cheap food fast is a relatively new one and one that might not take much to change. There are alternatives to industrial food. We can stop paying into a system that is broken, that appears cheap but that is costing us dearly. Paying attention and caring where your food comes from is a habit we will all benefit from. When you really start to think about what’s in your food and what it costs society, the alternatives to the industrial food system seem worth the little extra up front cost and effort. And the alternatives are out there right now in our community. Locally grown food is a great way to cut out the corporate middleman. Growing some of your own food is a satisfying way to feed yourself and your family. Cooking at home with low cost bulk ingredients is healthier and more economical. They say changing a habit takes a month, why not start now? Vicki Reich lives and rants in Sagle, ID. She is the Market Manager for sixriversmarket.org, where you can get local food, unsullied by multinational corporations, year round. —from US Dept. of Ag., www.ams.usda.gov The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in mid-February details of the final regulation regarding access to pasture for organic livestock operations. This rule amends the National Organic Program (NOP) regulations to clarify the use of pasture in raising organic ruminants. The final rule provides certainty to consumers that organic livestock production is a pasture based system in which animals are actively grazing pasture during the grazing season. The majority of organic dairy and ruminant livestock producers are already grazing animals and maintaining pastures that meet the requirements of this rule. These standards contain clear requirements that will provide greater assurance that all producers are being held to the same standards. USDA received a substantial number of comments on provisions of the rule affecting finish feeding practices of slaughter livestock, and had extended the comment period for this provision. Finish feeding is commonly used by organic farmers and ranchers to improve the grade of beef and involves feeding livestock grain. This final rule is the culmination of a process that was initiated in 2005 when the National Organic Standards Board recommended that ruminants obtain a minimum 30 percent dry matter intake for at least 120 days. The proposed rule, published on Oct. 28, 2008, received over 26,000 comments from producers, retailers, handlers, certifying agents, and various other entities and industry groups. Copies of the final rule and additional information are on display on line at www.ams.usda.gov/NOP. Investors Push Chipotle on “Food With Integrity” —from Pesticide Action Networks Updates, March 5, 2010, www.panna.org Over the last two years, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) has partnered with a group of investors, including Trillium Asset Management Corporation and Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN), to urge food companies to support sustainable food and agriculture systems that protect the environment, workers, and consumers by reducing use of pesticides in their supply chains. The first company to express interest in revamping their procurement policies to prioritize produce grown without highly hazardous pesticides and with respect for farmworker rights and safety was Chipotle Mexican Grill. While PAN is working to find ways to help Chipotle integrate farmworker rights into their Food With Integrity program, Trillium and IEHN partners are filing a shareholder resolution asking Chipotle to publish a comprehensive report to shareholders discussing how the company is addressing pesticide use reduction in its supply chain. In their report, Trillium points to research linking pesticides with cancer and Parkinson’s disease and that consumers are paying more critical attention to the origins of their food, citing a tripling in organic food sales from $393 M in 2002 to $1.7 B in 2007. While Chipotle’s web site reports progress in sourcing of organic beans (35% of total bean purchases) and antibiotic-free sour cream, chicken and pork, they are not yet moving forward on pesticide-free fresh produce like avocados. Chipotle estimates that they purchase 5% of the nation’s total supply of avocados. According to Trillium’s report, “Chipotle’s forays into sustainable purchasing lead us to believe the company can undertake this work more holistically and more transparently. Doing so will certainly be a factor in the company’s successful entrée into the U.K. next year, where consumer awareness and expectations about supply chain issues is higher.” OGC Publishes Sustainability Report —from Organically Grown Company, www.organicgrown.com Organically Grown Company (OGC) has announced the publication of its sixth annual sustainability report. The Northwest’s largest organic produce distributor believes in transparency; sharing the steps taken and results achieved, and the challenges it encounters in its sustainability efforts. The annual report marks the company’s significant progress toward achieving its long-term sustainability goals: Bamboo Labelling and Advertising —from The Competition Bureau, www.competitionbureau.gc.ca The Competition Bureau announced in late January that more than 450,000 textile articles have been relabelled and over 250 web pages corrected as a result of the Bureau’s efforts to ensure that textile articles derived from bamboo are accurately labelled and advertised. Clif Bar Family Foundation Commits... —from Organic Seed Alliance, www.osa.org On March 12, 2010 Clif Bar Family Foundation announced the launch of an Organic Seed Initiative, with a pledge from the Clif Bar Family Foundation of $500,000 over five years to Organic Seed Alliance (OSA), Center for Food Safety (CFS) and Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF). The goal of the initiative is to conserve genetic diversity, protect seed integrity, and promote organic seed research. Clif Bar Family Foundation also plans outreach to organic food companies and other organizations to encourage them to join the initiative and increase advocacy for organic seed systems. —from Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org You already do your best to eat safe and organic foods, live greener, and reduce toxins from your personal care products, but is your cell phone radiation putting you at risk? —from Pesticide Action Network Updates, February 19, 2010, www.panna.org Health Canada, the Canadian agency in charge of pesticide regulation, made a bold move in mid-February, announcing the phase-out of all pesticide and fertilizer combination products by December 2012. The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) said that the decision came because “fertilizer-pesticide combination products for lawn and turf uses do not support the goals of best practices for pest management in turf.” While more than half of Canada has already banned weed-n-feed type products, this is the first significant federal action on the issue. To avoid conflicts with the pesticide industry, the PMRA’s decision focuses on turf care practices, rather than environmental or health concerns about pesticides. It does, however, articulate important principles on pesticide use, stating that: “Pesticides should only be used when and where there is a need.” It also cautions against broadcast application of pesticides and advocates for well-timed spot treatment instead. In the U.S., the most common herbicide found in pesticide and fertilizer combination products is dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, or 2,4-D. According to the LA Times, Americans apply approximately 27 million pounds of the chemical to their lawns and parks each year. Paul Tukey of the SafeLawns Foundation writes, “What a great step in the right direction. The vast majority of lawn and garden pesticides are applied in combination with fertilizers; this action will significantly reduce the amount of contamination to the environment.” —from Food & Water Watch, www.foodandwaterwatch.org If you had the opportunity to personally stop a factory farm from being built in your backyard, would you take it? We actually have the opportunity to stop factory fish farms from being built in the ocean. They don’t exist in federal waters right now, but there’s a bill in Congress that would open up our federal oceans to factory fish farms. Can you join in taking action to stop factory fish farms in our oceans? We know that factory farms on land are bad for our health, our communities and the environment. Similar to land-based factory farms, ocean factory fish farms are floating sea cages crammed with fish who are often Just as multinational corporations have forever changed the way food is grown on land—to the detriment of public health, the environment, local communities and food quality itself—they are now poised to do the same at sea. We have an important opportunity to take a stand and say we don’t want this failed model in our oceans. We’re collecting petition signatures to deliver to the decision makers who are pushing this terrible idea. There is currently a bill in Congress that would permit factory fish farming in all U.S. federal waters (H.R. 4363). Some proponents of the bill are selling it as eco-friendly, but there is nothing green about factory farms. Sign the petition to stop factory fish farms in U.S. oceans. Visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org and click on the Fish tab at the top of the page.
Provender Alliance
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