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The Provender Journal September-October 2009 2009 Provender Conference Arrives 2009 Provender Conference Arrives The 33rd Annual Provender Alliance Educational Conference is just around the corner and is heading north to Bellingham, Washington. The conference will be held Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, October 7, 8 and 9 and will be held at the Lakeway Inn. The conference theme this year is From Dreaming to Doing. One of our keynote speakers is author and mycologist, Paul Stamets, founder of Fungi Perfecti. The other is Tim LaSalle, CEO of Rodale Institute. Conference planning is complete and there are some great workshops scheduled. One of this year’s offerings will be a day-long intensive on Wednesday, October 7, 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 new offering is a tour of several local farms. Wynne Marks, Produce Manager at Community Food Co-op’s Cordata store has contacted and arranged visits to three different farms and will be on hand to be your guide. Tours leave from the hotel at 1:00 PM and will return at 6:00 PM. The cost is a mere $25 per person. You can register on site for this but preregistration is tremendously appreciated. To continue your conference experience after the intensive and farm tours there will be a no-host bowling party at nearby 20th Century Bowl. Special thanks to Advantage Natural for sponsoring this fun event. Shoes and lanes will be provided. The bowling alley is a short 15-20 minute walk from the hotel and will be a great way to connect with old aquaintances, meet new ones and just have some fun before the full conference starts. Food and beverages will be on your own. Workshop presentations will be diverse and challenging. Thursday morning starts off with a session about keeping staff motivated with Allen Seidner. Mel Braverman from CDS Consulting Coop will present a session on margin management specifically for retailers. Natalie Reilman-White will facilitate a session with Provender members looking at benchmarks in sustainable business practices. Long-time Provender favorite, Carolee Colter will present a workshop on addressing performance problems. Tim Blakley, from Frontier Natural Products Co-op, returns with a session on essential oils and there will be a panel presentation about broker/buyer relationships. Thursday afternoon, Evelyn Hall from First Alternative Co-op will present a session discussing their service program. Mel Braverman will provide a presentation on labor efficiencies and Natalie Reitman- White will facilitate a session on cradle-tocradle manufacturing practices. GMOs will be addressed in a session with Matthew Dillon from Organic Seed Alliance, Kristina Hubbard from Center for Rural Affairs and Zelig Golden of Centrer for Food Safety. Lysbeth Borie of Alpha Institute will present a repsise of her popular session on successful meetings and Michelle Long from Sustainable Connections will discuss local and bioregional food systems. Friday morning provides more stimulating options. A manufacturers roundtable will be moderated by Don Nordness, former owner of Northwest Specialties and Provender supporter. Mel Braverman will present the third in his series of sessions and will address inventory management. Ashland Food Co-op’s Outreach Coordinator, Annie Hoy, and her assistant Matthew Domingo will discuss marketing using social networking. Tim Blakley will lead a discussion on conservation and Lysbeth Borie will facilitate a unique session where attendees choose the topic to be addressed. Our Friday morning keynote speaker will participate in a more intimate discussion of his presentation. Friday afternoon offers another session on customer service with a panel of three different types of businesses and Mel Braverman offers the fourth and final session in his series about managing cash. Domestic Fair Trade will be presented by a panel moderated by Cecil Wright of Organic Valley/CROPP. A panel of certifiers will discuss international organic certification and Carolee Colter will address a grievance procedure. Finally, Tim Blakley will talk about spices. This year’s conference will also have your favorites including late night poker, the Member Munch & Mingle, the dance party, dessert reception and early morning yoga. We will conduct another Vision Quest and of course, the General Membership Meeting will take place. For all the details about the schedule of events, visit www.provender.org and click on the “Conference” navigation button. There is a registration form there as well. The conference is the place to recharge your energy. Don’t miss it! “What’s On My Food?” Web Site Launched —from Pesticide Action Network Updates, June 18, 2009, www.panna.org On June 17, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) launched a new online tool: the What’sOnMyFood? web site. The searchable database uses USDA data to show what pesticides are found on different foods, in what amount, and — for the first time — links those residues to the health effects associated with exposure to each of the chemicals. “Nearly 900 million pounds of pesticides are used in the U.S. every year, yet regulators base their decisions on toxicology studies that are almost all done by industry,” explains Dr. Brian Hill, PAN senior scientist and the primary developer of the What’sOnMyFood? database. “We hope this kind of public visibility around pesticides will help fix our flawed regulatory system.” In addition to highlighting the potential direct health effects of pesticide residues, What’sOnMyFood? points to the many problems associated with pesticide use before food reaches the kitchen table. In the Get Involved section of the site, PAN calls on consumers not only to vote with their dollars by choosing organic foods whenever possible, but also to become politically engaged as “food citizens” demanding a clean, green and fair food production system. Visit www.whatsonmyfood.org. Restored Funds for Pesticide Use Reporting —from Union of Concerned Scientists, Food & Environment Electronic Digest, June 2009, www.ucsusa.org Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) led other groups in a successful effort urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to resurrect a program for tracking pesticide use on U.S. food crops, which had been halted by the Bush administration. The pesticide use surveys, provide the only free, publicly available data on the agricultural chemicals applied to crops. Government agencies, environmental groups, academic scientists, and others use the data to evaluate the human health and environmental risks posed by pesticides and compare the amount of pesticides applied to genetically engineered (GE) versus conventional crops, among other purposes. As the first step in restoring the program, data will be gathered on pesticide applications to fruit and nut crops this fall. If Congress approves the full funding specified in the president’s 2010 budget, the agency will resume data collection for vegetables, major row crops, and pesticides applied to crops after harvest. Read our correspondence urging the reinstatement of the program. at www.ucsusa.org. The Organic Center Defends Organic Foods —from The Organic Center, www.organic-center.org An advance copy of a study appeared that will be published in the September edition of the American Journal of Clinical Research. The published paper, “Nutritional quality of organic foods: a systematic review,” was written by a team led by Alan Dangour at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The study, commissioned by the U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA), claims that there are no differences in nutritional quality between conventional and organic foods. The Organic Center’s chief scientist, Dr. Chuck Benbrook, along with Dr. Don Davis and Dr. Preston Andrews, have written a strong response questioning the methodology and challenging the findings of this study. Visit www.organic-center.org to see Dr. Benbrook’s full response to this controversial study. — by Vicki Reich, Provender Board President Last year we had our first Vision Quest at the conference in Hood River. It was such a huge success we’re doing it again. If you weren’t at the conference last year you might be asking yourself “what the heck is a Vision Quest besides a bad Eighties movie?” The short answer is it’s a giant brainstorming session. We, the Board of Directors, ask you, the Members, what your vision of Provender is for the future. We want to make sure we’re on the right track as we form policies that will direct the organization into the future. Last year we asked you what you thought Provender was here for and what are your hopes and dreams for Provender in the future. The responses were incredible and there were lots of them, with strong themes running thoughout. The board spent an afternoon sorting each and every response into different categories. Some of them were definite programs that you’d like to see, or thoughts about the food that we serve, or the accommodations for the conference. All of these “means” type of responses went to Susan to help her with planning future conferences and journals. All the rest of the responses fell into nine distinct categories, although some of them fit into more than one. The nine categories that the members at the first Vision Quest want Provender to focus on are, in alphabetical order: business support, community, education, fun, growth, inspiration, integrity, networking, and sustainability. The Board has been working on forming these ideas into our Ends Policy but we’d like more feedback from you, the members, as we proceed. Thus Vision Quest II was born. This year’s Vision Quest will be similar to last year’s. We’ll have it during lunch and we’ll ask you to write the ideas that come to you when we ask you three questions about these nine categories. Each table will have one category assigned to it and you’ll answer the three questions as it applies to that category. For example, if you are sitting at a table with the category of education, we will ask you “Why is education important?”, “How do we get there?” and “What does it look like?” You’ll have about 5-10 minutes to answer each question and brainstorm ideas as a group at your table. We’ll hang the responses in the hotel where you can read what your fellow Provenderians wrote and add more thoughts as they come to you during the conference. Then we will collect them all and use them in formulating our Ends Policies. Get your thinking caps on now and plan to attend Vision Quest II after lunch on Thursday. Provender Member Dues Structure, Part II — by Brad Lerch, Royal Blue Organics/Café Mam, brad@cafemam.com As a fellow member of the dues structure committee, I wanted to follow up to Brad Averill’s article last issue detailing the decision to raise dues for next year. The basics are that dues are going up about 5% for next year. The reality is that the increases are not that much, but the Board of Directors is very aware how tight things are for lots of us in this current “economic climate” so we did not take the decision lightly. As Brad also pointed out we are hoping to address the fairness of the dues structure, and perhaps flatten them out (so that business pay a similar percentage of their gross sales). We want your feedback about these increases, and about the concept of flattening them out. Please feel free to talk to any board member about these issues, especially, Brad Averill, Mel Minton, or myself, as we are the three members on the Dues Structure Committee. Another way for Provender to grow, and to help meet our income needs is to increase our membership. What that means for all of us is that if you know of a business in the natural foods industry that is not currently a member, please consider telling them about Provender, and inviting them to come check out the conference. By doing so you will help grow our community and help to change the world, one bite at a time.
AMA Supports Sustainable Food Systems —from ATTRA–National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, Weekly Harvest Newsletter, June 24, 2009, http://ncat.attra.org The American Medical Association (AMA) has approved a new policy that supports a healthy and sustainable food chain within healthcare systems at a recent AMA meeting in Chicago. AMA also plans to work with healthcare and public health organizations to educate their community and the public about the importance of healthy and ecologically sustainable food systems. The AMA’s new Sustainable Food policy builds on a report from its Council on Science and Public Health, which indicates that locally produced and organic foods “reduce the use of fuel, decrease the need for packaging and resultant waste disposal, preserve farmland [and] the related reduced fuel emissions contribute to cleaner air and in turn, lower the incidence of asthma attacks and other respiratory problems.” Canadian National Organic Standards Launched —from Pesticide Action Network Updates, July 2, 2009, www.panna.org On June 30, a new set of national organic standards, more than a decade in development, took effect across Canada. “Under the new Organic Products Regulations, only products that meet specific requirements set out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will qualify for the organic designation. The new rules require that products with multiple ingredients must have 95% organic content in order to be labeled with the new Biologique Canada Organic Logo. If a product doesn’t meet that standard, the producer will have to specify on the label the percentage of organic materials that the product includes,” reports CTV Toronto. “All produce will have to be completely organic to be stamped with the logo,” according to CBC. On June 17, Canada and the U.S. completed an “equivalency” agreement - certified organic products produced in either country retain their status regardless of what side of the border they are on.” Both countries prohibit GMOs, growth hormones and sewage sludge in certified organic production. Some 70-80% of organics available in Canada are imported, mostly from the U.S. The new Canada Organic logo will also be used on imported USDA-certified organic products. Until now, Canada provided voluntary participation in national standards. Only the provinces of Quebec and British Columbia had mandatory regulations in place. Whole Animal Buying Guide Available —from Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, www.sare.org Consumers interested in buying local beef or pork will want to take a look at a new publication created by the Iowa State University’s Small Meat Processors’ Working Group. Funded in part by a SARE grant, “Beef and Pork Whole Animal Buying Guide” explains buying pork and beef as whole animals (or portions thereof) from local producers. Producers may also consider using the publication to help clients make smart decisions and keep coming back. It explains marketing terms, information on storage and handling, meat inspection, meat cut out weight, and includes color photos of common retail beef and pork cuts by primal. This guide brings all the necessary pieces together in one easyto- use resource. Free PDF available online. Hardcopies available in color ($6.50) and B&W ($1). To download a free pdf or order a print copy, visit www.extension.iastate.edu/ store Independent Oversight of USDA NOP —from National Organic Coalition, www.nationalorganiccoaltion.org At the urging of the National Organic Coalition (NOC) and others, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that it will subject its National Organic Program (NOP) to a stringent audit and continued oversight by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In a July 29 letter addressed to the NOC, USDA Deputy Secretary, Kathleen Merrigan underscored the value of scrutinizing the NOP to strengthen the integrity of the program and the USDA organic seal. The NOP is USDA’s regulatory body that develops, implements, and administers the USDA organic seal and national standards for organic agricultural products sold in the U.S. It accredits domestic and foreign certifying agents who inspect organic production and handling operations producing organic food sold in the U.S. as compliant with USDA organic standards. NIST’s National Voluntary Conformity Assessment Systems Evaluation (NVCASE) program reviews accreditation programs such as the NOP to assess their ongoing conformity with international standards for management of accreditation program through onsite audit, evaluation of office system, and oversight of record keeping, enforcement, and corrective actions. ”Third-party recognition is important for many of USDA’s audit-based programs,” Merrigan said in her letter to the NOC. ”We understand the value of this step as we continue working to strengthen the integrity of the NOP and to build the organic community’s trust in the program.” Merrigan anticipates that the NIST review will begin October 1, 2009. In June, the NOC met with Merrigan to discuss the need for greater consistency in the implementation of NOP rules. The coalition proposed that the NOP apply to NIST at the U.S. Department of Commerce for recognition of its accreditation function and to make a commitment to strictly comply with NIST requirements. The National Organic Coalition (www.nationalorganiccoalition.org) is a non-governmental alliance of organizations working to provide a “Washington voice” for farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, consumers and progressive industry members involved in organic agriculture. In order for the NOP to be recognized by the NIST NVCASE program, National Organic Coalition anticipates NOP will be required to make significant modifications to its accreditation procedures. SF Mayor Issues Regional Food Policy —from Office of the Mayor, www.sfgov.org San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued the first ever comprehensive food policy for San Francisco, and a sweeping action plan to make improvements to food that is available in the region. The plan, which Mayor Newsom issued through Executive Directive, aims to ensure that all regional residents have access to healthy food, and will have far reaching impact throughout Northern California by increasing support for area farms. The food policy calls for a range of actions to be completed in 180 days. These actions include a requirement that all departments conduct an audit of land under their jurisdiction to create an inventory of land suitable for gardening, the introduction of new health and sustainability requirements for food sold by vendors under city permits, a “healthy meetings policy” requiring the purchase of healthy, locally produced foods for city meetings, and within two months, the introduction of a new law requiring that food purchased by the city has been grown regionally and through sustainable methods. Mayor Newsom also released the recommendations of a group of key urban and rural stakeholders called the San Francisco Urban-Rural Roundtable. In September of 2008, Mayor Newsom partnered with a food advocacy group called Roots of Change to invite a broad range of urban and rural representatives to come together in an unprecedented urban and rural collaboration to advance a sustainable “food shed” plan for the city and region. The Roundtable participants were charged to develop a set of recommendations for programs, strategies and practical actions that San Francisco can implement to support regional agriculture and increase access to high quality food for all San Franciscans. Many of the Roundtable’s recommendations are integrated into the Mayor’s food policy. Additional actions coming out of the Roundtable recommendations include a trade mission that connects regional food growers to local San Francisco restaurants and food purchasers to increase purchasing of regional food, and using philanthropic funds to augment the spending power of residents who use food stamps at local farmers markets. Provender Alliance elections are coming up. Provender members will be voting for individuals again this year. The Nominating Committee has diligently and carefully screened each candidate and the board wanted to give each candidate an opportunity to speak of their interest in serving on the board. In addition to this column, candidates will answer specific questions on the ballot (to be mailed in mid-September) and a candidate forum will be held at the conference in October. Each candidate was asked this question for publication in the Journal: Why do you want to serve on the Provender Alliance Board of Directors? Brad Averill, Wildtime Foods Mollie Dootson, Sno-Isle Natural Foods Co-op Evelyn Hall, First Alternative Co-op Mel Minton, Santa Rosa Community Market Vicki Reich, Individual Member Monsanto Roundup Ready Alfalfa Ban Upheld —from Pesticide Action Network Updates, June 25, 2009, www.panna.org On June 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit “re-affirmed its previous decision upholding a nationwide ban on the planting of genetically-engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa pending [a] full Environmental Impact Statement,” announced the Center for Food Safety, who led a group of plaintiffs in a two-year legal battle. “The Court determined that the planting of genetically modified alfalfa can result in potentially irreversible harm to organic and conventional varieties of crops, damage to the environment, and economic harm to farmers.” The suit, which won a decision by District Court Judge Charles Breyer in May 2007 to halt field experiments with GE alfalfa, was originally brought against the USDA. Monsanto and its partner, Forage Genetics, joined as “Defendant-Intervenors”. Though the 2007 ruling was upheld in September 2008, the Intervenors persisted in appeal. The June 24 Geertson v. Monsanto ruling declares: “No further petitions for rehearing will be accepted.” The Center for Food Safety was representing Geertson Seed Farms, Trask Family Seeds, Beyond Pesticides, Cornucopia Institute, Dakota Resource Council, National Family Farm Coalition, Sierra Club, and Western Organization of Resource Councils. Top 12 Food Additives to Remove From Your Diet —by Jennifer Newell, Published: Monday, 29 June 2009, HealthNews, www.healthnews.com Sodium nitrite There are many reasons that some people choose to shop and eat a completely organic range of foods, but the primary reason seems to center around the additives in various non-organic food items. Those additives have been studied and linked to various diseases, and instead of taking the chance that unhealthy preservatives and flavorings might be integrated into grocery store items, people often opt for the strictly organic route so as to avoid them altogether. But everyone cannot afford the prices of organic foods or the time it takes to shop at specialty markets for them. Thus, becoming informed about the additives in everyday food items can make for an easier shopping experience and healthier items being ingested by everyone. In addition, a mass boycott of foods that contain such additives could prompt food manufacturers to remove such harmful ingredients from their products in the future. Thanks to MSN Health & Fitness contributor Jean Weiss, a list of the most medically questionable and harmful additives in everyday foods has been compiled to educate the masses. There are several that may be recognizable due to news reports and popular opinion, but others may be new to some and worthy of notation. One of the most common additives in food is the preservative, which can come in different forms. Sodium nitrite is one of them, as it is added to not only preserve food but to add color and flavor to meat products, most commonly bacon, ham, hot dogs, sandwich meats, and smoked fish. BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydrozyttoluene) are other preservatives added to foods like cereal, gum, potato chips, and vegetable oils to prevent them from oxidizing. And propyl gallate has similar deoxidizing values and is found in meats, chicken soup base, and gum. All of these preservatives have been found to cause cancer through certain types of food preparation, such as cooking meat at high temperatures. Though the studies are not conclusive and mostly conducted on animals, all of them contain reactive compounds that can be harmful. As far as flavoring, monosodium glutamate (MSG) used to be a very common amino acid used in restaurant foods, soups, and salad dressings, though most food preparers and manufacturers have removed it from their list of ingredients. Beware of canned and frozen foods that still may attempt to use it, as MSG can cause migraines and other adverse effects. Trans fats are also being eliminated from most foods, as the studies linking them to heart disease, strokes, and kidney problems are widely-accepted. Sweeteners are another item to avoid when possible. Aspartame is found in products like Nutrasweet and Equal as well as diet foods and soft drinks. And acesulfame-K is a newer sweetener used in soft drinks and some baked goods. These products, only preliminarily linked to cancer, have the same negative nutritional value as white sugar, all of which should be minimized in any diet. Many food colorings have been banned by the FDA but some can still be found in foods that require a particular color. And Olestra is a product also discouraged by health food organizations that is rarely used anymore, though was common for a time in potato chips as an additive that prevented fat from being absorbed in the digestive system. Each of these items should be avoided at all costs, as the food colorings have been tied to cancer and Olestra simply blocks vitamins from being processed through the body and blocks the digestive process from functioning normally. Potassium bromate is sometimes added to white flour, breads, and rolls to increase the volume of the products, but there are cancer-causing properties that have prompted some states in America to actually require a label to that effect. Finally, sodium chloride is also known as salt, and though it is a common additive in many—if not most—foods, it can be dangerous if not kept to a minimum. Large doses can lead to heart and blood pressure problems, as well as strokes and kidney failure. Disclaimer Farm Leaders Call for ‘50-Year Farm Bill’ —from Pesticide Action Network Updates, July 23, 2009, www.panna.org Three long-time sustainable farming advocates - mostly from the nation’s heartland - traveled to Washington, DC to lay out a plan for America that includes a gradual yet steady transition to an agriculture that measures its success by how it delivers on these basics: yield, healthy food, resiliency of local ecosystems and thriving rural communities. The current and predominant industrial agriculture model emphasizes crop yields almost exclusively, leaving serious consequences for health, the environment, access to food and economic viability of rural communities. The leaders included Wes Jackson, geneticist and president of the Land Institute - Kansas; Fred Kirschenmann, Fellow at the Leopold Center in Iowa and former farmer from North Dakota; and Wendell Berry, writer and farmer from Kentucky. They spoke with Obama administration officials and with Jane Black from the Washington Post. Topics covered included an emerging food citizenry from urban and rural communities, alike; the growing food crisis; food safety scares; feeding the world. Seeds for Education Grant Program —from Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landscapes, www.for-wild.org The Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Grant Program gives small monetary grants to schools, nature centers, or other non-profit educational organizations for the purpose of establishing outdoor learning centers within the United States and Canada. The grant recipient learning centers are those that most successfully reflect the Wild Ones mission to educate and share information about the benefits of using native plants in our landscape and to promote biodiversity and environmentally sound environmentally sound practices. Only through this knowledge, can we appreciate humankind’s proper place in the web of life. Established by Wild Ones in 1996, the Seeds for Education (SFE) Program honors our “philosophical compass,” Lorrie Otto. Money for the Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Fund grant program comes almost entirely from donations from Wild Ones members and other benefactors. The grant program provides cash awards within the United States and Canada primarily for child-centered projects that create native plant landscapes or develop outdoor classrooms, but over the years we have also awarded grants to nature centers, parks and universities. To be considered for the annual award, non-profit groups such as schools, nature centers, houses of worship, or similar organizations must apply for 2010 awards by October 15, 2009. Visit the Wild Ones web site, www.forwild. org for details.
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