Reverse Approval of GE Alfalfa

A Co-op member recently shared this action alert from the Food and Water Watch group. You can encourage the President to reverse the recent USDA approval of genetically engineered alfalfa. Making this call is quick and easy, and it will make a big difference. Check their website for details.

A Local/Regional Food System

With lots of talk about local lately, we were intrigued by this innovative approach involving a multi-stakeholder cooperative formed to build a robust regional food system. Called the Fifth Season Cooperative, the group includes all of the key players in a local food system that encompasses western Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota, and northeast Iowa: farmers, producers, producer groups, food processors, distributors, and buyers .

"Fifth season" refers to the various ways people in the past preserved food to continue enjoying the harvest well beyond the growing season. It was common to can, freeze, and dry foods during the peak of the season to extend the bounty. The Fifth Season Cooperative hopes to extend or increase many things in their region: the amount of locally produced food consumed locally, the times of the year people can enjoy this local food, the connection between producers and consumers, and the income farmers can generate from their businesses. For more information, see their website. 

Safe Seafood-There's an App for That

A Film About Monsanto & GMOs

As a sponsor of the Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival the Co-op facilitated a showing of The World According To Monsanto, a full-length French reportage on the history and ongoing strategy of the Monsanto Corporation. The film reviewed the company's history in PCB production and their strategy of patenting "novel" GMOs in an effort to control access to food worldwide. Because GMOs are patentable, it puts complete control over the crops into the hands of the patent holder-big biotech-while leaving liability for the success and safety of the crop on the shoulders of farmers and consumers.

More than 80 percent of packaged products in the average U.S. grocery store contain GM ingredients. You can avoid GMOs by eating organic fruit and vegetables, avoiding products that contain corn, soy, cotton, canola, and beet sugar, and looking for the Non-GMO Project verified seal on products at the Co-op. For more on GMOs, see the Non-GMO Project website.