Invite your friends to Join Our Mailing List!

 
CFC logo 2151220 N. Forest St., Bellingham WA 98225
315 Westerly Rd. Bellingham WA 98226

www.communityfood.coop � 360-734-8158
Find us on Facebook

April showers
Co-op Community E-NEWS
 An e-publication with your good health in mind
 
                April 2011 
 

A Bit of Purple Prose from Farmer Mike:Mike Finger

 

"Spring is a mad dash, a crazy campaign, a horticultural train wreck where the days are lengthening, yet are never long enough, where the work load is insane and exhilarating, and where before your eyes a great blank canvas of brown earth is transformed into a multi-hued patchwork of leaf, tendril, flower, and fruit. A great time to be alive and to be a farmer." -Mike Finger, Cedarville Farm in Bellingham.

 

Mike and Kim Finger have provided great food from their farm for many years. And now we learn that Mike has a talent for putting together great words as well. For more prose and lots of great info, see the Cedarville Farm website.

In This Issue
Why Aren't GMO Foods Labeled
About Eating Animals
Radiation and Health Class
Role of Agriculture
The Clean Bin Project Film
Eat Meat and Respect It Too
Local CSA Farms
Ana Jackson class 
Healthy Connections Classes  

Daily Detox

with Jessica Van Dusen

Monday, April 4

Downtown Co-op

 

Holistic Yoga

with Bryan Givens

Thursdays, April 7-28

Downtown Co-op

 

Pasta Italiana

with Gavin Rappe

Monday, April 11 & 13

Cordata Co-op

 

Gluten Demystified

with Jum Funk

Tuesday, April 12

Downtown Co-op

 

Mexican Kitchen: Almuerzo Mexicano

with Ana Jackson

Monday, April 18
Cordata Co-op

  

Check our website and newsletter for the full lineup of great classes. 
Favorite Recipes
Find recipes for your favorite Co-op deli salads, entrees, and bakery items on our website.

Follow our Sassy Sampler blog and pick up her tested recipes in store and online.
It Pays to be
a Co-op Member
  

Membership benefits include:

Periodic discounts and special offers

 

Special order pricing on bulk purchases

 

Member discounts with local business partners 

 

Member pricing for classes 

 

Opportunity to participate in governance

 

Quick Links
Member-owner Deals
New items on sale bi-weekly. See the Sales page on our website or stop by the service desk for a list of great deals.

Pick up Your Monthly
Newsletter
in the Store
 
 We publish our Co-op Community newsletter monthly. Pick up a copy next time you're in the store.

Community Shopping Day update

The Co-op donated $1,524.93 to the Rainbow Recovery Center--2 % of sales on March 19.

The next CSD on April 16 will benefit the Traditional Foods and Plants Program at Northwest Indian College.

European GMO labelWhy Aren't GMO Foods Labeled?

 

If you want to avoid sugar, aspartame, trans-fats, MSG, or just about anything else, you read the label. If you want to avoid GMOs (genetically modified organisms) you're out of luck. They're not listed. You could, until now, simply buy organic foods, which by law can't contain more than 5 percent GMOs. Now, however, even that may not work.

 

On his NY Times blog, Mark Bittman recently wrote, "A majority of our food already contains GMOs, and there's little reason to think more isn't on the way. It seems our 'regulators' are using us and the environment as guinea pigs, rather than demanding conclusive tests. And without labeling, we have no say in the matter whatsoever." 

You can read his full article on the blog. 

 

Bittman also conducted a poll inviting readers to share their feelings and thoughts about genetically modified foods. You can read his poll results on his blog also. 

Eating Animals

About Eating Animals, the book 

 

Like many others, Jonathan Safran Foer spent his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood--facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf--his casual questioning took on an urgency. This quest ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong.

 

This book is what he found. Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir, and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many stories we use to justify our eating habits--folklore and pop culture, family traditions and national myth, apparent facts and inherent fictions--and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting. Learn more about this book on the website.

 

Late-Breaking Co-op Class on Radiation and Healthradiation check

with Mystique Grobe, ND

Monday, April 11, 6:30-8:30 pm

Free event-registration requested/Downtown Co-op/ register at Co-op 

  

Dr. Mystique will discuss health risks associated with exposure to radiation and how to safely treat radiation exposure from all environmental sources. She'll focus on recent Japan events that may affect the Pacific Northwest, covering dietary approaches and the risk of food contamination. The talk is free, though donations will be accepted for Japan earthquake relief efforts.

SeedlingsA Quote on the Role of Agriculture

 

"Ultimately, I have concluded that what is most important is that we all have an awareness of the significance that agriculture plays in our daily lives because today, less than two percent of our population is now involved in production agriculture and has no idea where or how our food is grown and the other areas of our lives that agriculture touches."

 

Judi Gerber is a University of California Master Gardener with a certificate in Horticultural Therapy. She writes about sustainable farming, local foods, and organic gardening for multiple magazines. You can find more of her work at the Care2 website.

 

Clean Bin ProjectA Film: The Clean Bin Project

April 28, 7-9 pm, Free Admission

Sustainable Living Center (above the RE Store)

2309 Meridian St.

 

This independent documentary film follows one couple's year-long efforts to live consumer and waste-free. The film ends up uncovering the larger issues of garbage in North America. Presented by RE Sources. For more information, see the trailer.

Apr11 Joe SalatinHow to Eat Meat and Respect It, Too

 

Joel Salatin is no simple farmer. When he speaks, he at times takes on the air of a Southern preacher, philosopher, heretic, businessman, activist, or ecological engineer. Since Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma and the film Food, Inc. brought him to fame as the man who raises meat the right way, Salatin has become a sought-after speaker. But he still spends most of his time on his rural Virginia farm-with the chickens, baling hay, moving cows from one paddock to another... It is perhaps Salatin's unwillingness to compartmentalize that has made him such a compelling moral voice for the food movement. For Salatin, farming is inseparable from ethics, politics, faith, or ecology.

 

Who better to articulate an ethic of how, when, and whether we should raise and eat our fellow animals? For the full article, see YES magazine.

 

Local Farmers offer CSA Shares CSA veggies

 

Check out the Co-op's list of local farms offering CSA shares this year. Each year the Co-op compiles a ist of farms offering CSA shares directly to consumers. This year there are more than ever--15 farms doing CSA programs. Additionally, several farms are now offering a workplace CSA--another way to take advantage of good local fresh food.

Upcoming Events

 

Meatless Monday at the Co-op Deli: Meatless specials and soup
Monday, April 4, 11, 18, and 25, at both stores
 
Board of Directors monthly meeting
Wednesday, April 13, 7 pm, Downtown Co-op Connection Building
  
Community Shopping Day: Northwest Indian College
Saturday, April 16, all day at both stores

3rd Thursday Local Music Series: Lindsay Street
Thursday, April 21, 6-8 pm, Downtown Co-op Swan Cafe

Member Affairs Committee monthly meeting
Wednesday, April 27, 5:15-7:15 pm, Downtown Co-op Connection Building

Archive E-newsletters from the Co-op

Read previous issues of our enews at this Archive Homepage.

Tell us what you'd like to see in this e-newsletter.

Forward suggestions to Diana Campbell, Newsletter, E-news, and Web Editor