Durango Natural Foods

Will the real organic dairy farmers please stand up?

Organic Dairy Farmers’ Rally — USDA Secretary Asked to Vigorously Enforce Organic Laws

In an age of Walmarts and Home Depots, there’s still a place for the corner grocer, hardware store and credit union. How do small businesses compete with giant ones? Often it’s by banding together.

Check out this great short spot on co-ops.

Youtube

A Quarter Million Experimental “Frankentrees” to Be Grown in U.S

The USDA is currently taking public comments on whether or not the company ArborGen should be allowed to conduct 29 field trials of genetically engineered “cold tolerant” eucalyptus trees in the U.S. This massive experiment, which is on the verge of being green-lighted, will literally be using nature as the laboratory to test more than 260,000 frankentrees. Scientists across the U.S. are voicing concerns over this proposal including:

-The USDA failed to do an Environmental Impact Statement to assess potential negative issues related to the proposed field trials.

-The spread of the these plants into the wild through seeds and plant matter is highly likely, and the impacts on native ecosystems from this invader are unknown

.-One of the experimental GE tree varieties is a known host for cryptococcus gatti, a fatal fungal pathogen whose spores cause meningitis in people and animals.

Comments are being accepted by the USDA until July 6, 2009.

Take action here courtesy of the Organic Consumers Association:

http://tinyurl.com/lykvyx

Go See This Movie. Coming soon to a theater near you.

http://tinyurl.com/c9u2vj

Agrichemical industry steps up pressure on White House organic garden

http://tinyurl.com/o6xwfb

ALERT Update OF THE WEEK on behalf of the OCA
HR 875 Update:
Will the Real “Monsanto Bill” Please Stand Up?

News of a “Monsanto Bill to Criminalize Organic Farming” has been speeding around the internet. The Organic Consumers Fund, OCA’s lobbying partner in Washington, DC, analyzed the bill and determined that they could not support food safety legislation like this that could be applied in a one-size-fits-all manner to all farms, including organic and farm-to-consumer operations — especially a bill that references the National Animal Identification System (a voluntary USDA animal tagging program that some influential members of Congress are trying to make mandatory for every owner of even a single farm animal). With these concerns, the Organic Consumers Association put out this alert on March 12.

Nevertheless, the OCA was alarmed by the misleading headlines attached to anti-HR 875 alerts. Even if this bill were passed as is today, it wouldn’t criminalize organic farming. The bill would require farms to have a food safety plan, allow their records to be inspected, and comply with food safety regulations. To say this is tantamount to criminalization doesn’t give organic farmers enough credit.

Worse, linking this bill to Monsanto (for no other reason than because the bill’s sponsor Rosa DeLauro is married to political operative Stan Greenberg, who lists Monsanto as a past client) obscures the real damage Monsanto is doing in Congress. This past week, Monsanto got a bill passed in committee that forces GMOs on Africa.

Durango Natural Foods Members!

Be sure to mark your calendars, because on Friday, April 10th, DNF with be offering a 10% (total) Member Discount at the register all day.

Come on down, fill your baskets and ring in the savings.

Spring is a great time to rejuvenate and re-energize as we prepare for a season of celebrations, including Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day and countless graduations. And there’s no better way to celebrate than with good food.

That’s why we’re offering another great Co-op Advantage coupon book. Its full of big savings on many of your favorite brands.

This coupon book is just one small way for us to say “thanks” to you, our co-op members and shoppers!

Members should have received your coupon book in the mail last week, and coupon books are also now available at DNF.

Durango Natural Foods and other local independent businesses have been feeling the pinch while Santa Rita Drive (between Highway 160 and State Highway 3) is closed for construction. Though we know that detours can bite extra time out of your busy schedules, we really need your support during the next two weeks as construction continues. DNF has been an advocate for sustainability, wholesome local products and a strong local economy for 35 years. Many of our members, staff and community partners rely on our continued success in order to make ends meet here in Durango. With your help, especially during these trying times, DNF will continue to serve our community’s needs and be the best natural foods store we can be!

Your co-op needs you! Come fill your baskets with food you can feel good about.

There has been a lot of debate lately about recently introduced food safety bill HR 875. Many people are concerned that one-size-fits-all regulation only tends to work for industrialized operations and small farmers, gardeners and farmers markets may be negatively impacted. Here are some facts:

A few things that HR 875 DOES do:

• It addresses the most critical flaw in the structure of the FDA by splitting it into 2 new agencies -one devoted to food safety and the other devoted to drugs and medical devices.
• It increases inspection of food processing plants, basing the frequency of insoection on the risk of the product being produced -it does NOT make plants pay any registration fees or user fees
• It does extend food safety agency authority to food production on farms, requiring farms to write a food safety plan and consider the critical points on that farm where food safety problems are likely to occur.
• It requires imported food to meet the same standards as food produced in the U.S.

A few things that HR 875 does NOT do:

• It does not cover food produced by teh USDA (beef, pork, poultry, lamb, catfish)
• It does not establish a mandatory animal identification system.
• It does not regulate backyard gardens.
• It does not regulate seed.
• It does not call for new regulations on farmers markets or direct marketing arrangements.
• It does not apply to food that does not enter interstate commerce.
• It does not mandate any specific type of traceability for FDA-regulated foods.

HR 759 is more likely to move through Congress than HR 875, and HR 759 contains several provisions that could cause problems for small farms and food processors:

• It extends traceability recordkeeping requirements that currently apply only to food processors to farms and restaurants, and requires that the recordkeeping be done electronically.
• It calls for standard lot numbers to be used in food production.
• It requires food processing plants to pay a registration fee to FDA to fund inspection efforts.
• It instructs FDA to establish production standards for fruits and vegetables and to establish F+Good Agricultural Practices for produce.

It’s important to let members of Congress know how food safety proposals will impact the practices that make diversified, organic and direct market producers different from agribusiness. But simply shooting down any attempt to fix our broken food system is not an approach that works for consumers.