[cgfc] CGFC's Weekly Bytes, Vol.1, #10

[Lisa BK]

GREETINGS!

Welcome to Common Ground Food Co-op's weekly (for now) e-newsletter! You're
getting this
missive because you're a member of Common Ground who's also signed up to be
on the CGFC
mailing list. If you aren't interested in receiving these updates, please
email
commongroundfoodcoop at gmail.com. A paper version is posted on the bulletin
board in the
store.

Every week, via this transmission, members are provided with store
updates/news, links to
relevant news items/political actions, and other bits and pieces worthy of
mention. If you
have anything of a similar bent you think members should know about, please
email links to
commongroundfoodcoop at gmail.com. Thanks!



STORE/LOCAL NEWS:

****The Co-op will be getting a new check-out system in mid-October! Hooray!

If you are a register coreworker, please sign up for a special training
session
on either Sunday, Oct. 16th or Monday, Oct. 17th. Each training session will
last
for an hour and they will run back-to-back between the hours of noon-6 on
Sunday
and again from noon-4 on Monday. We will have Chris O'Byrne from CoPOS
(the designer of the check-out system) on hand for those 2 days to get us
all
trained. It should make our lives much easier!

Please pick an hour slot on either day that works for you and contact Jill
or Molly to sign up.

**** Thanks to everyone who helped staff the Farmers' Market booth this
summer. We're done
for the year and look forward to an equally productive 2006!


INFO OF INTEREST:

**** PRETTY DARN CRUCIAL AND WORTH WRITING CONGRESSIONAL REPS OVER:

"After 35 years of hard work, the U.S. organic community has built up a
multi-billion dollar
alternative to industrial agriculture, based upon strict organic standards
and organic
community control over modification to these standards.

Now, large corporations, such as Kraft, Wal-Mart, & Dean Foods--aided and
abetted by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and members of the Organic Trade
Association, are
moving to lower organic standards by allowing Bush appointees in the USDA
National Organic
Program to approve a broad list of synthetic ingredients and processing aids
that would be
allowed in organic production. Even worse these proposed regulatory changes
will reduce
future public discussion and input and take away the National Organic
Standards Board's
(NOSB) traditional lead jurisdiction in setting standards. What this means,
in blunt terms.
is that USDA bureaucrats and industry lobbyists, not consumers, will have
near total control
over what can go into organic foods and products."

Get the full story here:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm

**** ALSO PRETTY DARN CRUCIAL:

"On the eve of a deadline requiring the USDA's National Organic Program
(NOP) to respond to
a federal court complaint filed in June by the *Organic Consumers
Association* *(OCA),*
representing more than 500,000 members, and *Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps* */
**Dr. Bronner's
& Sun Dog's Magic* (www.drbronnersundog.com <http://www.drbronnersundog.com>),
the USDA has directed in a memo to organic
certifiers that _certified non-food products specifically including personal
care may
represent that they are NOP certified "organic" or "made with organic," and
display the USDA
organic seal, so long as such products are certified to meet the NOP
standards for organic
agricultural products."

This is awesome, considering truthful labeling on bodycare products was in
serious jeopardy.

More info on the fight here:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/


**** Rumor has it some folks around C-U are sort of doing something like
this. I think it's
a cool idea:

http://www.fallenfruit.org/


**** Excellent U-Pick resource includes where to find them locally as well
as recipes and
other kitchen resources - this page will take you to info about apples:

http://www.pickyourown.org/apples.htm


**** 'Course, you guys would never neglect your vegetables:

http://thedailyvegetable.com/


**** The Food Trust has started a blog:

http://www.thefoodtrust.org/blog/


**** Something to think about, and a great interview:

"As part of its goal to link anti-hunger work and community food security,
WHY's
International Director, Peter Mann, interviewed author and teacher Jan
Poppendieck. Jan
Poppendieck is the author of the 1998 groundbreaking book, Sweet Charity?
Emergency Food and
the End of Entitlement, which chronicled the shift from federal anti-poverty
programs to
local soup kitchens and food pantries feeding the hungry."

Interview here:

http://www.worldhungeryear.org/why_speaks/ws_load.asp?file=69&style=ws_table




Please feel free to forward these links to people you think might benefit
from such
knowledge.

Thanks and look for #11 same time (more or less) next week!



::compiled by Outreach Co-coordinator Lisa Bralts-Kelly::
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