No baskets on the 27th

Merry Christmas!

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy New Year!

Enjoy!

Marnie

No baskets on the 27th

That’s in two weeks. 

More purchasing power on the website

I have started to put the refrigerator items on the website for one time and repeating orders. If you purchase through the website, you can choose the regularity of it – one time, weekly, biweekly, and monthly. If your creditcard has been charged for it, the sticker on your basket will state what items have been paid for. If you have any trouble, please call me for assistance.

This also opens up Dairy and meat purchasing capabilities to the outer pickup sites. Please be aware the items will be in a cooler with ice blocks waiting for you at the site. They are left there between 1 and 3 pm, so the sooner your pick up the better.

Christmas presents from a local green store!

Check out : http://transitioningtogreen.greenhome.com/

Enjoy the Season!

Marnie

The Holiday Season

Is in full swing! I got my tree and started decorating. I have my Christmas cards and will send them out later this week. The best party of the year was this last weekend. I DO have good friends. I’m going to try to not shop in stores this year. All the presents I give will be bought online and delivered. Everything I give will also be related to food or gardening. I have no plans to get stressed out this season!

No milk available this week at all! I guess we all used so much over Thanksgiving or the stores have bought it all up for the Holidays.

We won’t be having baskets on the 27th, that’s a Basic week. I was going to go to Florida, but we are not sure these days. We may just go to the Catskills for a pretty white holiday. The road through there is still washed out from Irene. They say it’ll be finished in February. My last paper will be finished on December 19th. I will then have a Masters degree! WooHoo!!

Enjoy the Season!

Marnie

Thank you OCA and to everyone who supported OCA in 2011!

Everyone who donated, everyone who volunteered, everyone who took the time to take action!

You made it possible to continue the transition to an organic future by fighting back against the biotech bullies and their government lackeys, by supporting state and federal legislative reforms, building local chapters, holding nationwide protests, and putting pressure on the corporations who control the food supply.

In 2012, we are going to have to fight even harder, but the rewards will be much greater. With the 2012 California ballot initiative, we have a real chance to hit Monsanto with the skull and crossbones they fear so much--mandatory labels on genetically engineered food.

If we can win in California in November, we'll be so close to an organic future, we'll be able to hear her breathing!

Organic Consumer’s Association is our lobbying representatives in Washington. To find out more about them and help support their efforts go to: www.organicconsumers.org/donations.cfm

Enjoy! Marnie

HappyThanksgiving!

Ideas for the Holidays

Skip (some of) the meat. Raising conventional livestock requires large amounts of fuel, pesticides and fertilizers, making the process a major contributor to greenhouse gases. You don’t have to make your holiday meal vegetarian, but maybe make ones that feature smaller amounts of meat as a seasoning. 

Drink local. Consider getting wine from a local, organic winery, with less pesticide intensive methods. The Hudson Valley is getting quite a reputation! Or, support our nation’s growing craft brewing industry by picking up beer from a local brewery.

Dust off the china and glasses. One of the biggest generators of waste at holiday parties is the use of disposable cups and silverware. Though it’s easier to throw everything away, you’ll find that with a couple volunteers to help wash dishes or load the dishwasher, everything will be rinsed and dried in no time flat. 

Organize the leftovers. Once the meal is finished, encourage guests to dispose of their scraps in a compost collection. Leftover should be packed or frozen and used for future meals. If there is too much for you to handle, the food should be redistributed for guests to take home. It’s a great way to reuse the take-out Chinese food containers.

Give gifts that grow and inspire. Consider spreading the magic of real food culture through a hands-on cheesemaking kit or a homebrewing kit. Or share your favorite cookbook of culinary fundamentals. A seasonal produce calendar can be a fun reminder of what to anticipate next year at the farmers markets. Seed packets are a cheap and creative way to help develop a green thumb. 

Use wrapping “paper” that lasts. Try using reusable tote bags or light scarves. Reuse old maps, the comic pages from newspapers, and sheet music. If you do have a heap of discarded wrapping paper at the end of the night, be sure to recycle it, along with any cans and bottles.

Enjoy! Marnie

Organic Consumers Association Initiative – Label GMOs 2012

Organic Consumers' best opportunity for a strategic victory against Monsanto in 2012 is the California Ballot Initiative for mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods.

SACRAMENTO, CA - Nov. 10th, 2011, a wide-ranging coalition of consumer, public health and environmental organizations, food companies, and individuals submitted the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act to the State Attorney General. The initiative requires genetically engineered foods (also known as Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs) and foods containing GMO ingredients to be clearly labeled, similar to current labels with other nutritional information.

A genetically engineered food is usually a plant or animal that has had its DNA altered at the molecular level in a lab to include genes that produce foreign compounds from other plants, animals, viruses, or bacteria. This genetic alteration is not found in nature and cannot occur naturally.  Labeling GMO’s will allow health professionals to track any potential adverse health impacts of these foods. "Genetically engineering food can cause unintended consequences and because there have been no long term studies, we are unsure of how GMOs may affect our health."

Fifty countries including the European Union and Japan have laws mandating that genetically engineered foods be labeled, but the United States does not have such a requirement. Efforts to enact labeling laws in Congress and the California legislature have been blocked by big food and chemical company lobbyists. California voters are expected to have the chance to vote on the initiative in November 2012.

Do you shop at Trader Joe's?

Ask this California-based natural and organic food retailer to kick Monsanto out of their stores and join us in the fight for mandatory GMO labels! http: //www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_23157.cfm

www.CommunityGreen.org

Many of you know that I have been an organizer for a web based environmental group Community Green. We plan environmental events and post those of other environmental organizations that take place in New Jersey. Recently the woman who has been running Community Green from Colorado, passed the management of it to me. I’m very excited about this. It’s a good group of people and has a lot of potential. 

Please visit us at: wwwCommunityGreen.org

Victory for Voluntary GMO-Free Labels!

Monsanto and Eli Lilly have successfully blocked consumers' right to know about factory-farm dairy production by concealing the use of their genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, a.k.a. rBGH or rBST.

Still, when it comes to voluntary labels on non-GMO food, consumers are winning!

The first blow to biotech was in 2010 when a Sixth Circuit court ruled that milk produced with synthetic hormones is different than milk produced without it and struck down a Ohio rule that would have removed "rBGH-free" labels from dairy products.

The final blow to the Ohio rule came this week when the state agreed that, instead of revising the rule to comply with the court's opinion, it would abandon it altogether.