Fresh - The Movie

Tomorrow – Wednesday, September 16, 6:30 PM
At the Montclair Public Library, 50 S Fullerton Ave, Montclair NJ
The Montclair Township Environmental Affairs office and Community Green present another eye opening film. FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are reinventing our food system. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision of our food and our planet’s future. The film addresses an ethos that has been sweeping the nation and is the call to action America has been waiting for.
FRESH empowers us to realize that our individual actions in fact do matter. Throughout the film we encounter the most inspiring people, ideas, and initiatives around the US. The movie showcases real people, connecting audiences not with facts and figures or policy analysis, but with personal stories of change.
This is one of a series of Environmental Film Screenings put on by CommunityGreen.org. For more information contact Marnie Vyff at 335-4469 or marnie@ecoLOGIC-design.com.

Tell your friends. These classes are open to everyone, not just coop members. At the end of September (Sept. 24th) we’ll be having a fall garden prep/composting class with Wanda Knapik, a permaculture expert from Bernardsville, who plants vegetable gardens for residents and schools. I have redone the website so the Events classes are on our coop site, on the calendar page. Check it out at: www.MountainLakesOrganic.com
I started my fall semester at Montclair State this last week. I’m taking Environmental Change/Communication and changed my Ecology class to Economics. I like my teachers so far and the semester looks good!


ALERT OF THE WEEK
Whole Foods Threatens to Sue OCA
Whole Foods sent a letter dated August 26, 2009, signed by one of its attorneys, threatening to sue the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), under the bizarre pretense that a petition we've been circulating violates Whole Foods' "intellectual property rights." Here's OCA's response to CEO John Mackey:
"Given all the bad publicity that you've gotten lately for admitting that Whole Foods Market (WFM) retail stores are purveyors of 'junk food;' that WFM needs to sell a lot more certified organic products (rather than conventional items greenwashed as 'natural'); that WFM's '365' private label products need to be thoroughly tested for GMO contamination; that you don't think all Americans deserve government subsidized access to health care; or need labor unions; perhaps you may want to reconsider suing the largest organic consumer watchdog organization in the United States..."
Read the full text of OCA Director Ronnie Cummins' letter to John Mackey: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19057.cfm

Please help put the pressure on Whole Foods and Whole Foods' main distributor, United Natural Foods Incorporated (UNFI), to:
   1. Stop prioritizing the sales of conventional foods and products (greenwashed as "natural") and instead double WFM and UNFI's sales of certified organics from 1/3 to 2/3 of their total sales. This would increase US organic sales by approximately $3 billion (15%) annually!
   2. Give smaller retailers and coops that seriously promote organics (more than 1/3 of sales organic) the same UNFI discount that Whole Foods receives.
   3. Apply Domestic Fair Trade principles to the UNFI and Whole Foods supply chains by guaranteeing workers' rights to freely organize themselves into unions for collective bargaining.
   4. Support health care reform to provide universal health care coverage while reducing costs, relieving employers of health care responsibilities, and encouraging wellness and prevention through nutrition and complementary natural medicine.
TAKE ACTION: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27761


Enjoy!     Marnie