Bring a friend to enjoy a free screening of the school lunch documentary, Two Angry Moms

WEDNESDAY, September 7

10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 7 p.m.

Fairfield Public Library (downtown Fairfield) in the Rotary Room

HOW TO HELP YOUR KIDS EAT HEALTHIER

Local mom Amy Kalafa was shocked when she found out what was available to her child in the cafeteria at school. She set out on a mission to inform parents and school administrators in an effort to change her child’s options. The movie is an eye-opening look at this complex issue and the forces which make change so difficult.

Amy’s crusade to reform school lunch continues with her just released book, Lunch Wars: How to Start a School Food Revolution and Win the Battle for Our Children’s Health. An invaluable handbook for for better school food advocates, Lunch Wars is available at Amazon and wherever books are sold.

All programs at the Fairfield Public Library are open to the public and free of charge. For more information call 203-256-3160

www.fairfieldpubliclibrary.org .

1080 Post Road, Fairfield, CT  06824

Follow the Library on Twitter: www.twitter.com/fairfieldpublib and Facebook: www.facebook.com/fairfieldlibrary.

Already seen the movie?  Please forward this invitation to your friends!

www.angrymoms.org
www.angrymoms.groupsite.com

By Analiese Paik

The following is a transcript of A Dozen Ways to Eat Green, a talk I was to deliver today at the Gathering of the Vibes as a guest speaker on the Green Vibes Stage at 1:30. Unfortunately, due to the heat advisory, I won’t be presenting today. A Dozen Ways to Eat Green is perfect for any eater – those just learning how unsustainable our food system is and are looking for ways to reduce their “foodprint” and those already making sustainable choices, yet are looking to do more. The choices we make three times a day have a profound impact on our health and the environment, so eat smart and eat green!

• Reduce your food waste.
  

By some estimates 40 percent of the food grown in the country is wasted. That figure includes everything from food left to rot in farmers’ fields, to imperfect food throw out by stores and restaurants, to the leftovers you scrape into your garbage pail after dinner. Here are three ways to cut down on your food waste:

1. Buy less to avoid buying more than you need.
2. Make “Use it or Freeze It” your mantra and use your freezer to save food for another day.
3. Declare “Clean Out the Refrigerator Night” once a week to eat all the leftovers before they go bad.

• Compost your raw food waste.

Start a compost pile right in your backyard. When you throw food waste into the garbage, it winds up in a landfill where it cannot decompose. Instead, it emits methane gas, a greenhouse gas, which contributes to climate change. Collect your egg shells, coffee grinds, vegetable peels, corn cobs and husks in a kitchen composting pail and toss them in the compost pile with grass clippings and leaves. Over a few months’ time, they’ll decompose with the help of worms and turn into compost – gardener’s gold. You won’t need to buy compost when you start your organic garden! Visit Rodale’s web site for some expert composting advice.

• Eat less meat.

Practice Meatless Mondays by eating no meat one day a week. The Environmental Working Group has just released The Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health, a handy online guide to improving your health and the health of the environment through sustainable meat choices. It includes a recommendation to practice Meatless Mondays, citing this quote from real food activist and author Michael Pollan.

“The single most important thing any of us can do to shrink the environmental footprint of our eating is to cut back on our meat eating — doing so has a bigger impact than eating local or organic.” -Michael Pollan, Author and food activist

When you do eat meat, avoid factory farmed beef, poultry, pork and dairy; choose grass-fed, pasture-raised, and organic meat and dairy instead. Approximately 99 percent of the meat sold in restaurants and grocers if from factory farms (CAFOs) where animals are raised in close confinement, fed an unnatural diet of genetically modified (GM) corn and soy, and are routinely treated with antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. Raising animals in this manner might produce cheap meat for the consumer, but what’s rung up at the register doesn’t factor in the true cost to the environment and human health. Don’t fall victim to the illusion of cheap food. The real cost of producing and eating food from the industrial food chain will have to be paid for by generations to come.

Many Connecticut farmers raise livestock on pasture and sell it at farmers’ markets throughout the state, plus a sustainable butcher shop will be opening in Westport soon.

Learn more by about the impact of factory farming on the climate and human health from EWG’s The Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health.

• Choose organic food over conventionally grown.

Choose organic whenever possible to protect the environment and human health. Organic foods and wines are cultivated without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides so they do not deplete the soil, damage the environment or pose threats to human health. CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) programs are the most economical way to buy fresh, local, organic produce. CSA programs offer consumers a seasonal share in a single farm’s harvest for a fixed price. Each season I publish a guide to CSAs offered by local farms, and each year the list grows.

Processed foods, even those labeled “natural”, commonly contain ingredients made from the “Big Four” genetically-modified (GM) food crops: soybeans, corn, canola and cottonseed, yet they carry no labels declaring “contains GMOs.” The bottle of canola oil innocently sitting in your pantry is likely GM, since eighty percent of the canola grown in the US is genetically modified. Many well-respected members of the sustainable food, agriculture, and science communities believe that GMOs pose threats to human and animal health, the environment, and biodiversity. Choose organic or Non-GMO Project Verified processed foods to avoid GMOs. To learn more about GMOs, please read While You Were Eating on this blog.

• Eat locally with the seasons.

Fresh, local food is delicious, nutritious and in abundant supply at farm stands, farmers’ markets and through CSAs. Buy locally grown food in season to reduce the “food miles” your food has to travel to reach your plate and cut down on food packaging. Fewer food miles translate into reduced use of fossil fuels and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Less packaging means you create less waste. You’ll also be providing a living wage to our farmers, ensuring farmland preservation and our ability to feed ourselves, and encouraging the cultivation of a diversity of species, including heritage and heirloom varietals. Eating locally with the seasons is an investment in the future of our local foodshed.

• Grow some of your own food.

Seeds are very inexpensive, and if you make your own compost, you’ll likely wind up saving money by growing your own. A fantastic source of inspiration and advice for home gardeners is Kitchen Gardeners International, the group behind the campaign to replant a kitchen garden at the White House. Look for gardening workshops and classes, includes those we post, to help you get started. Comstock Ferre & Co., a 200-year-old seed company in Wethersfield, CT, offers a wide variety of heirloom seeds via their catalog, online store, an retail location. Read more about Comstock here.

• Choose organic, Fair Trade coffee, tea, chocolate and sugar.

Fair Trade means farmers are compensated fairly for their work, no child labor is used, and farms employ sustainable growing practices. Organic farming practices don’t rely on synthetic fertilizer and never use synthetic pesticides, herbicides and insecticides. When we choose organic, Fair Trade products, we are rewarding farmers for treating their workers fairly and using sustainable growing practices. These products may cost a little more, but the payoff is priceless.

• Choose sustainable seafood.

Choose sustainable seafood. Download the Sustainable Seafood Guide or iphone app from Seafood Watch and consult it at the fish counter or when ordering in a restaurant. Commit to limiting your consumption to sustainable seafood choices under the Best Choices and Good Alternatives categories. Whenever you eat a sustainable seafood meal, enter it into the app to share your resources with other users.  Whole Foods Markets stores have started using a seafood labeling system for their wild caught products based on Seafood Watch’s ratings to help the consumer at point of purchase. You can learn all about sustainable seafood in an interactive exhibit called Go Fish! at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk.  It’s perfect for adults and children.

• Stop buying disposable bottled water.

Disposable bottled water is one or the most unsustainable beverage choices you can make. Plastic water bottles are made from petroleum and are designed to be used once, resulting in a product that is thousands of times more expensive than tap water and no safer, according to a report by Food & Water Watch. Most of these bottles are not recycled and wind up in landfills and our oceans where they  leach harmful chemicals into the ground and water. There is a floating garbage patch twice the size of Texas in the North Atlantic that is poisoning sea life. Please carry a thermos filled with filtered tap water instead.

• Learn to cook!

Cooking is becoming a lost art. Take some cooking classes and buy a cookbook that teaches you how to cook with the seasons including Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets, Emily Brooks’ Connecticut Farmer & Feast, Michel Nischan’s Sustainably Delicious: Making the World a Better Place One Recipe at a Time, and Harvest to Heat: Cooking with America’s Best Farmers, Chefs and Artisans by Darryl Estrine and Kelly Kochendorfer.

• Start or volunteer at a school or community garden.

School and community gardens are thriving across the country including urban, rooftop, vertical, aquaponic, and hydroponic varieties. Public gardens are revitalizing urban communities and providing food deserts with a source of fresh local food. Creating community while helping to feed yourself and others more sustainably, especially children, is rewarding and laying the groundwork for a more sustainable food future.

• Don’t wait for someone else to fix it.

The food choices you make all day, every day, have small but important impacts. Eat Smart, Eat Green.

Recommended Reading:

• Tomatoland
• Eating Animals
• Righteous Pork Chop
• Diet for a Hot Planet
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
• Omnivore’s Dilemma (and young reader’s version)

Movies:

• Food, Inc.
• FRESH
• Nourish
  
• The Future of Food
• The World According to Monsanto

Bonus Green Food Tips:

• Bring your own bags wherever you shop. Try keeping a soft, collapsible bag in your pocketbook so you always have one handy.

• Reuse grocery store vegetable bags as liners for your kitchen compost pail. You’ll save money on composting supplies and give the bags and second life.

• Use recycled products. Choose from post-consumer recycled aluminum foil and paper products (napkins & paper towels), phosphate-free dish-washing liquid and dishwasher soap, and biodegradable garbage bags.

• Recycle #5 containers and cork at Whole Foods Markets instead of throwing them in the garbage. Whole Foods collects #5s and cork for recycling (feel free to pop in just to drop off your recycling). Recycling costs you nothing but is a huge gift to the environment.

• Use reusable bags instead of single use plastic lunch and snack bags. There are many on the market and they have become so mainstream that they are now available at Linens ‘n Things. Lunch Skins are eco-chic, reusable lunch and snack bags that are cute enough to give as a gift.
  

• Choose organic and biodynamic wines. These so called “natural” wines rely on low impact methods for solving common problems that plague vineyards. For instance, birds of prey are brought in to control for varmints. Organic wines are cultivated without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides so they do not deplete the soil, damage the environment or pose threats to human health.

Come to ECOFEST 2011 on Saturday, June 11th from 12-6pm at the Levitt Pavilion in Westport to be entertained and educated and inspired about living a more sustainable lifestyle.  The event is tailored to people of all ages showcasing live local music, over 40 ‘eco’ exhibitors and vendors, activities for the kids, and great local food.  So bring some sunscreen, a blanket to sit on, and a water bottle for some free drinks so you can enjoy a fun-filled afternoon listening to music with your community while learning about the amazing things being done in this area to promote sustainability and the environment.  Admission is FREE and the event is brought to you by Staples High School Club Green.

By Analiese Paik

Visit any grocery store and you’ll find the meat case packed with cuts from our nation’s four biggest beef producers: Cargill Beef, JBS SA (US subsidiary owns Swift and Smithfield Beef), National Beef Packing, and Tyson. Read the package labels carefully and try to find any mention that the steer were raised in confinement on factory farms, fed a diet of genetically-modified (GM) corn and soy to fatten them up quickly and cheaply, then routinely supplemented with antibiotics and growth hormones to kick the meat-making machine into high gear. You won’t find anything. Factory meat production is Big Business and it’s not in their best interest to tell you what’s in your food.

Nowhere is obfuscation of facts more troubling than with genetically modified foods (GMOs). In the early 1990s large, multinational biotechnology companies including Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Bayer, and Syngenta began producing and selling seeds whose DNA they had engineered to either resist herbicides or produce pesticides to protect that plant from viruses and insects. Classified as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), these seeds contain portions of DNA from another organism that was inserted into their genetic material in a lab to confer the desired traits. In the case of transgenic GMOs, the inserted DNA was derived from another species, and not always from the plant kingdom.

Processed foods sold in the US commonly contain ingredients made from the “Big Four” GM crops: soybeans, corn, canola and cottonseed, yet they carry no labels declaring “contains GMOs.” The bottle of canola oil innocently sitting in your pantry is likely GM, since eighty percent of the canola grown in the US is genetically modified. “It’s being carefully hidden” explains Bill Duesing, an organic farmer and Executive Director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of CT ( CT NOFA). “The US food industry will do anything they can to make this stuff seems the same.”

GE seeds are unique enough to be patented as intellectual property (they meet the “usefulness” requirements of patent law), yet were likewise granted generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status in 1992 by the FDA after being deemed “substantially equivalent” to their non-GMO counterparts. GMOs considered GRAS require no long-term, independent animal, human and environmental studies to determine their safety. Wait. We’re eating plants that can produce their own pesticides and contain DNA from other species that was forced into their genetic makeup, yet they’re not being tested and require no labeling? This is a real head-scratcher. Jeffrey Smith, Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, and an internationally recognized expert and author of two books on the health dangers of GMOs, Genetic Roulette and Seeds of Deception, weighed in on the topic. “It’s Monsanto’s unprecedented influence on this and previous administrations. It’s hard to know where they end and the government begins. The entire foundation of this technology is based on rhetoric, manipulation, and lies.”

“The number of crossover people from Monsanto to the FDA is phenomenal” adds Duesing. “It’s a revolving door.” The documentary film, The World According to Monsanto, spotlights a few individuals who swung back and forth through the now-famous revolving door between Monsanto, the FDA and the USDA. Perhaps the most salient example is that of Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto attorney appointed by President Obama as Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the FDA in 2009. Outrage over his appointment from critics of genetically engineered food centered on Taylor’s service between 1991 and 1994 as the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Policy, a time when the agency eschewed unnecessary regulation and drafted biotech industry-friendly policies despite warnings by some of its own scientists.

There is growing concern among scientists, watchdog groups, members of the organic agriculture community, and consumers that GMOs pose threats to humans, animals and the environment. Jeffrey Smith said “claims that GM crops will feed the world are not based on reality. They decrease yields and increase the use of agricultural chemicals.” Duesing shares his views. “Genetic engineering is giving pollution a life of its own. It’s a food system that’s built around agricultural chemicals and herbicides designed to kill all green plants, except the GM plant.”

Adding to the unease is the industry’s less-than-stellar track record on environmental stewardship. “These biotech companies have a history of creating long-lived pollutants that damage the environment and then we have to control it” Duesing pointed out. “We can’t eat fish from the Hudson, Housatonic or Quinnipiac Rivers because they’re contaminated with Monsanto’s PCBs dumped in there by GE.”

One instance of cross-contamination vividly illustrates the potential threats GMOs pose to human health. “StarLink [a GM corn approved for animal use only, but which accidentally contaminated human food in 1990 and sickened at least 35] may be part of the collective genome forever and there’s a high probability that it’s an allergen.” recalls Jeffrey Smith. “What we have now is really dangerous technology.”

Jeffrey Smith’s claims are the product of years spent traveling the globe to research and immerse himself in the world of biotech foods. Smith visited Fairfield, CT in April as part of his 2011 lecture tour designed to inform citizens about the dangers of GMOs and teach strategies to identify and avoid them at points of sale. Buying organic and choosing processed foods carrying the Non-GMO Verified seal are among the helpful options outlined in his free publication, The Non-GMO Shopping Guide. Smith’s Campaign for Healthier Eating in America is designed to “end the genetic engineering of our food supply quickly” through consumer rejection rather than through “politics and government.” Buoyed by Europe’s tipping point of consumer rejection of GMOs in 1999, and the US rejection of artificial bovine growth hormone (rbGH) in 2005, Smith is confident that food companies will respond to GMO rejection by a mere five percent of US consumers. “Manufacturers won’t wait for a substantial drop in market share. They won’t lose customers by eliminating GM ingredients either.”

Due to growing concern about the safety of GMOs, lawmakers in 14 states, including Connecticut, have introduced legislation that would mandate, in some form, the labeling of genetically modified foods. Jeffrey Smith explains that “labeling exists in most developed countries with varying levels of thoroughness and enforceability. Europe is the most thorough and .9% is the threshold for labeling.” Duesing believes that it will help if foods containing GM ingredients are labeled, and will be one of the things that drives change, but isn’t convinced it’s the only or best answer. “Energy and the environment would be more important. I’ve been working 30 years to try to influence consumers.”

State Representative Richard Roy (D-Milford), House Chairman of the Environment Committee, recently introduced an amendment requiring products containing GMOs to be labeled in the state of Connecticut. Roy is clearly well-educated on the topic of GMOs and takes a refreshingly consumer-oriented approach to mandatory labeling. “The producers of GMO foods gush their support for what they say is a superior product. If the product is as good and safe as they claim, they should be happy to promote the product” explains Roy. “Instead, they refuse to tell the consumer that a product contains GMOs. What are they hiding?”

Representative Roy attended Jeffrey Smith’s lecture in Fairfield this past April, and briefly shared with the audience his position on GMO labeling and track record of getting difficult legislation passed. “I’m the guy that got the [hands-free] cell phone law passed after a seven-year battle and the pesticides off school grounds.” Undeterred by the GMO labeling amendment’s removal in early May by the General Law Committee, Roy optimistically pointed out that “it can be called again as a proposed amendment on another bill. Support is a growing from a number of legislators, along with environmental groups, especially those involved in toxics legislation and healthy living habits.”

Resources:

Center for Food Safety

CT NOFA

Institute for Responsible Technology

Non-GMO Shopping Guid

Non-GMO Project

Save the Date: Mark your calendars for Saturday, September 10 for the “Fairfield social event of the season”. The Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, will be holding its first annual Harvest Supper, a celebration of local farm fare prepared by renowned area ‘farm to table’ chefs.

Hosted by DJ Carey, the Editorial Director of the beautiful Cottages and Gardens publications, the fundraiser will be held at the landmark Pequot Library in Southport. Guests will be treated to a bountiful farm-to-table menu, seasonal wine and craft beers, fresh desserts, and foot-tapping music.

The Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm’s mission is to celebrate the town’s agrarian past (Just 90 years ago there were more than 100 farms in Fairfield), educate youth and adults about sustainable gardening practices, promote good stewardship of the land and sound nutrition, and to provide a fresh local source of  organic produce.

Visit the Farm online at www.fairfieldorganicteachingfarm.org, follow them on Facebook, and subscribe to their e-newsletter to stay informed about this and other projects, including the Seed to Seed Library at Fairfield Woods Branch Library.

New Haven schools Director of Food Services Chef Tim Cipriano is featured this week on the White House’s “Champions of Change” website in recognition of his successful effort to introduce healthy and locally produced food into city schools. Chef Tim is a participant in Chefs Move to Schools, an initiative of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Campaign.

Cipriano was one of a group of chefs and nutritionists honored by the White House for improving school lunches. He traveled to Washington D.C. last week to accept the award and discuss school lunches with policymakers. While there, he wrote the blog post and recorded the video that appears this week on the Champions of Change website www.whitehouse.gov/champions.

“This is great honor,” Cipriano said. “I’m proud to represent New Haven and talk about the improvements we have made in school food. School food can be good food, and we have achieved that here in New Haven. We have proven that students will eat healthy, locally produced food.”

“Chef Tim more than deserves his award,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Reginald Mayo said. “He has done remarkable work transforming our food programs. Students must eat right to learn, and Chef Tim is making that happen.”

Under Cipriano New Haven schools have eliminated chicken nuggets and other highly processed foods, replacing them with minimally processed food that is locally grown when available.

Champions of Change is part of President Obama’s “Winning the Future Initiative.” Each week, Champions of Change features Americans, businesses or organizations who embody the initiative’s “Innovate, Educate and Build” motto.

Whole Foods Market, the nation’s leading natural and organic grocer, which plans to open its doors to the Fairfield community late this Spring (you can count on us to fill you in about that!), is sponsoring a screening of the new, award-winning environmental documentary Bag It at the Fairfield Earth Day Celebration on April 30 at 11:30am. Whole Foods Market representatives will be on hand distributing reusable shopping bags and baby spruce trees.

Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he tries to make sense of our dependence on plastic bags. Although his quest starts out small, Jeb soon learns that not only has this has led to the formation of a floating island of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean  more than twice the size of Texas, but that the problem extends past landfills to oceans, rivers and ultimately human health.

The film explores these issues and identifies how our daily reliance on plastic threatens not only waterways and marine life, but human health, too. Two of the most common plastic additives are endocrine disruptors, which have been shown to link to cancer, diabetes, autism, attention deficit disorder, obesity and infertility. This year’s Earth Day event will feature an array of exhibitors from local residents and organizations to businesses that are leading and supporting green initiatives which are laying the ground work and creating a green infrastructure in  Fairfield. Visitors can mingle with Exhibitors offering services and information on energy, health, the environment, garden & home. The Fairfield Earth Day Celebration will be at Fairfield Warde High School at 755 Melville Avenue.  For more information go to www.fairfieldearthday.org.

Whole Foods Market: Fairfield will open late-Spring 2011 at 350 Grasmere Avenue in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Should your town become a Bag It town?

By Jeffrey M. Smith, Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America

Click here to buy tickets to Jeffrey Smith’s lecture about Genetically Modified Foods on April 28 in Fairfield

Non-GMO is quite the buzz in the food industry.

• “GMO-Free” was the fastest growing claim for store brands in 2009; it’s now the third fastest overall Health & Wellness claim.
• Supermarket News predicted that 2010 would see an unprecedented upsurge in consumer concern about GMOs.
• Over 600 retailers and manufacturers participated in last October’s Non-GMO Month.
• And the FDA’s attempt to fast-track Frankenfish, and the court cases and approvals of GM alfalfa and sugar beets, has resulted in unprecedented coverage in mainstream media.

If you think all this awareness will finally get the government to do something, don’t hold your breath. The FDA is pushing for GE salmon by ignoring the 91% of Americans who don’t want genetically modified (GM) animals. The agency doesn’t require GMO labeling in spite of the 95% of us who want it. President Obama packed top positions at the USDA with pro-GMO people. And he actually put Michael Taylor back in the FDA as the US Food Safety Czar.

Taylor had been an outside attorney for Monsanto in 1991 before being recruited by the FDA to be the man in charge of policy. According to formerly secret FDA documents, the GMO policy that Taylor presided over ignored repeated warnings by agency scientists about the health dangers of GMOs. Instead, it waives unlabeled genetically modified (GM) foods onto the market without a single required safety study. Taylor later became Monsanto’s vice president.

Consumers can kick out GMOs

Don’t let the marriage between our government and the biotech industry get you down. There’s a much easier way to stop GMOs than trying to arm wrestle biotech lobbyists to change government policies. Consumers are at the top of the food chain. Since GMOs don’t offer a single consumer benefit, if even a small percentage of shoppers stopped eating them, they’d be kicked out by food companies trying to save market share.

This is precisely what happened in Europe. In January 1999, the biotech industry was still projecting a 95% replacement of all commercial seeds within 5 years. But three weeks later, a gag order was lifted on Dr. Arpad Pusztai, a top scientist who had discovered profound health dangers related to GMOs. A media firestorm ensued; 10 weeks and 750 GMO articles later, most European food companies had committed to stop using GM ingredients.

Likewise in the US, consumers booted GM bovine growth hormone (rbGH) out of most dairies, including Wal-mart, Starbucks, Dannon, and Yoplait.

Starting a revolution in the natural products store

Although the condemnation of rbGH is now institutionalized by medical organizations such as the American Public Health Association and American Nurses Association (they denounce the milk’s higher levels of a cancer promoting hormone, IGF-1), it didn’t begin with them. The tipping point against rbGH was jump-started by health-conscious shoppers, especially parents, who shop at natural products stores.

It is this same demographic that can push out all GMOs. Many people estimate that only about 5% of committed non-GMO shoppers are needed in the US to achieve the tipping point. Already 28 million Americans, 9.3%, buy organic products regularly. That’s more than we need.

Although the vast majority of these folks say they would avoid GMOs if they had a choice, most are still a bit vague about which products are genetically modified, and how dangerous they can be. The retailers can fill in the missing information here, and empower this trend-setting force to launch the non-GMO tidal wave. Here’s the missing pieces:

Which products are GMOs and how to avoid them

The vast majority of soy (91%), corn (85%), cottonseed (93%) (used for oil), canola (85%), and sugar beets (95%), are GMOs. Their derivatives are found in more than 70% of foods sold in the supermarket. All five crops have varieties that are spliced with bacterial genes to allow them to withstand deadly weed killers like Roundup. Some corn and cotton varieties are engineered to produce an insect killing poison called Bt-toxin (for the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis). Some corn and cotton do both.

Most Hawaiian papaya is engineered to resist a virus, as are some zucchini and yellow crook neck squash. Popcorn is not yet modified.

There’s also milk from cows treated with rbGH, and all dairy and meat from animals fed GM feed. Aspartame is made from a GM micro-organism. And there are GM enzymes used in food production that aren’t even on the label.

Organic products don’t allow the use of GMOs, and plenty of products are labeled as non-GMO. Although organic products have always been a trusted oasis for finicky non-GMO eaters, they don’t require any actual testing for at-risk ingredients. And generic non-GMO labels don’t guarantee testing either.

The Non-GMO Project third-party verified non-GMO claim

Fortunately, there’s a nonprofit organization called the Non-GMO Project that has sparked a major shift in non-GMO claim-making. They offer the nation’s first uniform standard. It does require testing of at-risk ingredients, as well as third-party verification. This program was originally started by retailers, and now includes participation from manufacturers, distributors, and consumers as well.

Our Institute’s Campaign for Healthier Eating in America, publishes the popular free public service reference, the Non-GMO Shopping Guide (see www.NonGMOShoppingGuide.com) which features products enrolled in the Non-GMO Project.

Why avoid GMOs?

Although most natural products shoppers say they would avoid GMOs if given a choice, it helps to give them compelling reasons to switch brands. That’s easy. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine cites animal feeding studies linking GMOs to reproductive, immune, gastrointestinal, organ, and aging disorders. They are urging all doctors to prescribe non-GMO diets. For more detailed information on the health risks, visit www.responsibletechnololgy.org for articles, videos, audios, and a free electronic newsletter.

Take charge and change the world

There are now more than 100 local and national Non-GMO Action Groups forming in order to help get the word out and promote the tipping point of consumer rejection against GMOs—to force them out of the market. People are warmly invited to join the Non-GMO Tipping Point Network to find their group, and we also offer GMO speaker training, either online or in one-day workshops. The next one-day training in the Northeast is Sunday May 1^st, at Columbia University in New York.

Help plant the seeds for a non-GMO future.

Jeffrey M. Smith is the leading consumer advocate for promoting healthier non-GMO eating. His first book, Seeds of Deception, is the world’s bestselling and #1 rated book on the subject. His second, Genetic Roulette, documents 65 health risks of the GM crops Americans eat everyday. Mr. Smith has spoken in more than 30 countries, and has been quoted in hundreds of media outlets including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine. He is the Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America, which produces the Non-GMO Shopping Guide, Health Risk Brochures, Non-GMO Education Centers, and other consumer education tools. He lives with his wife in Iowa, surrounded by genetically modified corn and soybeans.

Please join us for two very special events in Greenwich and Fairfield featuring guest speaker and author Jeffrey Smith

“DON’T PUT THAT IN YOUR MOUTH”
Lecture + Q&A + Book Signing

WHEN: Wednesday April 27th  @ 7:00pm
WHERE: Audubon in Greenwich  613 Riversville Rd  Greenwich, CT
CONTACT:  Jeff 203-869-5272 x239
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WHEN: Thursday April 28th  @ 7:00pm
WHERE: Community Film Institute 1424 Post Rd. Fairfield Ct.
CONTACT: Catch A Healthy Habit Cafe 203 292 8190
www.catchahealthyhabit.com/gmo

Read More or Purchase Tickets Now
—————————————————-

Jeffrey Smith is offering a special day of

SPEAKER TRAINING
WHEN: Sunday May 1st  @  9:30am-5:00pm
WHERE:Columbia University, Uris Hall (business school), Room # Uris 301.
CONTACT:  margherita@responsibletechnology.org 641-209-1765
www.responsibletechnology.org/

Cost: $80
Columbia University students: Free (donations gratefully accepted)

Spend a day with international bestselling author and filmmaker Jeffrey M. Smith to learn how to speak about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and to organize effective activism on the issue. Help achieve the tipping point of consumer rejection to force GMOs out of our food supply!

Whether you want to be a leading anti-GMO campaigner or simply help out when you can, don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn from the leading spokesperson on GMO health dangers. Jeffrey has presented in 32 countries, counseled world leaders on every continent, and written the world’s bestselling book on the topic—Seeds of Deception.

You will learn:

The five components of a GMO presentation, and the studies, quotes, statistics, and concepts to convey.

Why genetically engineered foods are dangerous for our health and environment. How to customize PowerPoint slides (provided) for desired length and focus.

Proven ways to motivate people to change their diets on-the-spot.

During the workshop you will:

Receive a scripted PowerPoint, sample recorded lectures, a facilitators’ guide, and comprehensive list of reference materials.

Practice presenting in small groups; and

Have plenty of time for questions and answers, to gain confidence in the material.

One of the easiest ways to celebrate Earth Day every day is to green your kitchen. Here are some delicious and fun ways to reduce your family’s “foodprint” while also eating well.

• Bring your own bags wherever you shop. Try keeping a soft, collapsible bag in your pocketbook so you always have one handy.

• Reuse grocery store vegetable bags as liners for your kitchen compost pail. You’ll save money on composting supplies and give the bags and second life.

• Use recycled products. Choose from post-consumer recycled aluminum foil and paper products (napkins & paper towels), phosphate-free dish-washing liquid and dishwasher soap, and biodegradable garbage bags.

• Recycle #5 containers and cork at Whole Foods Markets instead of throwing them in the garbage. Whole Foods collects #5s and cork for recycling (feel free to pop in just to drop off your recycling). Recycling costs you nothing but is a huge gift to the environment.

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  Lunch Skins are eco-chic, reusable lunch and snack bags that are cute enough to give as a gift.

  Use reusable bags instead of single use plastic lunch and snack bags. There are many on the market and they have become so mainstream that they are now available at Linens ‘n Things.

• Use thermoses instead of buying water bottles. Ditto for kids’ single serve milk and juice boxes. Plastic water bottles are made from petroleum and are designed to be used once, resulting in a product that is thousands of times more expensive than tap water and no safer, according to a report by Food & Water Watch. Most of these bottles wind up in landfills where they take hundreds of years to break down and can leach harmful chemicals into the ground. Carry a stainless steel thermos instead.

• Compost your food waste. Food that’s thrown out instead of composted releases methane gas, contributing to global warming and climate change. Compost is a fantastic soil amendment and it costs you nothing, so you’re saving money in the end. Use an empty flour container, bowl or other receptacle to gather your food scraps in the kitchen (or a dedicated kitchen compost pail) and empty them regularly into your compost pile. Not sure how to compost?  Visit Rodale’s web site for some immediate expert advice.

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  This pre-World War II photo shows just a few of the 11 historic buildings and barns that date back to the 1700s when Comstock was founded. Amish crews from parent company Baker Creek have begun to restore the buildings and preserve the antique equipment, transforming the campus into a living agricultural history museum. Photo c/o Comstock, Ferre & Co

  Grow some of your own food. Seeds are very inexpensive, and if you make your own compost, you’ll likely wind up saving money by growing your own. A fantastic source of inspiration and advice for home gardeners is Kitchen Gardeners International, the group behind the campaign to replant a kitchen garden at the White House. Comstock Ferre & Co., a 200-year-old seed company in Wethersfield, CT, offers a wide variety of heirloom seeds via their catalog or online store. Read more about Comstock here.
  

• Buy locally grown food from a farmers’ market or farm stand, CSA, or online ordering and delivery service. A complete list of Fairfield County farmers’ markets and farm stands can be found here, CSAs here, and home delivery services here.

• Choose locally produced food from specialty or grocery stores. The Double L Market in Westport, Palmer’s Market in Darien and The Pantry in Fairfield all carry some local food.

• Choose organic whenever possible to protect the environment and human health. There are over 40 certified organic farms in Connecticut, and many more that meet or exceed the National Organic Program’s (NOP) standards but do not carry the certification. That means a lot of choice for the consumer! Click here to read more about what the NOP standards mean as well as other eco farm and food labels.
  

• Choose organic and biodynamic wines. These so called “natural” wines rely on low impact methods for solving common problems that plague vineyards. For instance, birds of prey are brought in to control for varmints. Organic wines are cultivated without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides so they do not deplete the soil, damage the environment or pose threats to human health.

• Choose organic, Fair Trade coffee, chocolate and tea. Fair Trade means farmers are compensated fairly for their work, no child labor is used, and farms employ sustainable growing practices.

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  Whole Foods Markets stores started using a seafood labeling system for their wild caught products based on Seafood Wach's ratings to help the consumer at point of purchase.

  Choose sustainable seafood. Download the Sustainable Seafood Guide or iphone app from Seafood Watch and commit to limiting your consumption to sustainable seafood choices under the Best Choices and Good Alternatives categories. Whole Foods Markets stores have started using a seafood labeling system for their wild caught products based on Seafood Watch’s ratings to help the consumer at point of purchase. You can learn all about sustainable seafood in a fabulous new exhibit called Go Fish! at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk.  It’s perfect for adults and children.

Happy Earth Day 2011! Please add your suggestions for greening your kitchen under comments below. Looking forward to seeing you at Wilton Go Green’s Expo on May 1.

WILTON, CT, April 10, 2011  – A giant Earth Balloon, an exclusive preview of the latest electric cars, and the official launch of the Neighbor- to – Neighbor Energy Challenge are just some of the highlights of the second annual Wilton Go Green Festival slated for Sunday, May 1 at the Town Green from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“Last year, we had close to 1,000 people visit our first Festival,” said Debbie Hunsberger, Wilton Go Green board member and co-chair of the event.  “This year we’ll have a wide range of exhibitors from a large solar panel company to small clubs founded by youngsters promoting clean energy options.” Click here to view a list of current exhibitors.

“We’re pleased to announce the official launch of Wilton’s Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge, an exciting new program taking place throughout Connecticut to help residents take practical steps to increase their energy efficiency and save money on their energy bills,” said Jana Bertkau, co-chair of the Festival and vice president of Wilton Go Green, Inc.  The ceremony will take place at 2:30 p.m. in Deloitte’s Eco Café – Serving Fresh Ideas.”

Deloitte Eco-Cafe Guest Speaker Schedule

11:00 open

11:30 Energy Audit cheerleaders Personal experiences with energy audits

12:00 Mariana Marchese from Red Bee Apiary HONEYBEE Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper

12:30 Front Yard Coop from Running Duck Farm Learn about raising chickens in your back yard

1:00 Neale Godfrey New York Times #1 Best Selling author, Neale Godfrey, will discuss her latest program, ECO-Effect®:  The Greening of Money.

2:00 Analiese Paik Resources for local and sustainably grown and harvested food

2:30 Neighbor to Neighbor Kick off  Come hear about the initiative to reduce energy by 20% in over 600 Wilton Households

3:00 Woodcock  Come hear about and meet local animals  you might see in your backyard

3:30 Karen Stanley and George Geller greening your own home – smart things you can do to save $$s

“By reducing their individual home energy use, residents will help Wilton reach its goal of having 10 percent of the community lower its energy use by 20 percent, “ said Becky Bunnell, President of Wilton Go Green, Inc. “If our town reaches its goal, we could win valuable incentives such as solar-powered streetlights and recharging stations for electric cars.  The first step, according to Ms. Bunnell is to sign up for a home energy solutions (HES) visit, an in-home energy assessment program.  For a limited time, residents can get a HES visit for just $75, which is valued at $750.   The second step is for homeowners to learn how further energy improvements can be accomplished through rebates and financial incentives.

This year’s main attraction is a giant Earth Balloon, a 20 –foot diameter inflatable globe made of a high-resolution satellite image.  A group of 25 people enter the Balloon through a zipper in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where they can see the world in its entirety.  Ongoing presentations on environmental issues, such as climate change and sustainability, will be given every 15 minutes.  Free tickets will be available at the library.

New York Times best-selling author and financial expert Neale Godfrey will discuss her new book, “Eco Effect – The Greening of Money,” as part of an ongoing series of talks on sustainability sponsored by Deloitte at 1 p.m. in the Eco Café. Analiese Paik, Founder & Editor of the FairfieldGreenFoodGuide.com will be discussing the impact our food choices make on the health of the planet and the wide variety of local-sustainable food resources available to Fairfield County residents.

The Festival will kick off with several Sound Cyclists bike races of varying levels at 8:15 a.m. at the Bright Horizons parking lot.   To register please visit the library’s website at www.wiltonlibrary.org.   Click on events, date, and register for a full list of bike rides.  The Woodcock Nature Center will sponsor its annual Where the Wild Things Are 5K Run at 9 a.m. and a Kids Fun Run at 8:30 a.m. at the Nature Center.  To register, please go to www.WoodcockNatureCenter. Wilton High School students will unveil their unique sculptures made of recycled materials in a special art exhibit in front of Bank of America, while Wilton’s Arbor Day will be celebrated in the library’s Rimer Room at 11:30 a.m.

More food options will be available this year, including Skinny Pines Pizza and Ancona’s Market, which will offer free grass-fed beef tastings and a grilled beef luncheon menu.  The Kenn Morr Band will perform their original songs from 11:30 a.m to 1 p.m. followed by Arthur Lipner’s eclectic Wilton Steel Band from 2-4 p.m.

For wildlife enthusiasts, the dynamic teaching duo of Jim Lucey of Wilton High School (WHS) and Dave Havens of St. Luke’s School will lead a guided tour of the Norwalk River across from WHS at 3 p.m.  Wading boots and nets will be provided and collected specimens will be examined by microscope at the High School following the tour.  Please register in advance at www.wiltonlibrary.org. America’s best-known forager “Wildman” Steve Brill will talk about edible and medicinal wild plants and mushrooms at Millstone Farm’s booth from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

A silent auction featuring a chance to win a free summer membership at the Wilton Y (valued at $750) and other exciting prizes will run from 11 a.m to 3 p.m. Participant s who have walked all of Wilton’s trails will have a chance to win a free Cannondale bike at a special drawing.

The Earth Balloon is funded by the Wilton Library and the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation for Wilton Library’s Environmental Initiative.  The Wilton Go Green Festival has been underwritten by a $2,000 grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund through the Community Innovation Grants Program.  Major sponsors for the Festival include Deloitte, Outdoor Sports, Chevrolet –Buick of Wilton, and City Carting  (Corporate sponsors); and Nod Hill Soap and People’s United Bank (Silver sponsors).    Partners for the Wilton Go Green Festival include the Wilton Library, Ambler Farm, Wilton Conservation Commission, Wilton Family Y, the Wilton Garden Club, Wilton Public Schools, the Woodcock Nature Center, the Wilton Clergy Association, Canon Grange # 152, the Wilton Rotary Club, and the Fairfield Green Food Guide.  For further information about how to become a volunteer or sponsor at the Wilton Go Green Festival, please visit www.wiltongogreen.org.

About Wilton Go Green

Wilton Go Green is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our mission is to engage the community in initiatives that advance a culture of conservation and educate residents, schools and businesses about best practices in building, energy, food, transportation and waste/recycling to drive responsible stewardship of air, land, water, wildlife and other natural resources; thereby promoting and supporting efforts by the Town of Wilton and other Wilton organizations to achieve environmental sustainability. Wilton Go Green is governed by a board comprised of 15 community volunteers. For additional information about the organization and programs, visit www.wiltongogreen.org.