How One Grandmother’s Conviction Led to a Consumer Revolution

The California Right to Know grassroots campaign was initiated by Pamm Larry, a grandmother and former midwife and organic farmer from the small town of Chico in northern California. She had no formal training, no major resources, no connections, and no previous political experience. But what she did have was passion—for healthful food, for the truth, and for doing the right thing. In this interview, she shares her inspiring and empowering journey.

“I have always cared about nutrition, whole foods, and unadulterated foods,” Pamm says. “I mean they just taste better… They’re more nutritious… Genetically engineered foods started coming on my radar about eight or nine years ago… The more I learned, the more horrified I got, wondering what kind of a planet I was leaving my grandchildren.

What were we doing? What were we not doing as people?

Like everybody else that I have talked to on the streets, we all feel pretty powerless, because here we’ve got this huge multinational corporation; a conglomerate—it’s not just one company. It’s a number of them. But they seem to be kind of in cahoots with our government. In the fall of 2010, I got actually very depressed about this… The Organic Consumers Association came out with their Truth-in-Labeling campaign. I immediately wrote to them [offering to volunteer]… But it just wasn’t enough for me. I was increasingly depressed, crying a lot…

[Then] it hit me, just like that. I literally sat up and it was like, ‘Okay, then. It’s your job from now until November of 2012 to do everything you possibly can to just get something on the ballot, because nobody is doing this for us… Nothing is working. People are working really hard, but we the people, have got to stand up and take over.’ My depression went away… I have been angry, I have been frustrated, I have been enraged since then, but I have not been depressed one second!”

At this point, volunteers and staff from the California Right to Know Campaign have submitted nearly one million signed petitions from registered voters across the state of California to county officials, to place Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act on the Ballot for November 6. Now, the campaign is in urgent need of funds—to counteract the propaganda put out by Monsanto, and to educate millions of registered California voters to show up at the voting booths and vote “Yes” for the Right to Know Act.

“We all have this communal belief that there’s nothing that we can do, because we aren’t up there in the high powers. We don’t have megabucks. We don’t have this. We don’t have that. We believe this lie, so it gets perpetuated. If everybody says, “No, this can’t happen,” whether you’re an individual, a business, or a nonprofit organization, if you all decide that “this isn’t going to work,” then it’s not. My new question is: What happens if we all just decide to say yes?” Pamm says.

Joining Forces

The Organic Consumers Association was the first organization to get involved, although Ronnie Cummins was initially a bit skeptical. The Organic Consumers had worked to do the same back in 2004, but could not raise the funds to complete the task of labeling genetically engineered foods.

“We had gotten an email from Pamm Larry, who’s starting this new group. We said, “Well, the odds are pretty low that we can raise the millions of dollars that we need to win the ballot initiative in California.” However, people on the street are ready to do it, especially the moms and grandmothers. So, we said, “Let’s tell our network in California… Let’s tell them about LabelGMOs.org, and let’s see if they volunteer and get in contact with Pamm…” We did, and it caught on.”

Next, they decided to bring it to the attention of the organic industry at a national meeting, as well as other non-profit organizations and public interest groups. Like Cummins, a lot of the leadership in the organic industry and the nonprofit world were skeptical at first.

“They said, “Well, this is a David versus Goliath type of thing. What makes you think that grassroots action can defeat the most powerful combination of corporations in California, biotech and corporate agribusiness?” Ronnie says.

“But gradually, over time, a number of organic companies stood up, like Nature’s Path, Eden Foods, and Lundberg Family Farms. Then the decisive factor was we said, “There are a hundred million people in the United States who are interested in natural medicine and who are reading websites like Mercola.com and others. If we can get the alternative food and farming movement together with the alternative health movement, this combination can create a massive movement.”

And that’s exactly where we are today. We’re all tired of the biotech bullies dictating the rules and deciding whether we have the right to know what we’re eating or not. We’re all tired of the industry simply bribing their way through the political landscape in an effort to create a monopoly on food that threatens the health and welfare of people everywhere. If you’re sick and tired of it too, then I urge you to take a stand, and participate in any way you can.

Why the Biotech Industry is so Afraid of Labeling

As Ronnie says, it’s quite clear that the biotech industry knew the only way their genetically engineered foods would ever get put to use is if they could keep consumers in the dark.

“There’s not a ban on genetically engineered foods and crops, for the most part, in the European Union,” Ronnie explains. “What there is, though, is a requirement for labeling.

You’ll see that companies like McDonald’s, for example, are GMO-free in the European Union. You know, Wal-Mart subsidiaries are GMO-free in the European Union. Now, why is this? Is it because they have a bad conscience about force-feeding people genetically engineered food in Europe, but they don’t have a bad conscience about doing that in the United States? No. It’s because in the European Union, they can no longer conceal from the public that they were pushing these controversial, likely-hazardous foods on them.

In the United States, they have managed to squelch democracy now for 20 years. We now have an opportunity in California to break this control that the biotech industry has over what we’re eating. We have an opportunity for consumers to regain their right to know how their food was produced.

… Fifty countries across the world required labeling, but the biggest producer of genetically engineered foods, and the most powerful nation in the world, will not. So, we’re going to turn the tables in California.”

Polls show that 80 to 90 percent of the public want genetically engineered foods to be labeled. Most people do want to be able to read the label and determine whether or not it contains something they want, or don’t want, to eat.

“It doesn’t matter if Monsanto and their allies spend 50 billion dollars lying to people, saying, “It’s going to raise your grocery bills, it’s an undue burden on California farmers, and the Feds should be the one doing this.” We’re going to beat them. This is going to be – I believe – a watershed for democracy in this country,” Ronnie says.

Young Living :  Introduction to Essential Oils

Here at the co-op we carry Young Living Essential Oils.  On May 10th at 10:30 am in the Bromeley Room is an Introduction to Essential Oils.  At 2 pm is a class for Essential Oils for Sress and Depression.

You can come to learn about therapeutic grade essential oils, which have been used from the beginning of time for first aid, detoxification, stress and pain management and improving quality of life and bringing you to peak performance.  Aromatic science is a new field of research that is rediscovering the many health benefits of aromatherapy once lost in antiquity but are now being verified and refined by modern studies.

New at the Co-op…

We have a few new items at the co-op!

Grateful Harvest Farm is located in Junction City.  We are now carrying their mild and spicy kim-chi and their saurkraut, along with their yummy fruit roll ups.

Stahlbush is a sustainable farm near Corvallis. We are now carrying their frozen berries.  Although they are not organic they use various methods to deal with any issues that they may have, such as establishing a rookery to deal with rodents.

We have raw tahini from Living Tree Community Foods in the cooler.

We have other “flavors” of honey from the Willammette Valley… meadow foam, clover, wildflower, maple, and spring nectar.  All of these are raw and unfiltered.

We also have dried pineapple in!

Stahlbush is a sustainable farm near Corvallis. We are now carrying their frozen berries.  Although they are not organic they use various methods to deal with any issues that they may have, such as establishing a rookery to deal with rodents.

We have raw tahini from Living Tee Community Foods in the cooler.

We have other “flavors” of honey from the Willammette Valley.  We now have meadow foam, clover, wildflower, maple, and spring nectar.  All of these are raw and unfiltered.

We also have dried pineapple!

How You Can Help

Teff Brownies

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup teff flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 Tbsp arrowroot or cornstarch

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract. Sift dry ingredients and then blend thoroughly with butter mixture. Pour into greased 13 x 9″ in pan. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Be sure to pull from oven as soon as knife inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely. Gluten-free brownies are notorious for messy edges. If your display matters, or you want folks to eat with fingers vs. forks, bake in individual cupcake papers.

*Courtesy of Hummingbird Wholesale

Burlington —Last Thursday, a study, “Arsenic, Organic Foods, and Brown Rice Syrup” was released online in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The study sent shock waves that resulted in articles in every paper in the country. The question of the day was, “Should we stop eating rice? Are we killing ourselves when we do eat rice and anything made with rice?” This is what Adam Stark, my son, wrote in response.

It has been acknowledged and understood for quite some time now that arsenic contamination is a near-universal issue in rice, much the same way mercury contamination is a so common in fish.

Of course we still eat fish. We just try and be aware of the issues, and choose fish that’s as clean as it can be.

The issue with rice is it’s a wet crop. It grows underwater. If the soil it’s grown in contains high levels of arsenic, that arsenic dissolves in the water, and then rice is very aggressive about absorbing it.

However, not all rice is equal. A paper published in the April 1, 2007, issue of Environmental Science and Technologyexplored arsenic in 134 samples of rice purchased in retail stores in this country. The researchers tested brown rice and white rice, long grain and short grain, organic and conventionally grown, from both Louisiana and California. Not a single sample tested free of arsenic. However, the lowest level was found in a sample of organic brown rice from California; the highest level was found in a white, conventionally grown sample from Louisiana.

Organic rice tended to be cleaner than conventionally grown rice. Brown rice tended to be cleaner than white. However, the biggest predictor of arsenic levels was where the rice came from: California rice averaged nearly half the arsenic levels of Louisiana rice (0.3 ppm vs. 0.17 ppm).

Turns out, much of the land used to grow rice today was historically used to grow cotton. Since cotton isn’t a food, it’s exempt from many of the regulations which limit the use of toxic pesticides. The most common pesticide for cotton contains high levels of arsenic. This can linger in the soil for decades.

What can you do to protect yourself?

· Don’t eat exclusively rice. Try buckwheat, millet, quinoa, amaranth, or teff instead.

· Minimize consumption of rice, and rice products during pregnancy and early

Look for rice that is organically grown. Land has to be three years “clean” before crops can be considered organic. Three years isn’t much, but it’s a start. Look for well-established producers, who’ve been farming the land organically for longer.

· Look for rice from regions that do not have a long history of cotton production. California is a great start (so, Lundberg-brand rices). Also look to the exotic rices from Lotus foods, many of which come from areas where rice has been grown for centuries if not thousands of years. Some of our favorite rices from Lotus Foods are the Black Forbidden Rice, which was reserved for Chinese emperor and his family, and is said, today, to have more antioxidants than blueberries; the Jade Pearl Green Rice, wildcrafted and infused with bamboo, grown in California, and which has more fiber than any other rice out there because of the bamboo; and lastly Mekong Flower Rice, grown on small family plots by households belonging to the Damrei Romeal Organic Rice Cooperatives in Takeo, Cambodia, where rice has been grown this way without chemicals almost since time began.

· Supplements derived from rice (rice protein powder, for example) tend to be safer, since supplements have to go through more rigorous lab testing than food.

· Buy organic as much as possible, meaning not just rice, meaning anythingand everything. We can no longer kid ourselves and imagine that our organic agriculture is somehow segregated from the rest of how we treat the planet. You spray a pesticide, or dump a toxin into the soil, it’s going to end up in our food eventually.

Both Adam and Debra Stark can be found at Debra’s Natural Gourmet in Concord. You can write Adam at Adam@DebrasNaturalGourmet.com. Reach Debra at Debra@DebrasNaturalGourmet.com.

Arsenic in rice and rice products – Burlington, Massachusetts – Burlington Union http://www.wickedlocal.com/burlington/news/x587875144/Arsenic-in-rice-and-rice-products#ixzz1tZwLI1nF

Not Just Rice

It turns out that factory farmed chicken are fed arsenic to plump up and pink their skin. They have habitually high levels of arsenic in them.  Maybe you should forego the rice and chicken soup! ~admin~

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March 27, 2012

Bromley Room of the Siuslaw Library

Florence, Oregon

Attendance:

Board members:

Randy Curtola, President, Erin Leonard, Vice-President, Sally Daugherty, Secretary; and members Jonathan Pippinger, Leah Lumadue

Co-Op manager, Jan Nelson

Board Members absent:

Laurie Stone

Owner/members:

• Wanda Hill
• Rene Dobbins
• Cynthia Chandler
• Mark Chandler
• Rosemary Alden
• Valerie Gordon

A Special Closed Meeting of the Board was called to order by President Randy Curtola at 6:00 pm. Members were asked to wait outside.

Scheduled Real Food Co-Op meeting began about twenty minutes later.

Motion to approve the minutes of February 21, 2012 was passed by consensus.

Owner/Member comment period

Cynthia Chandler asked to speak. She had just resigned as Treasurer. She discussed a graph that she created and provided the Board. She thought it might be useful to the Board in the future since it provided a timeline which demonstrates that in her opinion many of our current problems appear to begin around the time when store hours were lengthened and the tiered discount system for volunteers was implemented. She suggested that their may be a connection and recommended that the Board eliminate the tiered discounts and begin taking regular and frequent inventories. She recommended monthly inventories at first.

Several members and some Board members then responded with a thank you for all of her efforts and the talent she displayed while in office and to say these were recognized and greatly appreciated.

In reply to a question, Cynthia said she felt that the Board should not hesitate to let the membership know when they are seeking answers because the membership is supportive and wants to help.

Then member Rosemary Alden gave a very detailed report on the dangers of EMF radiation with some handouts. It was her opinion that the Board should be concerned and purchase devices to measure EMF levels and then do what is necessary to eliminate or reduce the condition, if it is found to exist in the store.

At 7:15 Randy Curtola left citing a previous commitment. Chairmanship was turned over to Erin the Vice-president.

Erin asked if there were any items that should be put on the agenda for the April meeting. Leah will follow up on the EMF issue in the Store Operations work group and report back. Jonathan suggested that we consider some new type of lighting fixtures as well, perhaps install track lighting.

Financial Report

Valerie Gordon had submitted written reports to the Board by e-mail prior to the meeting. She offered her comments and said we need to update to the newest version of Quick Books.

Managers Report

Checking and savings show a positive balance at this time; savings $3035 and checking $6088.88

March shrink was (as of 3/26):

• Produce $228.33
• Grocery $216.13

As of 3/26 we have 105 active members and 82 have paid the 2012 assessment fee. There are 16 new members with 5 joining in December 2011 and therefore exempt from the 2012 assessment fee.

Looking at the data on the daily sales during the week of 3/19 to 3/24 the store operations group found that the Co-op had saved money by utilizing the tiered system.  (For example on Monday March 19 the Co-Op gave $40.18 in discounts that saved approximately $95 in employee costs.) More data will be collected by the Store Operations work group with a full report to be presented at a later time.

Jen said she wanted to thank all the work groups for their support and said she feels very positive about their progress. She will be reporting next meeting on the progress towards the store being able to accept credit cards. She has been meeting with a local bank that is interested.

Jen will be conducting interviews to fill the staff vacancy created by Jill’s resignation on March 28^th at the store. She asked if any Board members wanted to be on the panel and asked for input concerning duties of this position.

Work Group Reports

Finance: no report

Store Operations:

They have been collecting data from the register tape which show patterns of store activity, consumer use, etc. and plan to have a report on this soon. The group is also working on a survey to collect data on consumer preferences.

Member Donated hours for February:  (25 days store is open)

-Cashier:  162 donated hours with 200 hours available, 61 slots filled with 75 available slots

-In Store Assistant:    12 hours filled with 150 hours available, 4 slots filled with 50 available

Member Donated hours for March: (23 days up to date as of 3/27)

-Cashier: 130 donated cashier hours with 184 available, 46 slots filled with 72 available

-ISA: 18 donated hours with 138 available, 6 slots filled with 46 available

Communication:

They have been working on fundraising. There is an inside yard sale planned in April. There will be another fundraiser in May. Jonathan submitted a written report which is attached.

There was a request made by Jen that at the next meeting the Board review the partial January Treasurers Report to make sure it reflected the true financial situation.

There is a need to purchase the latest version of Quick Books. There was a suggestion  that other similar software may be available for less expense.

Date of the next meeting: Tuesday, April 24^th at 6 pm

Bromley Room of the Library

Meeting was adjourned at 8:15 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Sally Daugherty, Secretary

1. Fundraiser
2. Garage Sale
3. Assessment Fees
4. Coastal Cuisine and Green Fair

Fundraiser:

Our annual fundraiser is just around the corner on Saturday  May 5th.  The celebration will be held from 11 AM to 7 PM at the old Feast Restaurant located at 1340 Laurel Street.  There will be music, a silent auction, food, drink, kid fun, and more.  Donations will be taken at the door and for beer and wine.  We will be grilling vegetables outside to tempt your palate!

How can you help? We need items for the silent auction, potluck dishes, musical acts, and man power.  Bring you favorite bottle of wine to share.  Bring chalk and pastels for our Sidewalk Chalk Drawing Exhibit.  We are also interested in having a speaker or two on any topic related to the co-ops mission.

Contact Jen at the Co-op or  Melonie at 999-5031 if you have donations for the auction, are interested in helping  the day before and the day of the event, be a guest speaker, or would like to perform a musical act.

The event is only 2 weeks away and we could use all the help we can get!

Garage Sale:

We were able to raise $594 at our garage sale!  Thanks for all your support.  This money will go to increase our inventory at the co-op!

Assessment Fees:

The 2012 Assessment fee of $25 was due at the end of March.  As of April 1st anyone who has not paid their assessment fee will be asked to pay nonmember prices until they reactivate their membership by paying the assessment fee.  If for any reason it is difficult for you to pay the fee please contact Jen.  We can work it out.

Coastal Cuisine was a great success!  Thanks to those who helped at our booth and thanks Laurie for making our yummy soup that we served!

Green Fair is coming up next Saturday April 28th at the Florence Events Center.  We will be having a booth there. Our goal is to help educate our community about what we are and why we believe in local, organic, non-GMO, whole foods.   We are still in need of people who would like to take a shift at our booth.  Contact Jen at the Co-op or Melonie at 999-5031.

How Can You Help?!

Is someone interested in helping us post cooking directions and nutritional information about some of our products?

Items we need for donation:

• Staples
• ink cartidges for our printer-Lexmark, Black 82
• scotch tape
• packing tape

Work Groups!!!!! There will be numerous groups working on various aspects of running our co-op.  We will post more information as we have it on the back bulletin board.

Our Annual Fundraiser is coming up and we could use some help getting donations for the auction, raffle, and more.

Member/Owner Bulletin Board

We just wanted to bring your attention to the list of job duties and cleaning schedules that are posted on the back bulletin board where you sign in your hours.  Our hopes are that this will help in assuring that we work more efficiently together.  Thanks for all your hard work!

Remember if you have any questions you can contact Laurie or Jen or write your question on the Q & A sheet on the Member/Owner Bulletin Board and we will leave you an answer.  If one person has a question I am sure someone else may also.

There is also a calendar on this bulletin board for us to post meeting and event dates that Co-op members may be intereted in.  If  you feel you have an event that you would like posted on the caledar let us know!

New Assistant Manager

We have hired Jan Young as our new Assistant Manager.  He will be working on Tuesday nights, Wednesday’s, and Saturdays.  Welcome Jan!

Demonstrate that real and local food is a high priority for you and this community.  Save our collective endeavor.

Starting April 4th and ending April 11th, at 1 PM, we will be accepting donations for a garage sale that we will be holding in the space next to the co-op (the old coffee shop).  The sale will be held Wednesday April 11th thru Saturday April 14th, during the co-ops hours.  All the proceeds of this sale will be used to increase our inventory.

We ask that you price any donations that you bring in.  The donations will be stored in the back room of the old coffee shop. You can access the space through the door by the office. We can open the front door if need be.

We are also looking for anyone who may be interested in helping us organize the sale prior to and during.

Assessment Fees

The 2012 Assessment fee of $25 was due at the end of March.  As of April 1st anyone who has not paid their assessment fee will be asked to pay nonmember prices until they reactivate their membership by paying the assessment fee.  If for any reason it is difficult for you to pay the fee please contact Jen.  We can work it out.

New at the Co-op…

We have some new products that have been requested by our members:

-Earth Balance Buttery spread

-Emerald Valley Kitchen salsa

-Mama Chia drink

-Wallaby yogurt

-Sunflower Oil

-Honey produced in the Willammette Valley…Meadowfoam and Wild flower…this honey  is comparable to Bear Mt. Honey in that it is not heated above 115 degrees.

Don’t give up on the local eggs.  They will start bringing in more next week!

How Can You Help?????

1.  Is someone interested in helping us post cooking directions and nutritional      information about some of our products?

2.  Items we need for donation:

• Staples
• ink cartidges for our printer-Lexmark….Black 82
• scotch tape
• packing tape

Work Groups…

There will be numerous groups working on various aspects of running our co-op.  We will post more information as we have it on the back bulletin board.

Our Annual Fundraiser is coming up and we could use some help getting donations for the auction, raffle, and more.

Member/Owner Bulletin Board

Wewant to bring your attention to the list of job duties and cleaning schedules that are posted on the back bulletin board where you sign in your hours.  Our hopes are that this will help in assuring that we work more efficiently together.  Thanks for all your hard work!

Remember… if you have any questions you can contact Laurie or Jen, or write your question on the Q & A sheet on the Member/Owner Bulletin Board and we will leave you an answer.  If one person has a question I am sure someone else may also.

There is also a calendar on this bulletin board for us to post meeting and event dates that Co-op members may be intereted in.  If  you feel you have an event that you would like posted on the calendar let us know!

Please also add a comment at the end of this post with those dates so that blog admin can post them on the calendar.  Thank you!

New Assistant Manager

We have hired Jan Young as our new Assistant Manager.  He will be working on Tuesday nights, Wednesday’s, and Saturdays.  Welcome Jan!

Demonstrate that real and local food is a high priority for you and this community. Save our collective endeavor.

• About 1/3 of that (mostly in the form of natural gas) goes toward fertilizer production;
• 20% to operate machinery;
• 16% for transportation;
• 13% for irrigation;
• 8% for livestock (not including feed);
• 5% for pesticide production.

This does not include energy costs for packaging, refrigeration, transportation to retailers, or cooking.”