Growing a Local Food Economy, Recipe & News
By Jennifer Joe

“Good food is central to our survival-the survival of our bodies, our spirits, our families and our culture. Together, in the garden and at the table, we can truly nourish ourselves and change the world.” Alice Waters , founder of Chez Panisse, The Delicious Revolution, Berkeley's Edible Schoolyard, and a Slow Foods leader

Over time food and farming has told a story of our society, our values, and our relationship to the Earth. We're now seeing the unprecedented impacts of treating food as an industrial commodity.'I recently had the privilege to hear Eric Schlosser address many issues created by the Fast Food Nation mentality and industrial food system. He also shared about the Organic movement.

The birth of the Organic movement began in England after World War II as a result of the pressures to mechanize, to specialize in one crop, and to use pesticides. They rebelled against this form of agriculture and the attitudes that it embodied.

The founders of the organic movement were genuinely holistic and not driven by profit. They were looking at the world and how to preserve it. At the heart of the philosophy of the Organic movement was the notion of the inter-connectedness of all things.

They revered and thought that we must work with Nature, not try to conquer or control it and had a deep skepticism of the latest scientific advances. They thought a great deal about the Earth and soil, but were far more concerned with the society built on the soil: …the ecology, the culture, the independence of producers, and the health of people.

In the 1960's this took hold in the U.S. as the “back to the land” movement. Young people rejected the Velveeta, Tang, artificial and plastic world that had led to an unjust war overseas, to environmental disaster and the industrial-military complex. They opposed the fast food system created centralized corporate power that's dedicated to uniformity, conformity, and above all profit (“more”); whose narrow definition of efficiency and profitability applies to what's good for companies, not for society.

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CALL TO ACTION- by mid-APRIL: GENETIC ENGINEERING

Assembly member Jared Huffman (6th AD) has introduced AB 541, The Food and Farm Protection Act. It would establish California's only state laws to date, related to GE (genetically engineered) agriculture and protect California farmers, consumers, and the food supply. AB 541 already has the support of many agricultural, environmental, health, faith and business organizations. AB 541 protects California farmers and the food supply in four ways: 1.Establishes the right of farmers and landowners to compensation for economic losses due to genetic contamination of their crops. 2. Protects farmers from being sued by a GE manufacturer if their crop is contaminated by that company's GE product. 3. Establishes a county-level GE crop notification process so that farmers can trace contamination to the GE manufacturer 4.Protects the food supply by prohibiting the open-field cultivation of genetically engineered food crops used to produce drugs and biologics such as hormones and antibiotics.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Please show your support for AB 541. Visit http://www.gepolicyalliance.org/bill.htm to learn more about the issues, get details and send a letter; sample is provided. O.B. People's Coop is also launching a postcard campaign to let the public's concern be heard before hearings on the Bill end. They are located at 4765 Voltaire St, San Diego, if you'd like stop by to fill one out and help make a difference.

 
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Earth: Love it or Leave it
By Charlene Orzag

The word is out. Earthhuggers better unite or the gradual loss and degradation of the lands and foods upon which we depend forecast untold cycles of future distress.

Extreme? We think not! A number of startling issues were discussed recently at the 27th Eco-Farm Conference, the yearly premiere gathering of interested organic farm folk.

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Could this be the biggest Earth Day ever?
18th annual EarthFair on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22
By David S. Cohen, San Diego EarthWorks staff and TLC special reporter

This Earth Day marks a period that we may look back on as the year we finally turned the corner on the general acceptance of the reality of Climate Change. An Inconvenient Truth brought home to the mainstream the power of the science that implicates human causes for the shifts in planetary climate. A Zogby poll in August 2006 reported that 74% of the Americans most likely to vote say that events over the past two years have left them “more convinced that Global Warming is happening,” with 2 in 5 (40%) saying that they are “much more convinced.” Television, the radio, newspapers abound with stories about Global Warming, it seems daily, that assume the reality of the condition rather than reporting it only as “a controversy.”

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The Promise of Solar Energy
By Steve Hays

This month we begin a monthly column about renewable energy. While we will include various sources of energy we will emphasize solar energy because it is one of the cleanest options we have today for fuel. We will be bringing you information about how non-petroleum alternative fuels can lessen our dependence on oil. No one is surprised that the way we transport ourselves is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases. Surprisingly, the average US home produces twice as much greenhouse gas as the average car.

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Transformational Talk
Afraid to Make Mistakes?
By Penelope Young Andrade

Are you afraid to make mistakes? In job performance there is an expected learning curve and clear right or wrong answers – so you know your score quickly. In life, though, the quest to avoid error can become a never ending journey.

The problem is that even if it were possible to make every choice “correctly” (which it's not!), life is full of surprises – agonizing and ecstatic changes beyond your best intentions – beyond your control.

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Uniting Green Patriots
Safe Trip to Eden
An Interview with David Steinman by Steve Hays

David Steinman publishes Healthy Living , a nationwide health magazine distributed in many health food markets and author of Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown.

He authored The Safe Shopper's Bible and Diet for a Poisoned Planet , a new edition of that is being released as a companion to Safe Trip . His new book addresses the health threats that the chemicals of global warming pose as well as exploring new products and developments that offer us hope. Ultimately he attempts to unite Americans as Green Patriots offering lifestyle choices that make a difference.

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A NEW DVD
How to Know God
by Deepak Chopra

Are we here by accident or is there a Creator or Divine Force that is behind our existence? Does God exist? Does God care about us? Where do we find God?

These questions and more are explored in the new DVD How to Know God , based on the inspirational, best-selling book by Deepak Chopra. Now spiritual seekers of all faiths can join Deepak as he traverses the secular and the sacred on the soul's journey into the mystery of mysteries and the mind of God. In How to Know God , he investigates the meaning of creation, miracles, immortality and of existence itself.

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