The International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act (S. 269) complements other legislation, such as S.267, to help eliminate illegal fishing. Senator Barbara Boxer is one of the co-sponsors of this legislation, and you might want to write and thank her for her...
Comparing food co-ops to conventional grocery stores
Looking for healthy foods and healthy communities? A study (released August 2012) suggests that, in this country, you should look for a food cooperative! Since we are members of the National Cooperative Grocer's Association, we're not too surprised they've been able to buttress our intuitions with data. It's interesting reading, in summary or in full.
NCGA partnered with the ICA Group – a national not-for-profit research organization – to compile the data used to develop Healthy Foods Healthy Communities: The Social and Economic Impacts of Food Co-ops. The ICA Group compiled data from industry and government resources, food cooperative financial data collected by CoopMetrics for NCGA, and previous NCGA surveys. The ICA Group developed two additional surveys, one targeted to retail food co-ops and the other to the conventional grocery industry.
One Farm at a Time
The Davis Food Co-op is working with farmers, other co-ops, land trusts, and people like you to make sure that California farmers don't get priced out of the market for farm land. In the video below, Jeff Main of Good Humus Produce in the Capay Valley of Yolo County describes a strategy of adding stipulations to conservation easements, in order to assure that farmers can and will live on their land.
"Each generation builds on the past generation" — quite a vision for a future of farming!
If you are interested in supporting "One Farm at a Time" with a donation, please send a check to Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation at this address:
Davis Food Co-op
Attn: Twin Pines/OFaaT
716 Sixth Street
Davis, CA 95616
What will "Fair Trade" become?
Our Co-op has been involved in efforts to make sure producers overseas gain a fair share when their crops are sold here in the United States. When coffee, or bananas, or hand crafts are "just a commodity," the producer often gets just a few pennies of the dollar.
In contrast, "Fair Trade" products have a fairly impressive record of returning more money to farmers and processors overseas. Many wholesalers or other organizations in fair trade have worked with cooperatives and communities to provide community development assistance, for an impact greater than "just" the increased income.
As with other successes and "good ideas," there's some controversey about implementation and standards for the fair trade movement. Our friends and fellow cooperators at Equal Exchange have produced a memorandum (a PDF file, from January 2012) that summarizes their conclusions about what has gone wrong with the organization TransFair USA/FairTrade USA.
Page 1 of 1
-
Keep "Illegal Fish" Off Our Plates
-
End of the Public Comment Period on Genetically Engineered Salmon
The Food and Drug Administration will close public comment about Genetically Engineered Atlantic Salmon on Friday, April 26, 2013.
From The Guardian...
-
No Farm Bill, less savings from 2012 proposals
The 2012 Congress failed to pass the Farm Bill, due every five years. Instead, all the programs from the 2007 were continued. This was unfortunate (or worse), both because of priorities that now appear misplaced, and opportunities for savings were foregone.
The Senate and House both did have versions of a new Farm Bill. As you would suspect, given that different parties control the two...
-
Supporting Action for Almonds
California almonds sold domestically through retail stores must now be treated with a toxic fumigant or treatment with high-temperature heat. Although they continue to be sold as "raw," many consumers are unhappy with this Federal rule.
We have been following this process and have commented that we think organic local almonds can be sold...
-
The Davis Food Co-op's Endorsement of Proposition 37
The Davis Food Co-op would like to publicly voice its support for Proposition 37 on the November California ballot. For us, Proposition 37 is fundamentally about information, disclosure, and consumers' “right to know” – not a judgment about genetic engineering in agriculture.
The consumer cooperative movement has a long history of leadership in advancing consumer...
-
Update on Proposition 37
The Cornucopia Institute, proponents of Proposition 37, have again updated their poster about who in the "natural products industry" is donating in favor of and in opposition to the measure on the November ballot measure that would seek to label GMO foods.
-
October is Co-op Month!
Cooperative enterprises build a better world.
We are much more than food co-ops: we are consumer, producer, share-service, worker, and hybrid cooperatives. We are celebrating ourselves all year, and October is just a crescendo of sorts. In Davis, we're focused especially on ...
-
Update on Proposition 37
The Cornucopia Institute, proponents of Proposition 37, have updated their poster about who in the "natural products industry" is donating in favor of and in opposition to the measure on the November ballot.
-
Donations and views on Proposition 37
Proposition 37 puts RIGHT TO KNOW on the California ballot in November, 2012
The Davis Food Co-op has not taken a position on whether recombinant-DNA technology is appropriate in food or other crops. We have, generally, been supportive of clear and fair labeling of products, and the general "right to know." That's why we support Proposition 37...
-
"Comparing the nutrition of organic and non-organic foods"
Have “health claims for organic food” been debunked?
You might think so, based on headlines written to accompany stories carried by many newspapers, public radio, and web sites. They were interpreting the publication of a meta-review of already-published papers in the September 4, 2012 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, by senior author Dr. Dena Bravata, a senior...
<< Previous Next >>