Health Care for Sustainable Community: April 2008 Archives
North Americans' top issues about sustainability include global change and the environment; which rank over 50%, but the top issue is feeling connected to friends, family and community: at 90%
Followed closely by:
Sense of personal well being 90%Other high ranking issues include Fair trade; Personal relationships and Buying local to support locally based business.
Balanced life 89%
Being paid a living wage 88%
Tips to stay connected... (Watch the videos)
Throw a block party with local food, of course.
Have a group yard sale.
Make a little extra food and share it with a neighbor who might be harried...like a new parent!
These are all also great for the environment!
conflicting demands on Central Coast growers
Growers of fresh produce on the Central Coast of California currently face conflicting demands regarding measures to protect food safety and those to protect environmental quality. To explore the extent of conflicting pressures and identify the range of possible impacts on the environment, California Agriculture conducted a survey of Central Coast irrigated-row-crop growers during spring 2007.
The results indicate that growers are experiencing a clear conflict, and some are incurring economic hardships because their practices to protect the environment have resulted in the rejection of crops by buyers.
In addition, some growers are being encouraged to or are actively removing conservation practices
for water quality, and most growers are taking action to
discourage or eliminate wildlife from and adjacent to croplands.
These actions could affect large areas of land on the Central Coast and, as indicated by growers, they are likely to increase over time.
The Central Coast contains some of the greatest biodiversity of any temperate region in the world. At its heart is the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the largest marine sanctuary in the United States, and the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.
While the Central Coast houses many natural resources, according to the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (CCRWQCB), it also has some of the most polluted waters in California. The Pajaro River and Elkhorn Slough are listed as impaired for sediment and nutrients under California’s 2002 Section 303(d) of the 1972 Clean Water Act. The Salinas River is 303(d)-listed as impaired for sediment, nutrients, pesticides and pathogens.
In response, the CCRWQCB
adopted a Conditional Waiver Program
in 2005, which requires growers to
enroll in the program, attend water quality
training sessions, adopt farm
water-quality management plans, complete
management practice checklists
and participate in water quality monitoring
(Cal EPA 2007).
An important aspect of these efforts
is the adoption of conservation practices,
which aim to improve and protect water
quality, prevent soil erosion, reduce the
use of agricultural chemicals and protect
wildlife. Vegetation on and around
farmland is a key component, including
vegetated field borders, grassed waterways,
riparian buffers and constructed
wetlands.
For the past decade, the Central Coast farming community has been proactively working with resource agencies to develop and implement voluntary conservation practices to improve water quality and reduce water consumption through the adoption and implementation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s Agricultural and Rural Lands Plan (MBNMS 1999). Adoption of these practices has now become a key component for compliance with the CCRWQCB’s Conditional Waiver Program.
Despite an intensive investigation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) have not been able to conclusively determine the specific causes of the spinach outbreak (CDHS/ FDA 2007).
In early 2007, with oversight by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), produce industry representatives developed the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement (see www.caleafygreens.ca.gov). More than 100 handlers (companies that move fresh produce products from growers to retail and food-service buyers) are signatories. Representing more than 99% of the leafy greens production in California, they are obligated to handle leafy green produce only from growers who adhere to the best management practices detailed in the Commodity Specific Food Safety Guidelines for the Production and Harvest of Lettuce and Leafy Greens, known as the “Metrics” (see www.caleafygreens.ca.gov). The Metrics were developed and continue to be updated through a process involving the produce industry, government agencies, natural resource organizations and scientists.
In addition to the Metrics, many companies
and retailers who handle or sell
leafy greens have developed their own
company-specific food safety requirements,
which also affect farm management
practices. Because growers often
sell their crops to multiple buyers, most
now must meet at least one if not several
different sets of requirements. In addition,
field interpretations of the Metrics
and company-specific guidelines vary.
Specific measures stated or implied in the Metrics and company-specific requirements may potentially conflict with efforts to improve and protect water quality and support wildlife habitat.
Eight percent (8.0%) of growers reported that their crops had been rejected based on the presence of practices to improve water quality or wildlife habitat on the farm. Some of the explanations shared by respondents included:- Lost $17,500 worth of crop due to deer tracks.
- 1 acre of romaine lettuce rejected due to proximity to horse pen.
- 23 acres of head lettuce and 2 acres of mixed lettuce rejected due to contact with Salinas River floodwater.
- Crop rejected due to potential frog habitat.
- Portions of fields rejected by processor if frogs, tadpoles, snails, mice or other small animals were found.
- Harvest stopped due to the presence of frogs and tadpoles in creek.
- Crop rejected due to deer intrusion.
- Crops planted for processor near trees needed a buffer of 100 to 150 feet.
Some 88.9% of the survey respondents indicated that they had adopted at least one measure to actively discourage or eliminate wildlife from cropped areas
Wildlife exclusion. Some 88.9% of the survey respondents indicated that they had adopted at least one measure to actively discourage or eliminate wildlife from cropped areas
Conservation practice abandonment. Approximately 15% of all growers surveyed indicated that they had removed or discontinued the use of previously adopted conservation practices in response to suggestions made by auditors or buyers due to food safety concerns.
The survey results illustrate that
growers are in the middle of a clear
conflict between current food safety
standards and continued efforts to address
water quality and environmental
concerns on the Central Coast.
The process and standards for protecting
food safety in leafy greens on
the Central Coast of California set a
precedent that will certainly be modeled
for other crops and growing regions
nationwide.
M. Beretti is Program Director, Resource Conservation District of Monterey County, Salinas; and D. Stuart is Doctoral Candidate, Department of Environmental Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
READ the Rest of the Story, SOURCE: California Agriculture
Remember how your own mother just wanted you to be healthy and happy? You didn't need to make a fuss over her, just be good kids!
Okay, a fuss was okay...and appreciated -- but making a fuss wasn't enough if she caught you being naughty at the same time!
That's kind of how I look at Earth Day. Mother Nature just wants us to be healthy and happy. And stay out of trouble. So what can we do to be healthier and happier...and just get along? And what can we NOT do that will make us healthier, happier and kinder to our mother? Kinder so she doesn't have to clean up after us?
Here are just a few ideas of things to do that would make your Mama proud:
Eat your organic veggies.
Clean your room with nontoxic cleansers.
Use water sparingly.
Tell someone something kind and loving about your Mom!
And here are a few things NOT to do that will make your Mama equally proud:
Don't drive if you don't have to -- and drive a little slower! :-)
Don't throw all that great paper into the trash -- recycle it!
Don't use toxics. Remember, everything goes into our water supply...and you wouldn't want to drink that junk, would you?
Don't leave the screen door open! Or the refrigerator door!
Isn't it amazing that so many of your mother's lessons apply on the global scale? Hmmmm, maybe there's something to this living within our means, caring for others like we care for ourselves...and being responsible for our own mess!
Thank you, Mama!
Carolyn
The majority of the world's population is now urban dwellers -- and they are becoming increasingly disconnected from their food sources and their cost in human and ecological terms. The Los Angeles Times brings the ongoing -- and growing problem -- of social justice and fresh, pristine food to our attention:
RICK NAHMIAS was at cooking school in an affluent ZIP Code of the Napa Valley, a mouth-watering abundance of fruit and vegetables arrayed for his instruction every day, when it occurred to him to wonder at the hidden source of this bounty. "It astounded me," he says, "that nobody there talked about where all this food was coming from."When we look at how hard farm work is, and the toll on our brothers and sisters who are toiling for our health and pleasure, a conscientious adult will be willing to buy LOCAL, buy ORGANIC, and WASTE LESS.
A screenwriter, photographer and then researcher for political columnist Arianna Huffington, Nahmias had gone to Napa with the thought of maybe getting into the restaurant business. But his curiosity sent him in another direction altogether: on a mission to document through photographs the lives of contemporary farmworkers in California.
The result of his six-month immersion in the fields, "The Migrant Project," is on exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance through April 25, one stop on a national tour.
The poverty and drudgery of the estimated 1.1 million California farmworkers (nine in 10 of whom are Latino) are not news, except that Nahmias' photographs provide fresh evidence that their long-lamented hardships and indignities remain much the same as they were when César Chávez began organizing in the Central Valley in the 1960s.
The biggest payoff for him, he says, was witnessing the reactions of farmworkers and their families standing in front of his framed photos, some of them crying, simply because "it was the first time, they told me, they had seen themselves represented with dignity. I didn't know what to do with that. It was a gift, humbling."
Libraries and public schools helped support his work. Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, wrote an introduction for his book. The Museum of Tolerance booked his show. SOURCE: LA TIMES
Thinking through where the profits go ... and don't go -- is part of being conscientious.
The shorter the route from field to table, the more of those profits go to the farmers and farm hands who do the work.
The longer the journey, the more of the profits go into factory farms, chemicals for fertilizers and insecticides, research for shelf life rather than nutrition, transportation, supply chain markups and poverty wages to the farm community.
It's that simple. And your awareness and choices matter.
SEE PHOTOS at his website: themigrantproject.com/
