Some examples of POP chemicals are:
• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (most non-essential oil fragrances)
• Pesticides like Atrazine, and organophosphate pesticides found in food and water.
• Solvents
• Organohalogens such as PCB’s, organochlorine pesticides, PBDE’s, plastics/ phthalates, and polychlorinated compounds, which are commonly found in construction materials, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, adhesives, paints, air fresheners, shampoos, food packaging, and toys, among others.
• Dioxins, perfluoroalkyl chemicals, which are found in Teflon, cosmetics, paper coatings, and canned goods.
• Heavy metals, namely lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium.

POP’s can now be found in at least 60 percent of all humans, and for certain chemicals, in 80 to 100 percent. Fortunately, we are now discovering what these chemicals do to us and what we can do to prevent the health risks they pose. Some of the documented effects of POP exposure include increased risk for diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, premature aging, prenatal changes, and hormonal and reproductive effects. Endocrine Disruptor Chemicals (EDC’s) have effects on the glands, signaling the chemicals and receptors in our hormone systems. One well-known example of this is Bisphenol A (BPA) in plastics, which binds to estrogen receptors. This may increase the risk for breast cancer and lower the age of breast development in girls. These chemicals can also change a person’s normal estrogen function, causing a wide range of possible hormonal effects on the entire body.

While many people are aware of the estrogen-like effects of EDC’s, fewer people are aware of their effect on insulin and metabolism. An increasing number of chemicals are being labeled as Obesogens, due to their effects on metabolism. These chemicals are strongly associated with a many-fold increase in the risk of developing Type II Diabetes. Indeed, the correlation of POP exposure and the development of Type II Diabetes is stronger than any other factor, including body weight.

Over the years in our practice, we have seen a number of healthy men with low body fat and good diets who have Type II Diabetes. Often these men were either working around pesticides and farm chemicals, or had occupations, such as car mechanic, that involved exposure to chemicals at work.

Obesogens disrupt our metabolic systems, causing us to gain excess body fat. Many people are exposed to obesogens through food and water contamination by pesticides, plastics, conventional food products, sweeteners, and hormonally-treated animals. Thus, from production to packaging, the foods we eat can be contaminated with chemicals that cause unnatural weight gain. There are also well-documented prenatal human studies that show decreased cognitive function and IQ, and increased risk of ADHD for children of mothers exposed to various POP’s. POP’s are everywhere. Many of them have become ubiquitous in the environment, and are therefore impossible to completely avoid. When it is possible, avoidance and limiting your exposure is the best approach.

1. Buy organically grown food and animal protein, and wild-caught fish like Alaskan salmon, and small fish like mackerel or sardines instead of tuna. Eat a mostly vegetarian diet and avoid fatty meats, because toxins accumulate in the fat of animals. Avoid BPA-coated canned foods and foods in plastic packaging. Buy organic, hormone-free meats directly from the butcher, and have them wrapped in brown paper instead of plastic wrap. Conventionally grown foods with the highest levels of pesticides that you should definitely buy organic are: celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, sweet bell peppers, spinach, kale, collard greens, cherries, potatoes, and grapes. Also, avoid high fructose corn syrup due to its high levels of pesticides. Water can be a major source of POP exposure. To help decrease exposure, it is best not to drink from plastic bottles and to filter your water with activated carbon or reverse osmosis filtration.

2. Many consumer products are contaminated with POP’s and should be avoided if possible. For example, many cosmetics contain POP’s, so it’s best to use organic and natural beauty supplies. Any product that contains a fragrance that is not from essential plant oils is likely to be toxic, so you’ll want to use cleaning supplies and room fresheners with no artificial scents or solvents. Teflon coating on pans, stain-protectant coatings, and coated paper products like microwave popcorn bags can all pass POP’s into the body and should be avoided. If you do use Teflon, avoid scratching the surface. Likewise, it is always best to not heat or microwave any plastics or coated paper products.

3. If your work, home maintenance, or hobby exposes you to solvents, heavy metals, or other chemicals, use protective clothing, gloves, a respirator/filter mask, and proper ventilation.

4. When you purchase new consumer goods (toys, electronics) and home furnishings (furniture, shower curtains, carpets) try to buy non-toxic brands, or let new purchases air out for a while outside until the “new smell” (which signals the presence of gases) fades. For example, a new mattress, is often covered with flame-retardants and other chemicals. Buy an organic mattress if you can, or used furniture whose gasses have already dissipated.

5. There are also measures we can take to reduce the levels of POP’s in our body. Sweating is a great way to get the POP’s out, whether through exercise, sauna, or hydrotherapy. Always shower off after a big sweat to wash the chemicals off your skin and prevent their reabsorption.

6. Many chemicals are cleared from the body by being bound to bile. The best way to increase bile excretion is to consume soluble fiber in foods, such as organic apples, or by taking a supplement like psyllium husk or pectin. It’s also good to increase your intake of organic cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts, and green tea, which speed the liver clearance of many toxins.

7. The main nutrient that clears POP’s from the body and mitigates many of their damaging effects is Glutathione. You can boost your liver’s glutathione production by using supplements such as milk thistle, N-Acetyl cysteine (NAC), whey powder, Alpha lipoid acid, SAMe, and resveratrol. Supplemental oral glutathione is absorbed poorly, except for Liposomal Glutathione, which works quite well. Glutathione can also be taken through IV, a breathing nebulizer, or a topical liposomal patch. (If you have a history of allergy to sulphur compounds, foods, or drugs, you may react to glutathione and NAC, and should only take these medicines under the guidance of your physician.)

Drs. Carolyn and Gregory Weisswasser practice Naturopathic Medicine at Whitewater Naturopathic in Grass Valley. Visit them at whitewaternaturopathic.com or call (530) 271-7123.

If you owned a food store, you’d want it to be a healthy, fair, and considerate workplace, right? How, then, would you find out how your staff really feels about their jobs? To gather confidential information on employee job satisfaction, BriarPatch conducted an employee survey this past February. We hired an independent, third-party Human Resources expert, Carolee Colter of Cooperative Development Services (CDS), who also conducted our staff surveys in 2011 and 2009.
About the Survey
The purpose of the employee survey was to measure the staff’s satisfaction with our co-op workplace. It was also designed to identify the co-op’s strengths and weaknesses as an employer, in the eyes of its employees, and to document our progress on the issues that were raised in previous surveys. The survey was completely confidential. A whopping 99 percent of the 160 BriarPatch employees who were eligible at the time participated in the survey, thanks to the efforts and encouragement of our Human Resources team of Joanne Laracy and Janet Reynolds. To explore employees’ thoughts on various issues, Colter interviewed approximately 15 percent of the participants, whom she selected randomly.

Survey Results
Overall, the 2013 Employee Survey showed that there is a high level of employee satisfaction with BriarPatch as a workplace. Out of 77 opinion statements that were evaluated:
37 scored 4.00 or more (48%)
34 scored 3.50 to 3.99 (44%)
6 scored below 3.50 (8%)
What do these scores mean?
4.00+: a very high score, high satisfaction
3.50+: a relatively high score, relative satisfaction
Below 3.00: a low score, dissatisfaction

The highest scoring statements and their scores were:
• I have received a copy of the Personnel Policy. (4.48)
• BriarPatch provides high quality customer service. (4.41)
• I am proud to work for BriarPatch. (4.39)
• The work environment is free from discrimination and harassment. (4.38)
• Employees are treated fairly regardless of race, sex, age, etc. (4.33)
• I know what to do if I have a claim of harassment or discrimination. (4.33)
• Job openings are publicized so that staff can apply. (4.32)
• I would recommend BriarPatch as a good place to work. (4.27)
• I feel that I could use the channels for reporting claims of harassment or discrimination without fear of retaliation. (4.26)
While the scores listed below are still not considered “low” by Coulter’s methodology, a few of the lowest scoring statements were:
• There is reasonable potential to advance my level of responsibility and compensation. (3.47)
• The pay rate for my job is fair in relation to the pay rates for other jobs at the co-op. (3.47) • To the best of my knowledge, management promptly addresses performance problems. (3.35)

How did we compare with other co-ops?
Compared with scores from other co-ops, BriarPatch employees rated:
• 26 statements scored within 10 points above or below the median.
• 31 statements scored more than 10 points above the median, with 10 of these more than 25 points above.
• 3 statements scored more than 10 points below the median, with 1 of these more than 25 points below.
Themes and comments Based on the data and her interviews, Carolee provided an extensive analysis and recommendations. A few highlights of her report’s section entitled “Themes,” were these:
• Management was responsive to the 2011 survey results: Passport Training for new workers is effective, safety is a priority, and the grievance procedure is pretty much universally understood.
• There is increased satisfaction with the supervision employees receive— especially in the Deli and Front End departments.
• Employees feel that Management cares about them. The new recommendations made to Management included:
• Keep talking about the reasoning behind labor budgets. Not everyone gets it the first time.
• Research gainsharing and the cost of different scenarios.
• Plan for adding another staff bathroom.
• Make the trial period meaningful. Get coworker input for the trial period review.
Some employee comments submitted through the survey were:
“Awesome place to work! Great people, valued employees, fun working environment, positive, good energy, great food, high quality products, professional and community oriented.”
“Definitely the best job I have ever had. The pay and hours are great. The people are a pleasure to work with as well.”
“I enjoy and am proud of the work I do here. Over the years I have seen a lot of positive progress.
“Security, possibility to dialogue, benefits, FFS [free for staff food], discounts, friendly work environment, the impact on our community—I like all of that. Also, I like the feeling of a constant search for improvement from BriarPatch management.”
“It is a blessing to come to BriarPatch and serve.”

Carolee’s Conclusion “This survey is very positive! It shows that while employees have criticisms of the co-op, they fundamentally enjoy working here. There is noticeable improvement over both the last full survey of 2011 and last year’s mini-survey. The survey results show compliance with the Staff Management policies. It is really exciting to witness the positive changes at BriarPatch.”

Cooked
by Michael Pollan
The author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma is back with another book about food, but this time, he explores the realm of his own kitchen. By exploring the four elements and how they affect the food we cook, Pollan learns about braising, barbeque, fermenting, and other techniques, while bringing the reader along with him on his journey. While learning how to cook from culinary masters, Pollan begins to understand how integral cooks are to our culture, and how our reliance on processed foods has weakened the connection between our social world and what we eat.

Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal
by Melanie Warner
Melanie Warner decided to find out the answer to the question: “If a piece of individually wrapped cheese retains its shape, color, and texture for years, what does this say about the food we eat and feed to our children?” From research labs to factories, the former New York Times business reporter explored the reality of what it is that most Americans are actually eating, how decades of food science have brought us to a world of cheap, addictive food, and how that has affected our health.

Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease
by Robert Lustig
It all began with a 90-minute YouTube video called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth.” More than three million views later, this book brings the video to book form, documenting the pandemic of chronic disease over the last 30 years, since the mandated removal of fat from food. The result of no fat and added sugar created a “perfect storm” that altered the body’s biochemistry and drove eating habits out of control. Filled with strategies for readjusting our hormones to healthfully regulate our hunger, this science-based book shows how one calorie may not be exactly like another.

The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement
by Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis
Nick Saul became the executive director of the food bank, The Stop, in 1998. When he took over, the majority of the foods it distributed were castoffs, mislabeled, or unwanted products from the food industry, and produce that was past its prime.
Today, The Stop is a vibrant Community Food Center that celebrates food and uses it as a tool to build skills and hope. This book tells the story of the food bank’s transformation, while also examining related issues concerning the politics of food.

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
by Michael Moss
How has the processed food industry used salt, sugar, and fat to addict us? Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss explores the highly secretive world of processed food. While the food giants have been successful in growing consumption and profits, they’ve also been successful in growing the body mass indexes of the American public.

Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems
by Philip Ackerman-Leist
Bringing the focus to local foods was the first step. Philip Ackerman-Leist discusses what must come next: rebuilding regional food systems to meet demand, and to anticipate the tougher times that lie ahead. By exploring the importance of a food system that isn’t reliant on transportation and traditional supply chains, he tackles the issues that hamper food production, both near and far. By discussing some of the most promising methods of growing, processing, and distributing sustainable food, “Rebuilding the Foodshed” gives readers helpful tools that enable us to be part of the future of the food revolution.

In addition to hourly wages and salaries, most co-ops also pay bonuses and/or offer profit sharing to employees. Considering all employees, and including bonuses and profit sharing, co-op employees earn an average of $14.31 per hour compared to $13.35 for their peers in the conventional sector.

While wages are a common measure of job quality, benefits and workplace culture are important factors as well. Overall, 61% of workers at co-ops work full time, and all full-time employees receive paid vacation. At a typical co-op, individuals who work more than 30 hours per week are eligible for health insurance. Nationally, 68% of all co-op employees (full-time and part-time) are eligible for health insurance. On average, co-ops pay over 80% of the health care insurance costs for their eligible employees. In the conventional sector, fewer than half of the workers are full-time and only 56% are eligible for health insurance.

Among the core cooperative principles are democracy, education, and concern for community. The workplace culture in cooperatives reflects these principles with a strong emphasis on participatory management and benefits that are tailored to meet workers’ needs, including paid time off and employee discounts. Over a third of NCGA food co-ops practice open book management, and a quarter have self-directed work teams.

A series of employee satisfaction surveys has confirmed that co-op employees place a high value on the culture and benefits of their workplace.

Hourly wage data for the conventional sector is based on information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Occupational wages can vary significantly from one labor market to another. The chart compares national averages for both co-ops and conventional grocers, since city, or even state, level data for occupational wages by industry is not available from the BLS.

“Americans want to know more, not less, about their food,” said Katey Parker of Just Label It, which has more than 650 partner organizations. “More than 90 percent of Americans want the same rights as consumers in 64 countries around the world. It’s time to trust American consumers with information about genetically engineered ingredients so they can make the best choices for themselves and their families.”

More than 1 million Americans have petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration to require labeling on packaged food containing GE ingredients.

The bipartisan labeling bill has been supported by over 100 organizations and businesses, including Consumers Union, Environmental Working Group, Just Label It, the National Farmers Union, Stonyfield Farms, Consumer Federation of America, AllergyKids Foundation, National Cooperative Grocers Association, New England Farmers Union, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, Center for Environmental Health, Chefs Collaborative, Label GMOs, Alaska Trollers Association, Ben & Jerry’s, Clif Bar & Company, Lundberg Family Farms, Nature’s Path, Annie’s Inc., and many others.

To read more or see the Senate and House versions of the GE Labeling bill, go to justlabelit.org or centerforfoodsafety.org.

BriarPatch pledges: “No GE fish”
BriarPatch was one of nearly 2,500 grocers around the country to sign a pledge stating we will not sell genetically engineered (GE) fish if it’s approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The pledge is part of the Campaign for Genetically Engineered (GE)-Free Seafood, organized by a coalition of consumer, health, food safety and fishing groups around the country.

The growing market rejection of GE fish comes as the FDA conducts its final review of AquaBounty’s GE salmon, engineered with DNA from a Chinook salmon and a growth hormone from an eel-like creature called an Ocean Pout, to grow faster than regular salmon. If approved, the salmon would be the first-ever GE animal allowed to enter the human food supply.

The majority of Americans say they won’t eat genetically engineered seafood. Eighty percent of Americans who regularly eat fish say sustainable practices are “important” or “very important” to them, according to a 2013 NPR poll.

EPA sued over honeybee deaths
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is failing to protect honeybees and should suspend use of some insecticides tied to Colony Collapse Disorder, according to a recently filed lawsuit. The groups suing say they have records showing “legal violations” by EPA, connected to approvals for the neonicotinoid pesticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam. Neonicotinoids, recently banned in Europe, are used routinely on more than 100 million acres of U.S. corn, wheat, soy, and cotton and are in some home gardening products. (Reuters)

Why we buy organic
A new study says the leading reason parents buy organic is to avoid synthetic pesticides and fertilizers (30 percent). The U.S. Families’ Organic Attitudes and Beliefs 2013 Tracking Study also found that avoiding antibiotics and synthetic hormones was cited by 29 percent as their number one reason to buy organic. The number of people who primarily buy organic to avoid GMOs has reached 22 percent — up from 17 percent in 2011. (Progressive Grocer)

In this edition of The Vine we’re quite excited to tell our owners about our efforts to make the co-op a great workplace that brings value to our community. People are often surprised to learn that our co-op is one of the largest employers in Nevada County. The fact is, we are in the top twenty in the entire county, and if you don’t count government and schools, we’re in the top ten. This means that we can have a very significant impact on our community by making sure that our staff members are enthusiastic about their jobs, well trained, and competitively compensated. It goes without saying that this impact begins with your experience as a Patch customer.

I am pleased to announce that our Board has approved a proposal from Management to begin using a livable wage model to set our wage scale. The research behind this model identifies a base wage that allows workers in a local area, in this case Nevada County, to meet their basic needs. We are now committed to paying this livable wage to all BriarPatch workers. In my view, this concept is at the very core of the cooperative principles. The Rochdale Cooperative Society, which was founded in 1844 and is now recognized as the very first modern cooperative, was one of the first whose business model included the concept of a livable wage. In my other article in this issue, you can learn more about our efforts with a livable wage and with our entire compensation package.

Another important point that I would like to share is that every two years, we compare the wages for every single position in the store with the average wage of comparable positions in our local trade area, the Sacramento area, Yuba City, and the northern and southern Gold Country regions. We get this information from the database maintained by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. I am pleased to report that we continue to offer competitive wages for similar jobs.

Parking Update
In this space last month I talked about our parking problems and the proposed expansion of our lot. I have received a lot of feedback on that piece, and am very grateful for the strong participation and the diverse views that were shared.

I must tell you now that the bids on construction came in much higher than budgeted. As a result, our plan to install additional parking is on hold for the time being.

That said, it is clear that our owners and customers, not to mention our neighbors along Litton and Sierra College drives, still see parking as a big issue that needs to be addressed.

So — please keep your comments coming as we explore options; and above all, keep your cool as you navigate the parking lot!

Patronage Dividend
I am very pleased to announce that the Board of Directors approved Management’s recommendation to declare a patronage dividend on all owner profits for fiscal year 2012. By the time this article is published, we will begin distributing $152,000 back to our owners in the form of a store voucher. Please remember that you can also exchange this for a check by returning it to our Finance Department and indicating you would like to do so. We hope you will also consider donating your dividend to our Community Fund, which supports local non-profits in our community. Look for your dividend in the mail; it will be coming with our Annual Report to owners in the very near future.

Meet Evan Strong, and stay tuned for ways to join BriarPatch in supporting this local hero as he trains for the 2014 Sochi Paralympics.

In an unlikely start for one of the world’s best snowboarders, Evan Strong grew up on the waves of Maui, seldom wearing shoes, let alone snow boots. At age eleven he broke his surfboard and couldn’t afford a new one. A friend gave him an old skateboard, so he took to “riding the waves” of concrete, and by thirteen had landed his first sponsor. He then set his sights on a career as a professional skateboarder. Over the next few years he began to win events — and win often — and by 17 he was ready for the pro ranks… until his accident.

Running late for work one day, he borrowed his sister’s motorcycle and was hit by a drunk driver. Three days later, his left leg had to be amputated.

“My recovery was one of the most challenging times of my life, but I knew I was young and had a lot of living left to do,” said Evan. “I wasn’t ready to give up all these things that I loved to do … so I just told myself that I wouldn’t. I would find a way to ride again.”

Evan soon connected with the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) and there, he was able to find inspiration for his recovery by seeing fellow amputees accomplish great things in sport. From there he developed a passion to help others faced with similar physical challenges. He has since become an active mentor of youth and adult amputees in partnership with Adaptive Action Sports (AAS) and CAF.

Always hungry for a new challenge, Evan grew interested in snowboarding, so he moved to our neck of the woods, where he found his true passion.

Since moving to Nevada County, Evan has become the dominant athlete on the adaptive snowboarding circuit. He is the 2012 FIS World Champion, the 2011-12 Overall World Cup Champion, and an X-Games Gold Medalist. He is undefeated in World Cup competition. While Evan’s short-term goal is to represent Team USA and win the gold medal at the 2014 Sochi Paralympics, his ultimate goal is to win the U.S. Snowboarding National Championship Title.

Evan is a passionate enthusiast of organic, raw foods. He attributes his recovery to the combination of a live food diet and his strong athletic drive. He and his family run The Fix restaurant in Nevada City.

BriarPatch Co-op hired its first dedicated Human Resources (HR) staff a few months prior to our big move to the Sierra College Drive store. At the time, the store on Joerschke Drive was operated by 65 employees, and we estimated that 50 more would be needed at the new location, especially to staff the two new departments for prepared foods/deli, and meat and seafood.

Today, the Co-op has two hard-working HR staff who ensure that our co-op fulfills its duties as an employer. Joanne Laracy has served as Human Resources Manager since 2009, and Janet Reynolds as Human Resources Assistant since 2012. HR plays a key role in our employee relations and communication and in managing employee compensation and benefits. Testifying to their good work is the fact that of the ten question topics rated in our 2011 and 2013 staff surveys, the highest scoring was our Human Resources Practices.

Making safety a priority
One of the priorities of the HR team in recent years has been safety. In early 2010, BriarPatch was near a crisis-point due to workplace injuries — high Workers Comp insurance premiums were actually jeopardizing the co-op’s viability as a business. Led by the HR and Operations managers, and with the cooperation of department managers and a staff Safety Committee, the situation has vastly improved. The recent staff survey showed that safety awareness has become part of the workplace culture at the Patch.

Passport training
Another accomplishment of the HR team has been a “Passport Training” program. Employee training is in keeping with Cooperative Principle 5 —
“Education, Training, and Information.” Every BriarPatch employee is now required to attend sessions titled, “Customer Service 101,” “Safety,” “What is a Co-op,” and “Employee Handbook Review.” BriarPatch owners, you can rest assured that your co-op is working to uphold cooperative values in the workplace.

The concept of a livable wage is fairly straightforward; it’s defined as the hourly wage that a full-time worker would need to meet their ongoing needs where they live. Many city governments have taken the initiative to determine this wage for their areas to provide guidance to local businesses. Many different models are used to determine a livable wage; we used a model that was created by a group of cooperative managers. When we plugged in the data for our location, we found that a livable wage for Nevada County is $11.00 per hour. Based on this model, BriarPatch then made the commitment to pay this livable wage as our entry level wage. We will review this calculation and our wage scale on an annual basis in order to monitor it for possible updates.

This wage increase was approved by the Board of Directors in November 2012, and since then we have been working very hard to implement it. The transition is being phased in over approximately 6 months, beginning with the first payroll of 2012, to be completed in July.
With this change, our entry level wage will leap from $8.50 per hour to $11.00 per hour. The wages of those paid above entry level were also raised, based on years of service, to preserve seniority. As a result, nearly every staff member who is paid hourly received a wage increase. The average increase was approximately $.98 per hour, and the average hourly wage in the store increased by over a dollar.

Through careful planning and good communication within the entire organization, we accomplished this without a major increase in our storewide labor expense, and without raising prices. This good result was achieved by monitoring and managing our productivity, and through the sales growth driven by our loyal owners and other customers.
This wage increase adds to our already attractive benefit package for full-time employees. Of the 180 people on staff at BriarPatch, approximately 135 are full-time, meaning that they work 30 or more hours per week. We are proud to offer a strong health insurance program, one that we have made concerted efforts to improve over the last couple of years. The Co-op pays 75% of the HMO health insurance premiums for employees, and 100% for those who choose the high deductible PPO with Health Savings Account (HSA) option. The HSA allows workers to build a reserve account for health care costs, and is great as a companion to the insurance, or as a stand-alone for people who don’t anticipate significant or ongoing medical expenses. We also offer low-priced vision and dental insurance programs that are paid by the employee.
Over time we have seen our worker base shift from largely single people to families, so while we currently do not pay anything toward partner or family coverage, that is a goal we hope to meet in the coming years.

We also have a wonderful alternative health program that gives our staff access to free treatments from a wide array of alternative health providers, who in turn receive a store discount for their work. These currently include massage, acupuncture, body talk, reiki, chiropractic, and herbal consultations.

Staff may also choose to participate in a retirement plan. The Co-op offers a 401(k) program with an annual match of up to 3%. This plan was converted from an IRA when our employee base grew to over 100. More staff members are joining this program every year.
We are very proud of this work and hope that you, as owners, will take pride in how your co-op is manifesting your values in its operations.

First, a confession: I have never been a true co-op stalwart. All the time and energy I have put into BriarPatch these last several years was motivated by my wish to support our store. Being a bit of a “foodie,” I wanted to see the good, healthy, delicious food made available in our community through BriarPatch. But I never truly understood the spirit of being a “co-operator,” a loyalist to co-op principles and to the co-op sector.

All of this changed when I attended a national co-op meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota this April. The workshop was convened by the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA), and its focus was on building a stronger consumer cooperative movement. The NCGA is itself a co-op, whose members include some 134 co-ops across the country that together have about 1.3 million members, and $1.5 billion in annual sales. I went with our General Manager (GM), Chris Maher, who was recently elected to the NCGA’s Board of Directors, a true recognition of the achievements of BriarPatch during his four-year tenure.

With virtually all NCGA food co-ops sending two representatives to this meeting, along with staff from NCGA and the Cooperative Development Services Consulting Co-op (CDSCC), some 300 people attended the conference. I think pretty much everyone there felt highly energized by our meeting, which focused on addressing these questions: What’s on the horizon for co-ops? What should we be thinking about now, so our co-ops will continue to survive and thrive, for years and generations to come? How can we expand the conversation in our communities about the positive impact our co-ops are making now, and as we continue to grow?

We talked a lot about how co-ops are different. This difference ranges from attitudes such as viewing our markets as the land of “sun and smiles,” to practices such as our “triple bottom line,” for unlike conventional grocery stores, co-ops focus not only on financial success, but also on how we contribute to the social and environmental well-being of our community. (See “Healthy Foods, Healthy Communities”: http://strongertogether.coop/food-coops/food-co-op-impact-study/..) There was not only a sense of engagement among the participants, but also one of joy to be part of this movement. It was a historic meeting about the continuing growth and development of natural food co-ops in the U.S., both individually and together.

Since the very first national co-op conference I attended seven years ago, I have been impressed with the intelligence, knowledge, commitment, and effectiveness of those who provide leadership for our food co-op movement: the staffs at NCGA and CDSCC, local co-op managers, and others. While the NCGA exerts its most direct impact on the buying and negotiating power it provides its member co-ops, it also provides food co-ops with many other services, including professional development and marketing strategies. Our own co-op, and by association, all of our members and shoppers, have benefited greatly from these services.

The workshop addressed the most effective ways to grow the co-op movement, given the current context of great national interest in healthy, natural, organic food. We heard from both international and national leaders who keep their finger on the pulse of co-ops, in terms of their risks, competition, and opportunities. There was a rich array of vital observations and way more data than I can share here, but here are what I understood to be the main points.

Our destiny is in our own hands
Bob Burlton, the keynote speaker, emphasized that if we don’t collectively plan for the future, we will certainly be left behind. He spoke of the private entities out there that are poised to seize upon the public interest in natural foods. And these entities only have to worry about profits, without any commitment to the broader interest that co-ops have in serving the well-being of their members and communities.

Burlton is a national leader of the co-op movement in Britain, and under his stewardship, co-ops increased their market share among natural food grocers from five to eight percent through aggressive planning, and even the purchase of their largest competitor! In recent years, they have broadened their movement to also include energy distribution and conservation, and even childcare. But at this conference, this was the only mention of areas apart from natural food. Our goal in St. Paul was to discuss the future of co-op natural food markets.

“Hippies with Cash Registers”
Marilyn Scholl, a former co-op General Manager who is now with CDSCC, gave a brief overview of the co-op movement in the U.S., especially co-op natural food stores. In an expression that brought smiles to the faces of old-timers, she characterized the earliest stores of the sixties and seventies as “Hippies with a cash register.” At one time there were as many as 600 to 800 such stores, most of them quite small. For those of us who have been in Nevada County for a while, we need only think of the BriarPatch store on Washington Street in Grass Valley to know just what she means.

Scholl’s presentation made me realize that during the past half-century, the co-op movement in the U.S. was pretty spontaneous, with little national direction and fierce local independence. She and others characterized our workshop as historic, in that it brought together board leaders from co-ops across the country, something that has never been done before. By supporting this convocation, the NCGA was betting that this is the time to truly build the movement, “to aggregate the strength at the local level.” A recent uptick in new co-op development — about 65 stores in the past decade — is encouraging. And most of these new stores are surviving due, in part, to the support they receive not just locally, but from national entities like the NCGA and CDSCC.

The current picture and serious challenges
At the conference we heard a rich overview of the current co-op movement and its challenges from NCGA’s CEO Robyn Shrader, and from COO C.E. Pugh. It is worth mentioning here that Pugh is Chris Maher’s former boss and mentor from La Montañita Co-op in New Mexico, where Chris worked before coming to Nevada County.

Pugh’s overview of the current state of affairs is this: “The products we advocate have won the battle, but our cooperative business model has not.” The sale of natural, healthy foods is growing dramatically, and it has clearly captured the attention of both citizens and the businesses that produce and distribute food – from small farms to corporate conglomerates. There is a lot of money to be made in healthy, natural food. Increasingly, though, while venture capital is going into the natural food movement, it is not going into co-ops.

While co-ops’ sales continue to increase some, their competition’s share of the growth in natural food is much greater. For example, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are expanding rapidly, and together, they account for about 15 percent of natural food sales. Yet our co-op sector, which is the third largest part of the natural food market, has not yet reached even 2 percent — $1.3 billion annually. Pugh pointed out that the co-ops’ annual sales volume only recently surpassed the amount of money Americans spend on soft drinks!

[Picture] NCGA CEO Robyn Schrader, right, gives a special award to Melissa Cohen, General Manager of Isla Vista Food Co-op in Isla Vista, California, for raising enough money to buy their co-op’s building — in just a few weeks!

Co-ops in areas where new Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and other non-co-op natural foods stores are introduced tend to experience a dip in sales. In most cases this dip is temporary, but not always. For example, Davis Food Co-op’s steady rise in sales has actually stopped and gone into decline after the recent openings of a Whole Foods and a TJ’s in Davis. It’s important to note that sales growth is essential to a healthy co-op. Even a small decline in sales, when combined with inflation, can result in a reduction in the profit and capital needed for a co-op to thrive and improve, not to mention its capacity to provide more jobs. Food businesses already operate on a very slim margin. Flat sales in the face of a modest five percent increase in expenses can reduce net income by 25 percent. If this is combined with a decline in sales, in the face of increased competition, for example, this can quickly become catastrophic for a once-healthy business.

There is a definite need, then, to grow in order to remain viable in the competitive marketplace, and to seize the opportunity to grow, given the tremendous value that our co-ops infuse in our communities.

Yes to growth: we are stronger together!
Our BriarPatch Board and Management are strongly unified in our commitment to thoughtful development and growth. From the strong increase in sales that we are currently experiencing, we know our owners also want more capacity from their co-op. As I have written during the last few months, BriarPatch has launched a serious planning process to determine how we can best improve and expand our community-oriented business. Our success over the past decade, plus the reality that our current store is likely to reach its capacity to effectively meet the community’s demand, compels the Board to put its energies—and your energies as owners—into an ambitious planning effort. In the coming months we will be reaching out to our members with surveys, more discussion in the Vine, presentations at Board meetings, special forums, and the like.

We are not alone. Prior to the St. Paul meeting, NCGA conducted a survey of members and found that 90% are looking at expansion, either in their current sites or through relocation.

At the St. Paul meeting we heard some great advice about how to move forward, not just with our members but also within the broader community. We need to get the message out in Nevada County, just as NCGA is doing nationally. We need to tell the many great stories we know from the Patch’s 37-year history. We need to explain the “Co-op Difference” to our community.

The rationale for growth is pretty simple. Where else can you shop and be assured that carefully crafted quality standards are used to choose what is sold? What other private business places service to the community on an equal standing with profits, and actually returns some of those profits to shoppers through discounts and patronage refunds? Please join us in the next few months as we reach out to you, the owners, to generate ideas and participate in creating the future of BriarPatch.

• Jeannie Bringolf, Jeannie’s Local Color in Grass Valley
• Molly Nakahara, Dinner Bell Farm in Chicago Park
• Ruby Turple, Honey Circle Farm in North San Juan
• Deena Miller, Sweet Roots Farm, Grass Valley
• Margo Cooper, Sunlight Botanicals in Penn Valley
• Angie Tomey, The Flower Project in Nevada City
• Willow Hein, Soil Sisters Farm in Nevada City

Whisk together the orange juice, lemon juice, scapes, honey, salt, and pepper. Slowly pour in the olive oil, whisking constantly.
Place the greens, watermelon, feta, and mint in a large bowl. Drizzle with enough vinaigrette to coat the greens lightly and toss well. Season to taste and serve immediately.

a PCC Sound Consumer recipe

1 1/2 pounds fresh sugar snap peas
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
smoked sea salt

Destem each pod and pull out the string.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add olive oil, sugar snap peas, salt, and pepper and sauté for three minutes, until the peas are crisp tender.

Remove from heat, place in a serving bowl, and sprinkle with smoked sea salt.

Garden Burger:
1 cup walnuts
1/4 cup flax seed, (Psyllium seed, Chia Seed) ground
3 carrots, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/2 lime, juiced
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt

Additional Ingredients:
1 head romaine lettuce (leaves cut away from stem)
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 avocado, thinly sliced

Blend all garden burger ingredients in food processor. Fill romaine leaves with garden burger. Add tomato chunks and onions and top with sliced avocado.

Interpreted from “The Ultimate Live-Food Cookbook,” Sergei Boutenko, Valya Boutenko, page 87.

Serves 16

1 1/2 cups Unbleached Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
2/3 cup Sugar or Date Sugar or Stevia
1 cup Molasses or Honey or Rice Syrup
2 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Allspice
1 1/2 cups Unsweetened Applesauce
3 Eggs (Egg Replacer) or Egg Whites

Combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, and spices, and stir to mix well. Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to mix well.

Coat a 9×13 inch pan with nonstick cooking spray. Spread the batter evenly in the pan, and bake at 325 deg. F for 40 minutes, or just until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the cake for at least minutes. Cut into squares and serve warm or at room temperature with a light whipped topping if desired.

Dry Mix
Ingredients:

1 tsp Salt or to taste
3 Tblsp Onion, dried, minced
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Chives, dried
1/2 tsp Ground Celery Seed

To Make The Dry Mix:
Combine the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Store mixture in an airtight container.

To Make Dressing:
Combine 1 tablespoon of the dry mix with 1 cup Tofu Mayonnaise and mix well using a wire whisk.

At Equal Exchange, we are thrilled to be opening up a new supply chain, for organic cashews grown by small-scale farmers in El Salvador. Delicious, sustainably grown, revolutionary for the nut trade, and they’re a healthy snack. What more could you ask for in a product?

Cashew nutrition 101

Over the years, nuts have sometimes been viewed negatively due to their high fat content. While they do contain a high percentage of fat, the fats found in nuts, especially tree nuts like cashews and almonds, are full of what dietitians refer to as “healthy fats,” (or, scientifically, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats).

The good news is that these are the fats you want to include more often in your diet.
Why is that? Fat is an essential nutrient. It provides energy, insulates our body and helps it regulate its temperature, increases its ability to metabolize carbohydrates and protein, helps produce other essential fats… the list goes on and on.

Eating one serving of nuts five or more days a week has been shown to protect against heart disease by: 1) lowering blood pressure, 2) reducing LDL (bad) cholesterol, and 3) limiting oxidative stress and inflammation (inflammation is a major cause of many chronic diseases).

Portion control

Cashews pack a lot of nutrition into a small space, so it’s important to watch your serving size. Plus, you will get the most health benefits if you eat them in moderation.
One serving of raw cashews is 18 whole cashews, or 1 ounce.
One serving provides 160 kcals, 13g fat (10g of which are unsaturated), 1g fiber, and 4g protein. Cashews are an excellent source of copper and magnesium, and a good source of iron, vitamin K, phosphorus, and zinc, all of which are essential vitamins and minerals. The fat, fiber, and protein all have a high satiety, which means you will feel more full and for a longer time after eating nuts rather than eating toast, for example.

The diet of a healthy person should derive 20% to 35% of its total calories from fat. It is important to remember that even healthy foods can be harmful and lead to weight gain if eaten in excess. Moderation is really the key to long-term health.

Cashew creations

Cashews are delicious eaten alone, or mixed in with other foods. I like to carry a pre-portioned serving of with me as an on-the-go snack. Here are some ideas:
• Create your own trail mix made of Equal Exchange
cashews, almonds, and raisins.
• Throw cashews into a stir-fry for an added crunch.
• Make your own cashew butter.
• Top a salad with cashews.

For more info, visit: 
http://www.smallfarmersbigchange.coop/2013/01/08/its-time-for-nuts-part-i/
http://www.nuthealth.org/cashews/
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/protein-foods.html

Suzanne Bardsley and Scott Bice of Redwood Hill Farm with a couple of cute kids.

On February 8th, my husband Mike and I drove down to Redwood Hill Farm in Sebastopol in order to see where the milk for their cheese, yogurt, and kefir comes from.

We were met by Scott Bice, who is the farm manager and younger brother of Jennifer Lynn Bice, the owner and CEO of the family-run business. We toured the barns and the milking rooms and got a first-hand look at a shining example of a dairy operation that is committed to an organic lifestyle. We could even see that the goats were content and friendly. Indeed, the farm has the honor of being the first Certified Humane Goat Dairy in the United States.

Redwood Hill Farm is powered by a vast array of solar panels that track the sun. No pesticides or herbicides of any kind are used on the goat farm, vegetable gardens, or on the organic fruit orchards. No growth or milk production hormones are ever used. The goats are fed a completely organic diet whenever organic hay is available.

This was a highly enjoyable visit. If you would like to visit Redwood Hill Farm, mark your calendar for their upcoming farm tours, which take place May 11-12 and June 8-9. They promise to offer lots of fun, food, and music. For details, see their website, www.redwoodhill.com. Or take a virtual tour online at www.redwoodhill.com/virtual/tour-our-farm.

by Kristin Otto

Spring is here, and I don’t know about you, but I’m just itching get out there and play in the garden. And in fact, April is a great time of year to get some cool-season veggies planted.

The things to plant now are chard (which will be sweet all summer), kale, broccoli, cauliflower, salad greens, carrots, beets, radishes, cabbage, spinach, and salad herbs, such as cilantro, mints, dill, and parsley.

You can plant seeds for things like beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach, and radish for great additions to your salads, or you can use starts. But you probably want to use starts for the slower-growing veggies, like kale, broccoli, and chard. Since the soil is still cool, seeds can be slow to germinate, with a high risk of rotting or becoming bird food. Using starts, though, gives you a three- to six-week jump on the growing season, and the seeds are ok with the chilly soil, as long as you are!

Now is also the time to think about your summer garden favorites, like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. They take a long time to grow from seed, so you need to start them ASAP. Or, you might want to buy starts, transplant them into larger pots, and grow them big and healthy for a jump-start into summer. But don’t be fooled into putting them in the ground, yet. They like warm soil, not just warm air, and as we know from experience, Mother Nature may yet have a frost or two up her sleeve. Wait till the end of May or early June to plant those summer starts into your garden.

When you plant starts, add 1 to 2 inches of compost to your bed, nestle your little babies in, and water them with diluted kelp. As an added layer of care, cover them with a breathable row cover on hoops. This will protect them from frost, as well as from being eaten by hungry critters. Make sure to secure the edges with rocks, boards, or soil. The rains will go through the row cover, so there’s no need to remove it for watering. You can keep your spring planted veggies going into the summer by using shade cloth on those same hoops to help them keep their cool.

BriarPatch sells locally grown vegetable starts from: Sweet Roots Farm, Naked Farm, Fresh Starts Farm, Grizzly Hill Farm, Kathy McCreery and Fosten, and Patricia’s Garden Party. Happy harvesting!

Mo Tebbe, a terrific BriarPatch volunteer, recently answered some questions about what it means to help out at the store. She said that her main motivation for volunteering stems from the sustainability of quality, local food, and quality health – all things that the Patch offers.

Patch: How long have you been volunteering for BriarPatch?  

Mo: Originally I signed up at the Joerschke Street store, just before the move to this location was announced. After the dust settled, I signed up again, and… ta-da! 

Patch: How do you feel about it? Do you enjoy volunteering? What is your favorite part?  

Mo: I love volunteering at the Co-op because of the customers, the owners, the employees, the growers, and the Co-op’s mission of building and sustaining a growing, holistic, interactive community. Both of my grandfathers were food providers. One was a produce buyer and seller on “the docks” of the Mississippi. The knowledge and wisdom he imparted remain with me still. My other grandfather was an independent full-service grocery man for more than 30 years, until chain stores like Kroger took hold and he had to close. As a volunteer, I’ve learned more about the workings of the Co-op. Many of the staff I’ve met seem truly committed to co-op values and principles and are really “on-task”. 

Patch: What is your volunteer position?  

Mo: This past year I’ve volunteered for events, such as the Living Lands and Dinner Bell Farm tours, as well as the Annual Owners Meeting. I’ve also volunteered to be up front, bagging, helping customers find things, or answering questions (is semolina wheat?), demo products… there is always something meaningful to do.

BriarPatch owner volunteers gathered on a sunny January day for a party and photo. Photo by Josh Bumgarner

Mo: This is a great way to learn (and share), to participate in a comfortable and friendly setting, be of service to the community, and to have fun! It is so amazing that people shopping at the Co-op are really enjoying themselves and the experience. My own philosophy is to first know the workings of something, and to then participate in its evolution when the time is ripe, and/or to just enjoy it. This is a great way to do both! Hilary (the Volunteer Coordinator) has been wonderful about setting up schedules that can meet our needs. And the ten percent discount is a definite bonus.

Patch: Do you have a favorite story from a time when you were volunteering?  

Mo: Too many compete in my mind as favorites, though I particularly enjoy the events and special opportunities where everyone is learning and sharing with joy.

For this month’s column, Stephanie Mandel, The Vine’s editor, asked me if I would remind BriarPatch owners that there is a board election coming up, and urge them to vote.  She was planning coverage of the upcoming election, as this is the last Vine before the election is held, from May 1st through 15th.

I wish I could provide you with gripping reasons for why you should take the time to vote. But in reality, we don’t actually expect a big turnout. Why? Because, as has often been the case with BriarPatch Board Director elections, the number of candidates and the number of open positions are the same, which pretty much makes it an uncontested election. Even as the Board President, it’s hard to generate a lot of enthusiasm when the outcome is pre-determined.

Some might argue that an uncontested election is not such a bad thing. In the case of our board, for example, it has meant a welcome sense of stability over the last four or five years. Since 2008, the BriarPatch Board has come to be viewed as one of the most effective and highly functioning community-oriented boards in the county. Though we have had some turnover, it has been very gradual. And a number of us have chosen to run for second and third terms. As a result, we know and respect each other, and we also know how to work together as a group. In addition, we have instituted governance policies that provide many safeguards against the kinds of actions that would render the board ineffective.

If we are to continue to have a strong and united board, we need to do the necessary work to ensure that we attract people who love the BriarPatch community and are willing to work hard for it, with no financial reward other than a discount for purchases. To achieve this, we need a sort of stable of people waiting in the wings, ready to serve.

Might you be a good potential candidate in the future? If not, do you know other Patch owners who you think have the “right stuff,” who you could ask to consider running? To help you answer these questions, I thought I would outline for you what the Board does. And a good place to begin is by clearing up misconceptions about what the Board does not do.

People still come up to me, thinking that because I am on the Board, I should be able to influence the ingredients of the breakfast burrito, or the timeline for adding additional parking. Many owners see our nine Board members as channels for communicating their individual complaints or concerns. The fact is, though, that we Board members go out of our way to encourage people to get their questions and complaints answered not by the Board, but by our very able staff.

The process for addressing your concerns begins with the General Manager (GM); it’s his job to see that you receive an appropriate response. To do so, he typically turns the matter over to the staff member who has the best insight into your concern. No, attending to individual member complaints is not really part of our job. Which brings us to what the Board really does.

The focus of much of our time and energy goes into hiring, supervising, and communicating with the GM, who is most definitely the CEO of our co-op. He is charged by the Board with operating the business, and we are charged with oversight of his work. We expect him to keep us informed about all aspects of the enterprise, and in particular, to keep us clearly informed about all things financial:  How are sales going?  What’s happening to the amounts we pay for goods, or for employee insurance? How are we responding to the recommendations of our auditors? How much of a dividend should we give to our owners each year? To help with this, the Board also has a Finance Committee, which is chaired by our Treasurer.

Our other big role is to shape the broad direction of the business in its short-term and long-term future. Should we attempt to expand our footprint at our current store? Should we consider developing a second store in some strategic location? Should we develop a catering business or a new restaurant? Someone needs to ultimately decide the answers to such questions so that BriarPatch’s growth and development is intentionally planned and managed. The full Board is now engaged in taking a serious look at these alternatives and others, through a process that is largely led and organized by our GM, along with lots of help from experts. The great success of the new store in the past five years, and the pressures that such success exert on our physical space, give us no choice but to plan for growth.

We also put our energy into other initiatives, especially in engaging BriarPatch owners in our planning, and in our many social and community activities. And yes, we have a committee for that too — the Owner Engagement Committee.

As board members, we do get a few “perks,” including a great meal at each monthly Board meeting, prepared by our deli. Most of us also take advantage of Board training and workshop opportunities. We are always represented at the annual co-op conference, which will take place this year in early June, in Austin, Texas. The Board has its own small budget to pay for such trainings, conferences, materials and other incidental expenses; and we receive logistical and clerical support from the General Manager’s administrative assistant.

So, while this particular election will be uncontested, we are hoping that future ones will be competitive. We need to be bringing in new people with new perspectives. We especially need to have more women around the table. Did you know that our current composition is seven men and two women?

It would be great, then, if you do vote in May — after all, I’m one of the three uncontested candidates! But better yet would be for you to help us find the future candidates who will keep BriarPatch moving on its positive and creative path to continuing and even greater success.

by Chris Maher, General Manager

The BriarPatch Board and Management have been continuing our research and discussion regarding the remarkable growth of our cooperative. Much of the focus of this work is on measuring the positive impact of our cooperatively owned business. This Earth Day issue of The Vine will help you to better appreciate the environmental impact of our operation. 

One thing that has become quite clear is that our community is asking us to grow. We continue to experience increased sales year after year, and to a degree that exceeds what is being experienced throughout the natural foods industry and within the cooperative sector. As I have mentioned in this column before, many parts of our facility are approaching or exceeding the capacity for which they were originally designed. This, of course, spurs us to action, so you will definitely be seeing some changes in the coming months. And as we deal with these immediate challenges, we will also be working on a long-range plan to support our growth and increase our positive contribution to the community.

New parking lot

We will soon be increasing our parking capacity by roughly 50 spaces, which will be added on the hillside between our existing lot and Litton Drive. The new lot will have an entry point on the uphill drive and will link back into the existing lot, and will both improve the traffic flow and add the capacity that the business demands. The drawing you see here will give you a good idea of what to expect. Though it has yet to be finalized, we are getting closer to a final review from the city. We are expecting construction to take place in May, and are making plans to minimize the impact on our operations, and on your convenience. Please feel free to ask me questions or give me feedback.

Produce and deli changes

Our produce department will be getting a facelift in the coming months. Not surprisingly, our selection of fresh, delicious, organic fruits and veggies is one of the most popular features in the store. Our local farms have worked hard and cooperatively to meet this demand. To make things even better, you will be seeing a new refrigerated produce case in the summer. We will be installing it at the back of the department, and will place our dry-produce tables further out into the entry way, toward our new registers.

Another hot spot for change is our deli. Henry and his team are working on a design to remodel the service area that will improve the flow, and will also include some updating of our equipment. We will also be implementing a new ordering system that will give you faster (and friendly) service. Again, we’d really appreciate your feedback on our efforts, since our only goal is to serve you and improve your experience at the co-op.

Patronage dividend

This past year has again been successful and profitable. One sign of this is that the Board of Directors will be considering a patronage dividend that has been proposed by Management. I am expecting that we will declare all owner profit to be a patronage dividend, and will distribute a portion of that to owners in the form of a redeemable voucher. This voucher will be good for purchases in the store, or it can be exchanged for a check. We expect to make this distribution no later than the middle of May, after our taxes are finalized. We’ll be letting you know more about this in the store, on our website, and on our Facebook page.

Progress in GMO labeling

It was great to hear that Whole Foods has finally responded to their customers’ demands and joined the fight against genetically modified foods. Their absence in the efforts to support Proposition 37 here in California was felt by all of us who worked so hard to affect the vote. As the natural foods market behemoth, they are in a position to force change among food manufacturers, and this announcement could be the tipping point that sees GMOs begin to fade in the market. While BriarPatch is only one store that does not have the direct influence to demand these changes, we will continue to uphold our merchandising policy that limits GMO foods on our shelves and on your dinner plate. We continue to review our current product offerings for potential risk items that snuck in before this threat existed. We are discontinuing them and replacing them with Non-GMO certified products as available. And this is something Whole Foods has not pledged to do.

As always, if I may be of assistance, or if you would like to give me some feedback, just find me in the store, or contact me by email at chris@briarpatch.coop. Thanks for all your support of your growing co-op!

Occupation:

Education: Mathematics degree; Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries

Business Experience: Finance

Board/Community Leadership Experience: BriarPatch Board Treasurer; Board member Sierra Watch

Year joined BriarPatch: 2008

Endorsements: Debbie Plass, Peter Van Zant, Jeff Gold, Malaika Bishop,
Bob O’Brian

Why are you running for the BriarPatch Board?

I have been Treasurer of BriarPatch for the last three years during a period when it has grown tremendously. I hope to be able to contribute further to its success by serving another term on the Board.

Why will you make a good Board member?

I have served on the BriarPatch Board for the last three years and prior to that I was a member of the Finance Committee of the Co-op. In addition, during my career, I served on many boards and committees and I appreciate the demands placed on the Board in executing its responsibilities. My experience in finance is complementary to the existing Board members and I would hope to continue to provide the Co-op with the benefit of my experience and expertise.

What do you love about BriarPatch?

I love the friendly and helpful staff and the quality of the produce. I like that BriarPatch is more than a shop, it also acts as a forum for the community and provides leadership on many food issues. In particular, I like its role in sourcing fresh, local produce and the support it provides to the farmers.

What percent of your groceries do you buy at BriarPatch?  We buy over 90% of our groceries at BriarPatch.

Occupation:

Education: UC Berkeley, BA in History; Stanford University, PhD in Education

Business Experience: education consultant, self-employed 20 years; educational consultant for UC Berkeley 10 years; teacher

Board/Community Leadership Experience: 9 years on BriarPatch Board, currently serving as President

Year joined BriarPatch:  1992

Endorsements: Jeff Gold, John Daly, Joey McCutchon, Jo McProud, Peter Lockyer

Why are you running for the BriarPatch Board?

While I am the longest serving Board member on the current Board, I still feel I have a good deal to give to BriarPatch, especially to continue to lead the Board role in planning for BriarPatch’s growth in the next five, ten, and twenty years.

Why will you make a good Board member?

I believe my nine years of service have been marked by a strong commitment to BriarPatch, even during some rough times for the Board. In addition to my current role as President, I have served as Vice-President and Treasurer. I have a lot of other Board experience, both as a board member and as a consultant to various boards.

What do you love about BriarPatch?

Of course you have to begin with the food!! But I also love the energy of the store, the attitudes of employees, the business model that returns profits to the community and members, the entrepreneurial spirit, and the realization of the Board’s goal to make BriarPatch into an important community hub.

What percent of your groceries do you buy at BriarPatch?  80% plus

Alana Lucia

Occupation: homemaker

Education: Humboldt State University, Sierra College; fields of study: Environmental Sciences, BA in Spanish Education

Business Experience: Accounts Payable Manager, 5 years; Customer Service Manager, 5 years. After moving to Nevada County, I was employed by two of the largest solar manufacturers, managing their Accounts Payable Department. Before leaving Humboldt County, I was a Customer Service Manager for a well-known restaurant. I was employed by BriarPatch during the transition from the Joerschke store to its current location ending as a lead cashier. I really enjoyed the customers, employees, and the potential of BriarPatch. My employment term was short, as my husband and I decided to dedicate my next five years to raising our daughter.

Board/Community Leadership Experience: I’ve been involved in several neighborhood associations for many years; formerly the You Bet/Red Dog Association and its Outpost Group, and currently the Greater Cement Hill Neighborhood Association where I manage the association’s website.

Year joined BriarPatch:  2005

Endorsements: Shan Kendall, Akim Aginsky

Why are you running for the BriarPatch Board? BriarPatch has moved to the forefront of being the community hub for Nevada County. There are more local food options, community education options, and good employment opportunities. As BriarPatch moves forward, I would be an asset in the research and decision-making process in conceptualizing the future of BriarPatch. Especially important to me is that BriarPatch continues to provide the type of employment that attracts and keeps the dynamic people that have made it not only a place to purchase quality food, but a community hub.

Why will you make a good Board member? My past experience as a BriarPatch employee brings a necessary insight to the Board of Directors. A strong employee base creates the right environment for our customers. Though we shop at BriarPatch for its abundant food choices and community atmosphere, we must also recognize BriarPatch as a key Nevada County employer who provides a positive livelihood for its many employees. With my background in accounting as well as customer service, I have a good understanding of what it takes to balance this mix.

What do you love about BriarPatch? I appreciate the terrific organic food options, especially from local sources that BriarPatch offers for our dietary lifestyles. It’s the community hub atmosphere BriarPatch attracts that keeps me loyal and willing to engage as a Board Member.

What percent of your groceries do you buy at the BriarPatch?  95%

Did you know that one out of four people in America are either diabetic or pre-diabetic? Unfortunately, this disease doesn’t arouse the immediate attention it deserves, because it can simmer quietly for years, all the while damaging the heart, kidneys, eyes, and other organs. Since many of the associated symptoms of diabetes surface in middle age, they may simply be accepted as part of the aging process. Indeed, people are usually diabetic for years before they are actually diagnosed.

Why is there an epidemic of Type 2 diabetes? While there is a genetic component to diabetes, we have a definite influence on our vulnerability by the choices we make in our diet and exercise. The core problem usually has to do with our eating and lifestyle habits, and their consequences, which include:

• excessive weight, and especially abdominal fat

• lack of adequate nutrients (fiber, minerals, vitamins, omega-3 fats) due to eating junk and processed food

• lack of exercise

• increases in portion size and calorie intake since the 70s

There is no silver bullet to solve this problem, but the good news is that diabetes is preventable. To understand this, let’s consider the typical progression of diabetes. For most people it starts with bad eating habits that result in excess weight and nutritional deficiencies. Over time, this leads to insulin resistance that causes sugar to build up in the body. However, many years before people are diagnosed with diabetes, they are already in a pre-diabetic state. The typical physician, though, will only monitor elevated blood sugar levels and wait for a person to become diabetic before prescribing medication. Unfortunately, for about 90 percent of the people who do receive conventional care and diabetic medication, the complications that accompany diabetes are not prevented.

The simplest way to beat this disease is to prevent it. Pre-diabetes can be prevented from becoming diabetes by getting rid of abdominal fat, eating normal portions three times a day, correcting nutritional deficiencies, and getting daily exercise – even if it’s just walking for 20 minutes.

The easiest way to determine if you are pre-diabetic is to answer a questionnaire that highlights the possibility. If you determine that you are pre-diabetic, take the required steps needed to reverse this condition before it is too late. Apart from warding off diabetes, in the process you will experience weight loss, increased energy, and better sleep and overall wellness. If you already have diabetes and would like additional support in managing or reversing your condition, as well as preventing any further complications, you may want to investigate nutritional supplements, herbs, homeopathic remedies, and acupuncture, as indicated for this condition.

Dr. Ilene Cristdahl, N.D., Lac, is a naturopathic doctor practicing in Grass Valley. For more information, contact: 274-8854. www.activatehealingnd.com

From Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Measuring the Social and Economic Impact of Food Co-ops

It can be difficult for a consumer to evaluate the environmental performance of a grocery store, since some of the most important elements of conservancy – recycling, energy efficiency, and the containment of harmful refrigerants – may not be readily apparent. In a co-op, consumer-owners have the ability to influence their store’s environmental policy. As a result, co-ops have been extremely proactive in their efforts to minimize the environmental impact of their operations through education, product selection, and sustainable business practices. Many co-ops evaluate their management not only in terms of its financial results, but on its environmental performance as well. The strong focus of co-ops on environmental stewardship is reflected in their impressive performance in conserving natural resources.

Recycling

From the pallets and cardboard crates wrapped in plastic film that products are shipped in, to the clippings and scraps generated by the flower, deli, and bakery departments, grocery stores generate a significant amount of waste. One hallmark of a retailer’s environmental stewardship is how they deal with this waste; whether they send it to a landfill or incinerator, or take the steps necessary to recycle it. In recent years grocers and food manufacturers have made significant progress in reducing packaging, improving shipping efficiency, and increasing their recycling.

Although data on recycling rates for supermarkets nationwide is not available, a California government report that examined 30 grocery stores provides a useful context for understanding co-op recycling rates. Established markets for waste cardboard and the relative ease with which it can be handled lead to high rates of cardboard recycling. The California study found that supermarkets recycle 91% of the cardboard waste they generate, an impressive figure, given that cardboard represents roughly half of a typical grocery store’s waste. The typical NCGA food co-op recycles 96% of its cardboard waste.

Plastic and food waste often have less economic value and can be more difficult to recycle, which results in lower rates of recycling. In the conventional sector, supermarkets compost 26% of their food waste and other organic material and recycle 29% of the plastic waste they generate. The average NCGA food co-op recycles 81% of its plastic waste and composts 74% of its food waste and other organic material.

Given the volume of material entering a typical food co-op and the environmental consequences of sending waste to a landfill or incinerator, the positive impact of co-ops’ recycling efforts is dramatic. Of the average of 59 tons of cardboard waste that a co-op generates annually, approximately 56 tons are recycled. NCGA food co-ops recycle an estimated 9,308 tons of cardboard each year. Recycling this waste, rather than sending it to a landfill or incinerator, reduces greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 27,738 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

In addition to cardboard, NCGA food co-ops recycle an estimated 648 tons of plastic and compost approximately 3,756 tons of organic material annually. Diverting this material from the waste stream reduces greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 2,297 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The higher proportion of recycling by food co-ops as compared to conventional supermarkets reduces carbon dioxide emissions by a net total of 1,277 more metric tons per year.

Energy Conservation

Food co-ops have undertaken a wide range of projects designed to reduce their consumption of natural resources. From efforts to conserve and recapture water, such as installing a green roof or a rain catchment system, to projects that generate or offset energy use, such as installing solar panels and geothermal heat, co-ops have been in the vanguard of resource conservation. These investments in conservation have helped co-ops outperform conventional grocers with respect to energy efficiency.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established an Energy Star rating for grocery stores that allows operators to assess their building’s energy efficiency relative to similar grocers nationwide. The EPA rates stores on a scale of 1 to 100, taking into account location, size, refrigeration capacity, and other factors that contribute to energy consumption. A rating of 50 indicates average energy performance, while a rating of 75 or higher is an indication of “top performance” and qualifies a store for Energy Star certification. With the Energy Star rating system, it is possible to compare a food co-op’s energy efficiency to that of its conventionally structured peers.

By entering the energy consumption data for NCGA food co-ops into the EPA’s “Portfolio Manager” software, an Energy Star rating was estimated for each co-op. The 42 co-ops scored an average of 82, as compared to an overall grocery industry average of 50. Fully 71% of the NCGA co-ops have ratings that would qualify for Energy Star certification. Co-ops qualifying for Energy Star certification had an average score of 93, as compared to an average score of 88 for the roughly 1,900 Energy Star certified conventional supermarkets.

Refrigerant Containment

Refrigeration can account for as much as a third of a typical grocery store’s electricity usage. The refrigerants used in these refrigeration systems have a greenhouse warming potential that is many thousands of times that of carbon dioxide. Therefore, reducing leaks of refrigerant and carefully maintaining refrigeration systems can significantly reduce a grocery store’s carbon footprint.

NCGA food co-ops report that in 2011 they had an average refrigerant leakage rate of 8%, which is significantly less than the EPA’s estimated average of 25% for the industry overall. Across the country, co-ops have made efforts to reduce the environmental impact of their refrigeration systems. Fully 81% of co-ops have installed night curtains on their open refrigerators, and 62% have installed LED lighting that emits less heat in the chill case. And 52% have taken steps to improve the efficiency of their refrigeration systems, including 14% that have installed advanced refrigeration systems that are more efficient and less prone to leakage. These efforts have enabled co-ops to achieve a refrigerant leakage rate that is even lower than the 13% average leakage rate of the industry leaders who collect and report data to the EPA’s Green Chill Partnership.

Reducing refrigerant leakage rates produces tremendous environmental benefits. For a system that holds 1,000 pounds of the refrigerant R-404A, a leakage rate of 25% would release 250 pounds of gas into the atmosphere each year: the equivalent of 370 metric tons of carbon dioxide. For a co-op with the same 1,000 pound system and a leakage rate of 8%, the 100 pounds of R-404A leaked is equivalent to releasing 116 metric tons of carbon dioxide. With 165 co-op stores across the country, the average reduction of 254 metric tons per store yields a total carbon reduction of roughly 42,000 metric tons. This is equivalent to the amount of carbon sequestered annually by 8,927 acres of pine forest.

Carbon Footprint

Heating, electricity, transportation and refrigerant leakage all contribute to grocery store greenhouse gas generation. As more companies have begun disclosing their carbon footprint information and making public commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, it is becoming more practical to make comparisons of environmental performance in terms of carbon emissions. For grocery stores, the most obvious measures to compare are (1) the total carbon emissions per square foot, which addresses the energy used to heat and cool spaces of various sizes; and (2) emissions per dollar of sales, which concerns the impact of sales volume on energy consumption.

A retailer’s carbon footprint is related not only to its environmental practices and scale of operations, but also to the specific sector within which it operates. The Carbon Disclosure Project, a not-for-profit that collects corporate carbon emissions data, includes information on a handful of supermarkets whose co-op performance can be compared. The average co-op produces 39.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents for every 1,000 square feet of space. Grocery stores that furnish data to the Carbon Disclosure Project report emissions in the range of 33 to 69 metric tons per 1,000 square feet, with an average of 39. While co-op emissions per square foot are comparable to those of conventional stores, co-ops sell more per square foot than conventional grocers, and thus their emissions on the basis of tons-per-dollar-of-sales are lower. Co-ops generate 50.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per million dollars of sales, as compared to 73.7 metric tons for grocery stores that furnish data to the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Based on estimates made by a carbon footprint calculator provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the average co-op generates the equivalent of 565 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. Two-thirds of this total is attributable to electricity consumption and the fuel used to transport products to the store.

NCGA food co-ops are continuing to work to reduce their carbon footprint. Today, 7% of co-ops are now LEED certified, and 29% of them have installed solar panels as compared to just 7% of conventional stores. In addition, 27% of co-ops purchase green energy from their power company, and 10% of their total electricity consumption is offset through the purchase of renewable energy credits.

The average American family uses as many as 104 rolls of paper towels each year. While paper towels made from recycled materials may be a step in the right direction, how about utilizing something that’s actually reusable? Aisle 6 at the Patch holds two possibilities – towels that are made from bamboo, and microfiber cloths. Bamboo “paper” towels can be washed, hung to dry, and used again. Microfiber, on the other hand, is a super star of the cleaning world. From dusting to scrubbing, microfiber cloths are soft enough to wipe down computer monitors, but tough enough to clean soap scum in the tub. Indeed, they can tackle a wide variety of tasks.

Did you know that approximately 20 billion pads, tampons, and applicators are sent to North American landfills annually? By choosing reusable products such as Diva Cups and Luna Pads, a woman can keep 16,800 disposable feminine hygiene products from being thrown away in the course of her lifetime.

Mmm… beer. When you’re deciding what beer to pair with tonight’s dinner, that tasty can of microbrew is your greener option. Though mining for aluminum is energy intensive, most cans are recycled, and they’re recycled in much larger numbers than bottles. Plus, glass beer bottles weigh eleven times more than their can counterparts, which means that 1.4 times more greenhouse gas emissions are created in transporting glass than aluminum. And after the empty bottles and cans are hauled away for recycling, the bottles will generate fully 11.3 times more greenhouse gas emissions.

A typical American family generates more than 4,000 pieces of lunch trash each year. By choosing reusable lunch totes and food containers, your school-age child can save 67 pounds of lunch-box packaging from needing to be discarded.

Laundry detergents keep getting greener and greener. In addition to the fact that their laundry soap is biodegradable, Seventh Generation’s packaging is now also going down that route. Seventh Generation now offers concentrated detergent in a recycled fiber shell, and it’s concentrated. Concentrated detergent costs less and requires less fossil fuel to ship, since manufacturers use less water in production. Less water means less use of a valuable natural resource, smaller packaging, and a lighter product.

Does it get any greener than vinegar? It’s something you can eat that can also help keep your house spotless. Not only does it clean windows, but coupled with baking soda it cleans drains, and makes for a septic-friendly fabric softener, too. Vinegar also helps in cutting out soap build-up in clothes when used in the prewash cycle.

Since your cereal is packaged in a bag to preserve freshness, what’s the point of adding more packaging by putting the bag inside a cardboard box? Eco Pac Cereal eliminates that extra packaging, and all the nutritional information you want to read is printed right on the bag. Add to this the fact that these larger volume bags mean fewer trips to the store — as well as a better stocked pantry at home.

In the honor roll of green virtues, reuse comes before recycling, so opting for items in deposit containers is another great way to be planet-friendly. Look for milk in glass jars, shelf-stable ghee, and yogurt in crocks. Though you pay a deposit when you purchase food in reusable containers, you get that deposit back when you return the container. That container is then sterilized and reused, keeping even more packaging from even being produced, let alone out of our landfills!

Greener food tasting spoons
Throughout 2012 BriarPatch used a greener option, EcoTaster utensils, for our in-store food sample tasting. (Kudos to Demo and Volunteer Coordinator Hilary Dart for finding and switching to this greener choice!)
• EcoTaster is ASTM D6868 compliant for compostability and breaks down in 4 to 10 weeks. Most utensils labeled “biodegradable” are not accepted by compost facilities.
• EcoTaster is recyclable while other “biodegradables” are not.
• EcoTaster is made from renewable FSC paperboard. FSC certification is called the “gold standard” of sustainable forest management.
• The compact nature of USA-made EcoTensils reduces shipping carbon footprints significantly compared to other tasting utensils, mostly made in China.
For information, see ecotensil.com.

Greener deli food containers, no-BPA receipts
In September of 2010, in response to a firestorm of concerns, BPA-Free thermal paper became available and has been used exclusively at the Co-op since then. This is an excellent example of how manufacturers do respond to organized feedback regarding their products. Consumers quickly created this change, said Dean Richardson of Oakland Packaging, a supplier BriarPatch purchases from.

In California, food co-ops are now coordinating and creating demand for more environmentally friendly packaging. This has brought innovations such as Packaging 2.0 clear plastic containers made from 100% post consumer recycled material and Bio Plus paperboard containers, which use 100% recycled paper (35% post consumer recycled). These products help close the recycling loop, leading to sustainable packaging.
These are specific instances where BriarPatch and NCGA co-ops are having a positive effect in bringing more environmentally friendly products to market.

Producing them uses energy and water, even when the paper is recycled.

Both producing and transporting them creates co2 emissions. Every phase of paper’s life cycle contributes to global warming, from harvesting trees to producing pulp and paper to their eventual disposal. Those that end up in landfills, though biodegradable, break down slowly and emit methane gas. Whether from virgin or recycled paper, the process of producing them causes pollution from toxic chemicals.

Reusable bags A to Z… Which is the greenest? The one that you use every time you shop!

Recently, a number of us here at the Co-op have put a lot of thought into the fact that probably 70 percent or more of our shoppers do not bring reusable bags. With this in mind, and with Earth Day just around the corner, we have made a commitment to reducing bag use at BriarPatch as a way of supporting our overall goal of reducing the store’s environmental impact.

Our first step in addressing this problem was to do some research into what other co-ops have done.

Over a two-year period, Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op reduced their paper bag use from 11,000 a month to only 2,000 a month. As part of their process, they dropped their 5¢ reward for reusing a bag and instead charged a 10¢ fee for each paper bag. They also offered shoppers inexpensive, reusable bags as an alternative to paper ones. Furthermore, the city of Ukiah used the co-op’s program as a test case, and seeing its success, initiated a 10¢ per bag program at other stores and prohibited the use of plastic bags at stores above a certain size.

Chico Natural Foods Co-op instituted a new bag program near the end of last year, and in its first three months their bag use dropped by about 22 percent! They now charge a 20¢ fee for single-use paper bags and provide free, reusable “100 use” bags. They have also  developed a better program for recycling (reusing) bags and boxes. Chico’s free bags are made from 100% recycled plastic, and are 100% recyclable once they are no longer useful. Like BriarPatch, they reward shoppers with 5¢ for every bag they bring with them when they shop.

Ashland Food Co-op charges 10¢ for each large paper bag, and as alternatives, they offer inexpensive reusable bags, as well as free recycled paper bags and boxes. From 2007 to 2011, this approach reduced their paper bag use from 30,000 to 5,100 bags per month.

Co-ops are not alone in taking such measures. California’s Trader Joes’s stores, for example, also now charge 10¢ for each new paper bag.

Where will BriarPatch go with this? Starting in April, we will offer more inexpensive reusable bags for sale, and will display them more conveniently at the registers. We are seriously considering following in the footsteps of our sister co-ops and passing on to shoppers the cost of large paper bags, since this has proven to reduce their use. First, though, we want to hear your thoughts on the subject. Our annual Shopper Satisfaction Survey will include a question about charging 10¢ for paper bags, so be sure to take the survey during June and give us your thoughts.

Meanwhile, we suggest making an Earth Day pledge to commit to using reusable bags more often.

Many of us, I am sure, have had that intention, but then forget our bags at home. I was often guilty of this myself, but I remedied the situation by keeping used plastic produce and bulk bags and reusable shopping bags in my car – an approach others might find helpful. (I also keep inexpensive containers in the car so I won’t need carryout boxes for leftover food after I eat at the co-op and other places.)

Some shoppers, of course, like paper bags for good reasons, since they can be used at home for various purposes; perhaps they would be willing to pay for them?

In any case, by working together on this issue, I am sure we will come up with workable solutions and make a big difference that we will all appreciate.

The new Low Mercury List marks the most robust merger of sustainability and safety information. The list was compiled by FishWise, BriarPatch’s partner in seafood sustainability, and Micro Analytical Systems, Inc., the company behind Safe Harbor Certified Seafood. Seafood options on the list have tested to be very low in mercury;“We are excited to be one of a select group of retailers to carry the new Low Mercury List,” said General Manager Chris Maher. “The previous Low Mercury List relied on publicly available data, which was limited, so we are eager to distribute this new information, sourced from the largest available database for mercury in seafood.”

“We know sustainability is important to our customers, but the safety of their families is first and foremost. The new Low Mercury List will allow our customers to select seafood based on both the health of their family and the environment.” For more information, visit www.fishwise.org and/or www.safeharborfoods.com.

Preheat oven to 350. Clean the dirt from the beets. Trim at both ends.

Line foil on the inside of a pan and place beets and garlic in the pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on the rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper. Make sure that everything is coated. Add 1 cup of water to the cooking pan before covering tightly with foil.

Roast in oven for 45 minutes, or until beets are tender with a fork. Large beets may need more time. Leftover cooking liquid can be cooled and drizzled over the finished plate.

Once the roasted beets are cooled enough to touch, gently squeeze the beet to break open the skin and peel it off.

Slice, sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese, and drizzle with the saved liquid.

Tips for taking your food photo:
Use natural light, avoid flash.
Arrange dish in attractive manner.
Have a simple, clean background.
Focus on the middle of the dish.

The FDA action is widely viewed as confirmation that the Obama Administration is prepared to approve shortly the first genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for human consumption — in the face of widespread opposition.

FDA says that the fish pose “no impact” to the environment and that their escape is unlikely. But each year millions of farmed salmon do escape, outcompeting wild populations for resources, and straining ecosystems. Any approval of GE salmon would represent a serious threat to the survival of native salmon populations. Additionally, the human health impacts of eating GE fish are entirely unknown.

To sign the petition to tell the FDA not to approve GE salmon, go to ge-fish.org or centerforfoodsafety.org.  — Center for Food Safety

The films will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. each Friday. In the spirit of providing community education, admission is free — but we’ll gladly accept donations to the BriarPatch Cooperative Community Fund. Seating is limited, so come early to be sure to get a seat. Food is allowed in the Community Room, but to minimize noise and distraction, please plan to enjoy your supper, snacks, and drinks before the show, in the Good Food Gallery/dining area.

Cafeteria Man - February 1

What does it take to reform school food programs and serve kids fresher, more healthful, and tastier meals? “Cafeteria Man” takes a candid look at Tony Geraci’s efforts to kick-start school food reform in Baltimore. As the newly hired Food and Nutrition Director of the city’s public school district, Geraci hatches an ambitious, multi-faceted plan to feed students healthy, locally-sourced meals, teach them nutritional awareness, and offer them training and vocational opportunities in the world of food. His vision includes a 33-acre teaching farm, school vegetable gardens, student-designed meals, and meatless Mondays. (65 minutes)

Greening the Revolution - February 8

This documentary explores the far-reaching effects of international food injustice. Using food as a symbol of inequality, it explains and exposes the corrupt cycle of globalization that perpetuates systems of poverty and oppressive social control. There is hope, though, as communities are achieving food justice and freedom through the power of the people. Filmed in India, Kenya, Zambia, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti and the United States. (80 minutes)

In Organic We Trust - February 15

Seventy-eight percent of Americans eat at least some organic food because they think it’s healthier. Is organic better for us, or is it just a marketing scam?

This film looks at the impact of corporate brands on the philosophy of organic food, while exploring practical solutions for consumers that include farmers markets, school gardens, and urban farms. As the film shows, change is happening, from the soil up. (81 minutes)

Symphony of the Soil - February 22

Drawing from ancient knowledge and cutting edge science, this film is an artistic exploration of the miraculous substance of soil. By exploring the elaborate relationships and mutuality among soil, water, plants, animals, and the atmosphere, this film enables us to appreciate the complex and dynamic nature of this precious resource.

Filmed on four continents and featuring esteemed scientists, working farmers, and ranchers, “Symphony of the Soil” highlights the possibilities of healthy soil, which creates healthy plants, which create healthy humans living on a healthy planet. (104 minutes)

by Julie DeHollander, RD

Here’s the bad news: heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the US., and there’s a 25% chance we will each face  some kind of heart issue in our lives. The good news is that by following some basic guidelines, we can stay on the sunny side of these statistics.

Heart disease may develop due to a variety of factors, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, heredity, high oxidized LDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, inflammation, high homocysteine, chronic infection, high C-reactive protein, high fibrinogen, sleep apnea, and gum disease.

It can also be the result of lifestyle factors such as eating trans fats and fried foods, a diet high in sugar and starch and low in nutrients, smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, stress, and exposure to toxins.

In my practice as a dietitian, I see a lot of people who either have heart disease or are at high risk. When developing their treatment plan, my main aims are to advise people on how to regulate their blood sugar and blood pressure, manage their weight, replenish their antioxidants, and reduce their inflammation and oxidized LDL cholesterol while increasing the good HDL cholesterol. I also advise regular physical activity and stress reduction.

Here are some dietary and lifestyle recommendations I give my patients to reduce their risk of heart disease:

• Eat a diet rich in fresh, whole foods. Fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains help provide the body with phytochemicals, as well as potassium and magnesium. Dark leafy greens, onions, garlic, maitake mushrooms, and legumes are all cardio-protective foods.

• Limit added salt and reduce your total intake by eating fresh, unprocessed foods. Excess sodium can raise your blood pressure.

• Avoid trans fats and refined oils. Include quality essential fats in your diet, such as cold water fatty fish, fish oil, high lignin flax oil, grape seed oil, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, seeds, and avocados.

• Eat organically grown foods and reduce chemical exposure by using green cleaning products and cosmetics. Toxins promote free radicals and inflammation. Consider a detoxification program once or twice annually.

• Increase your intake of high antioxidant foods. Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) is a relatively new test that measures the power of antioxidants to combat free radicals. The top-scoring fruits are pomegranates, prunes, raisins, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries. The top ORAC vegetables are kale, spinach, Brussels sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, broccoli, beets, red bell peppers, and onions.

• Eat anti-inflammatory foods such as turmeric, ginger, and garlic, as well as resveratrol foods such as berries, red and purple grapes, peanuts, and pistachios.

• Increase your fiber intake by eating fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Soluble fiber (found in grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables) acts as a sponge that soaks up dietary cholesterol and helps to regulate blood sugar. Aim for 25 to 30 grams of fiber per day.

• Test for food allergies or sensitivities. Eating foods you are allergic to can cause excessive inflammation.

• Practice stress-relieving techniques daily. Studies have shown that deep breathing, meditation, yoga, and progressive relaxation may help reduce cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and stress hormones.

• Reduce your oxidized LDL cholesterol by eating antioxidant rich foods and foods that contain phosphatidylcholine. Fish, eggs, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and wheat germ are good sources of phosphatidylcholine. Lecithin (phosphatidylcholine) supports an enzyme that attaches to excess cholesterol and transports it back to the liver, helping to keep the arteries free.

• Set up an exercise program with the guidance of your health care provider, but take care not to stress your system by overdoing it. Find a physical activity that you enjoy.

Julie DeHollander, RD is a Registered Dietitian and Holistic Nutritionist practicing in Grass Valley. For more information contact: Sierra Wellness Nutrition at 530-263-3131 or visit www.sierrawellnessnutrition.com.

So where does BriarPatch find tomatoes, basil, and other warm-weather favorites during the off-season? One answer is from Del Cabo cooperative, which is striving to make a difference in the organic farming communities of Mexico.

In 1985, Larry Jacobs and Sandra Belin, successful organic farmers at Jacobs Farm in Pescadero, California, discovered a struggling community of subsistence-level farmers in Mexico. The couple had a vision of creating, with those Mexican farmers, a model of farming that was community-oriented and also supported by the international market. Over thirty years later, the Del Cabo cooperative of Mexican growers has succeeded in ensuring a great return for small farmers.

One such family is the Espinozas. In 1991, Sandra learned that foreign producers were taking the lion’s share of the market, leaving little for the family farmers. But today, after working hard to establish an organic cherry tomato farm, the Espinoza family has gone from a subsistence income and the threat of foreclosure, to becoming a respected part of the community. Not only has their success given the Espinozas the opportunity to gather their extended family into the agricultural trade, but it has enabled them to offer permanent employment to other members of their community.

The Castro family has a similar tale. They joined the Del Cabo co-op in 2005, after losing their charcoal trade due to new environmental laws. They then transformed their once-small ranch into an organic farm with a focus on specialty crops, and are now able to offer permanent employment to over 30 families, and seasonal employment to 150 others. Tepentu, where the Castro family resides, is now considered the jewel of the region thanks to the money their farm has been able to reinvest into the community.

“Today,” as the Del Cabo website tells us, “the Tepentu group is one of the best, and most recent, examples of how the Del Cabo cooperative model provides sustainable and economic opportunities to rural communities – by teaching organic farming practices.” It further tells us that the co-op’s mission “is to grow great tasting, healthy food in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.” This focus on social responsibility has helped communities in California and the Baja region of Mexico become thriving, more sustainable areas. It has also inspired its members to transition hundreds of their 3,700 acres from conventional farming to certified organic status, and has also encouraged biodiversity. Del Cabo also seeks out recyclable and recycled packaging, thus further supporting the environment.

The cooperative’s focus on economic sustainability helps farmers not just work on their land, but stay on their land. As their website tells us, “Farmers always receive a fair price for their crops, communities continue to flourish, and future generations are encouraged to stay on the land.”

Del Cabo’s dedication and focus on quality, healthy produce has also caught the attention of Arthur Allen, the author of “Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato.” As Allen said of Del Cabo’s tomatoes, “I’ll be damned if those weren’t the best tomatoes I’d ever tasted.”

So — the next time you pick up a package with the Del Cabo label, know that you’re helping to foster social responsibility and living wages for farmers in Mexico. And, you’re getting some pretty tasty tomatoes, to boot!

by Alan Weisberg, President

In shopper surveys we’ve conducted, and from what we hear as board members, prices are a great concern for many BriarPatch owners. Since the job of the Board of Directors is to represent Co-op owners’ interests when you have concerns, we welcome the focus on prices in this edition of the Vine. I urge you to read what General Manager Chris Maher and others have to say about our pricing policies and practices. Here, I’d like to give you my own perspective as a member of the Board, as an owner, and as an individual who has always been a price-conscious food shopper.

Setting prices is a complex task. It’s an operational issue and is therefore the responsibility of management. Our staff are constantly monitoring prices and making countless decisions from a variety of perspectives. What distinguishes BriarPatch from non-co-op grocery stores is that the bottom-line profit is not the only driver of our pricing practices. We are a purpose-driven organization, which is very different, and some key principles that guide our pricing decisions are expressed in our Global Ends policies, which we approved last fall after a great deal of discussion and deliberation. The six main Global End policies, listed on this page, summarize the values and goals we think the co-op should be striving towards. As we now consider the subject of prices together, this is a good time to review them.

As regards prices, at least three of our Ends Policies provide some pretty clear guidance.

Ends Policy #1 calls for BriarPatch to be a leader in employment policies not just locally, but nationally as well. This affects prices because in order to be a model employer, we need to pay our staff well. Raising wages and benefits, as management plans to do in 2013, draws from our profits or reserves, which in turn exerts a pressure on us to raise prices. While management expects to offset at least some of the cost of higher wages through sales growth and greater efficiencies, advocates of holding the line on prices might argue against raising wages. This Ends Policy, however, makes our course of action clear, since paying our workforce well is a high priority.

Ends Policy #3 states that BriarPatch should be a community center where people experience connectedness and fellowship. This has all sorts of implications on how we spend our funds. I hope that you feel the same way as I do, that things like the attractiveness of the store, our priority for selling local products, our efforts to present the works of local artists in the deli seating area, the availability of a community meeting room at low or even no cost, our organization of opportunities for members to volunteer—that all these are good investments in building community. As the word investment suggests, these things cost money to sustain, and we spend that money because these practices contribute to the ends we’ve established, even as they exert a pressure to raise prices in order to compensate for them.

Ends Policy #5 says that as a major employer, we want BriarPatch to offer a healthy, considerate workplace for its employees. This, too, entails costs in fulfilling the commitment we have made. Being considerate of our employees means offering fair wages, strong benefits, and a comfortable, inviting workplace. It also means employing a larger workforce than you will find at conventional markets, because we do lots more than just sell groceries. No other market in town has a wellness counter, a very active customer service desk, staff dedicated to community outreach, or the county’s number one source for tickets to concerts and entertainment events. These services express our commitment to our co-op values, and are offered to benefit you as a co-op owner and shopper. Also, by employing a sufficiently large workforce, each staff member can feel that they have the opportunity to do their work well and with pride.

So, where does this leave us in terms of The Price Question? Most importantly, it shows that our co-op is not just about low-priced food. (As I’m sure you know already!) There are other places where the prices may be lower, but none of these can offer service that is as good, or standards of health and quality that are as high, let alone all the cultural and community-building initiatives we’re engaged in.

Our Board feels very strongly that paying our workers good wages and providing a positive work environment is a very high priority. It also makes good business sense to attract and keep capable, committed employees.

I hope you won’t take all this to mean that the Board is unconcerned about low prices. Indeed, quite the opposite is the case. We care very much, both as price-conscious individual shoppers, and as Board members who share your concern.

I also hope you don’t think we are unconcerned about profits. The good intentions expressed in our Ends Policies require resources that can only come from profits. The difference is that we can take those profits and share some of them with you, while also supporting the many efforts that make BriarPatch such an esteemed and growing source of community enrichment in Nevada County.

PART 1 • Preferred Criteria for products

• Produced using sustainable practices incl. organic ag.

• Produced from ecologically responsible processes.

• Locally produced and/or locally grown.

• From small independent companies.

• With minimal, recycled or recyclable packaging.

• From collectively or cooperatively-owned businesses.

• Foods that are whole.  • Foods that are sold in bulk.

• Foods that are minimally processed.

• Foods that have few or no artificial additives.

PART 2 • Products that may be sold until better alternatives are found or made available

• Products in non-recyclable packaging.

• Products with genetically modified material listed as minor ingredients or from companies in transition to “no-GMO” status.

• Non-organic foods.

PART 3 • Products to be avoided

• Products from companies that use animals for testing.

• Products containing genetically modified or engineered material listed as a main ingredient.

• High fructose corn syrup.

• Products containing artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, or other artificial ingredients.

• Products containing nitrates.

• Irradiated products.  • Processed tobacco products.

• Dairy products containing rBGH.

• Meat products treated with hormones or antibiotics.

The outlook for food prices in the coming year is being affected by several factors.

The drought

The most prominent factor in the U.S. leading to an increase in food prices is the drought in the Mid-West. According to most long-term forecasts, this is expected to continue. The prices of corn, wheat and soybeans end up affecting most of what we find on the grocery shelves. No one is forecasting that the drought will subside, and as we all know, extreme weather patterns are likely to persist due to global warming.

Moderating factors

Several factors are delaying the near-term impact of the drought. One of these is the delay between the time when food is grown and produced, and the time it actually hits the shelves. Thus, the primary effect of the drought won’t be felt until its impact wends its way through this entire process, which will extend into 2013 and 2014. As yields drop, farmers plant more to offset their losses.

The recession has resulted in a drop in oil prices, which is a primary input in the mass production of food. For each dollar spent on food, 8.2% of it goes to cover the energy and transportation costs of producing it. If the recession eases or persists, that will increase or moderate the effect of food prices accordingly.

Another offsetting variable is that fact that we are in a global market, and the price we pay for food is in part related to supply and demand world-wide, not just in the United States. This is having a moderating effect, at present.

Finally, though it may sound contradictory, crop prices have declined. Corn is down 12% over the past couple of months for two reasons: cattle are being dumped on the market due to the drought, and the demand for ethanol has recently dropped by 14%, due to the recession and Hurricane Sandy. Fewer cattle results in a significant short-term drop in the demand for grain. The size of the U.S. cattle herd is the smallest it has been since 1973.

Meat and poultry

As you can see, the short-term moderating factors are going to reverse over the next year or two. Poultry will experience the first effect, since its production cycle is shorter than that of meat. The price of meat should increase as the shrinking supply comes to the fore next year.

Local producers

Rising food prices due to the drought mean that local producers on the West Coast may experience some price advantages if prices rise nationally, but the local costs of production do not.  This would be most notable in areas such as locally grown beef and poultry that is sold by producers who don’t compete nationally.

Inflation

Most estimates for 2013 are coming in at 4%, though this is conjecture at best. I am skeptical that inflation will be that low, and expect that the most significant increases will be seen in meat and poultry. We should see the effects of inflation begin to manifest in the Spring.

Francis Moore Lappé, author of “Diet for a Small Planet,” says, “We’ve actually let market prices lie to us. They don’t register all the hidden costs of our ‘factory farming’ model, costs that undermine the very sustainability of nature’s gifts.”

She continues, “Food prices don’t count the fact that soil is eroding on prime farmland many times faster than nature rebuilds it, or the marine life we’re losing because of nitrogen runoff from overusing fertilizers.”

The prices also don’t include the loss of plant diversity that occurs when our seed is supplied by just a few companies aggressively marketing a limited selection, or when the wells in Midwest states are poisoned by farm chemicals.

A host of additional costs include more than 5,000 deaths each year from food-borne illnesses, even as agribusiness — especially the meat industry — has fought against adding the cost of stricter food safety procedures to the bottom line.

The Worldwatch Institute reported as long ago as 1991 that the price of meat alone might double or triple if the full ecological costs — including fossil fuel use, groundwater depletion, chemical pollution, and methane and ammonia emissions — were included in the bill.

Who will pay?

The core of the food cost issue is not so much how expensive it really is, but who will really pay. Future generations will pay the environmental prices our society finds ways to avoid today. As for the short-term costs — environmental regulation, pollution cleanup, elimination of subsidized water prices, agricultural policies that foster family farms, and research into organic practices — who pays these costs now?

“If you withdrew all the subsidies and considered the reduction of taxes, it probably would be worth the increased price of food,” observes Dr. John M. Connor, a professor  of agricultural economics at Purdue University. But low-income people and the elderly already spend a large portion of their income on food. What happens to their nutrition if food prices rise?

David Granatstein, of Washington State University, thinks we should spread the environmental costs over a larger number of people. “Government intervention, by regulation, is one tool to deal with external costs so they affect people equally,” says Granatstein. “It allows us to address issues that don’t reflect personal health, such as soil erosion and water pollution, for which people are less willing to pay higher food prices.”

Subsidies: a complex issue

The easiest dollars to track are government agricultural subsidies. The USDA spends about $20 billion a year on direct subsidies, most of it to keep prices on a few crops – such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice – below the true cost of production, and therefore competitive for export. This policy has allowed the prices charged for grain products to actually be much lower than the cost of production.

Indirect subsidies also contribute to the marketplace prices of food being below true costs. A glaring example is the pricing for irrigation water. In the United States, the Bureau of Reclamation supplies water at greatly subsidized prices to a quarter of the West’s irrigated land under long-term contracts.

Intangible costs

Other less easily measured costs are not reflected in the market price. Some are correctable — water pollution from fertilizers, pesticides, sediment, and animal manure, or health damage to farm workers from pesticides. Others are outright losses — topsoil erosion, the depletion of aquifers, and a reduction in plant and animal biodiversity, and the reduced economic base in rural communities. Some of these costs are beyond price. What will the weakening of rural communities cost us as a culture? We have no models by which to measure.

Water: pollution and depletion

“Water is the main issue. It will be more and more a driving issue in the next decade,” says Theresa Marquez, chief marketing executive at Organic Valley. Water issues revolve around pollution and depletion. Non-organic agriculture is the biggest polluter. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Wastewater Management Director Michael Cook, “[Non-organic] farming is responsible for 70 percent of waterway pollution, outstripping sewage treatment plants and pollution deposited from the air.” Organic farming methods, in comparison, prevent soil erosion and protect water quality.

Water is considered a renewable resource, but many agricultural areas are facing declining water supplies. Many farmers depend on wells for their irrigation water, and many of those wells are pumped in excess of recharge by rainfall. Other irrigation projects draw from so-called “fossil” aquifers — ancient water supplies, often deep underground — that get very little recharge. Pumping water from these aquifers could be called “water mining,” one-time extractions from a non-renewable resource. Once it’s gone, the farmers’ crops that depend on it are gone, too.

The Worldwatch website explains, “Over-pumping of underground aquifers is causing water tables to fall precipitously in parts of northern China, India, the western United States, and elsewhere. One-fifth of U.S. irrigated land is watered by pumping in excess of recharge, a practice that eventually makes irrigation too costly to continue and can even drain some aquifers dry. Irrigated area in Texas, where groundwater depletion has been particularly severe, has fallen 30 percent from its peak in 1974.”

Soil erosion and salinization

The plowed fields of traditional farming methods expose the topsoil to erosion by wind and water. The cost of lost topsoil is difficult to measure, but most farmers and researchers agree it’s happening at a faster rate than soil is forming, and that it leads to reduced production.

Maintaining topsoil is of obvious benefit to farmers. “We’ve seen a rapid adoption of no-till production methods in U.S. agriculture in the last five or six years,” says Purdue’s Connor. “But the trade-off is that it requires the use of herbicides.”

Besides soil loss through erosion, soil is lost to agricultural production through salinization as a result of irrigation. As time passes, the evaporation of irrigation water leads to a steady accumulation of salt in the soil. Eventually the built-up salt makes the soil unusable.

Worldwatch reports, “Poor water management leading to a steady accumulation of salt in the soil has damaged 60 million hectares, roughly one-fourth of the world’s irrigated land.

Now suffering reduced yields, this land requires costly reclamation; some of it eventually will have to be abandoned.” Worldwatch calls salt pollution “the silent scourge that played a role in the decline of ancient Mesopotamian societies.”

The cost of industrial farming

Cornell University’s David Pimentel calculates the environmental and social costs of pesticides in the United States to be more than $8 billion. His study breaks out costs in public health impacts, domestic animal deaths and contamination, loss of natural predators, cost of pesticide resistance, honeybee and pollination losses, crop, fisher, and bird losses, groundwater contamination, and government regulations to prevent damage.

Then there are the social and biological costs of industrialized farming. “Subsidized factory farming drives small family farms out of business,” says Marquez. “One 5,000-cow dairy has replaced as many as 200 family farms. Who can put a cost on that? We’re sacrificing our rural farming communities.”

Industrialized farming also puts added pressure on biodiversity and reduces traceability of food. “When the food system is commercialized,” says Margaret Clark, former member of the National Organic Standards Board, “there’s a loss of information. There’s no way to know how a piece of food is grown. We also pay a price in terms of the genetics of food,” she adds. “There’s a loss of genetic diversity as produce is bred for longer shelf life and standardized quality.”

Organic agriculture pays costs now

There is a way to reduce some of the costs. “Since agriculture is one of the largest non-point polluters, changing to organic practices would reduce water pollution and lead to lower clean-up costs,” says Katherine DiMatteo, of the Organic Trade Association. “Methods developed for organic agriculture are designed to address the types of impacts traditional agriculture has had,” says Joe Bennett, of Cascadian Farms. “They create soil that has more character. It retains water better so there’s less runoff, which means less sedimentation in streams and lakes. Since organic methods don’t use pesticides, including herbicides, pesticide pollution is eliminated.”

Granatstein cautions, however, that the biggest agricultural pollution problem is sediment and nutrients, not pesticides. “Organic standards don’t guarantee you’ll eliminate those problems. Organic practices also must be well managed.”

Consumers mold the marketplace

As consumers, our shopping practices can encourage farmers to use organic methods. If we want the long-term costs to be addressed now, we must support farmers who use sustainable, non-polluting practices. “Consumers have the ultimate control,” says Granatstein. “They have to be willing to pay for it and the market will shape it.”

“We have to see differently, then measure and count the real costs of producing food,” says Lappé. “We’ve boasted that ours is the world’s most efficient food system, but no business could stay afloat for long while ignoring its real costs. Efficiency and sustainability — the maintenance of Earth’s gifts to us and our health over time — can no longer be seen as contradictory aims. Once we dispel the myth of efficiency hiding costs, we discover that sustainable is synonymous with real efficiency — getting the most of our resources over time.”

Food costs are complicated, but every consumer helps draw the line for who will pay and where the market will move. When we pay the higher prices of organic produce, we’re not just paying for personal health, but for a healthier environment, long-term sustainable agriculture, and stronger rural economies. With every dollar put forward for local and organic produce, we stimulate sustainability.

Reprinted from Sound Consumer, newsletter of PCC Markets. Photographs: boy with hamburger by Shawn Rossi, http://www.flickr.com/photos/shawnzlea/414941163/; San Luis Valley by Doc Searls, http://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/2450918712/in/photostream/

by Rick Sheller

BriarPatch is a member of the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA.) Organized as a co-op, the NCGA’s membership includes over 130 cooperative grocers around the U.S.

BriarPatch’s membership in the NCGA translates into a variety of savings for the store, and in turn, for our shoppers.

There are two important drivers of the cost of food (which the industry lingo refers to as a retailer’s cost of goods sold (COGS). These are the distance from the source (farmer, manufacturer, distributor), and the retailer’s volume (how much they buy, usually per week). The volume bought can offset the distance if it’s large enough to create efficiencies for the suppliers — bigger orders mean fewer deliveries needed to fill a truck. This is why larger stores and chains of stores (Whole Foods, Raley’s, and Trader Joe’s) can have lower COGS than an independent retailer. Chains can further reduce their COGS by distributing their own products, thus reducing the expense they would otherwise pay to costly middlemen. National chains can negotiate lower pricing from their suppliers by leveraging the total purchasing power of their stores. This is one big reason why it’s hard for independent retailers to compete when a chain opens a store in their market area.

Independent retailers like co-ops can minimize this cost differential by joining an association that leverages the buying power of all its members to negotiate purchasing agreements with suppliers. This is why BriarPatch’s membership in the NCGA means lower prices from their primary distributor (UNFI), reduced credit card transaction fees, and lower costs for paper bags and deli to-go containers.

In addition to favorable pricing, our membership allows us to influence the source of these items, and the social and environmental impact of their manufacturing. These are just a few examples of the benefits we receive as a member of the NCGA, which are not visible to the casual shopper.

An additional membership benefit, and one that’s very visible each time you shop at the Patch, are the promotional programs – both the Co+op Deals bi-weekly flyer sales and the Co+op Deals coupons. These are further examples of how NCGA leverages its members’ purchasing power to negotiate much bigger discounts from manufacturers (up to 30% or more) than the Patch could receive on its own. Since sale items represent more than 20% of all purchases at the store, these promotions play an important role in BriarPatch’s ability to compete with the other stores in our community.

So come to the co-op, enjoy the great products, and enjoy the savings, as well!

Rick Sheller is a BriarPatch Board Director and an employee of NCGA.

BriarPatch Basics - We want basic, healthful foods to be affordable for everyone. This is why we offer 50 staple foods, spanning every department, at a constant discount, every day — ranging from milk to multi-grain bread, butter to beans, russet potatoes to rice. Just look for the bright orange shelf tags, or see the full list at briarpatch.coop/save-with-specials/briarpatch-basics/.

Owner Specials - These deeply discounted prices are offered to BriarPatch Co-op owners only. The specials change bi-weekly. Look for the bright green and orange signs, or the flyers at the store entrance.

by Andrew Meyers

Our local farmers and ranchers are quite impressive. This year, the BriarPatch Produce Department sold more locally grown produce than ever before –- and by a long shot.  The idea of “eat local” has gained wonderful traction in our community.  And as this ethos broadens and penetrates, it will be rewarding watch as our farmers and ranchers meet new challenges and opportunities in order to provide more and more local food for our community…

It’s no secret that Nevada County is a unique place for raising crops.  The area is more suited to ranching, and even pear production, than it is to vegetable and fruit production.  What the county lacks in depth of soil, it makes up for in breadth of rocks – things I like to call “tractor-implement destroyers.”  Our weather is also more like that of Oregon or Washington than that of the Central Valley, which is just miles away to the west.  Given our soil resources and climate, it is simply stunning what our farmers coax from the earth. From luscious cantaloupes to emerald-green broccolis – the highest-quality produce that I have ever seen comes from Nevada County.

Our geography imposes another natural constraint on the size and scale of our farming operations.  Forests and mountains are beautiful, but valleys are where farming happens.  Because we have few valleys in Nevada County, our farmers have to take advantage of the meadows and clearings that dot the landscape.  I think it’s this juxtaposition – farms surrounded by hills and forests – that make our farms some of the most beautiful in California, if not the world.  And given the small scale of our farms, it is a huge accomplishment that our producers actually bring their goods to market at a competitive price.  After all, some of the largest farms in the world are situated just down the hill in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Valley.  There, carrots are grown on thousands of acres – while ours are grown on mere tenths of an acre.  Bigger is not better, though. Those Valley carrots languish for days (with many stops) on the supply chain before they end up on the shelves.  Our local farmers, on the other hand, hustle their products directly to market, so we can enjoy fresh produce that’s bursting with nutrition – which makes it an exceptional value, as well.

I look forward to seeing where local farming will go from here.  In the past decade or so, many new operations have sprung up and joined our farming community.  In growth of this kind, there will naturally be all kinds of bumps in the road.  In this regard, I can foresee that some of the challenges our local farms face (such as land access) will need to be addressed in a more holistic fashion.  Challenges aside, though, we have come a long way to reach the present bright state of local farming.  And the future promises to be even brighter and more abundant.

Andrew Meyers does agricultural research at the University of California, and is Vice-President of Nevada County Grown.

At the most fundamental level, BriarPatch is a business that must ensure its perpetuation through financial health. In short, it is our goal and responsibility to our many owners to make a modest profit. As a food business, this means striving to make a profit of between 1% and 3%. As a business with sales of $20 million, we thus hope to earn a profit of not less than $200,000. The Co-op’s Board of Directors approves an annual budget that outlines how we expect to accomplish this, while still meeting our organizational goals as expressed in our Vision Statement and Ends Polices (listed on page 15), which include offering fair compensation to our staff, and reinvesting in our operations and facility. As you can imagine, this is quite a balancing act.

The Market

The first thing we consider when setting prices is the greater food market. We look at what the national and local markets tell us about the pricing of each item. In many cases, the manufacturer or distributor provides a suggested retail price (SRP) with their invoice. We also do periodic surveys of local and regional competitors. Customers do our Co-op a great service when they tell us that they are seeing competitive prices elsewhere. We follow up on these comments and make every effort to address them.

Margins

We use a margin-based approach to setting prices. We first establish a gross margin for the entire store that will allow us to pay all of our bills, wages, and debt service. We then set margin goals for each department, based on the types of products and the amount of labor it takes to provide them. Prices are set for items and groups of similar items in each department based on our margin goal, while also taking into account a number of additional considerations.

Fresh foods like dairy products, produce, meat and seafood, as well as the foods prepared in our deli, require labor-intensive care and handling. As a broad comparison, our packaged grocery department and our deli account for about 20% and 17% of our store revenues, respectively. But while the grocery department currently employs ten full-time-equivalent workers, the deli requires over fifty.

Merchandising Policy

Our merchandising policy is available on our website, and is summarized in this edition of the Vine. It clearly spells out the types of products that our owners want us to carry. The challenge we face is to offer the highest quality and most sustainable and ethically responsible products, while offering prices that are within people’s means. In most of our packaged food sets, you will find a spectrum of items and prices. These range from basic, organic products to items that achieve additional certifications such as Fair Trade, or that are luxury products with more complex recipes and more expensive ingredients.

Offering choices: the juice example

Our underlying philosophy is to make basic staple foods available at the most competitive prices. Because the pricier luxury items are not as price sensitive, they help to subsidize the staple goods at a lower price.

This is clearly illustrated in our bottled juices. The three main brands that we offer combined make up over 90% of the juices sold here: Santa Cruz Organics, R.W. Knudsen, and Lakewood Organic. Santa Cruz and Knudsen are both owned by Smuckers, a large international food company. Their products are organic or natural, and are made from concentrates. They retail from about $3.95 for common high production fruits like apples, to $9.95 for less common juice fruits like pomegranate. They often contain ascorbic acid to extend their shelf life.

Lakewood Organic, on the other hand, is a division of Florida Bottling Inc., a smaller, domestic company. Their products are all certified organic, are not made from concentrates, and have a shorter shelf life, since they contain no preservatives. They retail from $4.99 to $12.15 for comparable juices. As you may have noticed, Santa Cruz and Knudsen are frequently included in our sales and coupon programs, as their size and volume allows them to offer discounts. Discounts are much less common for Lakewood Organic, which counts on customers whose choices are driven primarily by their quality concerns, as opposed to price.

Savings through sales

We are engaged in several relationships that allow us to offer sale prices. The most significant of these is our relationship with the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA.) This association is comprised of over 130 food co-ops throughout the country who negotiate prices as a single body with manufacturers and distributors. The NCGA produces our Co+op Deals program, whose products are advertised in two flyers each month and are marked by sale tags throughout the store. Rick Sheller, an employee of NCGA and a BriarPatch Board Director, explains the program in more detail on page 8.

We also receive numerous discounts from our primary distributor, United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI), through their in-house sale program. We offer many of these discounts, as well as some from the Co+op Deals program, in our own Owners Only sales program. We produce the flyer for that program ourselves, and we try to plan sales on popular items, with a focus on fresh foods. (You should know that the manufacturers and distributors who offer these discounts play something of a shell game when it comes to sales. They want to be sure that only a fraction of their products are being sold at discounted prices in a given area of commerce. You can be sure, then, that when you see a sale on your favorite brand of almond milk at the co-op, it is not on sale at other local stores, and vice versa.)

BriarPatch Basics

Another way we try to make staple items affordable is through our BriarPatch Basics program. This pricing program is comprised of a list of some 50 staple foods that we offer at the lowest margin possible. It includes some of the most popular basic foods like oats, beans, rice, broccoli, carrots, and milk.

BriarPatch also engages in a practice called ‘price smoothing.’ This means that when very similar items have a slightly different wholesale cost, we set a single retail price to make the choice easier for the customer. We do this most commonly in our produce department. For example, we set a single retail price for lacinato kale, green kale, and varieties of chard and collards, even though we will be making slightly different margins on them.

Pricing local food

In our area, pricing the foods that come from our local farmers is a process that is unique to BriarPatch. No other store in our area makes as much effort as we do to offer local produce. We monitor and measure the amount of local produce that we buy and sell each year with the goal of growing this market, supporting our local farmers, and reinforcing our local economy. I am proud to say that in 2012, our sales of local fruits and vegetables grew by 2% as a percentage of BriarPatch’s total produce sales. If 2% sounds like a small number, consider that this translates to a nearly 50% growth in sales of over that same local produce the year before.

Working locally with many different farms of varying sizes requires a lot more time and energy than just placing a daily order with one or two major distributors. This is why national and regional chain stores and small independents don’t do it. In our Produce Department we have the equivalent of a full-time employee whose sole responsibility is to plan and coordinate our local seasonal offerings. As most of our customers are aware, it is very difficult to eke out a living on a small-scale farm. We help by offering our local farmers prices that exceed the wholesale costs they can get on the same items from distributors. We believe that our customers know that local goods are higher quality, fresher, and more delicious, nutritious, and environmentally friendly. The continued shift in purchasing habits toward local food confirms this.

Talk prices with us

We value the feedback that we get from our owners and other shoppers. If there is a consistently lower price being offered on an identical product in our area, I want to know about it, and we will do our best to match that price.

We are a values-driven organization. As you can see, pricing is something that we do with a lot of care and consideration. In a store with a broad and important vision, pricing is the backbone, the fly-wheel around which everything else spins. I hope that you now have a deeper insight into the prices you see as you shop. We want you to know how we do business, and to be happy with the results that you see.

by Chris Maher, General Manager

This issue of The Vine is all about prices. We receive a lot of questions, comments, and yes, even some complaints about the price of organic food. It is my hope that these articles will help Co-op owners and shoppers understand the real dynamics of food prices, and what BriarPatch is doing to make sure that we deliver the products and services you want, at prices that are sensible and fair.

Food pricing is a big subject, so we’ve tried to share our insights into the key factors as we see them. Basic food items such as milk, eggs, potatoes, and hamburger are largely controlled by the national marketplace, which is influenced by many factors, including the weather. As you probably know, large regions of the United States have experienced severe drought conditions in recent years, which have had a devastating and costly impact on food, in particular. The article on page 13 of the print version of The Vine will help you understand how the outlook for the U.S. food market is related to this.

We are also reprinting an article on the true cost of food, which was first published in the Puget Consumer Co-op’s newsletter. Organic food, as you will read there, is like a small stream beside the mighty river of the Big Chem/Big Ag food industry. As a result, organic food producers don’t benefit from the government’s commodity subsidies in the way Big Chem/Big Ag does. I use the word ‘benefit’ quite loosely, because the current system gives consumers unrealistic expectations about food prices. This has in part happened due to the profusion of cheap foods of negligible nutritional value, such as soy filler and high fructose corn syrup.

Did you know that we regularly survey the prices of over 100 identical and similar items on the shelves of chain groceries and local markets in this area? We also maintain a list of items that we believe are the most “price sensitive,” i.e., those for which people search out the best prices, and will even change their shopping habits to accommodate. These items, of course, include many basic everyday foods and household items.

I am also thankful to Andrew Meyers of Nevada County Grown, for his article describing their work in building a sustainable local food system. BriarPatch is proud to be Nevada County’s go-to store for the best local produce. We work diligently with our farmers to support the continued growth of this important part of your shopping – and eating – experience.

If you’re concerned about food prices (and who isn’t?), I hope you will take this opportunity to better understand the complicated world of retail food prices. Real knowledge helps all of us stay sane in an often confusing world.

2 1/4 cups Whole wheat flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon raw sugar
4 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
whipping cream

Preheat oven to 425°.
Combine flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in chilled butter until the mixture resembles corn meal. Combine buttermilk and grated lemon rind. Add the buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and toss gently with a fork to combine until the texture of cottage cheese.
Grease a baking sheet. Place 1/2 cup flour in a shallow dish. Scoop 10 equal dough portions into dish. Gently shape each portion into a round by tossing in flour to help shape the dough. Arrange in pan and discard the excess flour. Brush dough with melted butter and sprinkle evenly with raw sugar. Bake at 425° for 22 minutes or until the shortcakes are lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheet on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove shortcakes and continue to cool on wire rack.
Combine strawberries, the rest of the sugar, and lemon juice. Toss to coat. Let stand for 15 minutes. Split each shortcake in half. Spoon about 1/3 cup berry mixture and whipped cream to taste.

1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 14-ounce packages extra-firm tofu, cut into cubes
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
2 cups snow peas
6 cups shredded cabbage
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup chopped green onions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame and canola oils, honey, ginger, and garlic. Whisk.
Place the tofu in a single layer in a 9-x-13-inch baking dish and pour half of the dressing over tofu. Sprinkle with 1 1/2 tablespoons of the sesame seeds. Bake in the center of the oven for 45 minutes.
Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the snow peas and cook two minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water.
Toss the cabbage, bell pepper, carrot, green onions, and snow peas with the remaining dressing and sesame seeds. Place the tofu on top and serve.

½ cup sugar, or to taste
64 ounces of cranberry juice cocktail
1 12-ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate
4 cups water
3 cinnamon sticks
8 whole cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Simmer 30 minutes.
Remove whole spices before serving. Float fresh cranberries in the punch and garnish with orange slices, if desired. Serve warm or cold.

PCC Recipe

The work requirement is the same as it is for in-store volunteer work — six hours per month (3 hours for seniors) for each adult in the household. Following a model established by La Montanita Co-op in New Mexico, the community program is another way for BriarPatch to embody the seventh International Co-op Principle, “Concern for the Community.”

As described by General Manager Chris Maher,“Many of the local nonprofits have environmental and social goals similar to those in the BriarPatch Vision Statement and our Board of Directors’ Ends Policies. It’s great to be able to support them and strengthen our community connections.”

Volunteer work can be done with the following organization partners:

• SYRCL (South Yuba River Citizens League) • Habitat for Humanity Nevada County • Hospitality House • FREED Center for Independent Living • Living Lands Agrarian Network • Partners in English Language Learning • Sierra Streams Institute • Center for Non Profit Leadership

BriarPatch expects to enlist new organizations as the program develops. Important note: to receive Owner Volunteer credit at BriarPatch, you must be a new volunteer with our nonprofit affiliate, and must be referred in advance by BriarPatch staff. Please do not contact our affiliates until you have first enrolled with BriarPatch Volunteer Coordinator Hilary Dart.

In-Store Volunteer Needs:

• Offer samples and tell shoppers about products • Tend tables at special events: Earth Day, etc. • Cleaning: product shelves, eating area tables, etc. • Plant care, indoors • Gardening in the Native Wildflower Garden • Litter pickup, outside Community Outreach Volunteer Needs • Tend the BriarPatch table at community events such as the SYRCL film festival

Whether you help out in the store or around the community, Owner Volunteers are an important part of BriarPatch, and we welcome more volunteers. To get started, first pick up an application at the Customer Service Window. Contact Volunteer Coordinator Hilary Dart at 272-5333 ext. 134/ or hilaryd@briarpatch.coop.

I recently had a nice dinner with some friends who have lived in our community for the last 8 years. BriarPatch came up in the course of conversation, as they recalled the store on Joerschke Drive, and told how they now shop at our bigger store. “Why has the Co-op been such a success?” they asked me. I wanted to give them a simple answer, but I quickly realized that there have been many reasons. And so, checking off the list that appeared in my mind, I began to share with them the many reasons. And, as I did, I became aware of how the Patch fulfills so many of our most important needs and values.

So here goes… here’s my list of how the Patch fulfills our many needs of being in community: …coming into a store that welcomes us, where we can see friends and get a few hugs and hellos… being greeted by the smell of good food, sharing meals with friends, or just having a nice place to hang out while eating… having a hub of information about what is happening in our area, and what is worth our attention… this means the concerts and entertainment… and the cool films being shown, the cooking classes being held, and the online and printed information regarding foods and society.

What’s more, I can trust that the Patch has researched the healthiest foods and products, that the employees will always be helpful, that the GM will be a visionary and inspiring leader, the board will be diligent and thoughtful, and the staff will be imaginative and incredibly hard-working (just think of our October annual Owner Meeting; over 450 people gathered for a great meal, an update, and danced to celebrate our success!).

It is also very gratifying to be an owner of a business where profit is not the only bottom line. Our co-op is a working model that proves we can live the values we profess by supporting local farmers, giving out community grants, supporting efforts to improve food in the schools and community, AND make a profit.

We are looking now at ways we can extend our reach into the communities around us. Ownership is one key to this, since it represents a grass-roots investment in a common vision. We currently have about 5,000 active owners, but about twice that number shop regularly at the Patch. Ownership costs just $20 every six months, until a total of $200 is reached. Painlessly then, and before you know it, you become a fully-paid owner. And there are many ways you can then recoup that investment, such as volunteering for a 10% discount, and taking advantage of special discounts, not to mention the end-of-year patronage dividend. Really — it is truly a no-brainer that most Patch customers should become Patch owners.

Since the Co-op has proven itself as a successful business and social model, why don’t YOU, my dear non-owner reader, make the move to become an owner, and become a more integral part of why our community thrives, prospers, and provides for some of our most important needs?

As I shared in the last Vine, our Board and Management have begun to engage in a very serious and lengthy process on how to develop and grow BriarPatch over the next 5, 10, and even 20 years. At an all-day retreat we held in mid-October, as we pondered issues of leadership and the Board-General Manager relationship, among other things, we realized that this process was by far the Board’s most important undertaking. Looking at our monthly Board agendas, we realized that we were spending too much time at our meetings on matters that are better handled elsewhere, especially in committees.

I might add that our Board meetings are not exactly a hot ticket out there; out of some 5,000 owners, very few have attended a meeting in the last couple of years. (One reason for this is probably that things are going well — very well — and visitors tend to attend Board meetings — any Board — only when they’re mad about something.) It’s true too, that our meetings are pretty dull for anyone not steeped in the business side of BriarPatch. So the question arose: why not use our Board meetings as an opportunity to focus on educating ourselves and our fellow owners about the issues we face managing our growth?

Since our meetings last two to three hours, why not devote an hour or more to this crucial area by bringing in speakers or panels who can educate us and engage us in the exploration of subjects like the health of our community, changing demographics, and economic trends? A good idea? We thought so. And so, at our meetings in the coming year we will be inviting county planners, directors of other co-ops, agency heads, demographers and the like to talk to with us, and with you, to help us determine how BriarPatch can best serve our community in the years and decades ahead. We will be communicating with you about these coming Board events, and hope that many of you will attend.

And if you have an idea about a speaker, please send it to me at weisberg.alan0@gmail.com or to General Manager Chris Maher at chris@briarpatch.coop.

On behalf of your Board of Directors, I wish you a joyous holiday season.

The defeat of Proposition 37 was quite disappointing one for the many people who worked so hard on the campaign. Nonetheless, it was an amazing sight to see such a groundswell of popular support for this important cause.

Our thanks to everyone who contributed to the campaign, including the BriarPatch owners who volunteered and made donations to support the effort. We received notification of donations totaling $4,000 from owners. BriarPatch matched that amount, plus $1,000, as part of the statewide effort.

Despite the defeat, this campaign resulted in many victories, as well. Most of all, we have seen a huge growth in awareness about GMO foods. As we leave this election season, we find that twenty-three states have taken inspiration from California’s initiative and are working to craft their own versions of a labeling law. Also, polls still suggest that an overwhelming majority of people do want to know when they are being exposed to genetically engineered products, and over 1.25 million people have signed a petition to the FDA in favor of a federal labeling law. If you would like to add your own signature, you can visit www.justlabelit.org to do so.

In addition, those who understand the importance of this issue have continued to “vote” by changing their purchasing habits. We have seen an increase in interest in all aspects of the GMO issue. Over 6,000 items have now been verified with the Non-GMO Project, and submissions for verification continue to grow. Non-GMO Project Verified food purchases have increased steadily, and at the Patch they’ve increased considerably since we began labeling them on our shelves. Nationally, products with this label now account for some 10% of the natural and organic foods market, by unit sales. This is a huge victory for health and environment.

As Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology eloquently stated, “This is a rising tide that is still rising.” We are dedicated to continuing our support for our customers’ and community’s right to know.

Good news about the state of our co-op from Board President Alan Weisberg and General Manager Chris Maher set the evening’s festive mood. The enthusiasm reached its peak when, at the end of his lighthearted and inspiring talk, guest speaker David Thompson roused those present to donate nearly $800 to the BriarPatch Cooperative Community Fund, more than matching his own $200 donation, for a total of $1,000. The evening ended with dance music by Jamal Walker’s band, a top notch finale to a lovely evening.

Our thanks to the many who helped to make this year’s annual gathering bigger and better than ever:

Staff: Sue Brusseau, Josh Bumgarner, Hilary Dart, Mellisa Hannum, Joanne Laracy, Stephanie Mandel; Deli team: Henry Harmon, Mike Cobb, Jacob Heppting, David Kuczora, Bryan Lopin, Melina Shahan, Carol Weeks, and others in the kitchen and bakery; Customer Service: everyone.

Volunteers: Beverlyn Tucker and Dave Packet, Melinda Staggs, Josie Staggs, Julie Herrlinger, Cindy Foxfoot, Jane and Randal Riedel, Rusty Pendry, Randi Pratini, Mark Tolkes, Rick Sheller, Mark Fenton, Richard Drace, Louise Jones, Alan Weisberg, Kerry O’Regan, Peter Lockyer, Lew Sitzer, Leslie Gault, Bill and Helen Neff, Christy Barden, Mo Tebbe, Jeanne Shea, JoAnn Chatlien, Peg Rein, Joan Morton, Jimmy Green, Linda Taylor, Samantha King, Kim King, Denis Howe, Rob and Suzanne Ferrigio, Magnolia Gibson, Ian Gibson, and Ken Hale

For the first time, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has weighed in on organic foods for children. In its report, which was widely covered in the national media, the AAP acknowledged that many pesticides are neurotoxins, that studies have linked exposure to pesticides to neurological harm in children, and that a recent peer-reviewed study correlated higher pesticide residue levels in children with higher rates of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
But the AAP stopped short of recommending organic diets for children, explaining that, “No studies to date have experimentally examined the causal relationship between exposure to pesticides directly from conventionally grown foods and adverse neurodevelopmental health outcomes.”

With this statement, the AAP suggests that it considers existing knowledge about toxic pesticides to be insufficient to warrant recommending organic foods for children, which peer-reviewed published studies have shown can radically reduce children’s pesticide exposure. Adopting the agrochemical manufacturers’ approach to pesticide safety, the AAP suggests that the question of whether pesticides harm children will remain unanswered until results from experiments provide definite proof of harm. The problem with this approach is that it sets an impossible standard. A study that experiments with humans—in this case, children—to provide definite proof that pesticides cause adverse health effects would be logistically near-impossible, not to mention highly unethical.

This approach clearly favors agrochemical manufacturers. Shouldn’t the AAP act in the interest of children and public health? When pesticides have been found to be toxic and carcinogenic to lab animals, have been correlated with higher rates of ADHD in children, and have been shown to lead to neurological harm in farmworkers and their children, the basic assumption should be that they are harmful until proven safe, not the other way around.

By failing to come out strongly in favor of organic foods, the AAP does a serious disservice to the health of our children and the well-being of future generations.

Read the full article at: http://www.cornucopia.org/2012/10/protecting-childrens-health-american-academy-of-pediatrics-misses-the-big-picture-in-their-flawed-organics-analysis/.

Charlotte Vallaeys is Director of Farm and Food Policy at The Cornucopia Institute. She holds a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Master of Science from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

This article continues the discussion of inflammation begun in the article by Julie DeHollander, RD, CD, in the October/November 2012 issue of The Vine.

Chronic inflammation is increasingly being viewed as a key component in the progression of disease in conditions as varied as asthma, chronic fatigue, chronic pain syndromes, depression, and autoimmune disorders. For this reason, the resolution of chronic or silent inflammation lies at the heart of all attempts to treat and prevent many diseases. Even if we don’t have a diagnosed disease, we may be justifiably concerned about chronic inflammation, which drains energy from the body, weakens the immune system, and can eventually contribute to debilitating conditions. If our body’s “inner terrain”—its biochemical and physiological environment—is unhealthy, it is similar to a stagnant river, which predisposes us to inflammation.

Who needs an inflammation test? If you answer “yes” to more than three of the following questions, you could benefit from a hsCPR test (an improved test for highly sensitive C-reactive protein) and/or a sedimentation rate blood test. Do you smoke? Do you have diabetes? Do you have gum disease? Are you overweight? Are you always craving carbohydrates? Are you constantly hungry? Are you tired, especially after exercising? Are your fingernails brittle? Are you constipated? Are you groggy upon waking? Do you have difficulty concentrating? Do you have headaches?

While I make use of the hsCRP and sedimentation rate tests, they both have drawbacks. Because they detect inflammation coming from all sources, including medications or injuries, elevated test scores can be misleading. However, if you do have an elevated level(s) or three or more of the above conditions, it is worthwhile to investigate the triggers that have been associated with chronic inflammation.

Triggers

Some of the triggers of chronic inflammation include:

• Repeated wear and tear on the body (for example, the weekend-warrior athlete who has frequent injuries).

• Nutritional deficiencies.

• Increased exposure to environmental toxins and/or the inability to eliminate them.

• Obesity and chronic stress accompanied by the constant production of cortisol are inter-related triggers. Scientists now regard body fat as an endocrine organ that produces hormones that control both our immune system and how much fat we store. As the body attempts to adapt to chronic stress, it produces too much insulin, thereby creating more visceral fat. This fuels a new round of cortisol secretion, and the end result is one gets fatter and winds up with chronic inflammation.

• Hormonal imbalances are another trigger, primarily for women during and after menopause. This could be a key reason why women suffer 75% of all auto-immune disease. It has been determined that estrogens have both anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory roles due to the enormous variability in individual bodies.

• Chronic exposure to environmental or dietary allergens, as well as digestive imbalances, are common triggers.

• Certain pharmaceutical drugs and high fructose corn sugar also contribute to chronic inflammation.

• Recent research has revealed that mitochondria dysfunction is related to inflammation. Since the mitochondria are the energy-producing parts of our cells, their dysfunction can contribute to many other aspects of degenerative disease. To determine if these triggers are contributing to silent inflammation in your body, specific testing may be worthwhile in order to evaluate your nutrient levels, your toxic load, your body’s ability to detoxify, or the status of your mitochondria. Tests are also now available that specifically help women investigate how their body is processing estrogens, if this is indicated.

In addition to eating an anti-inflammatory diet, getting exercise, losing weight, and reducing stress, one must also try to counter the effects of triggers that are difficult to avoid, such as environmental toxins and allergies. One of the best ways to do this is to begin treating one’s body with care. A body that is healthy can be exposed to more challenges and still function normally. So, with the understanding that we all are going to be exposed to numerous triggers, consider your options for creating the healthiest body you can for yourself and your family members.

Ilene Cristdahl is a Licensed Naturopathic Doctor and Acupuncturist who practices in Grass Valley. You can contact her at 274-8854.

The Conference will take place on Saturday and Sunday, January 19th and 20th, 2013.

Last year’s event was a big success, with over 500 people attending and over 20 local, regional, and national sponsors, vendors, and farms represented.

This year it will again feature an exposition at the Grass Valley Veterans Memorial Hall. Workshops will be held on both Saturday and Sunday, hosted at Grass Valley Charter School, which is located next door to the Veterans Hall.

This year’s Conference kicks off with a special event titled, “Polyface YOU!” On Saturday morning attendees will have the unique opportunity to sit down with the Salatin family—Joel, Daniel, and Sheri—and learn firsthand how their farm operates.

Later in the morning the exposition will open at the Veteran’s Hall, allowing ample time for meeting and discussing many facets of the local food and farming community. From suppliers to producers to getting all this good food on your plate… you’ll be able to pack in a lot of information and inspiration from experts in their field.

Lectures titled, “Keynotes of Sustainable Farming” will start in the Veterans Hall at 1:00 p.m. and continue until 6:00 p.m. This year’s lineup is another great one!

On Sunday, attendees will be able to participate in workshops given by several of the speakers, including Will Allen, Temra Costa, and Mark Baker. Plus, the workshops will be expanded to cover a much larger spectrum of topics and skill levels. Many local and regional experts will share their knowledge. Whether you are just starting out, or have been at it most of your life, a day full of valuable knowledge is guaranteed.

Tickets will be available for several of the weekend’s events starting at $30, or as a complete package for the entire weekend, for $100.

Elster Ranch is located off of McCourtney Road right here in Grass Valley. The ranch was originally started as a dairy and cattle ranch, in 1895. After being run by four successive generations of the Elster family, the reins of the ranch passed to the Nolte family in 2006.

The 320-acre ranch now hosts a breed of cattle that was developed in Australia from Angus stock. These lowline cattle are adapted to the climate of the foothills, and their meat impresses many with its excellent taste, texture, and tenderness.

“I want to bring in as many local options as possible,” said Johnny. “Elster beef is grass fed and pasture-raised.”

The beef is also finished with a mash —a mixture of boiled grain, bran, or meal—that consists of grains that are often used for making beer. Elster Ranch says the mash is GMO-free and contains no soy and no corn. This mash finishing, according to Johnny, gives the meat a different flavor profile, so that customers have more options, depending on their specific tastes.

— Mellisa Hannum

One way this cooperative demonstrates its dedication to social and environmental concerns is through their Well Earth sourcing program. The Well Earth program emerged from Frontier’s desire to source the botanical ingredients for their products ethically and sustainably—and from organic farmers. Through this program, Frontier works directly with small farmers to achieve organic and sustainable production, share expertise, and support the growers’ communities by paying fair market prices and funding community projects.

Organic Training One of the Well Earth programs Frontier developed is an organic training center in Sri Lanka. With $25,000 in grant money from Well Earth, this training center was constructed in late 2010. Classes are now underway, educating farmers on sustainable farming techniques such as composting, erosion control, rain harvesting, and natural pest management. The training center is also a fully functional research and development farm, allowing students to immediately put their education to use with hands-on field demonstrations and exercises.

Check out Frontier’s YouTube video to learn more about this project. Frontier’s goal is to “leave future generations with a healthier world than the one we live in today.” One way Frontier is making strides towards that goal is through its Sri Lanka organic training center and other Well Earth programs (find links to other Frontier videos on their YouTube channel).

Healthy homemade dips
Homemade dips can be a lot healthier than store-bought dips, which are often high in sodium and calories.

• Make skinny dips by simply using non-fat or low-fat versions of cheese or mayonnaise.

• Use high-nutrition bases for your dips, like beans (chickpeas, kidney, pinto, black, or white beans all work well), spinach, avocado, tomato, or soft tofu.

• To enhance flavors, add a dash of tamari, lemon or lime juice, or balsamic vinegar instead of salt.

• Try using yogurt instead of sour cream in your recipes. You can ease into the transition by replacing just half of the sour cream with yogurt to start.

• Fill up on fiber. Use whole grain breads and crackers, and avoid high-fat chips and snacks made with refined flours.

• Add finely chopped vegetables — like carrots, red, green, and yellow peppers, celery, broccoli, and whole peas. They add nutrition, color, and flavor.

• Serve dips with bite-sized pieces of raw vegetables — smaller pieces mean no double-dipping!

• Instead of salt, season your dips with natural and organic spices and herbs from Frontier Natural Products Co-op. Try savory, garlic, and cumin in the bean dip; and mint, cinnamon, and nutmeg for the fruit. Add a few surprises, like sundried tomatoes or chili peppers.

Tips & tidbits for dips

For party pizzazz, think of alternative bowls for your dip, like kale or cabbage leaves; a scooped-out sourdough loaf; or hollowed bell peppers.

Make dips ahead of time to allow flavors to meld. Some are best served warm, others chilled. Serve dairy-based dips straight from the refrigerator.

For quick results, keep a good supply of Simply Organic brand spice blends handy, such as Curry, Garam Masala, Italian Seasoning, Taco Seasoning, and Pumpkin Pie Spice. Enliven classic fondue with a generous helping of spices — nutmeg and allspice with Gruyere, garlic and tarragon with Swiss.

What to dip with?

An assortment of veggies is always fun, and be sure to vary the color. Why not offer kohlrabi alongside the classic carrots and cauliflower or papaya and kiwi with those apples? Vary your chip assortment, too. Offer something your guests may not have tried lately, like sweet potato, blue corn, or sesame chips. A variety of breads and cheese cubes make for substantial dipping.

From Frontier Natural Products Co-op, www.frontiercoop.com

Different people get different kinds of buzz, but as we all know quite well, stressing out is a total buzz killer. Holiday preparations, planning, and anticipation can easily set the stage for freaking out. Or—they can help create the space for a new season of memorable experiences.
I’ve been working on an eCourse that addresses this issue, with the creative or indy professional in mind. But it’s not just for them. These lessons can be applied in all types of situations, even—nay… especially!—when the pace picks up at holiday time.

Are you ready to commit to a season of good times? If so, here’s the plan: start practicing good habits now, so that you’ll be ready for the end-o’-year craziness. And then keep on using them in the new year.

Here’s your five-step blueprint for good habits:
1. Stop Using Your Head as a Storage Space
Every sanity saver begins here! Trying to remember a lot of stuff causes anxiety, stresses you out, and makes you less pleasant to be around. So get all those grocery reminders, menu and gift ideas, decoration brainstorms, and guest lists Out of Your Head. Write them in lists, pop them in your computer… whatever works for you, do it. Getting everything out of your head pulls you back from the brink of crisis management mode (and crickey, there’s more than enough of that already going around this time of year!). And with a sane and somewhat calm mind, you are ready to practice #2…

2. Use Your Tools
Getting all those reminders and mental litter out of your head, you can now organize and prioritize. Your prime tools here are a project list, a schedule, and a to-do manager (a to-do manager differs from a list in that it enables you to sort your tasks in multiple ways).

Once a week you will: 
1. Do a full review of all of your commitments (Project List).

2. Put all reasonable, descriptive, and doable tasks (to support the projects) in your to-do manager.

3. Do a reality check by referencing and merging all this with your schedule. 
This is a great way to make sure all the pies get baked with love (instead of stress), your shopping trips are efficient, and your party planning stays fun.

Refine Your Commitments
As you review your projects on a weekly basis, you’ll begin to notice that some of them tend to progress with ease, while others have to get dragged along kicking and screaming. 
While you can’t leave unruly kids at the Customer Service counter, you can disengage from or renegotiate dreaded commitments.

Seriously. If you don’t like baking, don’t let yourself get talked into making 6 dozen cookies. Instead, offer to be the one who delivers them to the party. Get creative. Play to your strengths and do what you love.

4. Set and Love Your Boundaries
Boundaries are beautiful because they contain the space of You. As privileged humans, we get the honor of deciding what the quality of that space is going to be. It’s your job to be the gatekeeper. What you allow in and what you keep out are decisions that only you can make. From taking a daily time-out for yourself, to saying “No” to the twelfth uninvited guest, to requesting an hour of uninterrupted work time… honoring your Self will ultimately make for a better experience not just for you, but for everyone.

5. Call in the Troops
For the love of Pete, people, Santa doesn’t do it all by himself, so why should we?
We are locked into a culture of over-achievers and can-do-ologists. Hello? This is the season of Peace and Joy! And guess what? Peace and Joy thrive in a different kind of culture. Think: collaboration, cooperation, teamwork, and sharing (i.e., the joy and the work!)
So… enlist the help you need for cooking, shopping, cleaning. Hire out if necessary. You can surely find an ambitious high schooler who’d appreciate some extra cash.
Remember that if it’s a group effort, one person can’t play dictator. This is hard for the control freaks, I know. But hey, new traditions have to start somewhere!

Most likely, you’re already doing some portion of these five steps. Keep it up! Now add one more at a time until you’re all dialed in.

When things go smoothly, it’s easy to forget that it’s often due to helpful systems and good habits. If we let ourselves think, “they aren’t that important”, it’s like an unspoken invitation to the Grinch. And who wants him breathing down your neck? Stick to the five steps above and you’ll be well on your way to another year of fantastic memories.

Shawn Tuttle is the Natural Professional. Get your Stop Struggling Toolkit here: www.naturalprofessional.com/no-more-grinch

1. Use Natural Decorations: leaves, birdseed, twigs, logs, and branches can all be used in lots of creative ways. Use them to make lovely tree ornaments, beautiful centerpieces, adornments to wrapped gifts, wreath decorations… the possibilities are endless!

2. Use What You Already Have: Need a new tree skirt? Look around your linen closet or basement to find old fabric, burlap, or sheets to wrap around the base of the tree. Visit websites like Pinterest and Etsy for great ideas on how to use what you already have.

3. Buy Fair Trade: Shop local fair-trade galleries or online sites like Global Goods Partners to find great gifts, from jewelry to accessories to home decor. Keep these in mind for stocking stuffers and hostess gifts.

4. Switch to LED lights: They can save you up to $50 on your energy bill just during the holidays!

5. At the Dinner Table, Share the Virtues of a Green Lifestyle: Brush up on your environmental facts and engage friends and family in conversations about living a green lifestyle. There’s a great “Holiday Survival Guide” available from Sierra Club that shows you ways to get the conversation rolling.

6. Involve the Kids: Take some of the stress off yourself and recruit the kids for help. Give them sheets of drawing paper to decorate and use as wrapping paper. Send them outside to gather pine cones that they can paint and “glitterize” or use to make bird feeders.

7. Serve Organic Food and Drinks: Shop at the Co-op and look for Fair Trade cocoa, sugar, and other ingredients to use when cooking and baking for the holidays. Make organic or vegan desserts, and opt for organic beverages of all kinds.

8. Switch to e-cards: Send your holiday wishes with e-cards. Let your friends and family know why you’re making the switch, and encourage them to do the same if they’d like.

9. Shop locally or online: Save gas, reduce your carbon footprint, and avoid stress and crowds. Use GreenDeals.org to save on a variety of great green gifts. Look at the “More Deals” page to get valuable coupon code savings to use on other green business websites.
From GreenDeals.org

The Toad Lane co-op wasn’t the first of its kind; there had already been a long sequence of cooperative efforts in Britain, starting as early as 1760. Working people were looking for ways to relieve the suffering the Industrial Revolution was imposing upon much of the country, as traced in “Weavers of Dreams” by David Thompson.

This was in the England of Charles Dickens. “A Christmas Carol” had been published the year before, almost to the day. That summer, Dickens had journeyed to Manchester, an industrial city near Rochdale in the north of England, and that visit is considered to have been a major inspiration for his great novel.

So, what does Dickens’ England have to do with us now? The success of the Rochdale Pioneers, as they were called, can inspire us in our efforts to ride the crest of our own co-op’s success. From that humble first offering of four simple foods, the Rochdale efforts prospered, spawning a wide variety of cooperative endeavors. Indeed, their store did so well through the 1850’s, that by 1860 the store had eight branches, a drapery department, shoemaking and tailoring, a furnishings showroom, building, painting and laundry services, coal delivery, a corn mill, and even a cooperative manufacturing society.

Fast forward to today, and it becomes clear that BriarPatch’s success represents a great opportunity, a great challenge, and a great responsibility. The time has come for us to consider how to best expand our success by taking on new projects — to increase our beneficent influence beyond the scale of our one busy store. On page 16, Board President Alan Weisberg outlines the Board’s intention to do just this in 2013, inviting co-op owners to take part in this exciting adventure of creating a better future.

Elsewhere in this issue you’ll find the usual array of stories, news, and ideas for sustainable living and community life. May we all find peace with our own ghosts, past, present, and future.

SYRCL’s 2013 Wild and Scenic Film Festival highlights films that address food and farming, in addition to other environmental and adventure topics. This year’s food films cover topics as wide-ranging as school lunch reform, issues of globalized food production, and the revitalization of the small farm movement. These films will inspire and educate, and will activate your salivary glands as well as your mind.

BriarPatch is proud to be a part of bringing this nationally known festival to our community. Co-op members may be particularly interested in the following food-themed films that will be shown January 10-13 in the Grass Valley and Nevada City venues.

Cafeteria Man
Tony Geraci wants fresh food for the students of Baltimore. This movie follows his passion for feeding children real food, and features appearances by Michael Pollan, Michelle Obama, Will Allen, and Ann Cooper.

Eating Alabama
A young couple returns to their home state of Alabama and pledges to eat local food for one year. Along the way they meet their neighbors, farmers, hunters, and ranchers, and discover community in the process.

Greening the Revolution
All humans must eat, and the corporate control of food production has caused an environmental, humanitarian, and economic crisis. Filmed in Cuba, India, United States, Mexico, Kenya, and Zambia.

In Organic We Trust
When corporations went into the business and “organic” became a brand, the philosophy and the label grew apart.  But there’s hope for organic and for us!  Director Kip Pastor looks beyond the label and unearths inspiring solutions for our health and environmental problems. Dr. Marion Nestle shares important opinions on the future of health.

In The Same Boat
Set in the rugged landscape of coastal Newfoundland, Canada, and the spectacular ranchlands of Southern Alberta, Canada, “In The Same Boat” is an intimate portrait of one of Newfoundland’s last remaining inshore cod fishermen, and the lessons he has to share with Alberta’s farmers.

Murder Mouth
A young Australian filmmaker explores learning to kill her own food.

One Farm Two Purposes
This high school documentary film tells the story of La’a Kea Farm in upper Paia. La’a Kea is a non-profit that is working to address the need for more locally grown organic produce on Maui, while also creating a sustainable farming community that includes adults with special needs.

Symphony of the Soil
Drawing from ancient knowledge and cutting edge science, this film is an artistic exploration of a miraculous substance: soil. By understanding the elaborate relationships and symbioses between soil, water, the atmosphere, plants and animals, we come to appreciate the complex and dynamic nature of this precious resource. Filmed on four continents, featuring esteemed scientists, and working farmers and ranchers, “Symphony of the Soil” is an intriguing presentation that highlights the possibilities of healthy soil creating healthy plants creating healthy humans living on a healthy planet.

Watermelon Magic
This kid’s film explores the magic of gardening through the eyes of young Sylvie.

1 large butternut squash
Peanut or vegetable cooking oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon Thai green curry paste
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup Thai sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup peanut, almond or hazelnut butter
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Squeeze fresh lime juice
Crispy sage and pumpkin seed garnish
Oil for frying
12 sage leaves
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the squash crosswise into four wheels and coat any exposed surfaces lightly with the peanut oil. Place the sections on a baking sheet and roast until the flesh is tender when pierced with a fork. (About 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the squash.) Allow to cool slightly.
With a spoon, scrape out the seeds and then scoop the flesh from the skin. Place the bright orange flesh in a food processor and puree until smooth. (You may do this step up to two days ahead and refrigerate the puree until you are ready to prepare the soup.)
In a heavy soup pot, sauté the garlic and ginger in about 3 tablespoons peanut oil for 1 minute over medium heat. Add the curry paste and stir to blend.
Add the squash puree, broth, chili sauce, soy sauce, nut butter and black pepper and bring the soup to simmer. Cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the coconut milk, the cilantro and lime.

For Crispy Sage and Pumpkin Seed Garnish
In a small sauté pan, add enough oil to create a depth of about 1/2 inch. Heat the oil over medium heat until you see some movement on the surface. Fry the sage leaves, a few at a time, until crisp. Watch them carefully to make sure they don’t burn. Remove them to paper towels to drain.
Ladle the soup into individual bowls. Pour a swirl of coconut milk into each serving and scatter the crispy sage leaves and toasted pumpkin seeds on top.

Serves 6

2 cans (30 ounces) garbanzo beans, drained
1/4 cup red onion, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/4 cup dill pickle, finely chopped
2 tablespoons nori seaweed flakes (you can grind sheets of nori in a spice mill for this)
1/3-1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, ground
12 slices of bread, lightly toasted
6 large, crisp lettuce leaves
12 fresh tomato slices

1. In a large bowl, mash the garbanzo beans with a potato masher or the back of a fork.

2. Fold the onion, celery, garlic, pickle, nori, mayonnaise, salt, and black pepper into the garbanzo beans. Combine thoroughly.

3. Lightly toast the bread. Spread the salad on one slice and stack with a lettuce leaf, two tomato slices, and another slice of bread. Cut sandwiches in half and serve.

Note: This recipe is also great as an appetizer: small spoonfuls of “tuna” on crackers garnished with halved cherry tomatoes.

Serves 4

1 cup raw cashews
2 tablespoons raw pine nuts
1 1/2 cups water
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/16 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
4 cups cooked fettuccine (or other pasta of your choice)
3 tablespoons freshly minced parsley

1. In a blender, grind cashews and pine nuts into a fine powder. Add water, lemon juice, garlic, nutmeg, and salt. Blend until completely smooth.

2. Transfer sauce to a small saucepan over medium heat and whisk as you bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 7 minutes, whisking regularly. Stir in black pepper.

3. Serve over hot pasta and garnish with parsley and fresh ground pepper to taste.

In May I was honored to be elected President by my colleagues on the BriarPatch Board. I first ran for the Board seven or eight years ago, when I learned that BriarPatch would be building a new and bigger co-op on Sierra College Drive. I went on to become the chair of the New Store Building Design Committee, a team that worked with our then-General Manager, Paul Harton, and our architect, Jeff Gold. I have fond, exciting memories about the construction period, and will never forget the time the Tibetan monks came to bless the store when it was little more than a shell.

It’s interesting to think that we all get to appreciate Jeff Gold’s warm, inviting, efficient store design every time we shop at BriarPatch. As you may know, Jeff later joined the Board, and for the last two years he has provided impressive leadership as we moved into a much improved governance system that required a complete revamping of our policies and procedures. On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Jeff for all his hard work and dedication. And I’m glad to report he still serves on the Board, and will play an important role over the next several months as we work to create a plan for the growth of BriarPatch over the next 20 years. More on that below.

We are a for-profit and a cooperative organization!

Many people think of BriarPatch as a non-profit organization. To be sure, we are a conspicuously “do good” organization that in many ways looks like a non-profit. That said, co-ops are definitely for-profit businesses that must abide by most of the same laws and regulations as other for-profit, private corporations. And this means yes, we do pay taxes!

Both profits and non-profits often seek Board members with specific expertise in areas like law, finance, and fundraising, and these boards often get into the details of running things. Because BriarPatch is graced with Board members with a good deal of expertise, we often give advice to management. We do so, however, only as individuals, just like any other owner. We don’t run the store; that’s the job of the General Manager. Our job is to supervise him.

In addition to hiring and overseeing the work of our General Manager, our other major responsibility is to consider the financial health and future of the organization.

Above all, we are an elected Board doing our best to represent owner interests. There is a good deal of respect among Board members, and I know that we are all proud to be on the BriarPatch Co-op Board.

If you have a real interest in how organizations with boards can best be managed, feel free to contact me or other Board members about our newly adopted governance system, which is called Policy Governance. We are about two years into our adoption of “PG,” and we’re still learning. It’s fairly complex, but even the early skeptics among us have come to feel we made the right decision to go in this direction. Come to one of our Board meetings (the last Tuesday of the month) if you want to see PG in action.

Planning for growth

Aside from the oversight of our General Manager and our finances, our Board’s biggest job is to represent and involve you, as owners, in terms of how the store is operated, as well as the community-minded aspects of the co-op.

If you look at our Vision Statement, you’ll see that we want BriarPatch to serve as a hub for a variety of positive community activities. This is why we have our Community Room for use by local organizations, show local artists’ work in the dining area, sell tickets for community and arts events, go out of our way to meet specific food requests of customers, offer grants to worthy non-profits, give discounts to people who volunteer for non-profits, and work to help local farmers succeed.

Our Board is quite committed to finding ways to encourage owners to participate in the Co-op. We estimate that we have about 4,500 active owners who are served by a staff that has now grown to 180 people.

Over the next several months, both the Board and management will work through a process of determining directions for the future growth of the Co-op. We’ll be looking at key milestones of five, ten, and twenty years. To kick off the process, this August we hosted a dinner at the Stonehouse for a group that included both staff and owners, where we discussed our different visions for possible goals over the next two decades. It was a no-holds-barred discussion, without too much worry about details or how practical an idea might be.

At that dinner, I remarked that there are certainly some owners who challenge the need to grow at all, just as there were a few who were unhappy about moving from our Joerschke Street location into a new, much larger store. Both the Board and management are committed to a growth model because we believe in the cooperative business model. It puts the community and people at the center. For us, then, it is not a question of whether or not to grow, but rather, how best to grow.

It was pretty easy for those of us at the dinner to think five years out…and even ten years out. But 20 years out was a greater challenge. Overall, the ideas generated were terrific, and I’ll mention just a few here. Look for much more about these in the next issue of The Vine.

• Over the next 20 years, make Nevada County a center of cooperative activity not only by growing BriarPatch but also by helping to spur the creation of other cooperative businesses, such as a restaurant or gas station.

• Develop new stores in nearby cities like Nevada City and Auburn, and even further away.

• Substantially expand our prepared foods business by having many of our own products (jams, sauces, etc.) developed by local people. Take the show on the road by serving food at major entertainment events.

• Develop deeper relationships with other key people and environment-serving organizations in town, such as the hospital, Sierra College, and non-profits.

• Greatly expand our current efforts to educate people about the relationship between food and health.

These are just a few of the many ideas that were generated that evening, the ones that stand out most in my mind. We are now developing a Growth Committee to generate more ideas like these, synthesize them, and present them to co-op owners. We are trying to figure out the best way to involve you, and have set aside a position or two on our small committee for owners-at-large. If you are interested in serving, please email Chris or me (we will be co-chairing the committee), and we will follow up with you.

The Board is very happy about BriarPatch’s success in the five years since the new store opened, but our financial success is not an end in itself. We need to figure out how we can best serve you and our community as a result of our success. Please help us to do this; there’s plenty of room for your involvement.

Proposition 37

Finally, on behalf of the Board, I want to add something about BriarPatch’s strong support for Proposition 37. Both Board and management are generally averse to entering the political arena, and we choose not to lend our name or our funds to political causes. Prop 37, though, is so fundamentally important to the natural foods movement that we felt we needed to make an exception and take a public stand, to do what we can to require GMO labeling in California. We urge you to get informed about GMOs and the importance of this proposition.

The event was successful thanks to the cooperation of BriarPatch’s caring staff: Charles, Tony, and Wendy in the Grocery Department; Mike, Jackie, Steve, and all the cashiers who worked those days; Julie, Brett, and Kitty in Information Systems; Receiver Ryan; Josh, Hilary, Mellisa, and Stephanie in Marketing, and volunteer Joan.

Thank you to everyone who contributed food, cash, or assistance in any way!

In the world’s wealthiest nation, no child should grow up hungry. Yet over the course of a year, more than 16 million children in America cannot count on having enough nutritious food. That’s one in five kids in America today who struggle with hunger.

We can help. World Food Day is October 16th. In support of this worldwide event designed to increase awareness, understanding, and action around hunger issues, our co-op is joining other food co-ops across the country to raise $100,000 for Share our Strength’s No Kid Hungry® campaign, a national effort to end childhood hunger in America.

The aim of the No Kid Hungry® campaign is to end childhood hunger by connecting kids to the healthy food they need, every day. No Kid Hungry® brings together chefs, educators, mayorsand governors, business and community leaders, as well as state and federal agencies, to connect children with food and nutrition programs that are right in their communities. No Kid Hungry also teaches families how to cook healthy, affordable meals through Cooking Matters® and invests in community organizations that fight hunger.

How can you help?  BriarPatch is donating the equivalent of 1% of our estimated total sales on Saturday, October 13 — $2500 — so shop with us on the 13th.

Busy on the 13th? Any day of the year you can donate food to the Food Bank of Nevada County by placing it in their bin by the store exit doors , and take the No Kid Hungry Pledge at NoKidHungry.org.

Help us fight childhood hunger in our communities! It’s just one of the ways co-op shoppers and owners are building a better world. We are stronger together!

Growth has been a major topic of discussion around the co-op of late, as we are currently experiencing double-digit growth in revenues over last year. This growth is being led primarily by our fresh food departments, such as produce, meat and seafood, and prepared foods. This indicates not only that new customers are discovering a better, more sustainable, and more healthful way of eating, but that existing customers are also switching from packaged foods to fresh, local goods. We have also seen a significant increase in the rate at which new owners are joining. We see all of this as very good news!

Co-ops and+ communities

Cooperatives — and food co-ops in particular — have a profoundly positive impact on their communities. On a larger scale, the national food co-op movement is having a profoundly positive impact on our nation and on our food systems. If you’d like to see just how deeply we are making an impact, look at the center spread in this issue of The Vine, which summarizes the results of a recent study. As a co-op owner, you can be proud that you are an integral part of these changes.

Changes around here

We have taken a number of steps to manage the growth we are experiencing. You have probably noticed the changes to the front-end products near the registers and the new deli bakery case. Another step we have taken is to move some of our administrative functions to a new office across the street, which enables us to make more efficient use of the back areas of the store. You can now find me, our Marketing and Human Resources departments, as well as Mark Warner, our Director of Finance, at 140 Litton Drive, Suite 230. We were quite fortunate to find a location so close and accessible to the store. Our phone, email, and mail contact information has not changed, and we are always available to meet with you should the need arise.

One change that will not be taking place before 2013 is expansion of the parking lot. We’ve postponed this costly project while other growth options are discussed.

Owner Meeting October 8

I am very excited about the upcoming annual Owner Meeting that will take place Monday, October 8th at the Miner’s Foundry. As usual, I will be presenting a “State of the Co-op” update on our financial performance and our positive impact on the community in 2011. We will also be offering a delicious dinner prepared by our deli staff. The highlight of the evening will be a presentation by David Thompson of the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation. David is the author of Weavers of Dreams, a history of the Rochdale Pioneers, who were cooperative innovators in 19th century England who drafted the first version of what has come to be known as the International Cooperative Principles. These are the guidelines under which all cooperative endeavors continue to operate. David, who is a founding owner of the Davis Food Co-op, has had a long and distinguished history in the cooperative movement. He is sure to be engaging and inspiring. I hope to see you there.

Your vote is important

Lastly, I’d like to remind everyone about the importance of the upcoming vote on Proposition 37. This is a historic opportunity to fundamentally change the way our government has given carte blanche to the behemoths of both the food and agriculture industries and the biotech industry. You can find related information at www.carighttoknow.org.

Founded in 1999, NCGA is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops throughout the U.S. NCGA helps unify food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere. NCGA represents 128 member and associate co-ops operating over 160 storefronts in 35 states, with a combined annual sales of over $1.4 billion. For a map of NCGA member and associate co-ops, visit www.ncga.coop. To learn more about co-ops, visit www.strongertogether.coop or www.go.coop.

BriarPatch, in partnership with the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA), has just released, “Healthy Foods Healthy Communities: The Social and Economic Impacts of Food Co-ops,” a quantitative study that compares the impacts of food co-ops to those of conventional grocery stores. The study’s compelling results demonstrate the many ways that cooperative businesses like BriarPatch “do well while doing good.”

Unlike their conventional counterparts, co-ops are owned and governed by owner-shoppers, and are rooted in principles such as community, voluntary and open membership, economic participation, and cooperation. Because of these principles and practices, food co-ops inherently serve and benefit the communities where they are located. For example, the study finds that for every dollar spent at a food co-op, $0.38 is reinvested in the local economy, as compared to $0.24 for conventional grocery stores.

“A quantitative assessment like this that shows the impacts of food co-ops has never been done,” said Robynn Shrader, CEO of NCGA. “We wanted to put numbers to what we’ve known for decades,” Shrader continued, “that food co-ops generate tangible social and economic benefits for the communities they serve in ways that conventional grocers just can’t.”

BriarPatch is one of NCGA’s 128 member and associate co-ops that in aggregate operate 165 stores, generate more than $1.4 billion in annual revenue, and are owned by 1.3 million consumers. Individually, co-ops serve the distinct needs of communities like western Nevada County. Together, co-ops have the purchasing power to rival conventional grocery chains and the good business practices to truly make the world a better place.

“This study confirms that the work we do every day at BriarPatch is part of a much larger movement to feed and support communities across the country,” said Chris Maher, BriarPatch’s General Manager. “We’re proud to be a business that has a proven, positive impact in our community.”

Supporting Local Food Systems and Sustainable Foods - Though “local” has popped up in conventional grocery stores in recent years, retail food co-ops are leaps and bounds ahead of the pack. Where conventional grocers work with an average of 65 local farmers and other local producers, food co-ops work with an average of 157. Likewise, locally sourced products make up an average of 20% of co-op sales compared to 6 % at conventional stores.

Years after creating the market for organic foods, co-ops are still the place to find them. Of produce sales at food co-ops, 82% are organic, compared to 12% for conventional grocers. And organics make up 48% of the grocery sales in food co-ops, compared to just 2% in conventional grocers.

Local Economic Impact - The economic impact that any grocery store has on its local economy is greater than just the sum of its local spending, because it recirculates a portion of the money it spends locally. Food co-ops purchase from local farmers who, in turn, buy supplies from local sources, hire local technicians to repair equipment, and purchase goods and services from local retailers. Conventional grocers do so as well, to a certain extent, but the gap between the two business models is still significant. For every $1,000 a shopper spends at their local food co-op, $1,604 in economic activity is generated in their local economy – $239 more than if they had spent that same $1,000 at a conventional grocer.

Environmental Stewardship - Grocery stores – co-ops and conventional alike – generate a significant amount of waste. What sets retail food co-ops apart is what they do with that waste. Co-ops recycle 96% of their cardboard, 74% of their food waste, and 81% of their plastics, compared to the 91%, 36% and 29%, respectively, that is recycled by conventional grocers.

At a co-op grocer, fresh, delicious food is just the beginning. To view the results of the complete report, visit www.strongertogether.coop/food-coops/food-co-op-impact-study.

Employee Benefits - The average co-op that earns $10 million per year in revenue provides jobs for over 90 workers. In total, 68% of those workers are eligible for health insurance, compared to 56% of the employees at conventional grocers. Co-op employees also earn an average of nearly $1.00 more per hour than conventional grocery workers, when bonuses and profit sharing are taken into account.

About the Study 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 that targeted retail food co-ops, and the other, the conventional grocery industry.

by Mellisa Hannum

The concepts of cooperative business and fair trade are integrally mixed in the company philosophy of Equal Exchange.

Equal Exchange helped introduce Fair Trade coffees to grocery stores in the United States. It was also the first U.S. company to use Fair Trade Certified sugar as an ingredient, as well as offering it as a stand-alone product.

A worker-owned co-op, Equal Exchange strongly supports a policy in which Fair Trade Certification remains dedicated to the living wage of small farmers, and is not extended to include plantation workers. “In the developing world, co-op production is focused on the 99 percent. Plantations are the one percent,” said Rodney North, a worker-owner and former board director known as “The Answer Man” at Equal Exchange. “Fair Trade and farmer co-ops are an opportunity to shift the economic power back to the community,” he said.

This thought was echoed by Kevin Hollender, an Equal Exchange worker-owner, who noted that “Fair Trade wouldn’t be on the shelf the way it is now, if it wasn’t for co-ops.”

North recalls that food co-ops were among the first to recognize the integrity of this business model. “Food co-ops were our first customers and they continue to be our best, because they ‘got it’,” said North.

Equal Exchange has a direct relationship with the farmer co-ops from whom they buy their coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, olive oil, California almonds, and bananas. In fact, everyone who is employed by Equal Exchange gets to visit a farmer co-op.

Hollender said that this kind of direct relationship also helps when tough issues need to be addressed, as in the current divergence of views with Fair Trade USA. In such cases, the worker co-ops are able to organize, and the farmer co-ops can do so as well.

Dedication to the concept of fairness to farmers, and to the building of closer connections, was the motivating vision of the founders of Equal Exchange, Rink Dickinson, Jonathan Rosenthal, and Michael Rozyne. The three met while working in management at a food co-op in New England. Finding that they shared a similar vision, they wanted to transform the relationship between food producers and the public, which meant nothing short of changing the model for food commerce, worldwide.

Equal Exchange’s founders defined their business model with these ideas:

• A social change organization that would help farmers and their families gain more control over their economic futures.

• A group that would educate consumers about trade issues affecting farmers.

• A provider of high-quality foods that would nourish the body and the soul.

• A company that would be controlled by the people who did the actual work.

• A community of dedicated individuals who believed that honesty, respect, and mutual benefit are integral to any worthwhile endeavor.

Twenty years later, Equal Exchange has become the world’s largest worker-owned coffee roaster, a $50 million enterprise. They employ 120 people full-time, 103 of whom are co-op members. Employees must work for one year before they become eligible to join. They’ve also won WorldBlu’s award for “World’s Most Democratic Workplace” multiple times, and this year won its award for “Best Support of the Fair Trade Movement.”

“From an unlikely beginning, we’ve now grown into a sizable organization,” said North, in a great understatement of the esteem and respect that Equal Exchange has earned from farmers, shoppers, and businesspeople worldwide.

Pachamama Coffee Co-op is unique. Not only do its farmers receive Fair Trade pricing, but since they’re also the owners, they enjoy all of the profits.

Because the members own the company, they are also the ones who invest in its marketing, branding, and distribution. And farmers have the option of selling to outside companies, as well. This bottom-up approach means that growers receive roughly $8 per pound, some of which gets reinvested into Pachamama.

Thaleon Tremain founded the co-op in 2001, while working with coffee collectives in Peru, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Guatemala, and Mexico. After a development phase, the co-op has had its coffee on the market for seven years.

While their co-op is global, their storefront is local. Pacha has a location in midtown Sacramento that has two full-time and one part-time employee. Their hope is that their location, on 919 20th Street, will attract more public awareness to the coffee co-op. They’re open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and also on the second Saturday of the month.

“We’re the only coffee option that offers direct purchasing from the farmer,” said Mollie Moisane, Pachamama’s Director of Outreach.

Pachamama also has a new communication tool that customers can use, at traceablecoffee.org. There, you can find out which farmer grew the coffee you bought, by entering the source identification found on the bag. Since it’s a farmer-owned cooperative, the member-farmers are essentially marketing themselves. And their stories are just a few keystrokes away.

The co-op’s partnerships don’t end once the coffee makes its way to the United States. Green coffee beans are sent from secondary co-ops in their country of origin to Thanksgiving Coffee Company for roasting. In this partnership, Thanksgiving roasts the beans and then direct-ships them for Pachamama.

In celebration of the International Year of Cooperatives, Pachamama has released a special 2012 Co-op Blend, a limited edition roast that will showcase a blend of coffees from Latin America. Three percent of the proceeds from this blend will be donated to select cooperative development non-profits.

This largest farmer-owned co-op in the U.S. is finding more success each year. Profits have brought new opportunities to its coffee farmers, many of whom are now able to send their children to college. Money has also been reinvested in their villages, improving the lives of the farmers as well as those around them, proving that true Fair Trade and co-ops can indeed change the world.

Pachamama Co-op coffee to be served at “Passion Into Action” women’s conference hosted by See Jane Do

Even the coffee served will inspire at the “Passion Into Action” women’s conference hosted by See Jane Do. Thanks to BriarPatch and Pachamama, a farmer-owner coffee cooperative, the conference will serve Pachamama’s Five Sisters premium blend coffee. This organic, shade-grown coffee is grown by family farmers who own the company, thereby earning a better living for themselves and their families.

As an outlet for Pachamama and a sponsor of the conference, BriarPatch introduced the coffee co-op to See Jane Do, thinking this might be a welcome match for women who care about making a difference. (And we were right!) For more information on Pachamama Coffee Co-op, see www.pacha.coop.

Dinner Bell Farm in Chicago Park

Throughout the morning, Cooper, Paul, Molly, and the farm dogs led tours of the shady chicken quarters, the pigs in their pens, and their fields of flowers. Those who attended were impressed by the commitment and expertise of these the young farmers.

Open-air chicken coops kept in the shade of an old orchard made for a pleasant home for the large flock maintained at the farm.

After the tours, everyone retreated gratefully to the shade for conversation, chicken sausage dogs cooked by the Dinner Bell crew, and watermelon and baked goods supplied by BriarPatch.

Stay tuned for future farm tours, one of our wonderful new initiatives.

Back to Basics Farm in Grass Valley, run by Rob and Patty Bielen, sells both chicken and eggs to BriarPatch.They expect their chickens to continue to lay eggs through much of the winter, which is good news for the many fans of local eggs.

Their pasture-raised Bovan chickens and Perkins ducks wander the fields in the morning, then for the rest of the day hang out in their barn, which they wander in and out of as the spirit moves them. Eggs are harvested by hand from the nesting boxes every afternoon.

Johnny Miccio, Manager of the BriarPatch meat department, said that Rob shares his love of farming by going into schools and giving presentations on agriculture. And each year Back to Basics devotes part of their proceeds to a scholarship for one high school senior.

Fowler Family Farm, located in Penn Valley, is run by Brad and Alana Fowler with help from farm liaison Theresa Huck. Their birds are raised in the open on grass, giving them access to the bugs they love to eat, and which boosts the omega 3 in their eggs.

The farm purchases all of its organic feed locally. Completely unsubsidized, Fowler Family believes in being financially sustainable, and they accomplish this not only by selling chicken to BriarPatch, but by offering a number of subscription options, as well.

Currently, their meat chickens are the Cornish Cross breed, though they’re looking at heritage breeds to add to their flock, as well.

Echoing the concerns of so many of us, Theresa said that, “buying local chicken ensures that you’re getting a chicken that was humanely raised.”

by Julie DeHollander, RD, CD

Everything we eat, breathe, think, and feel has an effect on inflammation.Inflammation is influenced by the level of pollutants in our environment, the amount of sleep we get, and how much stress we encounter. Even our emotions and relationships have an effect on the inflammation level in our bodies. While some inflammation is necessary for healing, too much inflammation can cause disease or chronic pain.

Scientists no longer think of inflammation as an isolated local phenomenon, but rather, as a multisystem occurrence. Inflammation involves hundreds of chemical and biological processes that can have unexpected effects on organ systems that one would not suspect would be affected.

Excessive inflammation is a major contributing factor to many conditions, including obesity, arthritis, allergies, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, eczema, depression, gum disease, autoimmune conditions, and chronic pain.

NF-kB (nuclear factor kappa B) is a protein complex that controls the transcription of our DNA. It is found in all cell types and is involved in our cellular response to stimuli such as stress, pro-inflammatory messengers, free radicals, and foreign substances.

NF-kB that stays chronically activated has been linked to inflammatory conditions, obesity, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. NF-kB can become chronically elevated without being continually activated because it has its own amplifying loop that can continue cycling even in the absence of further stimulation. Once this NF-kB loop is activated, chronic inflammation may persist unless an active NF-kB inhibitor is provided.

Research has shown that two of the most powerful natural inhibitors of NF-kB are curcumin and resveratrol.

Curcumin is a powerful compound found in turmeric root, which is used as a spice in curries. Both the raw forms and dried forms are therapeutic.

Resveratrol is found in grapes, bilberries, blueberries, currents, cranberries, peanuts, and wine (especially pinot noir and St. Laurent). While drinking wine to reduce inflammation may sound like a delightful idea, keep in mind that studies have shown that only a moderate amount of red wine (defined as about 4 ounces a day for women, and 8 ounces for men) has shown positive health effects, and that more than that can actually increase health risks.

Other anti-inflammatory foods are pineapple, papaya, kelp, shitake mushrooms, ginger, cruciferous vegetables (bok choy, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussells sprouts), avocados, leafy greens, and olive oil.

Omega-3 fats also help produce anti-inflammatory messengers. Cold-water fish, fish oil supplements, flax seeds, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds are good sources of omega-3s.

To decrease your intake of pro-inflammatory foods, avoid trans fats, which are found in shortenings, margarines, baked goods, and many processed foods.

To identify trans fats, look for the words “hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil” on food labels. Be aware, though, that even if the label says “trans fat free,” if you see the word “hydrogenatd,” this means that the food contains trans fats. Manufacturers are allowed to call a product “fat (or trans fat) free” if it contains less than .5 grams per serving. This sounds like a small amount, but just think about how many servings there are in a tub of margarine or jar of peanut butter!

Trans fats inhibit the production of anti-inflammatory messengers. The solution? Don’t consume as much refined seed oils. Oils from corn, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, and soy contain omega-6 fats, which create pro-inflammatory messengers.

Avoid foods that you are sensitive to, as well. Glutenous  grains such as barley, rye, wheat, and spelt can be inflammatory for many people.

Choose pasture-raised and grass-fed meats, eggs, and dairy products, which contain anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. For people with joint pain, avoiding foods from the nightshade family (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant) may also provide some benefit.

Check with your health care provider if you are concerned about inflammation or food sensitivities. C- reactive protein (CRP) and Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR or sed rate) are two blood tests that are commonly used to measure inflammation levels.

Julie DeHollander, RD, CD is a registered dietitian/holistic nutritionist who practices in Grass Valley at Sierra Wellness Nutrition, www.sierrawellnessnutrition.com.

GMOs are not healthy. GMOs are engineered with bacteria and viruses to produce insecticides and survive heavy doses of herbicides…that’s not healthy for us OR for the environment!

You have a right to know. We believe you have a right to know what’s in your food. The non-profit Non-GMO Project works with committed manufacturers to provide reliable Non-GMO choices.

Reliable Non-GMO choices. The Non-GMO Project seal appears only on products that have met rigorous standards for GMO avoidance, including ongoing testing of high-GMO-risk ingredients. Look for the seal on our shelves during Non-GMO Month! For an up-to-date list of Verified products, visit http://www.nongmoproject.org/take-action/search-participating-products/

What are GMOs? Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are plants or animals created through the process of genetic engineering. This experimental technology forces DNA from one species into a different species. The resulting GMOs are unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes that cannot occur in nature or in traditional breeding.

What should I look out for? The following crops carry a high GMO risk: Alfalfa, Canola, Corn, Cotton, Papaya, Soy, Sugar Beets, Zucchini and Yellow Summer Squash.

How can you avoid GMOs? With GMOs now present in more than 75% of conventional processed food, choosing certified organic and/or Non-GMO Project Verified is the most reliable way for your family to avoid GMOs. Look for the seal on the package or the shelf.
Look for hundreds of Non-GMO labels at BriarPatch.

October is Non-GMO Month, and the celebration at BriarPatch will be bigger than ever this year. In nearly 50 countries around the world, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) must be labeled because they haven’t been proven safe. By buying Non-GMO Project Verified, we support manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, and farmers who are committed to providing safe, healthy Non-GMO food.

Our choices can change the world. Let’s help create a non-GMO future together.
During Non-GMO Month we’ll help empower you to choose Non-GMO. Products that have achieved Non-GMO Project Verification will be clearly tagged, and special deals will be available on many of these Non-GMO goodies.

For more information about Non-GMO Month visit: www.nongmomonth.org/about.

It’s October, and around the country our sister food co-ops are beginning to welcome fall’s persimmons, pomegranates, and pumpkins.

They’re also celebrating Co-op Month by selling co-op-labelled fair trade Theo chocolate bars, and through the “My Co-op Rocks” video and photo contest.

And that’s not all… they’re also taking action for World Food Day on October 16th by sponsoring the No Kid Hungry fundraising campaign.

Here in California, not only are co-ops doing all these things, we’re also facing an incredible opportunity to vote for the labelling of GMOs. While BriarPatch rarely takes positions on political issues, we’ve taken a strong stand in favor of California Proposition 37, the Right to Know initiative that would require that genetically engineered food be labeled.

BriarPatch’s Board, staff, owners, and shoppers seem to be in agreement that it’s time to stand up for our right to know what’s in our food by voting “yes” on Prop 37. Many observers believe that the Golden State has a golden opportunity to be the voice of change on the proliferation of GMOs in this country.

Whatever your intentions as to other issues on the ballot, if you believe that genetically modified foods should be labeled, please… vote “yes” on Prop 37.

What others are saying about Prop. 37:

“…the reason the food and biotech companies are investing heavily to fight the ballot measure in California is because that market is so large that it would effectively cause them to adopt labeling or reformulate their products nationally.” – New York Times, Sept. 13, 2012

“Passing this state law in California will have the same impact as a national labeling law. It’s now, or it may be never! – Organic Consumers Association

“If consumers win this fight in California, manufacturers will likely begin to label food nationally for GE ingredients.” – Cornucopia Institute

BriarPatch joins Yes on 37 effort, will match $100 

Millions of dollars are pouring into the campaign against Proposition 37, the Right to Know about GMOs initiative. To do our part, BriarPatch Co-op is donating $5000 to the Yes on 37 campaign.

On top of that, the Co-op will match donations of $100 or more to the Yes on 37 campaign. These are political donations, subject to strict recording requirements, so to donate through BriarPatch please first call 272-5333, x100 or x112.

About California Voter Registration

How to Register to Vote:

• Pick up a Voter Registration Card at BriarPatch, at the Co-op Corner area near the exit door. Then mail it in or take it to the Rood Center in person.

• Request a California Voter Registration Card to be mailed to you by sending an email to elections.mail@co.nevada.ca.

• Download a mail-in or drop-off registration form from: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/register-to-vote/.

• Register at any of 33 official voter registration card locations in Nevada County; the full list can be downloaded from www.mynevadacounty.com/nc/elections/Pages/Where-can-I-register-to-vote.aspx.

 Not sure if you’re registered? Has your address changed?

To check the status of your registration, call 530-265-1298 or go to http://prdrpt2.nevcounty.net/ELRegrVotr/rdPage.aspx.

When to Register to Vote: by Oct. 22

October 22 – Deadline to register to vote, for registration to be postmarked.

October 30 – Deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot. (After this date vote-by-mail ballots will still be available at the elections office.)

Who can Register to Vote:

To register to vote in California, you must be:

• An United States citizen, A resident of California,

• 18 years of age or older on Election Day (November 6, 2012),

• Not in prison or in county jail, or on parole (for more information on the rights of people who have been incarcerated, please see the Secretary of State’s Voting Guide for Currently or Formerly Incarcerated Californians),

• Not found by a court to be mentally incompetent.

How to vote on November 6

Vote in person or bring your mail-in ballot to your polling place.

The OJT program, which can reimburse the Patch for up to 50% of the employee’s wage during his training period, is designed to help to support businesses in their search for a specific skill-set.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, it costs fully one-third of a newly hired employee’s annual salary if that employee must be replaced. This translates to a cost of almost $5,500 every time a business loses an $8 per hour employee.
By investing in training so that an employee is able to perform to the best of his ability, a business is not only filling a position that requires specialized skills, but is more likely to retain that person.

The aim of the OJT program is to ensure such retention. With OJT, One-Stop is able to help support both business and employee during the crucial one-to-six-month period of training, after which the employee is likely to be proficient.

Christine Hoxsie, Staffing Specialist at One-Stop, explained that OJT is designed for beyond-entry-level positions. For example, if an employee is really good at her job but needs some brushing-up on QuickBooks in order to do her job better, OJT can help out. More information on OJT and One-Stop can be found by calling Christine at (530) 265-7093.

Vegetable oil, for frying
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup club soda
1 tablespoon sesame or peanut oil
3 medium zucchinis, quartered lengthwise
12 green beans, trimmed
1/2 cup soy sauce

In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, pour in enough vegetable oil to fill the pan about 1/3 of the way. Heat over medium heat until a deep-frying thermometer, inserted in the oil, reaches 375 degrees F. (If you don’t have a thermometer, a cube of bread will brown in about 2 minutes.)
While the oil is heating, in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add the club soda and sesame oil. Stir until just combined and still lumpy.
Dip the vegetables in the batter and fry, 3 or 4 at a time, until the batter is golden and crispy, about 60 to 70 seconds. Drain on paper towels.
Arrange the vegetables on a platter and serve the soy sauce alongside as a dipping sauce.

Organic watermelon (I used the small version of a ‘yellow’ melon from the farmers market)
Dice to bite size pieces.
Add a bunch of chopped fresh mint leaves and toss in a little rock or sea salt.
Chill before serving, and drizzle with 18 year, aged in Cherry Wood Balsamic.
The Balsamic is sold at the Briar Patch, and well worth the 10.00 per bottle.
Enjoy!

In Honor Of NATIONAL CHEESECAKE DAY…

Honey Cheesecake

Crust:
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup melted butter
1 1/4 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup walnuts (ground)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Add the 1/3 cup honey and 1/3 cup melted butter to flour, ground walnuts and cinnamon; mix well. Press into bottom and up sides of an 8 inch spring form pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes until lightly browned. (*After this portion is done, turn the oven down to 300 degrees*… I HAVE forgotten to do this :0 )

Filling:
2 packages cream cheese (8 oz. each), softened
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup dairy sour cream
zest of 2 lemons
2 teaspoons arrowroot powder

Blend softened cream cheese with honey until smooth. Beat in eggs and yolks. Add remaining ingredients; beat until smooth. Turn into prepared crust and bake at 300 degrees for 70 minutes or until set. Cool and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled before serving.

(8 servings)

Note: You can use regular flour in place of the brown rice flour and cornstarch in place of the arrowroot powder -I was trying for a largely sugar and gluten free dessert.

His talk is titled, “Activating the ‘C’ in Co-op: Celebrating & Committing, Capitalizing & Creating.”

As some of us remember, this won’t be the first time David has spoken at a BriarPatch annual meeting. As our featured speaker in 2004, he brought perspective and inspiration to the gathering.

David has a long and facsinating resume, but it’s particularly neat that he was born in Blackpool, Lanacashire, England, which is in the same county as Rochdale, the birthplace of the cooperative movement.

David has worked for national cooperative organizations in the U.S., Britain, and Japan, as well as the United Nations. He has visited the cooperative sector in over 30 countries, gathering lots of good stories.

Closer to home, David is President of the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation, which administers Cooperative Community Funds for almost 30 U.S. co-ops — including BriarPatch. The foundation is the largest co-op funder of cooperative development organizations and organic dairy and fair trade coffee cooperatives in the U.S.

David is also an author. His book, Weavers of Dreams: Founders of the Modern Cooperative Movement will be available at our Owner Meeting-Banquet-Party, and David would be happy to sign your copy.