In May you’ll receive your Co-op Newsletter in paper format in order to provide all member-owners with ballots for voting in our 2016 Election for the MNFC Board of Directors. You’ll find the ballot in this Newsletter, along with instructions on how to vote in this important election. Short bios with information about the candidates are included in this Newsletter’s insert. Remember to come to our Annual Meeting to find out the results!
We’re casting our Co-op spotlight on Lotus Foods this week to bring awareness to the amazing things they’re doing to revolutionize global rice production. Member-owners can enjoy 20% off all Lotus Foods rice products this week, so it’s a great time to try their fair trade certified, non-GMO verified, heirloom, organic, and ecologically-grown rices! Lotus Foods has been a certified B Corp since 2012, and they’re pioneering a brilliant and innovative set of farming practices that address some of the most important challenges we face this century – namely to feed several billion more people with dwindling land and water resources and without further degrading the planet’s environment. Read on to learn all about it!
Rice is a modest little grain with a super important mission – to feed over half of the world’s population. It is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world’s human population, and is third only to maize and sugar cane in worldwide agricultural production. This presents a significant environmental challenge due to the fact that rice is a very water-intensive crop to grow.
Each year, one-quarter to one-third of the fresh water that is withdrawn from surface and ground water sources is used to irrigate rice. That is the most water used for any single human activity. According to the International Water Management Institute, by 2020 (in just 5 years!) one-quarter of irrigated rice areas, which produce 75% of the world’s rice, may be suffering some form of water scarcity. This is because more water is being used than can be replenished.
This means not just less water for rice and essential food security, but also for drinking, sanitation, livestock, and other crops, as well as enough water in streams and rivers to sustain fish and aquatic life. It also means women have to walk further to collect the family’s daily water supply in many parts of the world.
Depending on country and circumstances, women provide 50-90% of labor in growing the world’s rice crop, most of it unpaid or poorly paid. That’s 500 million to as many as one billion women whose productive capacity is harnessed by the ceaseless toil of producing rice to eat and sell. Imagine the creative energy that could be unleashed if they had more time!
The good news is that there are solutions! We invite you to learn about what Lotus Foods is doing to incentivize farmers to produce more rice with less water and less labor for women.
Lotus Foods utilizes and promotes a method of rice production known as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). SRI is an innovative set of farming practices in which rice farmers fundamentally change how they manage their plants, soil and water. They increase their productivity at the same time that they reduce their use of water, seeds and agrochemical inputs, and eliminate continuously flooded conditions.This agricultural method allows rice to be grown using 90% less seed, 30-70% less water, ZERO chemical pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers, yet it still increases yields by 50-100% or more, is drought-resistant, pest-resistant, and it’s revolutionizing the way that rice is farmed. In short, it’s More Crop Per Drop. Lotus Foods estimates that in 2015 they saved the equivalent of some 528 million (yes MILLION!) gallons of water, which could instead flow back into rivers and lakes, recharge aquifers, and nourish natural habitats! SRI has been largely grassroots driven, fueled by marginalized women and men farmers and the non-profit organizations (NGOs) who advocate for their welfare, like Oxfam, Africare, WWF and many dedicated local NGOs and individuals. The reason these farmers are so excited about SRI is because it represents an opportunity for more food, more money, better health, and more options – in short, for a way out of poverty.
Here’s a little more about the overall mission of Lotus Foods in their own words:
Since 1995, Lotus Foods has pioneered the introduction of exotic rice handcrafted on small family farms in remote areas of the world. Each rice varietal is distinguished by its terroir and treasured for its distinctive cooking quality, taste, texture, aroma, color, and nutritional value. Lotus Foods was founded with the intent and vision to support sustainable global agriculture by promoting production of traditional heirloom rice varieties, many of which may otherwise be extinct, while enabling the small family rice farmer to earn an honorable living.
We believe that sustainability is premised on an ethical framework that includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, and a culture of peace. We believe that eradicating poverty and promoting social and economic justice has to start with agriculture and has to be accomplished in a way that protects and restores the natural resources on which all life depends. At the crux of this challenge is rice, which provides a source of living to two billion people, most earning less than $200 a year.
Most of our rices are already certified organic, while others are in the process of becoming certified, and still others we are working to develop a certifying program in its country of origin. These organic and transitional rices are grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, GMOs, or ionizing radiation. All of our rices are fair trade certified and non-GMO verified.
We hope you will help us “Do the Rice Thing with More Crop Per Drop™, a Water Smart, Woman Strong way to grow rice.”
Friday, April 22nd is Earth Day, and in honor of this fine holiday, we’re going bagless! The day will serve as a great reminder that there many ways to bag your groceries, so why not choose the GREEN way? Please bring your baskets, reusable bags, repurposed cardboard boxes, or any grocery tote you prefer. If you forget, no problem; we’ll be giving away free reusable bags while supplies last, and we’ll also have repurposed cardboard boxes available.
Why bother with reusable grocery totes? Here are some interesting facts about disposable shopping bags:
While disposable paper and plastic bags seem awfully convenient, their cost to the environment can be hefty.
It is estimated that 5 trillion plastic bags are produced each year. Each plastic bag is used, on average, for about 20 minutes, though it takes a single bag over 1,000 years to completely decompose in a landfill. As it decomposes, it releases greenhouse gases into our atmosphere and releases harmful toxins into our soil and groundwater. Bags that don’t make it to the landfill litter the landscape and pose a significant threat to animal health and well-being; particularly for birds and aquatic life.
Plastic bags are quite commonly mistaken for food by animals, especially when the bags carry food residues, are brightly colored or are animated by the movement of water. A great variety of animals, land and especially marine, can choke to death on bags. If swallowed whole, animals may not be able to digest real food and die a slow death from starvation or infection. Plastic bags are responsible for the death of over a million sea birds and an estimated 100,000 whales, dolphins, turtles, and seals each year.
Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags annually. That is equivalent to dumping nearly 12 billion barrels of oil. But, what if you recycle them? That seems like a more environmentally-friendly way to go, right? Unfortunately, it takes 85 times more energy to recycle a plastic bag than it does to create it.
Perhaps you opt for paper bags, instead of plastic. Those are better for the environment, right? Believe it or not, paper production creates 70% more pollution during production than plastic bags. One must also consider that paper bags are made from trees that could instead be absorbing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere if they weren’t busy becoming bags. The paper bag making process also results in 50 times more water pollutants than making plastic bags, and uses more water during production.
While it’s true that plastic bags are made from crude oil, making a paper bag consumes four times as much energy as making a plastic bag, so the process of making paper bags consumes a good deal of oil as fuel for production, making both paper and plastic bags very oil-intensive products.
You can certainly recycle paper bags, though much like plastic bags, the process for recycling paper bags can be inefficient – often consuming more fuel than it would take to make a brand new bag.
In short, when it comes to the battle over which is greener, neither paper nor plastic have it in the bag.
Here are some great tips for remembering your reusable shopping bags:
King Arthur Flour is America’s oldest flour company, founded in Boston in 1790 to provide pure, high-quality flour for residents of the newly formed United States. More than 220 years later, they’re still going strong, thanks to the passion and commitment of their dedicated employee-owners. In 1984, then-owners Frank and Brinna Sands moved the company from Massachusetts, where it had been based for 194 years, to Norwich, Vermont, where the company is headquartered today.
We’re casting our spotlight on King Arthur Flour this week as part of our Member Deals program, which means that member-owners can enjoy 20% their full line of baking products! Choose from their time-tested Patent Flour, available in 50# bags, to gluten-free baking mixes available in both our bulk department and in the grocery baking aisle. Then tie on the apron, break out the rolling pin, and have a bake-a-thon!
Want to know more about King Arthur Flour? Here are some historical highlights from their webpage:
1790 Henry Wood began importing European flour to Long Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. His goal was to provide high-quality flour for bakers in the fledgling United States
1896 More than 100 years later, the company Wood founded gave its product a new brand name: King Arthur Flour. Their new, exceptional, U.S.-grown flour was introduced at the Boston Food Fair.
1984 Then-owners Frank and Brinna Sands moved the company from Massachusetts, where it had been based for 194 years, to Norwich, Vermont, where the company is headquartered today
1992 The Baker’s Store was opened in Norwich at the urging of local catalogue customers. The same year, our Life Skills Bread Baking Program began visiting schools to share the joys of baking and giving.
1995 King Arthur Flour built new headquarters in Norwich, a 12-sided post-and-beam building appropriately named Camelot. Camelot now houses The Baker’s Store and Vermont Public Radio.
1996 With thoughts of retiring, Frank and Brinna Sands decided to sell the company to their employees and began an Employee Stock Ownership Plan; the company also launched its first website.
1998 King Arthur Flour established a second location, Avalon, in nearby Hartford, Vermont, for its customer service, fulfillment, and product development functions. Avalon underwent expansion in 2004 to accommodate the company’s growing workforce
2004 The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion won the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook of the Year Award; King Arthur Flour also completed its ownership transfer and became 100% employee-owned.
2006 Received the Outstanding Vermont Business Award and the Better Business Bureau Local Torch Award for Excellence.
2007 King Arthur Flour became a founding B (Beneficial) Corporation, changing its bylaws to reflect its commitment to all stakeholders— including shareholders, business partners, the community, and the environment
2010 King Arthur Flour launched its award-winning line of gluten-free baking mixes; its Life Skills Bread Baking Program taught its 120,000th student; and Baking Education Center classes reached more than 4,600 bakers.
As you prepare for Passover, you might be looking for the perfect Matzo (or perhaps Matza, Matzah, Matzot, or Matzoh, depending on your preference) to accompany your Seder. Look no further! We’ve got several options for you to choose from, while supplies last:
Vermatzah – This Vermont Artisan Matzah is wood-fired using VT-grown organic wheat and emmer from Naga Bakehouse in Middletown Springs, VT. Find it in our bakery section.
Patchwork Farm & Bakery – This local matzoh hails from East Hardwick, VT and it’s brick-oven baked using organic grains. Find it in our bakery section.
Manischewitz – First founded in 1888 by Rabbi Dov Behr in Ohio, and now headquartered in New Jersey, this organic and non-GMO verified Matzo can be found in grocery aisle 2.
MNFC Matzo Ball Soup – Our fabulous MNFC deli crew will be cooking up fresh batches of Matzo Ball Soup periodically throughout Passover, so look for that in our deli department!
We are gearing up for Open Farm Week 2016 – August 15-21, 2016, and we’d like your farm to join us! We are excited to build off of last year’s momentum, meeting our goal of strengthening consumers’ connections to Vermont land and farms, while teaching them how to access Vermont-grown food, fiber and forestry products.
Open Farm Week is an opportunity for you to spotlight your farm and showcase your products. Whether you sell directly to consumers or wholesale markets, farms of all kind are encouraged to participate. If you are not usually open to the public, that’s okay too. We have resources on the website about managing safety and liability, as well as what guests will expect when coming to your farm. Please plan for some ways to engage consumers while they are visiting. You may want to provide tours or other activities such as seed planting, tastings, scavenger hunts, or on-farm dinners for folks to engage in.
For more information and to sign up to participate, please visit http://www.diginvt.com/blog/openfarmweekforfarmers/. We will be doing statewide promotions, but for your event to be successful, you must plan on doing local promotions of your event! We will be providing each participant with outreach materials to help you engage consumers in your area of the state. Sign-ups end on June 30th, but please consider signing up early in order to begin marketing your participation in this event sooner. We look forward to working with you!
Sincerely,
The 2016 Open Farm Week Organizing Team
Sarah Bhimani, City Market; Erin Buckwalter, NOFA-VT and the Vermont Farmers Market Association; Lisa Chase, UVM Extension; Jake Claro, Farm to Plate Network; Chris Howell, Vermont Farm Tours and the Vermont Farm to Plate Network Agritourism Task Force; Grace Meyer, Vermont Fresh Network & DigInVT; Vera Simon-Nobes, Shelburne Farms, Farm-Based Education Network and the Vermont Farm to Plate Network Agritourism Task Force)
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Looking to stretch your grocery budget? So are we! That’s why we’re pleased to introduce our new Co+op Basics program. Co+op Basics offers everyday low prices on many popular grocery and household items. From milk and bread to laundry soap and paper towels, you’ll find brands you know and trust and prices you can afford. And check out all the new items in our Co-op Basics program, too!
Don’t worry, we aren’t paying our farmers or employees any less. We’re simply committed to improving our selection so that everyone can find more value when shopping the co-op. Right now, you’ll find more than 100 Co+op Basics items in the store. Just look for this sign to find your way to everyday low prices at your Co-op!
As we countdown to the celebration of Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary, we’re highlighting businesses that prioritize environmental stewardship in both their products and processes. This week’s spotlight is on Seventh Generation of Burlington, Vermont! From April 7th – 13th member-owners can enjoy 20% off our full line of Seventh Generation products, so it’s a great time to stock up and save, while also greening your spring cleaning routine! Read on to learn more about Seventh Generation and their commitment to environmental well-being in their own words:
From our very first days as a company back in 1988, we have been driven to consider the effects of our actions on the well-being of our next seven generations. Our aspirations are to nurture nature; transform commerce with honesty, responsibility, and radical transparency; enhance health through education, activism, and innovation; and to build communities advancing social justice and equality to unleash human potential.
To travel with purpose, we need a vision of where we are headed. Our Path to 2020 began with examining our impacts as a business and considering the principles that matter to us as a company: responsible sourcing; using materials from plants not petroleum; ensuring the health of our planet and the people on it; having an engaged, motivated workforce; and caring for our community. To track our progress toward these goals, we publish an annual Corporate Consciousness Report, which we invite you to check out. We’re excited to reach our goals and to have you along with us on the journey.
In 2013 the American Sustainable Business Council partnered with us to co-found the Companies for Safer Chemicals Coalition. The Coalition represents over 200 leading businesses united in the belief that meaningful reform can unleash economic and job growth while protecting the consumers we serve and and the communities they live in. The Coalition is calling for reform to improve transparency, safety, and innovation, fostering solutions that lead to sustainable, safer products and technologies.
We firmly believe that you have the right to know what is in the products you buy, which is why we’ve launched the #comeclean campaign. Through this campaign, we aim to air the cleaning industry’s dirty laundry. We support legislation to require manufacturers of both consumer household and industrial cleaning products to disclose all intentionally-added ingredients, including fragrance components, on their product labels and on their websites. Food and personal care products are currently required to have content labels, but there are no regulations in place for the ingredient labeling of household cleaning products – especially for the fragrances that scent those products. Chemicals of concern can hide behind the term “fragrance” in ingredient lists on your cleaning products – chemicals that have been linked to serious health effects including allergies, asthma, cancer, and reproductive harm.
We are also members of the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) and we are a certified B-Corp. To learn more about us and our products, please visit our website.
Wow, how time flies! It’s hard to believe that our Co-op is turning the big 4-0 this year. We’ve enjoyed strolling down memory lane in preparation for this big birthday celebration, and we’ve gathered some beautiful stories from Co-op member-owners that have been with us since the very beginning. While many have shared personal anecdotes and fuzzy memories about how the Co-op came to be, and we had a general idea of how it all began, we were still lacking detailed written records to help us understand our beginnings — until we reached out to Charles Adams. He shared this vividly detailed account below, complete with photos. There is an old Abenaki adage which suggests that identity is a function of how well one understands their history. In this way, the gathering of our history has led to a rediscovery of our identity as a Co-op, and for this we are truly grateful.
Like dividing the wheat and other grains from the fields in times of old, each month the Loaves & Fishes Trucking Company would deposit the bulk order of foodstuffs at a rented house on Weybridge Street. On a given Saturday, the neighborhood coordinators from all the outlying towns would converge and with the help of Middlebury Co-op organizers, David Tier & Foxy, each 50# bag of flour, wheat berries, oats, or powdered milk, each wheel of Cabot cheese, each pail of molasses, cooking oil, peanut butter, or honey, and bags of dried fruits, nuts, and seeds would be measured out into smaller containers and driven back to the neighborhoods according to their monthly order sheet.
Dave & Foxy mimeographed and distributed the order sheets which were then distributed to individual families. Once a month the coordinators would collate their neighbor’s orders and return to Dave for collation. Only whole size bags, pails, or cartons of goods could be ordered and efforts were made to minimize leftovers since there was no ability to preserve or store excesses. Middlebury’s orders were then submitted and combined with those of the other 12 Food Co-ops around the state with the Plainfield Co-op as the central leader. Once a month, Carl from the Loaves & Fishes Trucking Co. in the Northeast Kingdom would drive a tractor trailer to the Boston and New York warehouse districts to collect the food haul for Vermont. Then he would drive around to each of the co-ops from Bennington in the south to Derby Ctr. in the north dropping off foodstuffs. Each co-op provided labor to assist with the pickups and deliveries in rotating order. I went on several such trips, including one that suffered a breakdown on the way back from New York with all of Vermont’s food for the month in the back. Those were fun days!
Recognizing the difficulty of dealing with foodstuffs on the front porch and the growing popularity of the Co-op, Dave rented an improved barn on Rt. 7 south of New Haven for the monthly distributions. This greatly expanded the space available for subdividing the food, made organization of the process possible, and kept everything out of the rain and wind. About springtime 1975, Dave & Foxy were ready to hand off their management duties and my girlfriend, Barbara Charbonnet, and I accepted the responsibility.
All the flours and cornmeal distributed by the Vermont Co-ops was milled on a Meadows 30 inch stone mill originally purchased from Erewhon, a large natural foods distributor near Boston. The miller was Henry Tewksbury and the mill was located in a back room at the Plainfield Co-op. The mill was known affectionately as ‘Audrey’ as it was the sister mill to ‘Jane’ which was also owned by Erewhon.
There was growing dissatisfaction in Middlebury with the co-op location out of town and with the ‘once-a-month’ system over time and about mid-summer 1977, the old REA baggage building adjacent to the Middlebury train station (then a NAPA auto parts) was rented from Joe Bok. Volunteer labor from members cleaned the building, painted walls, repaired floors, and built shelves. As the sparsely paid coordinator, I lived in the ‘storefront’ for a winter with a wood-burning stove and my Russian wolfhound, Sonja.
With the help of Walt Miller, who taught me double entry bookkeeping and exercised some oversight of the growing bank balance of the co-op, we accumulated enough reserve to begin buying ‘extra’ food for a storefront operation several days a week, gradually increasing the extent of the items offered for sale.The pre-order operation continued and had lower pricing than the storefront. It was always the pre-order folks who were the lifeblood and base of volunteers that kept the co-op alive and performed its tasks.
About year-end 1977, the Vermont Co-ops decided that business had grown to the point that they needed to establish a warehouse for the temporary storage, trans-shipment, and logical loading of the trucks for deliveries. As well, the flour mill would be re-located to this, more central and accessible location from Plainfield. However, the miller wasn’t going to re-locate, and I volunteered to become the new miller. A large barn on South St. in New Haven which used to be a chicken farm was rented, steam cleaned, and painted. A loading bay was built, office area enclosed, 3-phase power service installed, the mill moved and set up, staff hired, and operations begun. Ellen Temple was the warehouse manager and I was the miller.
About twice a year, the mill was disassembled and the turning millstone was removed so that the lands and grooves could be leveled and sharpened. The milling process slowly dulled the stones to the point that more and more pressure had to be used forcing the stones together to accomplish the degree of fineness required in the flour. This pressure would produce heat which was not desirable as it would destroy the nutrients in the whole wheat flour and could produce sticky flours which would jam the mill and flour transport. The dressing of the stones was done with a carbide-tipped chisel and air hammer – not a pleasant job!
My guide in setting up the mill and laying out expansion plans was Oliver Evans (1755-1819), Young Millwright & Millers Guide, re-printed in 1850. The mechanics of receiving, storing, moving, cleaning, milling, and bagging grains was unchanged from his time except by the luxurious addition of electric motors. Essentially the vertical orientation of machinery was identical to the early mills.The warehouse never got a freight elevator so every 50 and 100 pound bag of grain and flour had to be shoulder-carried up and down the stairs. I might add that these stairs were built by Paul Ralston , then the volunteer laborer provided by Old Nash Farm on a work weekend while we were getting started.
The mill operation expanded with the purchase of Vermont-grown wheat in bulk, the construction of a grain storage silo, grain elevator, and purchase of a commercial seed cleaner (from French’s mustard). The Vermont Federation of Co-ops eventually discussed the possibility of marketing its flour through commercial grocery stores such as Grand Union in smaller quantities (5 pound bags). However, the regional managers collectively decided that this was a step too far outside the co-op spirit of volunteer labor holding the enterprise together. I disagreed with that decision, feeling that the economics of flour milling are volume-driven. The profit per pound is extremely low and only volume sales can hope to carry the capital expenditures necessitated by the equipment required.
By the summer of 1979, my work with the Co-ops was done. Stephen Pilcher agreed to take over my flour milling duties. I had decided to go to UVM and proceeded to get a degree in Electrical Engineering. I look back with great pride in the work of those years, in the friendships formed, mostly under pretty adverse conditions, the results achieved, and the sense of community present at every level from the neighborhood coordinators, to the regional co-ops, and even the New England Co-ops (NEPCOOP, New England People’s Co-op). It was a time of idealism, hope, and promise for the future.
Seeing that the Co-op has endured and grown makes me immensely proud and happy to have been a part of its origins.
With graduation, Mothers’ Day, and wedding season on the horizon, perhaps you’re in search of some special, locally made, hand crafted gifts. Look no further than Middlebury’s own Danforth Pewter! They’re our Co-op Connection Business of the Month for April and member-owners can enjoy 10% off when shopping at Danforth Pewter. Visit their workshop and store at 52 Seymour Street where you might catch a glimpse of their pewter crafters in action, thanks to the workshop viewing windows. They also have a beautiful retail store on Main Street in the heart of downtown Middlebury, or you can visit them online.
The Danforth family has a rich history of working with pewter, dating all the way back to 1755 when Thomas Danforth II opened a pewter workshop in colonial Connecticut. Several generations of the Danforth family followed him into the pewter trade. The last of the colonial-era Danforths stopped working in pewter in 1873. There is colonial Danforth pewter in the Smithsonian, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum Collection at Colonial Williamsburg, and many other American museums.
One hundred years later, Thomas Danforth II’s great-great-great-great-great grandson Fred Danforth, and Fred’s wife Judi Danforth, revived the family tradition when they opened Danforth Pewter in Vermont in 1975. Over the next 33 years, the company grew to include four retail stores, a web store, a wholesale business providing products to several hundred independent gift stores around the country, a custom design business, and a corporate gift and recognition business.
Today, every piece of Danforth, Shirley and Pewter Port pewter is crafted by hand from 100% lead-free fine pewter in our Middlebury, Vermont workshop. Our line includes everything from miniature pocket charms to one-of-a-kind oil lamps signed by the artist, and our more popular categories are jewelry, holiday ornaments and key rings.
We are passionate about our craft and proud of our family’s longtime involvement in the rich history of pewter making in America. We strive to keep artisan pewter alive and well in the 21st century by offering a wide range of items, with both original contemporary designs and classic pieces.
Our pewter is 100% lead-free and meets or exceeds all FDA food-safety standards. Our designs and products are all hand crafted right here in Middlebury, Vermont.
We strive to make your entire experience special. From learning about pewter to receiving your final purchase, we want your every interaction with our company to be a reflection of our passion for beautiful pewter gifts. Our goal is your complete satisfaction, and to ensure that your ordering experience is timely, convenient, and enjoyable.
Click here for a full listing of Co-op Connection businesses and discounts.
