This week’s Member Deals Spotlight shines on BackTo Nature Foods! All of their products are 20% for member-owners from August 24th – 30th, just in time to stuff those back-to-school lunchboxes. Read on to learn more about the mission and philosophy of this natural food company that’s been in business for almost 60 years:
While their business has grown, their mission has remained the same: give people truly delicious foods made from recipes inspired by nature. Since 1960, Back to Nature has been creating delicious and flavorful recipes inspired by nature. Their mission is to provide everyday foods that are simply delicious, simply good.
Back to Nature has achieved Non-GMO Project Verification on over 70 products since they began the process back in January 2015 and many of their products are also certified organic.
The Back To Nature Philosophy:
Happiness – food should make you smile
Connection – food should connect you to family, community, and the planet
Simplicity – food should be uncomplicated and deliciously simple
Natural Integrity – food should be made with carefully selected ingredients to create great tasting products
We’re shining our Member Deals Spotlight on Woodstock Foods! Member-owners can enjoy 20% their full line of products from July 27th – August 7th. Read on to learn more about Woodstock Foods and their efforts to increase the availability of organic foods, support budding sustainable farmers, and preserve American farmland:
Woodstock Foods first began over 25 years ago with the belief that good food comes from simple ingredients farmed from trusted sources. They’ve seen a lot of food trends come and go over the years, but their timeless belief has remained the same: Keep it simple and eat because it’s good!
They began with nut butter, but have since grown to offer over 250 products in 10 categories. Over 75% of their products are USDA Organic and 145 products are Non-GMO Verified with over 80 more enrolled and awaiting certification.
At Woodstock Foods, they believe in the importance of honoring farmers and protecting farmland. With farmland conservation in mind, they’ve partnered with the American Farmland Trust (AFT). AFT has been a strong advocate for conservation practices and programs that preserve not just land, but also precious soil and water supplies. In the 35 years since AFT began, they’ve helped to save more than five million acres of farm and ranch land and contributed to conservation improvements on millions more.
Woodstock Foods also works with the Young Farmers Coalition and Food to Bank On, both serving to give new farmers the tools and resources needed to succeed. Their services allow budding farmers opportunities for business training, mentorship, and access to markets while also providing farm fresh products to food banks and shelters.
Be sure to check out the Woodstock Foods web page for great recipes and tips for making the most of their products!
We’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on Amy’s Kitchen this week to shed some light on a family-owned company that was organic before organic was cool. Member-owners can enjoy 20% off the full line of Amy’s Kitchen products from May 18th – 24th! Read on to learn more about this pioneering company that set out nearly 30 years ago to offer convenient, time-saving foods that didn’t sacrifice health or quality:
Their Story
Amy’s didn’t set out to become the nation’s leading frozen food brand; they simply hoped to create a successful business that would provide convenient and tasty vegetarian meals for people who appreciated good food but were often too busy to cook healthy, organic meals from scratch.
Andy & Rachel Berliner launched the business 1987, the year their daughter Amy was born, using their own house and barn as headquarters. The founding meetings were held in the same room where the couple married and where Amy was born. They began with a humble vegetarian pot pie, followed soon after by pizzas and soups. The business continued to evolve and expand, realizing a need to include gluten-free and dairy-free items for those living with food allergies. Amy has since grown up and started a family of her own. She and her husband, Jace, both play active roles within the company.
Organic Before Organic Was Cool
Amy’s was serving up organic food before there was a national certification program. In fact, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to create standards for organic, they looked to Amy’s for guidance. Together with other industry leaders, they helped pioneer the organic food industry and, more importantly, helped make organic food available to more people. Their commitment to organic ensures that neither farmers nor consumers are exposed to harmful chemicals and pesticides. A proud supporter of GMO labeling initiatives, all of Amy’s dishes are non-GMO. They were also the first to market canned items with non-BPA-lined cans, and they’re happy to see many other food companies following their lead.
Amy’s Kitchen has grown beyond the Berliner’s wildest dreams, going from several family members pitching in anywhere they can, to a wonderful group of employees, farmers, and suppliers. But no matter how big the company grows, one thing will always remain the same—the family spirit that permeates every decision made inside of Amy’s Kitchen. Although they have considerably expanded their production facilities and the number of people they employ, Amy’s remains family-owned and fiercely independent. They choose what’s best for their customers, their farmers, their employees, and the planet. It’s a tall order, but they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Our Member Deals Spotlight is shining brightly onEarth’s Best this week! Member-owners can enjoy 20% off their full line of organic products from April 27th – May 3rd. Read on to learn more about this Vermont-born company providing healthy, organic foods for babies for more than 30 years:
Their Story
Earth’s Best was founded by Ron Koss and Arnie Koss in Vermont way back in 1985. From day one, they recognized the importance of wholesome, pure nourishment for babies. Embracing fruits handpicked from organic orchards and vegetables cultivated from the earth, Ron Koss and Arnie Koss believed in creating delicious, organic baby food while promoting environmental responsibility. Their initial organic food processing facility had just 20 employees producing three fruit purees and two vegetable purees. Over the past 30 years, the business evolved, outgrowing its Vermont headquarters and expanding its offerings to include cereals, formulas, diapers, wipes, and over 50 different fruit & veggie purees! All of Earth’s Best products are created with care, using pure, simple ingredients found in nature. Made with love from the ground up, you can trust their products to be safe for your baby and safe for the environment.
Their Quality Assurance
To ensure the best ingredients for their food and ultimately the best food for your children, Earth’s Best carefully selects organic growers that treat their crops with care. From careful seed selection to sustainable farming practices, quality is an essential part of their seed to spoon journey. They guarantee that the ingredients sourced for their products do not use potentially harmful chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, genetically engineered ingredients, or growth hormones from animal-derived products. This rigorous quality assurance process allows Earth’s Best to meet the strict standards for organic certification. Their products are also:
Unsweetened, unsalted, and contain no added modified starches
Kosher certified (excluding meat varieties)
Contain no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives
Undergo rigorous product testing to guarantee quality and safety
Their infant formulas are produced with milk from cows that are humanely raised and not treated with antibiotics or growth hormones.
Click here to read more about the farms that supply organic vegetables for Earth’s Best baby foods.
We’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on Spectrum this week and all of their products are 20% off for member-owners! Read on to find out more about what makes Spectrum shine.
Spectrum Naturals
The Spectrum Naturals brand started over twenty years ago with the purpose of making a variety of oils available to the American public. Their line of culinary oils and vinegars includes more than 30 varieties of seed, nut and plant oils including coconut oil, as well as a variety of vinegars, mayonnaise products, cooking sprays and non-hydrogenated shortening, many of which are organic and/or non-GMO verified. Gourmet food lovers will find extra virgin olive oils from Spain, Italy and Tunisia, each estate-grown and produced in small batches.
Spectrum Essentials
Spectrum Essentials refers to the company’s line of dietary supplements aimed at supporting good health by providing essential fatty acids (EFAs) like Omega-3, Omega-6, Vitamin D and other vital nutrients. The Spectrum Essentials line offered at the Co-op features flaxseed oils & fish oils. They use the highest quality raw ingredients that deliver nature’s essential health benefits and offer supplements for every day for every life stage.
American Masters of Taste
The Spectrum Naturals line of culinary oils are recommended for chefs by chefs and have been endorsed by The American Masters of Taste. A national panel of executive chefs evaluates each product based on many attributes such as taste, appearance, character, and flavor. The following Spectrum Naturals products have been awarded the seal:
Organic Virgin Coconut Oil, Unrefined
Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Organic Extra Virgin Mediterranean Olive Oil
Organic Canola Oil
High Heat Safflower Oil
Organic All Vegetable Shortening
Click here to check out delicious recipes and suggested uses for Spectrum products!
Our brave little state has been through a lot: a 2016 winter of no snow, followed by this summer’s drought, an election season full of strife, and now with a new President, worlds of uncertainty about what’s to come. It can be easy, in the dark days of winter, to wonder about the larger purpose of one’s efforts on the farm or in the world.
Thankfully, NOFA-VT has attracted two international giants in the food and farming world to speak at the 35th annual winter conference on February 18-20 at University of Vermont. Dr. Fernando Funes Monzote, of Cuba, and Dr. Vandana Shiva, of India, will both bring a message of resilience, hope, and the power of people to make slow—but radical—change.
NOFA-VT has not typically looked so far beyond its borders for a relevant message. The winter conferences of years past have focused on themes such as local food and soil. But Executive Director Enid Wonnacott and board member Mimi Arnstein—who leads farmer-to-farmer exchanges in Cuba and elsewhere —felt the time was ripe to break open the boundaries of how we think about the impact of our local food movement in Vermont.
For Wonnacott, inspiration came at the Terra Madre International Slow Food Conference in Turin, Italy, where the slogan was “They are Giants, But We are Millions.” The faces of the “Millions” of small-scale farmers from around the globe were represented by some 7,000 delegates at Terra Madre as they came together to raise a collective voice against the corporate “Giants” – for food sovereignty, the survival of family farms, and resistance to GMOs.
I asked Wonnacott how she saw Vermont agriculture fitting into such a global people’s food movement. “NOFA-VT has always had a social change agenda, and at Terra Madre, I really saw the power of this idea that all small-scale farmers around the world are in this together,” she said. She noted that there are big similarities between how we farm and market food here in Vermont with indigenous and local food systems all over the world. Not only that, but the same challenges to seed sovereignty, land protection, and market control are remarkably similar.
NOFA-VT was instrumental in Vermont’s own fight to pass a GMO labeling bill—the first in the country. Although the bill was ultimately gutted at the federal level, a lot of good came out of it, with several major food brands agreeing to label their products. “The GMO labeling law is a great example of how Vermont is an innovator,” Wonnacott said. “It’s a small place full of people who care can start big change.”
Dr. Vandana Shiva is perhaps best known for her tireless crusade on behalf of seed sovereignty and against GMOs, a message she has delivered for over three decades. Bill Moyers called her “the rock star in the worldwide battle against genetically modified seeds.” She started her center for seed sovereignty Navdanya (“nine seeds” in Hindi) to “protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seed, and to promote organic farming and fair trade.”
Personally, hearing Dr. Shiva will be a highlight of my year. It’s hard to think of anyone who has more presence, conviction, and boldness when it comes to speaking out for what she believes in.
Dr. Shiva came to Vermont two years ago and gave a talk, co-sponsored by NOFA-VT, at City Hall in Burlington and at The Vermont Law School. She gave a bow to Vermont’s efforts to resist GMOs: “By demanding a right to know, you are demanding a right to live,” she said. Such a bold, clear statement is typical of Dr. Shiva; she is capable of throwing a net over freedom, democracy, civil rights, food, soil and the future of the planet in one sentence, showing me how they are all connected, and convincing me that it’s possible to fight for them all at once.
Equally inspirational as a speaker and global in his thinking is Dr. Fernando Funes Monzote, an agronomist, and farmer from Cuba where he is building a food revolution from his bio-intensive 20-acre model farm, Finca Marta. Now, when Cuba is undergoing such change and trade channels have opened up with the U.S, it will be prescient to have Funes give us his perspective.
Margarita Fernandez, who runs the Vermont Carribean Institute in Burlington, takes groups of people to Cuba several times a year. Whenever possible, she includes a visit to Finca Marta, “a huge highlight.” She describes Funes as “an incredible storyteller, whose whole life has a great arc to it.” Funes often tells the story about his journey back to the land in Cuba after getting a doctorate in agroecology in Europe, and how he was determined that his next life project was to earn a PhD as a farmer, to put into practice what he had learned in theory.
That practice began by digging a well—by hand. Now, with its acres of terraced beds, beehives, living fences, solar irrigation systems, a methane biodigester, and organic practices, Finca Marta is a model of how small farms can use natural resources and innovative production methods to be profitable, pay living wages, keep families and neighbors on the land, and also improve fertility and biodiversity of natural habitats.
“If we don’t want foreign companies to come in and dominate Cuban agriculture all over again, that means we need to give Cuban families a way to stay on their farms,” said Funes, as quoted in a profile by Nick Miroff of the Washington Post. The article points out that Cuba has to import 60 to 80 percent of its food. “Funes’ vision of Cuban agriculture is radical because it’s a throwback. He advocates smart, resource-efficient, artisanal farming as an alternative to both capitalist agribusiness and the disastrous state-run agricultural model…,” wrote Miroff. Sounds like Vermont, and in fact, there are lots of similarities between the way Funes farms and the way many of us farm here.
“Fernando is a super motivational speaker,” says Fernandez. “I’m really interested to watch how the farming movement in Cuba is going to respond to and resist current forces. As they enter the global food movement, how do they maintain sovereignty?” This is a theme that Vermont farmers also care about. “He will be able to talk about the context of what we are facing now as farmers,” she said, pointing out that with the death of Fidel Castro and the election of Donald Trump we are all working in a new and unknown political landscape.
The winter conference this year is embracing a huge global theme of change and resistance at a time when populist movements and corporate power are both surging. We need more than ever to come together, be in relationship, and find our common strength as a community. “People need something positive to believe in. They feel like the world is out of control and they need something to rally around,” said Wonnacott. At the NOFA-VT winter conference this year, we should get an incredible taste of what that something is.
Conference Details
The NOFA-VT Winter Conference offers more than 100 workshops for farmers, gardeners, and local food enthusiasts. Some of the most anticipated workshops include: “Herbal Digestive Bitters” taught by Guido Masé of Urban Moonshine, “New Developments in Study and Implementation of Northeastern Indigenous Agriculture” presented by Frederick Wiseman of The Seeds of Renewal Project, “Plants to Attract Pollinators and Create Biodiversity” presented by Lizabeth Moniz, and “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Fruit Trees” taught by Nicko Rubin.
There are also 5 day-long intensive workshops, diving deeply into the topics of winter farming and season extension, biological orcharding, healthy permaculture, organic medicinal herb production, and the art and science of grazing. The intensives are open to anyone interested in garnering in-depth information about specific subjects.
In addition to the speeches and workshops, attendees at the conference can enjoy a delicious lunch featuring local and organic ingredients, a lively Exhibitors’ Fair, a seed swap with High Mowing organic seeds, and helping to create a community art project with artist Bonnie Acker. For the next generation of farmers, gardeners, and foodies there is a Children’s Conference, which features hands-on workshops, art projects, yoga, outdoor play and much more.
Early registration for the conference is offered at a discounted rate until February 13th, with additional discounts for NOFA Vermont members and volunteers. More information and online registration is at http://nofavt.org/conference.
We’re shining our Co-op Spotlight on Stonyfield this week to highlight their commitment to organic dairy, the family farmers that make it possible, and the Earth that sustains us. Member-owners can enjoy 20% off their full line of organic dairy products this week! Read on to learn more about Stonyfield’s history and a few of their impressive initiatives to help support farmers and the environment.
History
While Stonyfield is best known for making yogurt, yogurt wasn’t the way the founders of Stonyfield thought they’d change the world. In 1983, Stonyfield co-founders Samuel Kaymen and Gary Hirshberg were simply trying to help family farms survive, protect the environment, and keep food and food production healthy through their nonprofit organic farming school.
Just to keep things running, the duo started putting their farm’s seven cows to work making yogurt. They knew they were making healthy food grown with care; what they didn’t expect was how much people would love it.
People went crazy for the yogurt from Samuel and Gary’s little farm school, and the two knew they had found a way to make a real difference. With this yogurt business, the two organic farming teachers could show the whole world that a company could make healthy, delicious food without relying on toxic chemicals that harm the environment and public health.
So, the two went all-in on yogurt and, over 30 years later, they remain steadfast in their mission. They’re still headquartered in New Hampshire, just 30 miles east of the old farm where it all began.
Organic Commitment
Stonyfield’s products are all 100% certified organic – made without the use of toxic persistent pesticides, artificial hormones, antibiotics, and GMOs. In one year alone, their organic ingredient purchases keep more than 185,000 pounds of toxic persistent pesticides from the air, water, and land! WOW!
Supporting Farmers & Caring for the Planet
Stonyfield believes in the importance of supporting family farms and taking care of the world around us. They consider the impact of everything they do–from the plant-based packaging to the quality of the ingredients, to how their products are made, and finally, how it gets to you.
When they learned that the organic farmers cooperative from which they source their bananas was having to endure significant hardships and loss to get the bananas to a processing facility, they knew they needed to step up. Transporting the bananas to the nearest 3rd-party processing plant required farmers to transport their crops on their backs, then by boat, and then by truck to get there. Even under the best conditions, the trip takes many hours and is often fraught with hazard. In the end, up to 40% of the fruit is either lost on the journey or left to rot on the trees. Given the challenges of processing at such a remote facility, there’s little incentive for farmers to fully harvest available fruit or invest in their farms. Upon learning this, Stonyfield invested in a processing plant that is completely owned and operated by the AAPTA growers cooperative, allowing them to cut waste, improve efficiencies and stabilize their income. How cool is that?! Click here to read more about it!
Stonyfield is also helping to jumpstart the next generation of organic farmers. They recognized that the population of organic dairy farmers is aging, and very few people are lining up to take their places as they retire. They decided to play a central role in sustaining and rebuilding organic dairy in America through a groundbreaking training program for organic dairy farmers. In the program, aspiring organic dairy farmers spend two years at Wolfe’s Neck Farm on the coast of Maine. Living on site, they receive intensive training in organic farm and pasture management, animal health and comfort, and business planning. At the end, they pitch their farm business plan to potential investors before setting out on their own. The first group of trainees started in June of 2015. Stonyfield will be following this first batch of farmers on their blog as they move through the program, so stay tuned!
Click HERE to read more about Stonyfield’s sustainability initiatives.
We’re casting our Co-op spotlight on Lotus Foods this week to bring awareness to their grassroots rice revolution that is helping to bring sustainably grown, organic, and non-GMO rice to your dinner table! All of their products are 20% off for member-owners this week. Read on to learn more about the groundbreaking agricultural practices that are making this possible, and the impact that it’s having in rice-growing parts of the world:
Lotus Foods was founded in 1995 with the intent and vision to support sustainable global agriculture by promoting the 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. They learned that up to one-third of the planet’s annual renewable supply of fresh water is used to irrigate rice and recognized that this practice is not sustainable. These wasteful agricultural methods are depleting our water resources faster than they are being recharged, creating water scarcity. For this reason, in 2008, Lotus Foods committed to partnering with small-scale farmers who radically changed how they grow rice, using less to produce more.
Lotus Foods feels strongly 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. They believe that eradicating poverty and promoting social and economic justice must begin with agriculture and must 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 more than two billion people, most earning less than $200 per year.
A Grassroots Rice Revolution
More Crop Per Drop is how Lotus Foods refers to their rice grown using the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). SRI is a not a new seed or input, but rather a different way of cultivating rice that enables small-scale farmers to double and triple their yields while using 80-90% less seed, 50% less water, and less or no chemical inputs. That’s revolutionary!
Why is SRI so Important?
This unique agricultural method addresses 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. SRI has been largely grassroots driven, fueled by marginalized male & female 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.
Lotus Foods sees SRI as a logical extension of their mission. They offer six exceptional SRI-grown rices, and call them More Crop Per Drop to bring to special attention to water as a diminishing resource. Fully one-quarter to one-third of the planet’s annual freshwater supplies are used to irrigate and grow the global rice crop. And in Asia, where most rice is grown and eaten, about 84% of water withdrawal is for agriculture, mostly for irrigating rice. Water scarcity is having an increasingly significant impact on agriculture. According to the WWF, “The SRI method for growing rice could save hundreds of billions of cubic metres of water while increasing food security.” Check out this cool video from the Better U Foundation to learn more about SRI:
What about Organic Certification, Fair Trade Certification & Non-GMO Verification?
Most of their rices are already certified organic, while others are in the process of becoming certified, and still others are working to help develop a certifying program in their country of origin. These organic and transitional rices are grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or ionizing radiation. Their rices are 100% fair-trade certified and non-GMO verified. Lotus Foods has also been B-Corp certified since February of 2012. B corporations are legally obligated to consider the impact of their decisions on their employees, suppliers, community, consumers, and their environment. Lotus Foods shares the conviction that we can change the world for the better with how we choose to do business.
At the Co-op, you’ll find several varieties of Lotus Foods rice in our bulk department, and in the grocery department you’ll find their packaged rice and also their delicious rice ramen noodles. Visit their website for excellent tips and recipes!
July was a roller coaster for consumers seeking transparency in food labeling, particularly when it comes to labeling foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The month began on a glorious high note with a party on the statehouse lawn to celebrate the implementation of Vermont’s groundbreaking GMO labeling law, known as Act 120. Fundamentally, this law required two things:
Mandatory labeling of food for retail sale if produced with GE (genetic engineering)
Disallows use of the label “natural” for food made with GE ingredients
Eight categories of foods were exempt from this labeling requirement, notably, products produced entirely from animals (e.g. meat, milk, eggs), products with only trace amounts of GE ingredients, alcoholic beverages and unpackaged food prepared for immediate consumption.
Under this new law, food product manufacturers were responsible for labeling packaged products containing GE ingredients. As a retailer, our Co-op was responsible for labeling any GE products that we package.
The law dictated that there will be three types of labels, which must be easily found on the outside of the package:
“Produced with genetic engineering”
“Partially produced with genetic engineering” if less than 75% by weight
“May be produced with genetic engineering”
The State’s Attorney General was responsible for enforcement of the law. There was a “safe harbor” period until January 1, 2017, where the law would be in effect but no fines would be issued. After that, the fine for a violation was $1000 per product SKU, per day.
A Short-Lived Celebration
We heartily celebrated the implementation of this new law. It represented a significant victory for transparency in food labeling and consumers’ right to know what is in the food they feed themselves and their families. An overwhelming majority of consumers in Vermont and across the US have long been rallying for clear, simple, on-package labeling so that they could know at a glance if a product was produced with genetic engineering. We became the first state to make it happen in May of 2014, then put up an admirable fight to defend our law when a collection of trade associations representing giant food producers, known collectively as the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association, filed suit against the state of Vermont. In April of 2015, Judge Christina Reiss rejected a motion from the industrial food companies asking Vermont to stop implementation of our labeling law. Judge Reiss also determined that the labeling law is constitutional under the First Amendment. The court’s findings affirmed the solid legal ground of Act 120.
The July 1st roll-out went smoothly. We prepared for the changes in advance and mailed letters to all of our vendors to share information and offer resources about this transition to prevent any potential snags. Our law was also having positive effects beyond Vermont’s borders, as many large food manufacturers – Campbell’s, PepsiCo, Kellogg’s, ConAgra, Mars, & General Mills – began opting to label all of their products, rather than label only those destined for Vermont store shelves. The sky did not fall and consumers were finally being given the information needed to make informed decisions about their food purchases. It all seemed too good to be true…perhaps because it was.
What is the DARK Act?
On June 23rd, Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) proposed a compromise GMO labeling bill (S.764) nicknamed the DARK (Denying Americans the Right to Know) Act. Vermont’s leaders fought hard to defeat the DARK Act as it moved through the House and Senate. The clip below shows Senator Bernie Sanders addressing his peers on the Senate floor and trying to point out everything that is wrong with this bill in the short time allotted. You can also hear the voice of Senator Patrick Leahy asking Bernie questions along the way, allowing for clarification of specific points.
Despite their best efforts, the proposal passed both the senate (July 7th) and the house (July 14th). It was delivered to the White House on July 19th and was signed into law shortly thereafter.
In a nutshell, the passing of this law dissolves Vermont’s labeling law and falls well short of consumer expectations. This law will leave a significant number of GE products unlabeled due to a definition of “bioengineered food” that even the FDA has called into question, which would ultimately exclude some sugars, oils, and corn products . Companies will also be able to opt out of clear accessible on-package labeling by using digital “QR” codes that will be unreadable by approximately half of rural and low-income Americans without access to smartphones or cell service. There are no penalties for lack of compliance, and no authority to recall products that are not properly labeled. Additionally, this law preempts a 2004 Vermont statute requiring companies to label genetically engineered seeds.
“It’s a shame that Congress chose to replace our standard with a weaker one that provides multiple ways for the food industry to avoid transparent labeling,” Representative Peter Welch said. Reverend Jesse Jackson also denounced the legislation and urged President Obama to veto the GMO labeling bill, pointing out the discriminatory nature of such a labeling system; “100,000,000 Americans, most of them poor, people of color and elderly either do not own a smartphone or an iPhone to scan the QR code or live in an area of poor internet connectivity. The DARK act has also been condemned by many respected environmental and food justice advocacy groups including the Center for Food Safety, Rural Vermont, VT Right To Know GMOs, and the Environmental Working Group.
We’re deeply disappointed to see Vermont’s strong labeling law replaced by the DARK Act, but we also recognize that despite this heartbreaking news, we should all be incredibly proud of what we accomplished over the past few years. Today, if you go into grocery stores in Vermont and across the nation you will find genetically engineered foods labeled for the first time – Vermont was a driving force in making that happen. National food manufacturers like Campbell’s and Mars have announced that they will continue to label their products, and others are expected to follow suit. In the end, a lot more people know what is in their food because of what we managed to accomplish here in Vermont.
We’d like to acknowledge and appreciate the many consumers, farmers, political leaders, and industry groups who are working hard to make transparency in food labeling a reality. The fight for meaningful and clear food labels will continue. In the meantime, if you wish to avoid GMOs while shopping in the Co-op, look for the following:
Products bearing a certified organic label (see examples below)
Products bearing the third-party certification of the Non-GMO project (see below)
Ask questions about where food comes from and how it is made. Perhaps the product has been imported from one of the 60-plus countries around the world that have banned GMOs. Or, perhaps it’s a local product from a very small farmer or producer that may not bear an organic or non-GMO label, but can assure you that their products are grown or produced without the use of GMOs.
We’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on Tierra Farm this week to highlight the socially and environmentally responsible practices of this employee-owned business. They provide an array of healthy products to our bulk department that are certified organic, gluten free, kosher, and gmo-free, all of which are produced in small batches in their solar-powered facility in nearby Valatie, NY. They’re featured in our Member Deals program this week, so member-owners can enjoy 20% off their delicious fair-trade coffee, dried fruits, nuts, nut butters, and other healthy snacks! Read on to learn more about this fantastic small business and their commitment to responsible practices throughout the supply chain:
Tierra Farm is a Certified Organic manufacturer and distributor of nuts, dried fruits, and coffee located 20 miles south of Albany, New York. Our customers consist mainly of cooperatives and independently owned grocery stores that value working with an employee-owned, environmentally conscious company that manufactures its own products.
Tierra Farm started as a diversified organic vegetable farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York. The organic nuts & dried fruit portion of the business started in 1999, as a way to generate income in the slower winter months. That portion of the business continued to thrive into what it has become today and we still maintain our original farm.
One of our core values has been to cultivate strong relationships with the best organic farmers in the world. Every year we purchase an increasing amount of our nuts, seeds and dried fruit directly from the farms, some of which we have worked with for over a decade. Our level of knowledge and communication with our farmers allows us to preserve our organic integrity and ensure fair business practices throughout the supply chain.
We offer our customers exceptional value through unbeatable quality at prices that are fair both to the consumer and to the farmer. Our products are made without preservatives, added oils or refined sugars, in our peanut-free facility. We manufacture the products we sell: we dry roast and flavor nuts and seeds, blend trail mixes, grind butter, cover nuts and fruits in fair-trade chocolate, and roast fair trade coffee. Everything is made in small, hand-crafted batches for freshness.
Tierra Farm handles only Certified Organic products which are grown without synthetic pesticides, genetically modified organisms, or chemical fertilizers. This helps sustain biodiversity, conserves fresh water, and enhances the soil. We generate over 70% of our electricity from solar panels and recycle over 60% of our waste. Our boxes are made from recycled cardboard and our deli cup containers are made from over 50% recycled material – both are recyclable after use. We’re continuously looking for better ways to protect the planet.
We also value the importance of investing in our staff. We have an in-house gym, an in-house chef who cooks daily organic, gluten-free meals for our staff – often using fresh produce directly from our farm, a staff masseuse who visits weekly, and we offer many employee health initiatives such as a smoking cessation program that allows our staff to be 100% tobacco-free.
We recently opened a retail store at our headquarters in Valatie, NY, where local customers are able to purchase all of our (almost 200) products. Also, if you’re in the Albany area, please stop into one of our Tierra Coffee Roasters locations for a great cup of coffee and some homemade baked goods.
We also invite you to take a virtual tour of our farm!
