COMMUNITY: Building Connections to Sustainability

Bruce Smith (www.farmtotablecoop.org) discusses with Shane Snipes the development of local food organizations in Glendive Montana. He also talks about how these communities often export all their food hundreds of miles (sometimes 1000s) to only import it back to themselves to consume at the grocery, restaurants and fast food. Sustainable foods can be found in your community by purchasing organic and/or locally grown produce and products. It's easy to find farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture programs, restaurants and more with the user-friendly Eat Well Guide. Simply type in your zip code to find out what's in season near you (www.foodincmovie.com/about-the-issues.php). High calorie, sugar laden processed foods coupled with our sedentary lifestyles is growing our waistlines and contributing to serious health issues like diabetes, heart ailments and cancers. One-third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Tell Congress that kids should be served healthy meals, not soda and junk food (www.foodincmovie.com). In Food, Inc. we meet Barbara Kowalcyk, whose 2 year old son, Kevin, died from E.coli poisoning after eating a hamburger. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from foodborne illnesses. Although Kevin's law is not in Congress right now, there are other important national food safety legislation pending now for you to support. Approximately 10 billion animals (chickens, cattle, hogs, ducks, turkeys, lambs and sheep) are raised and killed in the US annually. Nearly all of them are raised on factory farms under inhumane conditions. These industrial farms are also dangerous for their workers, pollute surrounding communities, are unsafe to our food system and contribute significantly to global warming.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• food
• local
• sustainable

[NanoCM10]

Yay, Bruce! we'll see you at Community Matters #CM10Conf this week! (This is Nancy White using a little demo account for the YouTube Tools Flashmob later this week!