Most the U.S. seeds for sugar beets are grown in the Willamette Valley here in Oregon. With the approval genetically modified sugar beets it is expected that a percentage of the 90% of the GM sugar beet seed grown will be planted right here in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

What most people do not know is that the Rogue Valley was one of the test plot areas for the GM sugar beet seed. You do not know where they are because no one will tell you.

Activists from the Student Farmworker Alliance (SFA) dropped two banners protesting farmworker exploitation from the school's admissions and student center buildings as dozens of prospective students and their parents toured Georgetown.

http://denverfairfood.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-were-fair-food-activists-...

By Robert McGoey
Monday, July 20, 2009

The Campaign for Fair Food and the new documentary Food, Inc. share – by any objective observation – a common vision and common struggle.

read more

A Brief History of Ashland, Oregon’s Green Welcome and Sustainability Center

July 2050:

Looking back over forty years, things have certainly changed. In 2009, our country experienced an extreme shift in thinking as a result of a near financial meltdown and indications of impending climatic and resource consequences. During that time period people began to evaluate their individual and group actions and values and came to understand that they must begin putting back into the environment more than was being taken out.

It was difficult to return to conservative practices after people had grown accustomed to using the plentiful natural resources of the planet in frivolous ways. When the cost of cheap fossil fuels accelerated based on decreasing supply and increasing demand,other solutions became,at first,necessary, and eventually mainstream - even popular.

On Saturday, June 20, activists gathered at Trader Joe's in Oakland and San Francisco to demand that the company stop carrying Israeli goods. Protesters removed Israeli products from the shelves in order to show customers which products they should not buy. They also met with the store managers and asked them to notify their headquarters that they no longer wanted to carry Israeli herbs, couscous and cheese. Similar actions were held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Seattle, Washington, and Sacramento, California. The activists were inspired by campaigns to deshelve Israeli products in Wales and France.

In the early hours of Monday, June 22, 2009, settlers from the Bat 'Ain settlement set fire and cut down more than 125 grapevines and fruit trees. Israeli soldiers said they saw a fire in the Palestinian agricultural fields some time during the night and went to put it out, though they did nothing to collect the evidence; kerosene canisters and matches were still there the next morning when activists from the Palestine Solidarity Project accompanied the farmer's family to survey the damage.

There are two bills going through Congress right now (HR 875 and S 425) that will, in essence, very likely be the end Organic Farms and virtually all organic forms of growing food in our country. They are being touted as being about food safety, i.e.: the recent spinach ecoli scares. (The husband of one of the Senators* behind this bill works for Monsanto, the chemical giant whose intention it is to control the world food supply.)

For 30 years, Life Lab Science Program has been helping educators and students bring learning to life in the garden. Based in Santa Cruz, Life Lab has been a leader in the garden-based learning movement locally and across the nation. On May 30th, Life Lab celebrated its 30-year history with a birthday party in and around the Garden Classroom, located on the UC Santa Cruz Farm.

Starting Sunday, May 24, I'll spend a week eating wild food that I forage from sidewalks, parks, wilderness areas and yards in the city of Portland, Oregon. There will be no dumpster diving or mooching off gardens. I will be eating wild edibles only. I will be blogging about my experience here at www.CultureChange.org, talking about what I eat, how I prepare it and how I feel. As a city girl accustomed to the comforts of restaurants and supermarket food, I am excited to experience a new kind of luxury: interacting with the Earth the way I was meant to.

Most of what I know comes from spending time with knowledgeable friends who are herbalists, survivalists, ethnobotanists and primitive skills enthusiasts. Some of them will be joining me this week and introducing me to foods I've never tried before. What we are doing is a bit like reinventing the wheel. Because we lost most of our ancestral knowledge when our forefathers destroyed indigenous cultures, modern-day foragers are tasked with salvaging what scraps of information we have left. It is essential that we work together as a community to assemble the pieces.

There is certainly some urgency, as we are living in the midst of the sixth greatest extinction event of all time. Resources are becoming ever scarcer as our population continues to climb. It makes sense to look "backwards" in order to progress as we work to build the infrastructure for a sustainable future. For 200,000 years humanity has lived on this planet, and the vast majority of the time we had no worries about pollution. It only got funky 200 years ago, when we entered the strange new age of industrialization, a world filled with machines and factory farms and chemicals.

Wild Girl" Becky Lerner is a journalist who writes about foraging and primitive skills at www.FirstWays.com and  http://rebeccalernerwilderness.wordpress.com. Her portfolio is at www.rebeccalerner.com. homepage: http://www.culturechange.org

The weather is warming and this years summer crops at the Beach Flats Community Garden in Santa Cruz are coming up. It's been over a year since the Garden was first threatened with closure. Despite various threats, gardeners continue to plant, tend and harvest.

Portland's new Urban Farm Collective Wants YOU!!! Yes, YOU!!

Portland once again steps into the spotlight as one of the nation's most progressive and community-minded cities with the recent birth of the urban Farm Collective. Land holders, dirty hands (ie. The folks getting their hands in the soil!), and volunteers are coming together to transform backyards, front yards, and other lawns into spaces for growing food.

There are a couple of different ways to get involved.... There is no minimum time commitment. Help is also needed to get the word out! Spread the flyers, spread the love! Interested? Email  urbanfarmcollective@gmail.com with either "Dirty Hands" or "Volunteer" in the subject line!

Stay tuned for more news about the Urban Farm Collective! The Grand
Opening of the Urban Farm Collective Market will be WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3 at 4 PM, at the TIN SHED'S GARDEN PATIO.

 http://www.urbanfarmcollective.com

For the past week, Buffalo Field Campaign volunteer patrols have been documenting the Montana Department of Livestock, Yellowstone National Park, Gallatin National Forest and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks agents carry out massive and relentless hazing operations, harassing and harming America's last wild bison population.

On May 12th, agents were set to haze bison within Yellowstone National Park to "make room" for the bison that would be hazed off of Horse Butte. But Mother Nature had different plan...

One block east of Figueroa, an empty lot belonging to the city of Los Angeles has been transformed into a vegetable garden and community space. The project, a long-held dream by many, has been made a reality with the efforts of community members spearheaded by Nicole Gatto.

The garden has been broken up into plots which are available to members of the community by application. A circle has also been created in the center of the space, where gardening workshops and other activities will be held.

The Opening Ceremony was attended by community members and others, including supporters of the South Central Farm which was bulldozed in 2006. . . . Story and photos: Grand Opening of Community Garden in Highland Park by Anna Kunkin

On May 23-24, the Soupstock Food Not Bombs Convergence will be held in San Francisco. Soupstock will include a concert and a conference celebrating 29 years of Food Not Bombs. The convergence will feature movies, speakers, panels and group discussions, providing a forum for reflection on the past, present and future of the movement.

After hours of testimony, reducing neighbors and one Citizen’s Board member to tears, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency granted a one year permit to Excel Dairy. The unusually short permit (most are issued for five years) reflects the 1500 head dairy’s record of permit violations, odor complaints and conflict with local residents and agencies.

Come get involved in creating alternatives to food industrialization and promoting public health education for the masses. You needn't be a raw foodist to get involved. Raw fruits and vegetables are as important to the seasoned vegan as they are to sickly SADer (standard American diet eater. This forum is for all sorts of networking for meaningful social change. Mainly we will be focusing on a) meeting new friends and discussing politics around food, and b) organizing raw vegan potlucks, raw vegan skill shares, food not bombs and support groups.

Dim sum means "to touch your heart." Come to the International District Housing Alliance (IDHA) fundraiser and support a local housing charity. IDHA provides housing assistance, workshops for first home buyers, leadership and community development, community safety, all within the framework of the international community.

Join the International District Housing Alliance, Don Porter (former reporter with King 5 News), and local food connoisseur Maxine Chan, for an intimate dinner and cooking demonstration. Dine on the International District’s finest cuisine and learn the art of making dim sum. Also leave with a booklet of the recipes of the fabulous food presented.

Captain Paul Watson writes: The Oceans are like the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. As long as it was alive it laid a golden egg each day but then the greedy farmer decided to kill it to get all the gold inside and found nothing and the Goose laid no more golden eggs because it was dead.... We humans have waged an intensive and ruthless exploitation on practically every species of fish in the sea and they are disappearing. If we don't put an end to industrialized fishing vessels and heavy gear very soon, we will kill the oceans and in so doing, we will kill ourselves.

A small group of local activists have joined knowledge, time, and efforts to create a garden that features foods that are/were indigenous to the Mexica People (The 7 Warriors) and have opened the gates to us in an effort to share & trade information that they are learning and to promote backyard organic gardening to all gente.

WHY AN ORIGINAL JARDIN? Several reasons. We've all seen what is happening in the grocery stores due to the current economy. Prices are going up and the quality of the produce available is going down. We are paying more for less and with many people now living under the constant pressure that they might lose their jobs. Well, it just adds more anxiety to our daily lives. We have land that is good to plant on and the reasons why not to ran out. The time has come to start planting. Not relying on 'the man' for our basic needs will get us to a more secure place. Having knowledge about the land and how plants grow will ensure that if/when prices inflate even more, we will still have access to foods we use regularly and conveniently out of our yards. Health-wise, if you are part of the process of creating it, you know what is inside of it. No additives, chemicals, non-pronounceables. [read full article]

Check out Our DH Streets a blog that aims to connect the people living in Denver Harbor- Houston to each other and the rest of the East End. This is a conscious space for neighborhood opinions, pics, going-ons, and to keep us all up to date on news that directly effect DH.

A Grand Junction Alternative Media street crew crashes the American Lamb Board, Taste of Vail, Lamb Cook-Off. We hit the streets to spread the word how American Lamb is raised by underpaid, oppressed and abused H2A Visa immigrant herders. read more

On March 28 Students for a Democratic Society hosted DIY Fest at Rochester's School Without Walls. The day-long event consisted on classes and workshops on topics ranging from solar power and civil rights to feminine hygiene and sustainable agriculture. The class on sustainable agriculture, hosted by Elizabeth Henderson of Peacework Farms, dealt with how to grow and store locally produced plants to eat year-round, without relying on the national economy or its energy-intensive food distribution system. You walk into the supermarket and don't even know which food is in season.

Evaluating the health effects of past and future pesticides applied on and around people to combat the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM), three state agencies concluded the potential danger was low because they incorrectly divided instead of multiplying. In their analysis, the agencies divided by the thousands of acres sprayed, when they should have multiplied by the same number of thousands. If only 1,000 acres were involved, the peoples' exposure was as much as one million times greater than reported by the state agencies.

On the first day of Spring, local members of the Portland In Defense of Animals organization provided a free feast for anyone who happened to be at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland. The lunch was provided by Sweet Pea Baking Company, a local vegan bakery.

The group also placed a television screen which showed video of the meat industry inhuman treatment of pigs, chickens and beef. Many passers by gathered and watched the video, surprised and appalled by what one young man referred to as a holocaust."

In a major setback to the environment last night, the Laredo TX city council voted to allow the Border Patrol to aerially spray the US-Mexico border with the toxic herbicide Imazapyr, a substance which begins to kill all vegetation immediately upon application. Many residents at the meeting opposed this move, citing the environmental impact and potential health side effects, as well as the likelihood that the chemical could contaminate the water supply for Nuevo Laredo, their Mexican sister-city.

The accompanying photo (above) shows the effects of an aerial spray conducted six months prior on a test site near Laredo. Federal officials considered the results "successful" in efforts to eradicate the invasive plant carrizo; however, the site now slated for defoliation contains 1000 living species, including four endangered species. This photo was taken on the Zachary Ranch in March 2008 by Dr. Jim Earhart of the Rio Grande International Study Center.

Local activist Jay J. Johnson-Castro Sr. of the Rio Grande International Study Center stated in a telephone interview that federal agents intend to eventually spray the extensive border river area, from Big Bend to Brownsville Texas. "Why would they make the initial spray in a populated area?" he queried. Clearing 1.1 miles of border between the cities of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo will cost $2 Million.