NEWSSUSTAINABLE FOOD

Animal welfare and food safety advocates just won a big victory! Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer and processer, has agreed to phase out the use of gestation crates by 2017.

Gestation crates are tiny, two-foot-by-seven-foot stalls that factory farms use to confine pregnant sows. Because pigs on factory farms are virtually always pregnant, they spend a huge portion of their lives crammed into these stalls. Most pigs held in these cruel, unsanitary cages don't even have enough room to turn around and are limited to two positions: standing or lying on their stomachs.

Gestation crates are currently banned or in the process of being banned in eight states and the European Union.

Smithfield originally promised to phase out gestation crates back in 2007, but by 2009, the company had gone back on its promise citing economic concerns. Even after the economy rebounded and Smithfield boasted record profits, the company failed to re-commit to its gestation crate promise. That prompted the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to start a petition here on Change.org.

A 31-year-old organic farm in Maryland's Montgomery County may not be around for much longer unless we act w. Earlier this year, County officials voted to turn Nick's Organic Farm, the County's only organic seed farm, into two private soccer fields. Unless the decision is reversed, farmer Nick Maravell will be forced  in January to vacate the land he's tilled for more than three decades.

More than 22,000 people have petitioned County Executive Ike Leggett to protect Nick's Organic farm, but he still hasn’t taken action. This Wednesday, Maravell and his supporters need your help to make sure Montgomery County does the right thing and saves Nick's Organic Farm.

Supporters will be holding a rally and press conference and hand-delivering petitions to Executive Leggett this Wednesday. Will you make a quick phone call to amplify their message? It will just take a minute and will show County officials just how much support the farm has. Here’s what to do:

1) Call the County Office of Public Information at: (240) 777-6507. Say that you would like to leave a message for County Executive Ike Leggett.

2) Express your support for Nick’s Organic Farm by using one of the following scripts. Feel free to speak from your heart and share your story—the more personal, the better.

If you live outside of Montgomery County:
Hello, my name is _________ and I am calling in regards to Nick's Organic Farm. Nick's farm is nationally recognized model farm that has pioneered organic and sustainable farming practices across the country. Instead of turning this into soccer fields, the county should use this amazing resource as an educational center. I am from _____(city and state)______ but want you to know that the national food movement community is watching closely to see what Montgomery County does. Please protect Nick’s Organic Farm.

If you’re a resident of Montgomery County:
Hello, my name is ____________ and I am a resident of __(city)____. I am calling as a constituent to ask Executive Ike Leggett to continue his support of local and sustainable food and agriculture by preserving Nick's Organic Farm. This farm is an important educational center for our children. There is immense public support for keeping the farm so please listen to your constituents, and protect Nick’s farm. Thank you for your time.

3) Report back on your experience here.

After months of campaigning and a lot of hard work  from grassroots, local food organizations like Honeylove, California beekeepers received a big break. At the Mar Vista Community Council meeting last night, a motion was passed to allow for the implementation of a Beekeeping Pilot Program in Mar Vista, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.

The move came after more than 1,900 Change.org members signed a petition created by Mar Vista residents Chelsea and Rob McFarland, the founders of Honeylove. The request for a pilot beekeeping program will now move on to the Los Angeles City Council.

In the Community Council's own words: "The [Mar Vista Community Council] Board therefore recommends the implementation of a Beekeeping Pilot Program in [order] to test safety and develop best practices for future expansion. We urge the City of LA to adopt a policy that includes conditions relating to maintenance, location, registration and notification to assure for the safety of all residents which may result in the continued preservation of quality of life and preservation of single-family residential districts."

In a turn of events that will hopefully reverberate to other California municipalities, the City of Hermosa Beach moved to ban Styrofoam on October 26th. The move came after former Hermosa Beach resident, Brian Schoening, started a petition on Change.org that netted more than 750 signatures. City staff has now been instructed to draft the ordinance banning the ubiquitous plastic material.

Heath and environmental concerns have long been attached to America's widespread use of Styrofoam as a food container. Styrene, a component of Styrofoam containers, is suspected to cause cancer by the National Toxicology Program. When heated to a high degree, the chemical can leach out of the container and into the food held inside.

Walking many California beaches, you'll find an abundance of Styrofoam bits scattered about. The plastic is lightweight, and it floats, which means it very easily makes its way from land to the beach and into the ocean, where it’s commonly ingested by marine animals that mistake the small particles for food. Not only is eating Styrofoam toxic to marine critters, these animals sometimes end up feeding the plastic pieces to their babies. Styrofoam, or polystyrene, is particularly difficult to recycle and it never biodegrades. And it isn't cheap for cities to continue to keep cleaning it off the Golden State's beaches--beaches that the California economy depends on.

Multnomah County Commissioners voted unanimously this morning to restrict the sale of children’s products containing bisphenol-A (BPA), a hormone-disrupting chemical.

The decision comes after more than 1,000 people joined a campaign on Change.org created by Susan Beal, a Portland author and mother of two. Beal delivered the online petition signatures to county commissioners during their hearing Thursday morning.

“I'm so happy and thankful that our county commissioners voted to protect kids from toxic chemicals today,” said Beal. “As the mother of two young children, it means so much to me that now every parent in the county will have guaranteed safer choices for their kids, no matter where they're shopping.”

One backyard beekeeper is learning that when it comes to managing his hive, it's not the bees that are dangerous, so much as local regulations.

Forsyth County, Georgia resident Nicholas Weaver has been raising bees for the past 12 years, starting the hobby when he was just 13 years old. When he first started beekeeping, he and his family researched the legalities of beekeeping in their area: they checked local zoning codes; asked fellow beekeepers; and made sure that the neighborhood association didn’t have any prohibitions regarding honeybees. They couldn't find any laws against raising honeybees, and thus began Weaver's hobby.

Yet, in August of this year, Weaver had a zoning violation filed against him through the Code Enforcement Office. Upon further research, Weaver found that, despite this violation notice, bees and beekeeping are not addressed anywhere within residential zoning regulations of the Unified Development Code. What he learned was that in instances like this one in which an issue like beekeeping is not legislated about, it is up to the discretion of the Planning and Development Director of the Forsyth County Planning and Zoning Department to decide the legality of the practice.

Despite a lack of legislation about beekeeping, in Forsyth County, and in most Georgia counties, the majority of honeybees are in fact raised in residential areas by "backyard beekeepers." Without these local, sustainable beekeepers, the survival of the European honeybee would be at risk.

Toronto City Councillors voted this afternoon to adopt a city-wide shark fin ban, becoming the largest city in Canada to prohibit the sale of shark fin.

Passage of the legislation, initially proposed by City Councillors Kristyn Wong-Tam, John Parker, and Glenn De Baeremaeker, marks a huge win for Shark Truth, a Vancouver-based non-profit that promotes shark education and conservation. The organization recruited nearly 10,000 people to join a campaign on Change.org urging Toronto’s City Councillors to vote in favor of the city-wide shark fin ban.

"For a city the size and influence of Toronto to pass a shark fin bill is a historic moment for Canada,” said Claudia Li, founder of Shark Truth. “Councillors are setting an example of how we can protect sharks from the wasteful practice of finning."

Nearly 1,000 people have joined a popular campaign on Change.org asking Multnomah County Commissioners to pass restrictions on the sale of children’s products that contain bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical compound linked to various health issues, at their commission meeting on Thursday.

Studies have linked BPA, an endocrine-disrupting chemical, to cancers, cardiovascular disease, early onset puberty, diabetes, and other health issues. BPA is found in everything from the linings of canned foods to sippy cups to credit card receipts.

Susan Beal, a local author and mother of two, launched the campaign on Change.org, which asks the commissioners to support a county-wide ban sponsored by County Chair Jeff Cogen. The ban would apply to sippy cups, baby bottles, and reusable water bottles.