MISSION StATEMENT:
Our Mission is to Develop, Support, Educate, and Facilitate Efforts of Sustainable Living in Northern Utah - We will help Facilitate Groups and Individuals as well as Develop our own Projects to that end. |
GOALS:
We will have Short Term as well as Long Term Goals we will work Toward. Our Groups focus is on Achievable and Obtainable Goals. 2014- Community Gardens, Organic Gardening Practices, Seed Saving, Seed Library, Seed Bank for Northern Utah 2015- Strengthen 2014 Goals, Alternative Energy, Aquaponics |
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Classes Coming Soon
Composting - Vermiculture Aquaponics Beekeeping Grow Boxes - Square Foot Gardening Heirloom Seeds and Seed Selection Mushroom Growing Chicken & Poultry |
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Upcoming Classes
March Classes
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April Classes |
Tomato & Pepper March 19 Clearfield. 6 pm
Vegetable Garden March 19 Brigham Library. 7 pm Solar Power. March 20. Salt Lake. 3 pm Vegetable Garden March 26 Brigham Library 7 pm Chickens 101 March 27. Riverton IFA 6 pm Pruning March 29. Clearfield. 10 am |
Fruit Trees. April 2. Clearfield. 6 pm
Grow Produce. April 12. Clearfield. 10 am Solar Power. TBA Vermiculture. TBA More Events added at a later Date. Submit your Events to [email protected] |
March 2014 Newsletter
Welcome to our First official Newsletter! We appreciate all the support We have received in bringing Sustainable Living Events and Education to those of Northern Utah. There are many groups bringing this education to us from Utah State, Ogden Nature Center, Seed Savers of Ogden, Weber Basin water Conservation , IFA, Country Garden Nursery and so many more Groups. It can get confusing so we hope to become the hub to the many spokes and hope to bring Education that is not readily available here in Northern Utah.
With over 100 members already in just a couple of months we have many things going and are extremely busy trying to get Quality Events, Education and Projects off the Ground. We have been working very hard trying to find a Community Garden Space or two and have been disappointed on a few occasions. As of today, we have less than a 1/4 an acre for a garden but are not giving up on getting a much bigger plot.
Our main goal for 2014, is a Community Garden, Seed Bank, Seed Library, Organic Practices, and expand our membership. Above, you can see our Mission Statement and Goals for the next 2 years. We are very open and want to be totally transparent for all members. We believe in Honesty, Integrity, Openness, Compassion and Tolerance for Everyone and all Living things including our Organic Practices with Heirloom and Organic Seeds.
We are having many good things happen for us to grow too, My wife tells me the Universe is coming together for me and this project. I have had a freezer donated to us and seeds as well as other small things.
We decided this project would be funded by donations, good people and developing a recycling and repurpose business/hobby to create money for growing this business. I have had 3 businesses and a Municipality offer assistance and help with donations and recyclables - We are pursuing those possibilities at this time too. Unfortunately none of those businesses and people are in Davis or Weber County areas. But with all their excitement it encourages us that we will be welcome here in Northern Utah as we slowly get the word out.
We are open to ideas, suggestions and those of you can help with our fundraising projects!
Items we recycle? Most everything
Metals, appliances, car Battery's , computers, ink Cartridges, Electronics, coffee Grounds, spoiled vegetables and more coming shortly
We want to grow and bring things like Permaculture, Earthships, Small Home Living, Homesteading, and so much more but we need to start slow and if you have an interest in any area you want to be in charge of or know of a group already organized let me know and we would love them to be part of our extended Family. Please let us know how we can make this bigger and better and let's make the World a better place to live.
Jeff. 801-830-6110
With over 100 members already in just a couple of months we have many things going and are extremely busy trying to get Quality Events, Education and Projects off the Ground. We have been working very hard trying to find a Community Garden Space or two and have been disappointed on a few occasions. As of today, we have less than a 1/4 an acre for a garden but are not giving up on getting a much bigger plot.
Our main goal for 2014, is a Community Garden, Seed Bank, Seed Library, Organic Practices, and expand our membership. Above, you can see our Mission Statement and Goals for the next 2 years. We are very open and want to be totally transparent for all members. We believe in Honesty, Integrity, Openness, Compassion and Tolerance for Everyone and all Living things including our Organic Practices with Heirloom and Organic Seeds.
We are having many good things happen for us to grow too, My wife tells me the Universe is coming together for me and this project. I have had a freezer donated to us and seeds as well as other small things.
We decided this project would be funded by donations, good people and developing a recycling and repurpose business/hobby to create money for growing this business. I have had 3 businesses and a Municipality offer assistance and help with donations and recyclables - We are pursuing those possibilities at this time too. Unfortunately none of those businesses and people are in Davis or Weber County areas. But with all their excitement it encourages us that we will be welcome here in Northern Utah as we slowly get the word out.
We are open to ideas, suggestions and those of you can help with our fundraising projects!
Items we recycle? Most everything
Metals, appliances, car Battery's , computers, ink Cartridges, Electronics, coffee Grounds, spoiled vegetables and more coming shortly
We want to grow and bring things like Permaculture, Earthships, Small Home Living, Homesteading, and so much more but we need to start slow and if you have an interest in any area you want to be in charge of or know of a group already organized let me know and we would love them to be part of our extended Family. Please let us know how we can make this bigger and better and let's make the World a better place to live.
Jeff. 801-830-6110
USDA Policy Fails to Address GMO Contamination of Organic CropsBy Lisa J. Bunin, Ph.D.
At a time when consumers are demanding greater access to organic and non-genetically engineered (GE) foods, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) latest, “coexistence” policy threatens the ability and right of consumers to make that shift.
The USDA coined the term ”coexistence” to refer to the idea that organic and GE crops can both be grown in this country without either adversely affecting the other. But the agency’s approach does not take into account the fact that non-GE crops can become contaminated by GE pollen and seeds that can drift many miles at a time.
The USDA argues this can be mitigated through informal neighbor-farmer agreements and by taking out insurance to pay for damages resulting from contamination. But, since GE agriculture remains completely unregulated, this so-called coexistence policy allows the biotech industry to escape liability. Instead, it puts exclusive responsibility to protect against contamination on organic and other non-GE farmers.
Organic farmers know all too well that their crops can become contaminated by GE crops as pollen and seeds drift miles away from their original planting location. The recent case of an Australian organic farmer, who sued his neighbor after he found GE canola growing on his field, demonstrates the seriousness of the problem and the tip of the iceberg. Without mandatory GE contamination prevention measures in place, organic and non-GE farmers face real risks but have little recourse to protect their businesses. Prospects of GE contamination threaten livelihoods, trading partnerships and the ability of farmers and food producers to confidently supply non-GE markets. Even the USDA admits that’s the case.
In August 2011, USDA Secretary Vilsack charged his newly appointed Advisory Committee with addressing the problem of GE contamination by identifying ways to compensate farmers after-the-fact, rather than protect them from contamination in the first place. The Committee was charged with assuming that GE contamination was an inevitable and acceptable cost of doing business, as long as the affected farmers were compensated. This is what coexistence in action looks like to the USDA. But, GE contamination is completely unacceptable to those farmers who reject the use of GE technology and who sell their crops to organic and non-GE markets. Meanwhile, many GE foods continue seeping into our food supply until there may be no turning back.
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To directly address the problem, organic advocates are demanding the USDA identify and mandate the adoption of proven GE contamination measures by GE farmers and patent holders. And, they are calling upon the USDA to institute an immediate moratorium on all new GE crop approvals, until such measures can be put into place nationwide.
Until March 4, the public has a unique opportunity to challenge the USDA’s coexistence policy. The agency has issued a Federal Register Notice and opened a docket to receive public feedback on the policy, which pivots around two primary recommendations: the creation of non-binding farmer-neighbor “coexistence agreements,” and organic and other non-GE farmers taking out insurance to recoup losses from GE contamination.
In the first instance, the USDA recommends that GE and non-GE farmers voluntarily negotiate non-binding “coexistence agreements” as a way to preemptively resolve inevitable GE contamination issues. But that is unlikely, as it would pit farmer against farmer, which is neither a viable nor a long-lasting solution to conflicts in farm communities.
Instead, organic farmers will likely opt out of growing certain crops altogether rather than risk contamination. Clear losers under this option are organic and other non-GE farmers because threats of contamination preclude them from growing the crops of their choice. Moreover, the proposal ignores the real-life issues that farmers face such as short planting windows that make it difficult to stagger GE and non-GE crop plantings, absentee landlords and scenarios where contamination originates from farms located well beyond the next door neighbors’ field.
In the second instance, the USDA recommends that organic and non-GE farmers take out insurance policies to pay for damage resulting from GE contamination. This allows the biotech industry to abdicate responsibility for any harm caused to non-GE growers, making the polluted victim, not the polluter, pay compensation.
In both cases, the USDA takes responsibility for GE contamination prevention out of the hands of both the agency and the biotech industry and puts it squarely on the shoulders of organic and non-GE farmers, their families and their communities. Coexistence is not GE contamination prevention and never can be. Instead, what’s truly needed is for the USDA to develop mandatory prevention practices that protect organic and non-GE markets and consumer choice.
This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/usda-policy-fails-address-gmo-contamination-organic-crops-1393343848. All rights are reserved.