The f’Organic ™ diet is here!

The f’Organic ™ diet is here!

Buy organic, do right, lose a few pounds:

Organic as an option

As many of us know, the price of organic food and clothing is more expensive in comparison to other options. Of course this will change as demand continues to increase, eventually providing affordable, healthier choices for all consumers and producers. Let’s speed up this process! CLICK HERE FOR MORE...

Jill's Latest Nutrition Tips

Hello!

You may have never asked the question "What is food made of?",
but the answer will change the way you think about and choose
foods!


All foods have varying amounts of:
1. Fat
2. Protein
3. Carbohydrates
4. Fiber
5. Water
6. Vitamins & minerals
7. Additives (if the food has been processed with them)

Americans these days are eating too much of ingredients 1-3
(where all the calories are) and not enough of 4-6, which is why
Americans are called "overfed but undernourished." How do you get
more of the good stuff while cutting down on the other? It's easy
and not surprising: eat more fruits, veggies, whole grains and
lean meats. These foods are naturally high in water, fiber,
vitamins and minerals, which is why they are more filling per
calorie than other foods.

Processed foods generally have the least water, fiber, vitamins
and minerals because these things are removed or destroyed during
processing. For the next few days try thinking of your food as
the components that make it and see how it affects your choices.
For example, bacon is mostly fat + a little protein, soda is carb
+ additives + water and green salad is just a big pile of water,
fiber, vitamins and minerals!

Is your mouth watering?

Have a good day!

Jill

Jill Brook, M.A.
Diet for Health
1047 Foothill Blvd.
(818) 952-0668
www.DietforHealth.com

See Jill's nutrition tips at
http://jillsblog.dietforhealth.com

ACTION UPDATE ON COMMUNITY FOOD PROJECTS IN THE FARM BIL

Please circulate this alert around to others in your office, your community, your district.

ACTION UPDATE ON COMMUNITY FOOD PROJECTS IN THE FARM BILL


Thank you
for all your efforts to date on behalf of Community Food Projects and other progressive farm bill legislation. Unfortunately, despite all your efforts, funding for Community Food Project (CFP) remains discretionary at $30 million and not mandatory as it has been for 10 years. This means that right now, CFP HAS NO MANDATORY FUNDING FOR FY 2008. We need your help to change this in the Senate Farm Bill.

The key next step is to get CFP mandatory funding into the Senate’s initial draft of the Farm Bill. Your efforts right now can make a big difference as to this outcome! THE NEXT FEW WEEKS ARE CRITICAL FOR INPUT TO THE SENATE’S VERSION.

NEXT STEPS FOR CFP ADVOCATES: Contact your Senators about Community Food Projects and ask them to fund CFP as close to $30 million in MANDATORY money as they can
.

A.
Calls and letters: As with the House, this is a great strategy for your Senators:

  1. Call both your Senators and ask them to demand MANDATORY funding for Community Food Projects in the Senate mark up of the Farm Bill. If you don’t know your Senators’ contact information, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Or look it up here: http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/index.html http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

ALL Senators are important to contact, but if your Senators is on the Agriculture Committee, they ESPECIALLY need to hear from you because they are on the Senate Agriculture Committee and will be marking up the Farm Bill in September. To see if your Senator is on the Agriculture Committee, go to
http://agriculture.senate.gov/sen.htm


These quick phone calls will take only a few minutes of your time, but could make a huge impact on whether this program continues. Enclosed are talking points and background on Community Food Project for you to use in your calls.

  1. Faxed letters: If you can, request your Senators’ FAX numbers and compose a brief letter. See talking points enclosed and add something about your own CFP projects or others in the district. (Note: emails are not preferred because they tend to get lost or ignored. Calls are recorded and faxed letters go right to the appropriate aide. Regular mail is not advisable).

B. Meeting with your legislators—especially in the Senate—is vital during this recess!
Decisions are still being discussed and deals are being brokered, and WE NEED YOU to stress the importance of small but powerful programs like Community Food Projects and the need to adequately fund them with mandatory money. Contact their local offices for appointments. Meeting with aides who handle the farm bill can be very effective.

C. Project site visits:
While Congress is officially on recess, your legislators are likely to be in their home states and districts, attending summer fairs and events. Many of them will even accept invitations to tour community food projects such as farms, community gardens, farmers’ markets, and other activities that highlight local food systems, especially if you invite the press along too! It’s easy to find your legislators—just call their local office and ask to speak to their scheduler. They may also post events on their websites.
D. Letters to the Editor and editorials in local papers have also been extremely successful, and we encourage you to continue submitting them. Sample op-eds and letters to the editor can be found at www.foodsecurity.org/policy under “Farm Bill Materials”.

Updates, background, alerts and links on the Farm Bill (and there are others):

· Community Food Security Coalition: www.foodsecurity.org/policy

· Farm and Food Policy Project: www.farmandfoodproject.org


Thank you for all your hard work and support, and we look forward to working together to make a big impact as the Farm Bill moves to the Senate
.



This message is sponsored by the Community Food Security Coalition and its partners

--
Stephanie D. R. Larsen
Policy Organizer
Community Food Security Coalition
110 Maryland Ave. NE Suite 307
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202.543.8602
Email: Steph@foodsecurity.org
www.FoodSecurity.org

SPECIAL NEWS ALERT: TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT SUPPLEMENT ACCESS

Alert from Bauman College:


SPECIAL NEWS ALERT: TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT SUPPLEMENT ACCESS

Please click here if you are interested in learning about and taking action on impending FDA guidelines that will affect your access to supplements. These guidelines are designed to raise the bar so high on information about what supplements can do and their health benefits, that, as the guidance says, small and medium sized supplement companies will be driven out of business.

www.baumancollege.org

Mapping Green

Hi Folks! I found this site while googling for organic news on the Westside. Please take a peek and see what's available over on the WESTSIDE. CLICK HERE...

The Santa Monica Green Map shows green business and related ecological features. This map has been created to help residents and visitors to the region become aware of the abundance of resources that contribute to the making of a more sustainable community. The map will allow users to visualize the breadth and diversity of the local environmental resources and opportunities. On this map one finds features such as:
>
Sustainable Quality Award Winners (businesses which received award from the City of Santa Monica)

>
stores that sell green building products and green designers

>
environmental organizations

>
schools which have "learning gardens", offer organic salad bars and compost on-site

>
vegetarian restaurants and natural food stores

>
location of car oil recycling centers

>
types and locations of all storm water percolation systems including statistics on the volume of water mitigated

>
sample catch basin inserts installed to filter out urban run-off before it enters the Bay

>
location and facts about SMURRF — Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility

>
solar energy and green power sites

Farm Bill Update August 6

Farm Bill Update
August 6, 2007

Find your Legislator at Home in August!


Happy August! Congress is officially on recess and many of the rest of us are planning a week or two of vacation before summer ends. Your legislators, however, are likely to be in their home states and districts, attending summer fairs and events. Many of them will even accept invitations to tour community gardens, community food projects, farmers’ markets, and other activities that highlight local food systems, especially if you invite the press along too! It’s easy to find your legislators—just call their local office and ask to speak to their scheduler. They may also post events on their websites.

Meeting with your legislators—especially in the Senate—is vital during this recess! Decisions are still being discussed and deals are being brokered, and WE NEED YOU to stress the importance of small but powerful programs like Community Food Projects and the need to adequately fund them with mandatory money. Letters to the Editor and editorials in local papers have also been extremely successful, and we encourage you to continue submitting them. Thank you for all your hard work and support, and we look forward to working together to make a big impact as the Farm Bill moves to the Senate.

Agriculture Appropriations: Last week, the Agriculture Appropriations bill was introduced on the House floor. There were significant partisan differences of opinion which resulted in various actions to disrupt the process, including a walk-out by Republicans after a disputed vote.

One exciting event during the debate on the floor for Agriculture Appropriations was a colloquy, or discussion on the House floor, between Chairwoman DeLauro (D-CT) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) on the Community Food Projects (CFP). Rep. Rush lamented the fact that CFP was changed from mandatory money to discretionary, and the Chairwoman went on record as supporting the program. This is good news for the program, which may have to rely on the Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee every year if the program doesn’t receive mandatory money in the Farm Bill.

Omissions from Last Week: Due to the sheer volume of information in last week’s update, we forgot to mention several important programs in which people may have interest.

  • Fruit and Vegetable Snack program-In the Manager's amendment, the mandatory funding for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable (Snack) Program was increased to $70 million per year and to include 35 schools in each of 50 states.
  • Organic Research- In the Managers Amendment, organic research was extended at $25 million in mandatory funding per year.
  • Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for meat and fresh produce was included in the Farm Bill with a compromise 3-tier system to account for products of mixed origin.
  • Rural Coalition has an outline of the outcomes for socially disadvantaged and minority farmers which should be posted on their website (www.ruralco.org ) soon.

SENATE: Now that the House is finished and August recess has begun, we are looking to the Senate next. Timing is completely up in the air—some rumors suggest that we may have a draft of the Senate Farm Bill before the end of August, others say we may not see it until the 3rd week in September. It is likely that the 2002 Bill will have to be temporarily extended as the Senate may not take up the Farm Bill on the floor until October.

Sen. Baucus, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is working on finding money for desired increases in the Farm Bill, but it’s not likely that he’ll use the same tactics the House used in closing a tax loophole. Information is being held very closely right now and is difficult to come by, but we’ll keep our eyes and ears open and keep you informed as we have new information.

Media Report: There have been lots of interesting editorials and articles about the Farm Bill in the last week, here are links to some that caught our attention (though some are more positive than others):

Anthony Flaccavento in the Washington Post, “Hurting a Small Farm Near You”: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080301569.html

NY Times, “Food That Travels Well’: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/opinion/06mcwilliams.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Tucson Citizen: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/56406.php


Lastly, this week we say goodbye to CFSC’s rock-star policy intern, Aliza Wasserman. She’s done amazing work this summer, and we wish her the best of luck as she returns to her graduate program at Tufts. Thanks Aliza!

Happy summer, and don’t forget to contact your legislators!

Best,
Steph & Aliza

--
Community Food Security Coalition
110 Maryland Ave. NE Suite 307
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202.543.8602
Email: Steph@foodsecurity.org
www.FoodSecurity.org


Organic Opportunities on the Westside

Co-Opportunity
Santa Monica's Cooperative Natural Grocer
1525 Broadway
(Corner of 16th & Broadway)
Santa Monica, CA 90404
310-451-8902
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

This site is full of valuable information from a speaking gig on Ayurvedic Nutrition to getting involved in the Green Business Certification Program.

and Downtown LA...
Tofu-Festival
August 18-19
A weekend exploration of all things soy with festive foods and opportunites to taste tofu delicacies.
Saturday and Sunday, August 18-19 12noon-8:00pm, Downtown Los Angeles, San Pedro Street between 2nd and 3rd.
tofufestival.com

Mindful Eating

From the land of MINDFULNESS...


Westside Farmgirl here; Save the Date


On Tuesday, August 14 at 7pm

At The Santa Monica Public Library(Main Library Multipurpose Room)

601 Santa Monica Blvd.



MINDFUL EATING for GOOD HEALTH

with Marius Imfeld, LAc


Licensed Acupuncturist and Yo San University Clinic Manager Marius Imfeld presents a lecture on Mindful Eating. Calories, nutrients and food groups are only half the equation of a healthy diet. HOW you eat is equally important. Learn ancient as well as modern tricks that will allow you to make your meals balanced and beneficial.


Take this from someone whose mind is constantly traveling, losing meaning and awareness to what they are gorging on. I found being in the moment, appreciating the chewing process, visualizing digestion and how my food will enhance my"being," has affected my food choices.


In a nutshell;if I choose two super tacos from Jack in the Crisak...I don't really want to be reminded slowly what I am ingesting...my choices have slowly evolved to healthier, friendlier choices.


-westside farmgirl