*Weekly Produce specials*

* Local Organic Butternut Squash $1.55/#
* Local Organic Japanese Eggplant $2.29/#
* Local Organic Heirloom Tomatoes $1.99/#
* Local Organic Green Bell Peppers $2.59/#
* Local Organic Blue Potatoes $1.49/#
* Local Organic Collard Greens $0.99/bunch
* Organic Bartlett Pears $1.89/#
* Organic Black Plums $1.99/#

... and more - while supplies last.

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*Weekly Co-op Update*

Dear Co-opers,

We are so excited about the succesful new programs at the Durham Food Co-op. "CSC":http://www.durhamfoodcoop.org/CSC is booming with many people signing up to have local produce delivered to their doorstep. Our "weekly Sunday Yoga class":http://www.durhamfoodcoop.org/yoga is a great way to start your week. The "Community Sustainability Festival: "http://www.durhamfoodcoop.org/CSF in September is going to be a hit with the participation of many local sustainability groups.

This is also a time for developing the structure that takes the Co-op out of survival mode and puts it into success mode. As sales are increasing, we are paying special attention to modifying the product line to better suit members' needs. Soon the Co-op will have a large selection of custom Health and Beauty Products. Being a place where people can find local produce and other goods is a high priority when making product selection decisions. Check out our weekly article below for some of our reasons to buy local.

If you have any suggestions about products please email them to "pifc_buying_club@yahoo.com":mailto:pifc_buying_club@yahoo.com. Look out for our product focus groups coming up next month.

Denise VanDeCruze

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*Upcoming Events*

* Free Yoga at the Co-op, Sundays 9:00am-10:30am -- Come experience Kundalini Yoga taught by long-time Co-op member Keval Kaur Khalsa. Suggested donation: $10. Please RSVP with "Sven":sven.rinke@gmail.com. Visit "www.durhamfoodcoop.org/yoga":http://www.durhamfoodcoop.org/yoga for more information on Kundalini Yoga and Keval's qualifications, and don't miss Keval's Kundalini Yoga & Meditation classes "Living in Balance":http://www.durhamfoodcoop.org/files/YPC_Fall_06_Living_in_Balance_Series.pdf on Mondays, 5:30-7pm, September 11 - November 13, 2006 at the "YogaPractice Center":http://www.yogapc.com
* "Community Sustainability Festival at the Durham Food Co-op":http://www.durhamfoodcoop.org/CSF (click on the link for our press release) on Autumn Equinox: September 23, 2006, 10 am to 8 pm -- Come one, come all to celebrate *35 years of Durham's only locally owned organic grocery*! Events include sampling of foods and drinks, performances by local musicians, kids' activities, and a biodiesel truck-full of information about actions YOU can take to reduce your ecological footprint and live in harmony with your local community. If you have ideas or expertise to share, please contact Sarah Palmer at (919) 286-1092 or by "email":mailto:mushiko_99@yahoo.com . Volunteers are needed to help the day run smoothly. Contact Sarah to see how you can help make this festival an event that will be attractive to our entire community.
* Do you cook? Yummy food samples needed for the Community Sustainability Festival! Do you have a favorite recipe that you make from co-op ingredients? Would you be willing to make a big batch to donate for the Festival? Please contact Sarah at 286-1092 or "email":mushiko_99@yahoo.com.

Meetings this week:
* Marketing Committee, Friday 8/25 6pm-7pm

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NOW Supplement - Special Orders Due August 31

A NOW foods vitamins and supplements order is being made on August 31. See specials prices below; specials flyer is in store with catalog; regular items in catalog at store. These are high quality vitamins and supplements at lower prices than any local retail we know of. If we get a large order together, we can get free shipping.

The following is a sample of member-prices:

August Specials (select: all in flyer 8pp at store)

#0466 B-12 1000 mcg plus folic acid 250 Lozenges $5.63
#0496 B-12 methyl "Brain B-12" 5000 mcg 60 Loz. $10.25
# 0464 B-12 liquid B complex 2 ounces $3.89
#0465 same, 8 oz $8.65

B-50 B vitamins formula #0421 200 caps $6.79
B-100 B vit formula # 0436 100 caps $6.49
B-100 250 caps # 0438 $14.29

Liquid Multi Vitamins, Wild Berry natural flavor,
# 3773 16 oz, $9.35

CoQ10 60 mg # 3153 60 veggie capsules 13.49
ditto but 180 veggie capsules #3154 $31.19

8 oz Cocoa Butter Lotion #7682 $4.35

-- all NOW products listed at "www.nowfoods.com":www.nowfoods.com. We can usually beat listed prices by at least 25% or more.

Here's how shipping works: The maximum cost will be about 7 or 8 percent of your order. It will get smaller until we meet the free shipping criteria by having more orders. At that point all you will pay is the prices above.

Please place orders in the special order book at the Co-op by noon August 31 Thursday, or email by the same time to "pifc_buying_club@yahoo.com":pifc_buying_club@yahoo.com. Please be sure to include contact phone and email and whether you are a member or sustainer. Then list off the prices of the specials we have figured.

FYI, Wells Eddleman

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*CSC - Community Supported Co-op Produce Program*

If you live in the neighborhoods listed below you can get a bag of fresh produce delivered to your door. The produce is chosen based on the availability of seasonal, local and organic produce. Each bag will contain a variety of produce including greens, root vegetables and fruit. You don't have to be home to receive your delivery. For details on how to sign up, visit "www.durhamfoodcoop.org/CSC":www.durhamfoodcoop.org/CSC.

Downtown Durham, Duke Central Campus, Duke East Campus, Duke Forest, Duke Park, Duke West Campus, Forest Hills, Lakewood, Morehead Hills, Old West Durham, Old North Durham, Trinity Heights, Trinity Park, Walltown, Watts, Watts-Hillandale, The West End

Denise VanDeCruze, BoD & CSC Initiator

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Buy Local

Source: "www.sustainabletable.org/issues/buylocal":www.sustainabletable.org/issues/buylocal - check out the link for more information.

The concept of buying local is simply to buy food (or any good or service) produced, grown, or raised as close to your home as possible. In the US, the average meal travels 1,500 miles before it reaches your plate. As a result, food is less fresh, contains fewer nutrients, and requires costly, resource-intensive transportation and packaging. Buying local is a key component of sustainability.

Furthermore, in order to increase shelf-life for lengthy transport, foods are treated with preservatives, grown with pesticides, genetically modified, and even subjected to irradiation. Besides altering the taste and quality of your food, these processes degrade the environment and pose a threat to human health.

The trend towards large-scale industrial agricultural production also forces small family farms out of business, thereby damaging the economies of rural communities and further eliminating the connection between consumers and the production of their food.

Reasons to buy local include:
Fresh, locally-produced food is more nutritious: Food transported short distances and kept on shelves for a short time contains more nutrients and fewer preservatives than food that travels long distances.

* Protects your family's health: Industrially-produced foods are typically grown with pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, and growth hormones. In order to extend shelf-life, certain foods are also subjected to irradiation. This process reduces the nutritional value of foods and has uncertain effects on human health. Local foods typically undergo minimal processing and are usually produced without the harmful substances mentioned above.
* Preserves the environment: Small, local farms are generally more environmentally-friendly than large-scale industrial agriculture operations. Small family farms tend to utilize sustainable farming techniques, often raising organic products without pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Buying locally also allows the consumer to encourage local farms to use sustainable techniques if they don't already.

Furthermore, buying food locally:

* Reduces air pollution - A tremendous amount of fossil fuel is used to transport industrial foods long distances. Combustion of these fuels releases carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and other pollutants into the atmosphere, thus generating global climate change, acid rain, smog, and local air pollution. Since local foods don't need to be transported long distances, buying locally prevents these pollutants from entering the environment.
* Reduces wasteful packaging - Foods produced locally require much less packaging than foods shipped long distances. Buying locally eliminates food packaging from the waste stream, thus conserving resources and reducing the need to build new landfills.
* Reduces our reliance on oil: Today, the ingredients for an average meal travel over 1,500 miles. As a result, a huge volume of oil is used to transport food that could be purchased locally. Buying locally decreases transportation and thus helps America to reduce its reliance upon foreign oil supplies.
* Helps family farmers: According to the USDA, the U.S. has lost 4.7 million farms since 1935. Family farmers are going out of business at a drastic rate, causing rural communities to deteriorate. Local food buying supports family farmers and helps to save this important element of American life.
* Supports the local economy: Money spent in the community stays in the community longer, benefiting local retailers and residents instead of huge industrial agriculture corporations.
* Preserves local farmland: The U.S. loses 2 acres of farmland a minute as cities and suburbs spread and take over the land. Most farms these days are 'edge farms' located on the outskirts of urban and suburban population centers. This means they're in danger of being bought out by developers as they struggle to stay in business. On a positive note, this makes buying local easier for city-dwellers, creating an important symbiotic relationship between cities and farms.
* Tastes better! Again and again, taste tests prove that local, fresh foods simply taste better than their industrial counterparts. More chefs and food lovers are discovering this simple fact, and are working to preserve local varieties and cook foods that are in-season. Local, naturally raised and fed animal products are noticeably more flavorful, and a joy to cook with. You'll notice the difference!
* Eat Seasonally: An important part of buying local is making an effort to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables when they are in season in your area. Although today's global marketplace allows us to buy foods grown virtually anywhere in the world all year round, these options are not the most sustainable.

Once you start eating fresh food, there's no going back. Join the growing movement of consumers around the world who are shunning fast food and making that little extra effort to find food raised nearby. You'll be glad you did.

Did you know?

* 91 cents of each dollar spent at traditional food markets goes to suppliers, processors, middlemen, and marketers; only 9 cents of each dollar actually goes to the farmer.
* In the U.S., a wheat farmer can expect to receive about 6 cents of each dollar spent on bread; this is approximately equal to the cost of the wrapping.
* Farmers markets enable farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.
* About two-thirds of total U.S. agricultural output is produced in or adjacent to metropolitan counties.
* About 1/3 of all U.S. farms are located within metropolitan areas, comprising 18% of the total U.S. farmland.

What can you do?

* Check out the "Eat Seasonal page":http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal" to find when foods are in season in your area.
* Buy food directly from your local farmer at a farm stand or a farmers market. In 2002, there were over 3,100 farmers markets in the US - check the "USDA's list":http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/map.htm to find one near you!
* Join a food co-op or a Community Supported Agriculture project (CSA).
* Encourage your local grocery store to supply food from local farmers.
* Visit our Get Involved section for many more things you can do.
* To find local food in your area, visit our Shopping Guide section for CSA, farmers markets and other sustainable outlets.

For more information:

* Food Routes' Buy Local Campaign - Includes information on the benefits of buying locally, resources for promoting local food production, and an online directory of farmers markets.
* Home Grown: The Case For Local Food In A Global Market, Brian Halweil, World Watch Paper 163, World Watch Institute, 2002. (Free PDF download, hard copy $5)
* Reports and Articles:
Food From Our Changing World: US residents trust American small-farm owners, don't favor corporate, non-family farms or trust genetically modified or foreign-grown food. And the 9/11 attacks made many nervous about our food supply's safety. Those are a few of the preliminary results of a survey on public attitudes about globalization and our food's sources, production and safety conducted by Ronald Wimberley, a sociologist from North Carolina State University. (2003)
* In Search of the Ripe Stuff: May 2003 article from the Christian Science Monitor that gives a good background about the local food movement.

[Fair Use Notice: The material in this newsletter is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of scientific, environmental, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.]

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DURHAM FOOD COOP
1101 W. Chapel Hill St.
Durham, NC 27701
919-490-0929
**Track upcoming events @ www.durhamfoodcoop.org**

Our Hours:
Monday-Saturday: 10am -8pm
Sunday: 11am- 8pm