Savvy Vegetarian Blog

news and opinion on vegetarian diet and nutrition, vegetarian lifestyle, green living, and environment

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Mon, 15 Sep 2008

A Few Rays of Sunshine in a Gloomy Week

Fairfield, IA: No hurricanes, tornados or floods so far this month, but it has rained A LOT. From the bright side of alternative news, here are a few rays of sunshine to brighten up a gloomy week.

Sixty Thousand Organic Consumers and Locavores Visit "Slow Food Nation"

From OCA: In an amazing demonstration of mass public support and creativity, sixty thousand people attended the nation's first Slow Food Nation convention in San Francisco on Labor Day weekend, underlining America's need and desire for a new system of food and farming that is local, organic, and Fair Trade--not to mention delicious. Among the major themes at the conference was a call to eliminate labor exploitation in the natural and organic food sector. More About Slow Food Nation

OCA Plants Peace at the RNC

"The Organic Consumers Association's Planting Peace brigade actively participated in a series of rallies, street protests, and concert/teach-ins at the Republican National Convention last week, along with tens of thousands of other participants. OCA's Planting Peace contingent supplied organic food and literature to musicians, volunteers, and protesters at the 'Ripple Effect' concert and march on September 2, which culminated in a massive and dramatic street march on the RNC."

"Throughout the week, despite tear-gas, police dragnets, and intimidation ... OCA staff and volunteers spread the positive message that a local, energy-efficient, and Fair Trade system of organic food and farming represents a lifesaving cure for America's current 'quadruple crisis' of food, health, climate, and energy."

Wiki Goes Green

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) September 9, 2008: Wikia, Inc. has launched Wikia Green, a project to build a community generated online resource for green topics and issues. Just as with Wikipedia, anyone can edit or change Wikia Green to reflect the most current green topics and information.

Jimmy Wales, Co-founder of Wikia, Inc., said "As the whole notion of 'going green' has exploded, so too has the volume of related information floating around on the Internet...for the average person looking for tips on how to lead a more sustainable lifestyle, it can be difficult to know where to start."

Wikia Green will initially focus on six main content areas: Green How To Guides, Going Local, The Green Movement, Sustainable Living, Environmental Issues, Green Science and Technology.

Victory on G.E. Alfalfa Case

UCS FEED Newsletter 9.08: "In an opinion issued September 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the reversal of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) approval of Roundup Ready herbicide-tolerant, genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa. In a landmark decision, the Appeals Court agreed with the lower court that the USDA had not adequately considered either the economic impact on organic and conventional alfalfa farmers from inevitable contamination of their crops by GE alfalfa or the environmental harm from herbicide-resistant weeds. The case was brought by the Center for Food Safety".

"This important decision affirms that the USDA has been doing a poor job enforcing environmental laws for the regulation of GE crops. The agency needs to take seriously both the economic as well as the environmental harm of gene contamination from GE crops." - UCS senior scientist Doug Gurian-Sherman, who served as an expert witness for the original case.

Read more at the San Francisco Chronicle.