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anna coleman

‘Peter Rabbit’ Should be Rated ‘R’ for Reckless

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Sony Picture’s Peter Rabbit has garnered a lot of headlines since its release. But we haven’t yet heard from the children that the allergy bullying scenes impact. That is until now. Please meet 9 year old, Anna Coleman from Colorado Springs. She shares her take on the film and what families and film companies need to do next. We have left this completely unedited, in her own words.

Anna Coleman, 9 – The movie Peter Rabbit is now playing at theaters. I was really excited to see it, but now I’m mad. In it, food allergies are shown as a way to hurt others and joked about as being not a big deal. Peter Rabbit is rated PG, but it should be rated R for reckless.

I was diagnosed with a life-threatening peanut allergy when I was two years old. I just turned nine. I’ve had other food allergies over the years come and go, like lemon, that was a weird one, but the peanut one is never going away. I’ve passed the age for growing out of it, and my IGE keeps going up.

Kids with food allergies have lots of anxiety and stress. We are always worried about if our food is allergen free, and where our allergen could be hiding. When people say my allergy is not a big deal, like Peter does in the movie, I don’t feel safe. When my friends tell me they have peanuts in their lunches and laugh, I don’t feel safe. Even our “safe” adults like teachers and family don’t always keep us safe and make mistakes. The bullies might see this movie and get ideas too.

To help distract me from my anxieties, I like to watch movies and shows. I don’t want to go see a movie and feel these feelings I feel most days. I want to get away from them! I’m speaking my heart here, and my heart says that this is wrong. Allergy kids have enough to deal with. We shouldn’t be fighting for adults to understand how wrong this is too. If you have allergies you’ll understand.

Sony Pictures should get rid of the scene where Peter Rabbit mocks the character’s food allergy and the scene when Peter and his friends cause him to have an allergic reaction to try to kill him. I want to be able to see the movie without being scared. No one, not grownups, kids or rabbits should mock each other for our differences. I try my best to be a kind and happy kid. The movie producers should try their best to be kind too.

You may think you’re good people, no one said you weren’t, but when you help other good people that makes you a really, really good person.

Please take the allergy scenes out of the movie. I may only be nine years old, and may not be tall or strong, but my voice speaks louder than any actions or inactions you take. Some adults that are way older than me haven’t even felt what I have felt. Having to be worried that you’re going to get hurt or die if you eat something wrong. I just want to have a great life as long as I can, and not get killed from peanuts. It’s a serious thing, and Sony Pictures should not joke about it. They need to think about how they’d feel if they had an allergy that was life-threatening. It shouldn’t be hard for the movie creators to see how helping, not making our lives harder, is the best thing to do here.

I want to challenge other kids with allergies to rise up and make their voices heard about this. I thought that I couldn’t do anything until I saw my older sister speak out for what she believes in. When you’re scared, but you speak up anyway, it makes you feel like you can do anything. Kids make a difference every day to create change in our world. They do! And so can you! This affects us, our families and our friends, so why can’t we try to do something about it?

If you do speak up, please use #KidsMadAtPeterRabbit. Believe in yourself, because I believe in you.

Anna Coleman, age 9

Colorado Springs, CO

school lunch

School Lunch Can Be Done Right: 16 Examples

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Over 31 million children in the United States consume most of their daily caloric intake at school. For many children, it may be the only food they eat regularly each day. But improving the quality of school lunches offers an effective way to ensure that half of what children eat is healthy, nutritious, and sustainably grown. School lunch programs that source organic, local, nutritious, and sustainable foods impact children’s health and also the health of our planet. Food Tank has compiled a list of 16 school lunch programs making strides to improve children’s health.

  1. The Baltimore Public School System, Baltimore, Maryland: The public school system in Baltimore was the first to adopt “Meatless Mondays,” which benefit students’ health as well as the environment. BCPS serves locally grown fruits, vegetables, and milk, and teaches its students how to grow their food at Great Kids Farm, a 33-acre teaching farm.
  2. The Berkeley Unified School District, Berkeley, California: The Berkeley Unified School District is committed to serving nutritious, delicious, and locally grown food to students. All processed foods, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, refined sugars, refined flour, dyes, nitrates, additives, and chemicals are banned. Local, organic milk is served throughout cafeterias in addition to organic fruits and vegetables as much as possible.
  3. The Burlington School Food Project, Burlington, Vermont: The Burlington School Food Project provides free breakfast and dinner to 4,000 students in the Burlington School District. The project is dedicated to serving local food from farms in the area and was chosen as a model Farm to School program by the USDA in 2010.
  4. Farmhouse Café and Bakery, El Prado, New Mexico: The Farmhouse Café sponsors school garden projects, which serve over 450 meals a day at participating schools and teach children how to grow vegetables and make healthy food choices.
  5. The Finnish National Board of Education, Finland: Finland was the first country in the world to serve free school meals dating back to 1948. School meals are designed to support students’ health and to give them energy for their studies. Local fish, vegetables, fruit, and grains are featured on students’ plates to form tasty, colorful, balanced meals. Finnish law requires that half of the plate be filled with fresh and cooked vegetables.
  6. The French Ministry of National Education, France: School children in France are required to sit at the lunch table for at least a half an hour to eat a full meal. Fried food, foods high in fat, ketchup, and sweets are all limited. Meals are well-balanced and include vegetables, a warm main dish, cheese, and usually fruit for dessert. The government charges families on a sliding scale, which averages US$2.56–3.12.
  7. The Healthy Schools Campaign, Chicago, Illinois: Over 350,000 students in Chicago public schools eat healthier food thanks to the Healthy Schools Campaign. Produce is regionally grown, and chicken is raised without antibiotics in nearby Indiana.
  8. Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research, Italy: Rome has an incredibly progressive school food program. About 150,000 meals are served daily at 740 public schools. Ninety-six percent of meals are made from scratch, and 70 percent of ingredients are organic. Much of the produce and meat is local or regional, and menus reflect the seasonality of crops grown in the region.
  9. The Good Earth School Lunch Program, Marin County, California: Over 4,000 children in twelve schools throughout Marin County participate in the healthy, organic, and nutritious Good Earth School Lunch Program.
  10. Kitchen Garden Project, United Kingdom: Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver launched the Kitchen Garden Project to teach primary school children in the U.K. how to grow, cook, and consume fresh and local produce. The Kitchen Garden Project believes that introducing children to fresh fruits and vegetables at a young age is crucial to developing life-long healthy eating habits.
  11. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan: In Japan, school lunch is referred to as Shokuiku, which translates to food and nutrition education. The free school lunch program aims to promote mental and physical health and is based on government-established nutritional criteria. The program encourages sustainability by promoting environmentally friendly food production in local communities, encourages table manners, and celebrates the enjoyment of eating.
  12. Shelby County Nutrition Services, Tennessee: Over 110,000 students are served breakfast and lunch daily at Shelby County public schools, where Nutrition Services focuses on providing nutritious, healthy food to improve educational achievements. Nutrition Services are connected with the Farm to School Movement, which aims to serve healthy meals in school cafeterias, provide agriculture and nutrition education, improve student nutrition, and support local and regional farms.
  13. Ministry of Education South Korea: Over 800,000 school children in the public school system in Seoul receive hot, healthy lunches at school. The healthy and nutritious meal reflects Korean cuisine. Students are served protein, rice, kimchi (pickled vegetables), and other vegetables on the side.
  14. The Sitka “Fish to Schools” Program, Sitka, Alaska: The Sitka “Fish to Schools” Program aims to enhance students’ understanding of local seafood resources by including locally-caught seafood in the school lunch program. Students also receive education about the local fishing culture.
  15. Urban Sprouts, San Francisco, California: Since 2006, Urban Sprouts has partnered with schools throughout San Francisco to provide garden-based education in which students experience planting, growing, harvesting, and consuming crops directly from the school garden.
  16. Wellness in the Schools, New York, New York: Wellness in the Schools (WITS) encourages healthy eating, environmental awareness, and fitness as a way of life for public school kids in New York City. WITS forms partnerships with school leadership, teachers, chefs, coaches, parents, and kids, to develop and implement programs that provide nutritious foods, environments, and opportunities for kids to play, learn, and grow.

Originally published at Food Tank.

GMAban

Courage, Campbell’s and Comfort Zones

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About seven years ago, I was invited to a think tank meeting in DC. The organizer was trying to fix the food system. He had a strong network, a strong reputation for negotiation and knew a lot of the stakeholders in the food industry.

Several attendees were from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and they decided that I shouldn’t be there.

So I was uninvited.

I pushed the organizer, promising that I would listen and that he didn’t have to worry. He hesitantly agreed.

I paid my own way.

I walked into the first day of the meeting. Someone from the industry said, “Robyn, we finally meet” in the most condescending voice possible.

I thought, “What the hell am I doing here? Why did I leave my family at home for this?”

And I spent two days listening and quietly speaking with attendees in the hallways.

On the first day, someone from the Food Marketing Institute pulled me aside and shared that she had cancer. She asked about food. Someone from Safeway’s leadership team had a child with autism.

But it was a senior executive from Campbell’s that made that meeting worth the trip. He was respectful. He was willing to sit at the table and have the hard conversations, despite the fact that we didn’t see eye to eye on everything. We stayed in touch ever since.

So when Campbell’s announced that they supported mandatory GMO labeling last year, he was the first person that I emailed. He was also the first that I emailed when I saw Campbell’s announcement that they are leaving the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

It takes courage to create change.

It is those quiet conversations, out in the hallways or at the end of a day, when no one else was listening, that proved that there was more that unites us than divides us in this work. Whether at that DC meeting or when the CEO of Nestle’s Frozen Food division called and said, “You can say things that I can’t say.” It is the candid and shared concerns, especially as they relate to the health of our families, that give so many hope that we can fix this.

We have our work cut out for us. Less than 1% of our farmland is organic here in the U.S. while Germany just announced a record that 7.5% of their farmland is now organic. We are late to this game on the global playing field and don’t have a supply chain to keep up with demand. Other countries are benefiting from our inaction.

There is a deep and real need to move beyond commodity-based agriculture if we are going to fix our food system, farm economy and the health of our families. There are new regulatory needs in light of the growing demand for organic and the skyrocketing rates of food allergies, diabetes and cancer in America.

And there are consumers who are serving as a compass, telling the industry exactly what they must do to meet the needs of all stakeholders and shareholders and ensure profitability.

Some companies like Campbell’s are listening. Some like Kashi are working to transition farmers to organic, while other processed food companies are so entrenched in a 20th century way of thinking that all you can do is to get out of their way as they take themselves out.

When Campbell’s announced in 2016 that they were breaking with the Grocery Manufacturers Association and going with mandatory GMO labeling, other companies quickly followed. Why? The Grocery Manufacturers Association no longer served the needs of its members. It spent millions telling consumers that their concerns were not valid, that thei voice had no merit, that the customer was not right. And the Grocery Manufacturers Association was wrong. Consumers, driven by growing concerns for the health of their families, are driving a massive change in the food industry.

And just as Campbell’s led and others followed in 2016, it will be interesting to see who moves next here, too.

Change does not happen in our comfort zones, and change at its core can seem hypocritical. But if you want change to happen, you have to lean into it and into any fear or butterflies. A friend once shared that those butterflies are your internal applause cheering you on.

It’s a good thing to remember as we rethink food for the 21st century. Less than 1% of our farmland is organic. Not a single food company in the United States benefits from that, not one. The economics don’t work.

Now more than ever, it’s time to build out a supply chain that allows American food companies to compete in the 21st century and meet the changing needs of 21st century families.

Let’s lean into it, dump the junk, and cheer it on.

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Meet Weston: An 11 Year Old and True Food Allergy Leader

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Every day, we hear from families dealing with conditions like food allergies, Type 1 diabetes, pediatric cancers and so much more. These conditions impact a family on every level—financial, emotional, mental and physical.

We also hear about some pretty amazing kids who decide to become their own advocates.

That’s what happened when we heard from Weston and his mom, Jennifer.

In light of the recent headlines about Mylan’s chairman paying himself $160+ million to oversee the price-gouging known as #epigate, we are thrilled to highlight the story of this boy. He gives us hope for future leadership in the food allergy world.

Dear Robyn, I am the mother of an amazing 11 year old boy with food intolerances When my son was about 4 years old, we discovered he had an intolerance to artificial colors and flavors. When he consumed these ingredients, he would vomit, but he would also get very agitated and angry and out of control, almost as if something was taking control of his little brain. I did a ton of research, and ended up doing an elimination diet where we removed anything that wasn’t a whole food.

After about a week off of processed foods, my son was able to look me in the eye and he was able to control his emotions in an age appropriate way. We slowly added some foods back in to his diet, and landed on petroleum based food additives as the culprit. Since then, he has been off of all artificial colors, flavors and preservatives and life has been pretty good.

We switched from the word intolerance to the word allergy because people listen to that word in large part, I’m certain, due to your work. At the beginning of our food exploration, I was using the word “special diet” or “intolerance” and twice had other parents feed my child brightly colored birthday cakes or treats because they “felt bad for him.” After that, we started saying he is allergic, because people don’t mess around with food allergies.

Weston is an advocate for eating a healthy, non-GMO diet, and has told many of his friends at school that he’s lucky to have his allergy, as it requires him to eat real food instead of chemicals. He has inspired others in his class and neighborhood to adopt a healthier way of eating through his passion for whole foods.

Weston is not only a kid with food allergies, but he also has dyslexia. He has worked super hard to reach a reading level above grade level, but he does still struggle with spelling and handwriting. I tell you this because he wrote you a letter, Robyn, and I’ll attach it to this email, but I’ll also transcribe it for you below.

Weston is working on a project in school where he has to create a website that will inspire others. He chose food allergy awareness. He and I watched your Ted Talk together, and then he did quite a bit of research. He is looking for any data that correlates the rise in food allergies to the use of chemicals and GMOs in our food supply. He is very inspired by you, and wanted you to know what he’s working on. Below is his letter to you.

Dear Robyn, I am creating a website due to an artificial allergy I’ve had as long as I can remember. I’ve learned many facts from my research; including that adding synthetic anything to our food can increase ADHD symptoms, cancer in animals and sometimes cancer in humans. People don’t know this important information, and I bet if they do know, most of them really don’t care. I’m one of the few who care about what goes into our bodies. After learning some of these important facts, I’ve been more passionate than ever to make this world a better place. One step at a time, one bite at a time, the world can be, no WILL be, a better place. Thank you, Weston

Thank you for taking the time to read our story, and Westons letter. We would love to hear back from you and help your cause in any way possible! Thank you for all that you do! Best regards, Jennifer and Weston

Daniel Lubetzky - Founder of Kind Snacks

Kind Snacks Founder Creates Organization to Promote Public Health by Countering Food Industry Propaganda

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Daniel Lubetzky, the Founder and CEO of KIND Healthy Snacks (KIND), recently announced the launch of Feed the Truth. Established as an independent organization, Feed the Truth will seek to improve public health by making truth, transparency and integrity the foremost values in today’s food system.

Given what we’ve learned about Coca Cola’s hand in obesity studies and Monsanto’s hand in food allergy research, it is well past time to shine a brighter light on the conflicts of interest in science.

To ensure Feed the Truth’s independence from KIND, Lubetzky will remove himself entirely from all activities and governance of the new organization. He has assembled three unaffiliated public health advocates whose sole role is to nominate Feed the Truth’s Board of Directors. The advisors, all of whom have offered their expertise voluntarily and are not being paid for their involvement, include:

  • Deb Eschmeyer, former Executive Director of Let’s Move! and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition Policy at The White House
  • Michael Jacobson, PhD, Co-Founder and President of the Center for Science in the Public Interest
  • Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University

Feed the Truth will ensure science overrules special interests by revealing and counteracting the food industry’s undue influence in shaping nutrition policy and ability to disseminate biased science, among other activities that are detrimental to public health. While specific programming will be decided by an Executive Director that will be appointed by the Board of Directors, activities could potentially include grants to support investigative journalism, consumer education campaigns and educational briefings to policymakers and influencers.

“In establishing Feed the Truth, my intent is to elevate reputable science, bolster the voices of the nutrition community, and improve the guidance and information offered to Americans,” Lubetzky said. “As a business owner, I understand the importance of prioritizing your bottom line, but it’s equally as important to consider how you can succeed while also thinking about the long-term impact on the community.”

Lubetzky’s journey to create Feed the Truth began in 2004 when his frustration with a lack of wholesome, nutritious snacks in the marketplace led him to launch KIND. What began as a line of whole nut & fruit bars sparked the creation of an entirely new healthy snacking category and gave Lubetzky a window into long-held industry operating procedures that often benefited companies financially at the expense of public health.

In May 2015, KIND faced a public confrontation with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) over the company’s usage of the term “healthy” as a nutrient content claim on its packaging. The FDA’s guidance – which was established over 20 years ago – limited total fat intake, regardless of source or type, and prevented demonstrably nutritious foods like nuts, salmon and avocado from being labeled as “healthy.” After months of exploration and discovery, KIND filed a Citizen Petition, with the support of leading nutrition and public health experts, requesting the agency update the regulation to be consistent with modern nutrition science.

By September 2016, the FDA announced it would begin the process of revising this regulation and offered a sensible interim solution – both of which incorporated KIND’s recommendations. That same month, a JAMA Internal Medicine report found that in the 1960s the Sugar Association funded scientific studies to diminish findings that linked sugar consumption to poor heart health. Instead, the Association used industry-funded research to vilify fats – an act that would go on to directly inform the government’s dietary guidance, spur a surge of low-fat, high-sugar products, and ultimately, distort consumer perception of all dietary fat.

“We’re eager for Feed the Truth to step in and hold all of us in the food community accountable for what we say and claim,” said Lubetzky. “While this ‘Big Sugar’ revelation underscored the need to provide more tools to public advocates, it doesn’t mean that ‘fat’ or ‘protein’ should now be evangelized. Feed the Truth’s independent Board of Directors, once established, will seek to ensure consumers have access to unbiased nutrition information.”

“This commitment could have a salutary effect on educating the public about nutrition and cleaning up deceitful marketing practices,” said Michael Jacobson.

Lubetzky’s donor advised fund has made an initial contribution of $5 million to Feed the Truth. Lubetzky intends to fund an additional $20 million over the next ten years.

To learn more and get involved visit FeedtheTruth.org.

 

shebelieved

Meet the 17 Women Who Inspire Me on Women’s Day 2017

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On International Women’s Day, I just want to give a shout out to the women that I work with on a regular basis and those who have inspired me countless times through the years. There is a sisterhood in this work, and I couldn’t have done this without any of you.

Sara Blakely: The founder of Spanx gave support, quite literally, to women around the world, making strong sexy and sexy strong. Her fearless and passionate leadership will be the story of case studies, books and coursework in business schools for years to come.

Brene Brown: Because vulnerability is the real deal. If for some reason, you missed her TED talk, watch it. Because authenticity is the name of the game, and if you are wearing someone else’s look, drop it.

Jane Goodall: Her kind, steady and beautiful presence in the world of environmental research is so profound that she still sells out stadiums to college kids. She blazed the trail, and her silver ponytail is a vision that I hold onto as I continue into this work. Her lifetime of dedication is an inspiration to millions.

Denise Morrison: The CEO of Campbell’s moved the food industry forward when she broke with the Grocery Manufacturers Association and moved to support mandatory labeling of GMOs in all of Campbell’s products in response to consumer demand. She absolutely knew to listen to her consumers, and we can’t thank her enough for that!

Reese Witherspoon: for giving us laughter, gorgeous, strong female lead roless in movies and full permission to be Type A’s through her Type A Films (not to mention, Draper James).

Molly Ashby: the founder of Solera Capital led early investments in the organic food industry. Her team is primarily women, and they changed the game with an early stake in Annie’s.

Erika Karp: the founder of Cornerstone Capital Group is a brilliant voice in investment research and a systems-thinker like no other. The Cornerstone Capital Group is among the world’s leading voices in the field of sustainable investing and finance. She has been in finance for decades and recognizes the incredible role that women on boards play in the success of companies.

Annie Withey: As the founder of Annie’s, this mom of two simply wanted a simple bowl of mac and cheese for her kids that didn’t contain any junk. Little did she know that these little bunnies would turn around and become a bridge to a better food system. The Annie’s IPO in March 2012 had the biggest opening day gain of any IPO in any industry in almost a year that year, proving that big things can come in little packages!

Maria Rodale: the granddaughter of the founder of the Rodale Institute has been a strong and steady voice in food and farming reform for decades. She has carried on the spirit of her dad’s work, forever reminding us that we are only as healthy as the soil.

Ashley Koff: She’s my partner is crime on our podcast, Take Out with Ashley and Robyn. These game-changing conversations with thought-leaders are changing the conversation in food.

Megan Reamer: This mom of four beats any mom of four I know. She founded Jackson’s Honest in honor of her oldest son whose health rapidly declined at the age of two, leaving her with no answers. That wasn’t good enough, so she built her own solutions using food. Want inspiration? Take a look at her story.

Nicole Dawes: This mom founded Late July for her son who has life threatening food allergies. Want the gold standard in how food companies should label? Late July is it.

Katie Couric: the only time that I ever lost my words was standing in front of Katie. I went blank, speechless, given the enormous impact she’s had in journalism. Her work to bring cancer awareness to the front line, after she lost her husband, is some of the bravest work out there. And her film, Fed Up, with Stephanie Soechtig, brought the massive impact that sugar is having on the health of our country to light.

Liz Claman: this FOX News anchor was a driving, steady and strong force for good on #epigate. She continues to shine a very bright light on the skyrocketing price of drugs, particularly Mylan’s EpiPen, and the impact that it is having on American families and our health care system.

Serena Williams: What a gorgeous example of strength. Enough said, but if you need more, here she is.

Rachel Carson: the woman was way ahead of her time, calling out this pollution of our food supply in her groundbreaking book, Silent Spring. Her tenacity and strength inspire me every day.

Erin Brockovich: Because she gave voice to countless women and environmental advocates and never quit. She has always stood for what this day is all about – embracing our strengths, intellect and gifts to make the world a better place.

There are so many others: Laura Turner Seydel of the Captain Planet Foundation, Gregg Renfrew of BeautyCounter, Debbie Levin of the Environmental Media Association, Leah Segedie for Mamavation, Aviva Romm, my brilliant Yale MD friend, Nicole Smith of Allergic Child, and my 105 year old grandmother in Louisiana, mom, mother-in-law, sisters, nieces and especially my daughters.

Thank you for the lessons, love and the inspiration that you provide every day.

ronkids

Save the Garden: Ron Finley Needs Help!

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The first time I met Ron Finley was in LA. I was speaking at an event, and there he was. There was an instance recognition between us, two unlikely candidates fighting for better food, and a friendship that started immediately.

He has many titles: Fashion Designer, The Renegade Gardener, Guerilla Gardener, Gangsta Gardener, Head Trouble Maker but most importantly Revolutionary.

He’s been a true friend in this work for a long time.

In 2010, he decided to take his health and the health of his community into his own hands and “Plant Some Shit,” turning a strip of city-owned land into a food oasis. After a citation, fine and eventual warrant for Finley’s arrest over the grass that he transformed into a food forest for his community, word spread quickly about the “Gangsta Gardener.”

With the help of his powerful 2013 Ted Talk and 2015 film “Can You Dig This,” his message that gardens are solutions to inner city health problems, gang violence and poverty has echoed around the world. The ringing of his words has given birth to urban communities across the globe coming together to grow their own food in areas that have none.

People from all walks of life have shown their support for Finley’s efforts: Alice Waters, Rainn Wilson, Penny Marshall, Carson Daley, Rachel Hunter and Robert Horry have reached out in solidarity, as well as statewide dignitaries including Mayors Aja Brown, Kevin Johnson and Councilman Herb Wesson.

Over the years, the Gangsta Garden has evolved into more than a symbol of healthy change for urban communities including an educational site, a propagation station for more edible landscapes and the formal headquarters for The Ron Finley Project (RFP). Furthermore, it has become the focus of study for local K-12 classrooms and universities worldwide including the renown institutions of MIT, Harvard and University of Southern California.

Currently, RFP is fighting for their headquarters; the very same location that ignited a good food revolution when Finley took back city land and planted the seeds to cultivate happy and healthy communities. After numerous attempts by the property owner for a loan modification with no avail, the land was sold to Strategic Acquisitions, Inc. in a foreclosure.

This company, Strategic Acquisitions Inc., has made their business out of buying up distressed assets, putting the squeeze on, then flipping them. They don’t care about the underlying assets or the children that are benefiting. They simply saw what Ron was doing, moved in in the most predatory way, and are now driving a stake through the heart of his work.

RFP has requested that Strategic Acquisitions allow them to continue operating from the location as to sustain the important work they are doing in the community. The only solution they have been offered is to purchase the property for $500,000, otherwise… they face eviction.

Finley took on city lawmakers in 2010 sparking a worldwide food justice revolution. Now the world needs to rally behind him!

If you have been touched by RFP or support access to healthy food for ALL communities please donate what you can and share widely.

RFP needs to raise $500,000 to #savethegangstagarden. More than that, he also needs help bringing attention to this real estate company, because they won’t stop here.  They’ll move on to the next guy changing the world and milk him for another half million.

Please share this post. You can support and save the garden here.

pesticide warning

How Parents Removed RoundUp and Other Pesticides from Their Town

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Kathleen Hallal
Kathleen Hallal is a mother of three boys with autoimmune issues and food allergies. She lives in Southern California and is active in her community school district and PTA, spreading awareness about helping children with chronic health issues.

If you don’t think one person can change the world, you haven’t met the parents from Irvine, California.

As headlines hit last year over the possibility that glyphosate, the key ingredient used in the popular weedkiller, Roundup, had been linked to cancer, parents took action. The World Health Organization issued a report in early 2015 declaring glyphosate a probable human carcinogen. You can learn more from the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Given that 1 in 2 American men and 1 in 3 American women are expected to get cancer in their lifetime, the City Council of Irvine, California unanimously passed a resolution this year to stop spraying hazardous chemicals such as Roundup (glyphosate) and 2,4-D on public parks, playgrounds and streets—adopting an organic management policy instead. PTA officer Kathleen Hallal coordinated a team called Non Toxic Irvine that secured the ban.

Here is Kathleen’s story of how these amazing parents made this happen:

As parents we are so busy running around between school, sports, and planning for dinner that it’s easy to go about our lives without really paying attention to what is going on in our environment. I was one of those parents. But one day, I noticed a yellow sign in front of my children’s school announcing an application of Roundup Powermax to the campus. Kids were digging with their hands in the dampened dirt of the tree well where that sign was posted while waiting for pickup. I thought, “If those kids are like mine, they will be handed a snack when they get in the car on their way to whatever activity is on their schedule, without washing their hands.” There were dozens of parents and kids walking around, and no one was noticing the sign, or the fact that the kids were playing right beside it. The sign was invisible. This was alarming!

Having learned from farmers, scientists and pediatricians who speak about GMOs that Roundup is substantially more toxic than advertised, I started to wonder how much of it they were applying, and how often, and what else was being sprayed around students. Like many parents of children with health issues who constantly battle to keep their environment and their food clean, I knew this was important. After going out of my way to purchase organic food that was improving their conditions, why had I not noticed all of the spraying going on around them every day? Those yellow notices were everywhere on the different school campuses and around our city. I enquired with our district, and I found out that in actuality quite a bit was being applied, and everyone seemed to think it was perfectly safe. They provided the amounts in ounces, but I learned from a farmer that those ounces created gallons of Roundup. Though employees were required to wear gloves and masks for application (with a shower to follow) while our kids were in class, somehow when the bell rang at 3:00 the moistened soil was seemingly “safe” to touch.

I had several meetings with maintenance, brought in warning letters from scientists and pediatricians addressed to the district, and even brought in a crop expert to meet directly in the offices, all to no avail. At the same time, as PTA Board Chair for Health and Safety for our district, I had invited a farmer and a pediatrician to educate our district’s presidents about the risks of using Roundup and pesticides around our children. After the WHO came out with their statement that Roundup is a probable carcinogen, the presidents agreed to request that the school board stop the use of toxic pesticides in favor of organic and less toxic options. The district finally agreed to stop applying Roundup, which was a great step in the right direction.

Then a really great thing happened: other parents came forward, and a team was formed!

Our board consisted of five parents, each of whom brought individual talents. Ayn Craciun had suffered several miscarriages that she partly attributes to pesticides. She had worked together with Laurie Thompson, a mother of a child with cancer, to stop pesticide use by their homeowner’s association. Kim Konte had been heading up a running club for kids at her boys’ school until she also noticed the yellow signs around the field. We also recruited Bob Johnson, a father from our school who has a background in city management. The board came up with a plan.

We decided about branding and how we would present ourselves to the community in a professional way. We set up a Facebook page, created a website, and started a petition addressed to the school board as well as to the city council. With each signature, a notice was sent to each of the officials, so they would know that there was community support for our request. We contacted a scientist, Bruce Lanphear of Simon Fraser University, who had recently put out a Youtube video entitled “Little Things Matter” based on his study about the cumulative damage of multiple chemicals on children. He provided us with a logo that was similar to his own. Two local professors from UCI, Dean Baker and Bruce Blumberg, also agreed to support our cause and signed on as board advisors. We got press coverage. We contacted Beyond Pesticides to gather studies, and they gave us a grant for expert training for our school district’s crew so they would have solutions other than those taught by pesticide dealers, which is the norm. After we had gathered a few hundred signatures we met with city officials.

At first, staff was reluctant to try alternative methods. The chemical solutions they were using seemed to work well, and they were under the mistaken impression that if a product is listed by the EPA it must be safe. It was not until our school district employees went up to visit the Los Angeles Unified School District, which had been helped by Beyond Pesticides to vastly reduce their chemical use, that they understood it was possible. Our district staff agreed to go even further with the reduction of toxic products in Irvine. This was critical, because we were then able to go to the city to tell them that the school district was moving ahead with a non-toxic program. Support for the city policy change was headed up by Council Member Christina Shea, a cancer survivor. We went into the city council meeting not knowing how the mayor or the other council members might vote. We encouraged many community members to attend the meeting where this issue had been placed on the agenda. Many parents and children spoke in favor of organic practices at the podium. Several families of children with cancer attended, and the 2 minute presentations went on for quite a while. Speakers were overwhelmingly in favor. Then came our moment: the vote. We saw the green lights go on and it was a unanimous YES! Step by step we had convinced the authorities to adopt a toxin-free policy for the sake of our children and our community. Now the signs around our parks and schools say that they are applying organic products.

Robyn O’Brien often says, “Everyone can do one thing.” My wish is for people to come forward and do this in their towns to start a nationwide movement. We need to focus not only on what’s in our cupboard, but also what is going on on the sports fields, for the welfare of our children. There are consultants who can teach your community staff how to change what they are doing in a cost-effective way. Chip Osborne of Osborne Organics trained our district staff. Tom Kelly of Fire Belly Organic Lawn Care is another excellent resource. Beyond Pesticides is has a website that is full of scientific studies to present. The health of pets, children, and community members is of paramount importance, and it is time to begin spreading awareness about what is in that “weed and feed” being used so casually around our communities. For more information and to receive a playbook for your town, please visit Non Toxic Communities on Facebook or visit our website at nontoxiccommunities.com.

NTI is focused on making Irvine, California a complete model of beautiful, non-toxic landscaping, from its city parks, to schools, homeowner associations, retail spaces, apartment communities and more. We also provide resources to people in other cities who want these changes in their towns, and connect people who live close to each other when they contact us.

NTI’s board of directors includes four unpaid but enthusiastic parent volunteers, all of whom live in Irvine: Ayn Craciun, Kim Konte, Bob Johnson and Laurie Thompson. NTI owes much of its success to the support of its academic advisors, UCI professors Dr. Bruce Blumberg and Dr. Dean Baker as well as Dr. Bruce Lamphear of Simon Fraser University in Canada. 

dadfood

The Greatest Dads in the Food Movement

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We hear a lot about the moms driving change in the food industry, but ahead of Father’s Day, it’s time to shine a light on the dads.

As I began brainstorming about this list, it hit me: it’s huge! And I was suddenly flooded with gratitude for all that these guys have done.

It’s no small feat juggling a job and a family, but work in the food industry goes beyond that. It can be a calling. It’s a love that doesn’t stop, so it takes a special type of family to share someone with that.

So this is a shout out to those dads and the families that love them. Thank you for all that you do.

  1. John Foraker, President of Annie’s. When the history books are written, John will be known for being a compass of change inside of the industry. He took a little bunny across the finish line for an IPO and then into a merger that will change history. Since their acquisition by General Mills, Annie’s has rolled out more organic products and Mills is now working with Organic Valley to increase the number of organic farmland acres in the U.S.
  2. Matthew Dillon, Clif Bar. He’s been a driving force for change in the organic industry, spending significant time in D.C. working on policy, as well as some recent time in a studio, creating a new celebrity in the industry, Mr. Seed. He takes repeated threats, meme-manufactured insults and more and keeps going.
  3. David Littlejohn, founder of Humanaut. His Save the Bros campaign has to be one of the funniest things the organic industry has done in the last ten years. The video went viral, and his team is still at it. With a new baby, he understands how crazy it can be for parents today, leaning into it, with irreverence and humor.
  4. Darren Mahaffy, the VP of Marketing at Nature’s Path. There are so many great dads inside of this company, and Darren leverages all of that, as well as his personal experiences of a dad of kids managing food allergies, to help create safer products for all families. Nature’s Path has held out against so many acquisition offers, thank goodness, and is a moral compass driving the food industry.
  5. Steve Young, lead on General Mills Natural and Organic Division. HIs role might be the toughest, creating an insurgency from within, but his experience and strength could not be a better fit for it. He is changing the DNA of a multinational food corporation, leveraging the Annie’s relationship, to create extraordinary and massive change. General Mills’ recent announcement about the conversion of farmland to organic to help their dairy lines is just one example.
  6. Congressman Tim Ryan. There are few inside of the beltway with the guts to take this on. We’ve been through a year of a presidential campaign and not one debate has discussed the sad state of the American food system. Tim knows this and is on the frontline fighting for Team USA. He’s a dad of three with a wife who is a school teacher. He is also the author of The Real Food Revolution. He knows firsthand what good food can do for families and communities. Our hope is that his team inside of DC grows fast.
  7. Bert Cohen and David Lurie. These two dads have given so much to the food allergy community that there really aren’t words. They’ve led companies, Enjoy Life Foods along with amazing allies like Joel Warady, and Free 2b Foods. These companies are making allergy-friendly products for the escalating number of American kids impacted by the condition. Food allergies send someone to the E.R. once every three minutes in the U.S. They’ve got a marketplace that couldn’t be more grateful.
  8. Robert Craven, the CEO of MegaFoods, and a driving force for health. The supplements industry can be a shady space, full of a bunch of junked up fillers and posers. Craven stands head and shoulders above the rest, and he shows no signs of stopping, building out a think-tank team to help drive home the importance of nutrition’s role in prevention, using whole foods supplements.
  9. Tom Spier, Boulder Food Group. The founder of Bear Naked Granola and a lead on EVOL Burritos, he now runs the Boulder Food Group, an investment vehicle for the organic food industry. He’s driving change using capital and massive experience so that more of these little companies can grow into big ones, and he happens to be one of my brother’s oldest friends, so the stories are endless!
  10. Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Farms. The founder and chairman of Stonyfield Farms works with other great dads like Lewis Goldstein of Organic Valley, so that American families have clean and safe yogurt, free from artificial growth hormones, artificial dyes, GMOs, Roundup and other junk. Gary is still on the front line fighting for American families and transparency in our food system for which he is owed so much gratitude, because he could have retired years ago. He has a heart that won’t stop beating for this movement, thank goodness.

Honorable Mentions: These dads have grabbed so many headlines over the years that they need no introduction, just a special shout out, once again: Jamie Oliver, Michael Pollan and Prince Charles.

But even as I write this list, I think about guys in the food movement like Pulin Modi, of Change.org, Nikhil and Alejandro, the millennial founders of Back to the Roots, Ali Partovi and so many more who are not dads but leveraging everything that they are to drive change. And then there are the dads inside of the grocery stores, like the CEOs of Kroger and Costco and Errol Schweizer who drove massive change at Whole Foods.

It is so inspiring, and if you aren’t in this industry, you may want to give some serious thought to joining.

We are in good hands.

Happy Father’s Day!

Kashi initiative

Kashi Launches a Game-Changing Initiative to Convert U.S. Farms to Organic

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kashi story graphicI have to be honest. When I talk about the acquisitions happening in the food industry, deals like General Mills acquiring Annie’s for about $800 million and Hormel acquiring Applegate for almost the same number, I cite an example of what not to do with an acquisition: what happened when Kellogg’s acquired Kashi.

Kellogg’s changed the brand. They changed the ingredients. They lost consumers.

No one wants to get Kashi’d.

It had been one of my favorite cereals prior to the acquisition, so like other consumers, there was some sentiment in it.

So when the Kashi team reached out and said they had something exciting to share, I responded. “Sounds great. Should we set up a call?”

“We’ve been following your work for years,” they said. “And last year, when you were making the point in your speeches and articles that less than 1% of all U.S. farmland is organic, how crazy that is, the bottleneck it creates, especially when the organic industry is growing at 14%, we knew we had to reach out. You said it makes it hard for food companies who want to grow that part of their portfolio.”

It does, I thought. The cost-benefit analysis is tough. The supply chain is too tight, driving prices too high.

And I listened to the women inside of Kashi, managing their supply chain and their organic initiatives, talk about a new program they wanted to launch.  And again, I thought about how courage is contagious and about the importance of the work being done by parents inside of these companies who see what is happening to the health of our families and know it is real.

The Kashi team went on, “We are launching an initiative focused on expanding that 1%.”

I honestly could not be more thrilled with the companies doing this, I thought. Organic Valley, the first $1 billion organic brand, is doing it. General Mils is doing it. Costco’s CEO just told his shareholders and investors that the team is now working directly with farmers to help them finance the transition.

Kroger launched their Simple Truth organic and free-from product line in 2012, and it grew to $1 billion in revenue in a two year period.

Since 2003, Clif Bar has used some 637 million pounds of organic ingredients. After achieving an initial target of 70 percent organic ingredients, the company today uses 120 organic ingredients in 16 out of its 18 total product lines.

Why? Because 21st century consumers are looking for it everywhere—in Wal Mart, Sams, Costco, Safeway and Kroger.

And because the government isn’t focused on changing their operating system which is genetically engineered and chemically intensive. At the federal level, our taxpayer dollars support agchem’s chemically intensive operating system of GMOs, Roundup Ready crop and the Roundup, pesticides, weedkillers. Organic farmers in the U.S. are charged fees to label their crops, then fees to prove they are safe.

So the change is happening in the marketplace.

But if we had a choice with how our dollars are being spent, which would we choose? To make the chemically intensive operating system cheaper or would we choose to make organic the more affordable option to all?

At the government level, we don’t have that choice, but we do in the marketplace, and Kellogg’s is now joining corporations changing the game.

When I asked the Kashi team if the government was moving on this, they said, “This isn’t on the Government radar—yet. (No surprise, I thought. The FDA head is Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto employee, and the USDA head is Tom Vilsack, voted biotech governor of the year.)

Kashi’s team went on, “The Organic Trade Association has a task force and is planning to take it to the USDA later this year . We have looked at their approach and we have shared our protocol with them as part of the consultation process. Both are similar so we are confident we can get to a unifying certification in the future. We deliberately partnered QAI (Quality Assurance International—QAI is a USDA-accredited certifying agency (ACA), approved to provide organic certification in accordance with the USDA’s National Organic Program) to develop the standard because they are the USDA leading organic certification body so we knew we would follow the NOP guidelines.

I so appreciate the OTA’s leadership, so I asked how the two may be different, and the Kashi team shared, “The only difference we see with the OTA protocol and ours is that theirs is focused at the farm level whereas ours goes all the way through the supply chain to consumers. We think consumers have an active role in changing the 1% stat.”

As of 2014, there were 14,093 certified and exempt organic farms in the United States, with annual sales totaling $5.5 billion—a 72 percent increase since 2008, according to USDA data.

Consumers have a huge role in that stat. We have driven the growth of organic to 14% and pushed companies like Costco, Wal Mart, General Mills, Annie’s, Stonyfield, Nature’s Path and so many more to invest in organic farmland.

Why? Because 78% of all Americans are already purchasing at least some organic food, and Kashi is now calling on that consumer power and inviting other companies and brands to help build the supply chain that we need here in America to support it.

It takes three years to convert farmland from the current genetically engineered, chemically intensive operating system to organic. Kashi wants to play a leading role in that, to help U.S. farmers convert their farmland. They are building a marketplace for those products.

So take a look at what Kashi has proposed. Share your thoughts.

If we are going to change the food system, we need to rethink food and the economics of the supply chain.

 

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