Because People Matter

Maybe we just shouldn’t eat high fructose corn syrup

By Jacqueline Diaz

In January 2009 Environmental Health published findings concluding that a process often used in the production of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) creates a mercury presence in foods http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2. The study also found that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had found similar levels of mercury in HFCS samples in 2004 but apparently didn’t think it was important to share with the public.

Since January, the HFCS industry has been countering the study with their own facts and “studies”–because those should be unbiased right? Their own “expert” assessments have found “flaws” in the study conducted by eight reputable researchers including a neuroscientist and chemist. They’d prefer to stick to the “facts” produced by studies funded by big Ag groups and “independent” panels that profess HFCS as safe and equal to table sugar.

Urban Farmstands

Bringing fresh produce to low income residents

By Rachel Iskow

Cecilia’s mom lives in a Sacramento inner-city neighborhood lacking a major grocery store. She can’t afford a car, and many months, she lacks the money for a bus pass to get her to a retail center in another neighborhood where produce is sold. The local mom and pop stores a couple of blocks away from her apartment carry bananas, mostly aging, a few apples, and perhaps wilting lettuce—this is on a good day. The cost of this produce in that small shop is double the price found in conventional grocery stores.

Growing Sacramento’s Future

Gardens yield green that’s better than money

By Kim Glazzard

With the continuing escalation of national and global economic challenges, many Sacramentans not only wonder what the future holds, but also at what point they may need to worry about having money for basics such as food to feed their families. Sacramentans are blessed, however, to be located in the middle of one of the most abundant agricultural meccas of the country (if not the world), at the confluence of two rivers and with a climate which supports a nearly 365-day growing season. They are in an ideal position to take control of their situation and turn the treasure of Sacramento’s rich river-bottom soil into food for their dinnerplates.

At the forefront of a movement to see vegetables pave the front, side, and back yards where grass is traditionally grown, the City of Sacramento, Organic Sacramento, and the Sacramento Area Community Garden Coalition are spearheading a large-scale movement

What To Do With All Those Extra Cucumbers!!?

Share by gleaning and trading locally

By Karen Hansen and Muriel Strand

Gleaning—the ancient practice of picking over farm fields after the harvest—is making a comeback. Joe and Chris Miller’s fields at a Colorado farm were picked so clean in one day last November that a second day of gleaning was canceled Sunday after 40,000 people showed up the first day.

There are Gleaning Projects all around the nation.