On April 27, 2005, an overflow crowd gathered at the Washington Park Arboretum for PCC’s annual meeting. Following a brief business session that featured state-of-the-co-op reports from the board and management, the board candidates were introduced to the membership and each gave short presentations.
The business meeting was followed by an energetic question and answer session on food security issues. PCC members posed their questions to a strong panel of experts who had been invited by the board to lead the discussion. The panel included Nash Huber, Craig Winters, Goldie Caughlan, Trudy Bialic and Joel Huesby. See profile of speakers below.
Board member Julie Tempest moderated the informative 45-minute exchange of ideas. Tempest noted, “It was clear from the overflow crowd and the number of members who stayed on to ask questions even after the meeting was adjourned that the food security Q&A was of great interest to our members.”
The panel strongly urged the members to continue to educate themselves about these issues and to make their voices heard by advocating on local, state and federal levels for legislation that will help to safeguard our food and water supplies. Interested members signed up to volunteer in this fall's letter-writing campaigns in PCC stores. Volunteers will be encouraging members and patrons to sign letters of support encouraging lawmakers to pass pertinent legislation.
All of the panel members spoke about the importance of supporting local farmers and other local food vendors. "Shopping at PCC, with its local focus, is a great way to show that kind of support," noted Huber.
A delicious organic meal from the Fremont PCC deli was another of the meeting’s highlights. The board thanks Tony’s Coffees & Teas and Columbia Gorge Organic for their beverage donations and Radiant Blooms for the gorgeous local bouquets that graced the buffet tables. Twenty door prizes, donated by PCC vendors, added an element of celebration.
Thanks to the following vendors for their generous contributions to the gift bags: Kettle Nut Butter, Choice Organic Teas, Yogi Tea, Golden Temple Cereal, Equal Exchange Chocolate, Dagoba Chocolate, Oregon Chai, Pacific Foods Soup, Sehale Snacks, Tony’s Coffee, Nature’s Path, This Can't Be Soy, Think!, Masala Maza, Bob's Red Mill, Pacific Atlantic Salmon and High Country Honey.
Speakers at the annual meeting
Nash Huber is a master organic farmer whose farm was among the first in the state of Washington to be certified organic. Nash's near iconic status among PCC shoppers is due to the intense flavors of the organic row crops (such as Nash's Carrots) grown by Nash and his crew of young next-generation farmers on the Dungeness Delta Farm. Delta Farm was the first farm purchased through the PCC Farmland Trust.
"For us who raise the food, food security is having the support of our customers in ways other than the basic market. The work that the Farmland Trust has done has made it possible to recruit and keep talented young farmers and to offer these young farmers a future on the land. These young farmers are your future and mine."
Craig Winters is president of The Campaign, a non-profit organization working to pass legislation through Congress to get labeling on genetically engineered foods. Craig has worked in the natural products industry for more than 28 years, focusing on genetically engineered foods, food irradiation, organic agriculture, holistic health and the environment.
"Simply wishing for labeling on genetically engineered foods will not make it happen. But if we are organized and active, concerned citizens can easily win the right to know if our foods contain GMOs. The outcome will be determined by our actions. We have the power if we choose to use it."
Goldie Caughlan is PCC's Nutrition Education Manager, founder of the PCC Cooks program (formerly FoodWorks) and is a Consumer Representative to the National Organics Standards Board. Goldie will also be serving on the newly formed task force on aquaculture at the US Department of Agriculture.
"True community food security cannot exist absent a thriving and intricate web of sustainability, where foods and resources are used and replenished in a manner that benefits and sustains the community as a whole. This means economic health to those who produce the food and affordable and bountiful access to those who make use of the food. This also means building and supporting a very diversified network of local and regional farmers and ranchers, and a complex infrastructure of service intermediaries, including (literally) "the butcher, the baker and ... well, yes ... maybe even the candle-stick maker!" And to borrow further, from another nursery rhyme — 'to market, to market' sustainably means the community of fair exchange that keeps local and regional real dollars re-circulating within the community, not flowing down the drain at Wal-Mart!"
Trudy Bialic is PCC's Public Affairs Manager and Editor of the PCC Sound Consumer. Trudy is a long time advocate for sustainable agriculture who has organized most of PCC's most recent campaigns to affect policy decisions related to food security issues. She has been named an Environmental Representative on the Washington Pesticide Advisory Board.
"It took 30 years for organic foods to hit the mainstream. Now, our challenge is make sustainability the status quo. The list of challenges to food security and sustainability certainly is long, but our collective efforts are making a difference. We can make it happen, there's just a lot of work to do."
