Thursday's Thinking of Food

Happy Thursday everyone! I don't know about you, but I am sooo ready for the weekend--this has been a really busy week at work. AND-this is my last week in the HHAC Biggest Loser competition! We have our final all-team weigh-in and challenge this Sunday. The challenge is to run a 2-mile loop around the gym, with the last 1/2 mile being a long, pretty steep hill up to the finish line--wish me luck!

Ready for some food facts and opportunities for action?
Here you go:

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*First, for all of you Columbians, the next Slow Food Columbia meeting will be held Monday, April 19th at 6:30 pm at City Roots. Slow Food is a national movement that seeks to create dramatic and lasting change in the food system by reconnecting Americans with the people, traditions, plants, animals, fertile soils, and waters that produce our food. Sounds good, right? I can't make the meeting this month, but hope to next month; they meet every 3rd Monday. Click here to check out the Slow Food Columbia blog.

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*I received my Humane Society Legislative Fund newsletter, Humane Activist, in the mail this week. (As a teacher of Social Policy, I do take policy issues very seriously and tend to think that all citizens should..I used to be one of those people who said "politics is just not my bag," but I think it's our duty as Americans to make it "our bag." Not only for ourselves, but for those who can't advocate for themselves). [cue soap box dismount].

Anyway- on the back of the newsletter they have a section called AYES & NAYS, where they applaud groups and legislators for taking action in the interest of animal well-being, and reveal unsavory practices by others. An exciting "AYE" this month states that "Wal-Mart has confirmed that all of its private label eggs in the US, sold under the Great Value brand are cage-free. And Hellman's has announced that its Light Mayonnaise product in North America will contain 100 percent cage-free eggs--and that it aspires to switch over all its mayonnaise once cage-free eggs become more available." A small step, but bravo for big companies taking any step towards more humane treatment of animals!

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*zpizza was voted the winner of the 2010 Libby Award from peta2 for the Most Vegan Friendly Restaurant! If you haven't tried zpizza, you should. They have so many healthy options-gluten-free, vegan, organic, vegetarian, whole wheat...and they have meat for meat-lovers as well. Columbia's zpizza, located on Gervais St., runs specials all week long; become a Fan on Facebook to get all the latest offers.

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*Don't let big food control what you eat! CREDO Action urges us to do something: "America's supermarket bounty is deceiving. Of those hundreds of brands on grocery store shelves, the vast majority are owned by a handful of industrial food companies like Kraft, Conagra and General Mills. But there was nothing inevitable about this kind of corporate control of our food. Decades of deregulation and governmental inattention to industrial consolidation brought us our broken food system, one that features non-stop food safety recalls, an obesity epidemic and the hollowing out of rural America as family farmers are forced to sell out to corporate interests."

Click here to find out more about the initiative to rethink food in America and sign a thank-you letter to Attorney General Holder and Secretary Vilsack for taking seriously the concerns of family farmers, rural advocates and consumers by holding workshops that address the lack of competition and excessive market concentration in our food and agricultural sectors.

Not convinced?-- watch Food, Inc. Or, click here to read First Lady Michelle Obama's call to "entirely rethink the products that you're offering, the information that you provide about these products and how you market those products to our children."

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*And finally, Earth Fare in Columbia has just announced that as of April 22, 2010 they are eliminating all plastic bags from their store. And, the first 200 people through the door on April 22nd receive a free reusable market tote! Click here to read the Top 5 Reasons Earth Fare is kicking the plastic bag habit.

And that, my friends, is my Thursday's Thinking of Food. Have a wonderful weekend!

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