Every three months or so, Sustainable Table publishes an online newsletter called The Pasture Post, so we can keep you up to date with what’s new and what we’re doing. Below is our most current issue.

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The Pasture Post: Spring 2006 Vol II, Num. I

In this Issue

News

The Meatrix II: Revolting
Road Trip
Headlines

Special Features

Why Eat Well?
Bugs No More
What does it Mean to be Biodynamic?
Featured Partner: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association

Actions

How We Need Your Help...

News

The Meatrix II: Revolting
The biggest news of all: It's back. The Meatrix has returned. On March 30th, The Meatrix II: Revolting will be released online. Get ready. If this one's anything like the first, a couple million minds won't be the same in just a matter of days. And you can help spread the word. Tell everyone you know!

The movie stars our favorite farm heroes, the young-pig, Leo, the trench coat-clad cow, Moopheus, and the family farm defender, Chickity. The Meatrix II: Revolting brings the trio on a new adventure when Leo is taken to a factory dairy farm where he learns the ugly truth about how the animals are raised, what they eat, and their horrendous living conditions. Beyond the movie, The Meatrix II: Revolting site will feature resources that teach visitors about the dark side of the factory dairy farm industry and tools to get involved in the sustainable dairy movement. The highly interactive site will carry more than 20 hot buttons and links to handout materials and fact sheets to educate the masses about the dangers hiding in factory-farm foods. Of course, the site will also promote the Eat Well Guide.

You can catch a sneak peak and watch the trailer at www.themeatrix2.com. While there, sign up to be one of the first to receive The Meatrix II: Revolting when it goes live online, subscribe to the newsletter, and send the trailer to your friends and family.

Mad Cow Disease is Confirmed in Alabama
"The nation's third case of mad cow disease has been confimred on a farm in Alabama, the Agriculture Department announced yesterday." (New York Times -- March 14, 2006)

Road Trip
Pretty soon you'll be able to hit the road with the Eat Well Guide as we create online travel planners for a number of popular vacation routes. With these travel guides, you can take the next exit, drive past the fast food outlets, and drop by a small farm, store, or restaurant for some good, wholesome grub. Stay tuned!

Headlines

Meatpacker Sues Feds Over Mad Cow Test
"A Kansas meatpacker sued the government on Thursday for refusing to let the company test for mad cow disease in every animal it slaughters." (Washington Post--March 23, 2006)

Grass-fed beef: It's what's good for you?
"A hamburger doesn't usually come to mind when you think of health food, but a study suggests that a burger made from grass-fed beef has its merits. Meat from grass-fed cattle is consistently lower in total fat and higher in so-called good fats thought to protect against certain diseases than conventional beef, a study released Tuesday in Chicago by the Union of Concerned Scientists found." (Chicago Sun-Times--March 8, 2006)

Survey Ranks 'Organic-ness' at Dairies
(New York Times--March 22, 2006)

OP-ED: The price of cheap chicken is bird flu
"Chicken has never been cheaper. A whole one can be bought for little more than the price of a Starbucks cup of coffee. But the industrial farming methods that make ever-cheaper chicken possible may also have created the lethal strain of bird flu virus, H5N1, that threatens to set off a global pandemic." (Los Angeles Times--March 12, 2006)

Eco-farming 'helps the world's poor'
"Sustainable farming methods can help the poorest farmers in developing nations out of poverty, new research suggests." BBC News--February 15, 2006

OP-ED: Manic for organic
"Score one for the crunchies. Yes, proponents of organic farming have been maintaining for years that conventionally grown produce is neither as tasty nor as nutritious as organic fruits and vegetables. But many of us have been skeptics, perhaps to justify our reluctance to pay up to twice as much for food labeled "organic" and sold at smug yuppie temples to the "natural" lifestyle. Now comes a scientific study that shows that the nutrient content of conventionally grown fruits and vegetables has dropped markedly since the 1950s." (Los Angeles Times--March 10, 2006)

Features

Why Eat Well?
We asked a handful of farmers, chefs, and natural food retailers that question and received some compelling responses in return. All of these producer perspectives can be found on the Eat Well Guide's new "Why Eat Well?" page. Pay a visit and read the poignant, personal accounts of farmers who became disillusioned with conventional agriculture and shifted to sustainable production, chefs who go to great lengths to stock their menus with sustainable cuisine, and a natural meat retailer who converted eight years ago after a few simple trips to his local farmers' market.

In short, each of these responses--currently eleven in total--features the unique perspective of someone who doesn't just support the sustainable food and farming movement, but lives it everyday. This is an ongoing project and we welcome new input, so if you're a producer or if you know any producers who would like to tell us why they eat well, please send us an email at info@eatwellguide.org .

Bugs No More
For many of you, this edition of the "Pasture Post," could very well be the first you've received, even though it's actually the fourth edition and you've been a registered member for some time now. We apologize for that. Technical issues that hampered distribution of earlier editions have finally been resolved and all should be well from here on out--meaning every four months you'll receive the newest edition of the "Pasture Post."

Aside from the newsletter, email notices have been hindered as well. Every three months a message should have been sent out to all members who signed up to receive email notices about recently added and updated listings in their area. These have not been going out as planned. Now that some bugs have been fixed, the majority of you will receive this email for the first time in the near future. Don't worry; we promise that you won't be inundated with emails or backlogged listings of recently edited and added entries.

Finally, by the next edition, the "Pasture Post" will look quite different. The newsletter is expanding beyond the boundaries of the Eat Well Guide to become the official bulletin of Sustainable Table, of which the Eat Well Guide and The Meatrix are a part. You'll still get your Eat Well Guide news, but you'll also be filled in on Moopheus and many other happenings in the sustainable food movement.

What does it mean to be "Biodynamic"?
For all farmers, spring is a busy time of year, filled with planning and preparation. Spring is especially important, however, for Biodynamic farmers. In addition to the usual planning, these all-natural, hyper-organic farmers also closely follow the lunar cycles and planetary movements of early spring, looking for the proper dates to sow seeds and prepare fields. For many people, this sky-gazing only adds to the mystery of Biodynamic farming, which is filled with seemingly odd practices and strange procedures. In this article, we speak with a few Biodynamic farmers and try to get to the root of what makes Biodynamics so different from standard organic farming.

To read the entire article, "Biodynamics: A Marriage of the Spiritual and Sustainable," please click here.

Featured Partner: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association
Each newsletter will run a feature on an Eat Well Guide partner organization. Eat Well Guide partners are those organizations that have helped bring exposure to the guide and make it as thorough, up-to-date, and extensive as possible.

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) is a non-profit membership association of more than 750 farmers, processors, gardeners, businesses, organizations, and individuals in North and South Carolina who are committed to creating a sustainable agriculture system through the development and promotion of local and organic farms and distribution systems.

History
The organization was founded in 1979 by a group of farmers, gardeners and consumers with a vision of developing a network that would foster the growth and distribution of organic food in the Carolinas. The network would offer mutual support and information sharing for members, educate consumers, and provide a public voice for alternative agriculture. By 1982, CFSA became official by incorporating as a non-profit organization. Over the years, CFSA has received financial support for various projects from private and public funding sources and contributions from individual donors keep CFSA alive today.

Throughout its history, CFSA has remained committed to being a membership-based and membership-focused organization. The resources that CFSA offers are in growing demand as public concern about food and the environment increases, and as farmers, researchers, and extension agents seek the alternatives that CFSA has been advocating for since its inception. Thanks to its dedicated membership, the hard-working organic and sustainable farmers in the Carolinas, and an increasing awareness of the many problems associated with the conventional food system, CFSA has come to serve as the clearinghouse for information, inspiration and networking for growers, distributors and consumers of organic foods within the Carolinas. As the concern and demand for locally and environmentally produced foods increases, CFSA's role in inspiring, educating and organizing farmers and consumers becomes increasingly significant.

Mission & Vision
CFSA's mission is to support and expand local and organic agriculture in the Carolinas by inspiring, educating and organizing farmers and consumers.

CFSA's vision of the future is that healthy and thriving communities of farmers and consumers in the Carolinas are supported by local and organic agricultural systems that are environmentally responsible, economically sound, and socially just.

CFSA events in 2006:
April 22 - 23: Piedmont Farm Tour
Featuring 31 farms in Orange, Chatham, Lee, Person, Caswell and Alamance Counties. Come see many of the farms that supply the Triangle's local and organic food scene.
June 24 - 25: Mountain Farm & Garden Tour Featuring more than 20 farms in Buncombe (Asheville Area), Transylvania, Henderson, Madison, and Yancey Counties. There is no better time of year to head to a cooler part of the state and enjoy the views while you munch on farm fresh veggies!
July 22 - 23: High Country Farm & Garden Tour
Features at least 10 farms in Watauga County, easily accessible from Boone, Blowing Rock and Banner Elk with endless possibilities for a weekend of farming fun! Head to the Northwestern corner of NC to see how high country growers bring forth the bounty.
October 27 - 29: 21st Annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference Join over 600 farmers, gardeners, consumers, and educators to learn more about organic growing methods, farm marketing tips, hot topics in farm policy & local food systems and much more! The weekend offers Contra Dancing, over 60 workshops, local and organic food at all meals, and much more fun!

Actions

How We Need Your Help...
We do our best to comb the United States and Canada to find and include every outlet that deserves to be listed. Not only that, we work hard to ensure that each listing is accurate, up-to-date, and accessible. But there are sustainable farms, stores, and restaurants out there that we simply cannot pick up despite our best efforts. And there may be listings that have become outdated since our last update. That's where you come in.

Help us make the Eat Well Guide as extensive and thorough as possible. If you notice that a particular farm, store, restaurant, online resource, or organization is not included in the Guide that needs to be or if you find that a listing carries erroneous information, please let us know. All you have to do is visit the Eat Well Guide homepage and select the "Add A Listing" tab. From there, simply fill out the online form with as much information as possible. Or, you can just send us an email at info@eatwellguide.org.We'll review your suggestions and add them to the Guide following approval.

Have a great spring!