"EARTH DAY TOO" RETURNS TO ROBLIN

Tired of wooden tomatoes from Mexico?
Tasteless strawberries from California?
Potatoes from Texas or apples from Australia?
(All of which grow quite nicely here on our Canadian prairies, thanks very much!)
What's wrong with this picture?
Wouldn't it be better on so many levels to buy your veggies or baking, or preserves, or meat,for that matter, from a local producer rather than some faceless corporation in the supermarket?Obviously this is not always possible in the "off-season."But how about when these items are at their best,right in your own community?Does common sense not tell us;

a) local food would be fresher,safer, better-tasting and even healthier;
b) we'd save a lot in transportation costs;
c) this would be kinder to the environment (avoiding all the harmful
greenhouse gases produced when our food is trucked over long distances);
d) we'd boost the economic health of those local producers?
Keep reading and find out what folks in the Roblin area of western Manitoba are doing to correct this unsustainable situation.

__________________________
The "eat -local" movement in the Roblin area of western Manitoba will get another boost at a special event this fall!
Local Food Producers, the Roblin Life &

Art Centre, and the Manitoba Food Charter present:
SEASON'S-END CELEBRATION MARKET
(sometimes called "Earth Day Too")
August 30, 10 am. - 4 p.m.Life & Art Centre - 3rd Ave NW & Hwy 5, Roblin MB.
Join us as we celebrate local food, life, and art in

partnership with the 100th anniversary of the Life
& Art Centre building.

.Produce

.Preserves
.Pork
.Crafts
.Tea Party
•Films
.Literature
.Celebration

Contact Larry (204) 937-3055 or Tamela 937-8016 for
details.
(Scroll way down to see what our "eat-local" movement did last year.)
Also, watch this video for an excellent summary of this subject from the
Worldwatch Insitute.

____________________

See the postings immediately below for more details.

ORGANIC MEAT JUST ONE OF THE GOODIES AVAILABLE

Visitors arrive at Kate and Doug Storey's Poplar Glen Organic farm near Grandview, MB.
Kate (far r.) shows her guests some of the livestock.

In addition to pork, the Storeys will have their free-range eggs for sale at the market, too!

OTHER VENDORS:

Tamela Friesen (l.with straw hat) and partner Karen Hardy (r. pic.);(AKA,the "Famous Bicycling Chicks.")

They sell all kinds of fresh veggies and preserves.

(They also operate a bed and breakfast just north of Roblin.)
_____________________________________
Rowena and Larry Powell operate a vegetable market garden on a 6-acre parcel they call Earthkeeper Farm. It’s less than 20 kilometers northwest of Roblin.
For five years, their produce was certified organic through the Organic Producers’ Association of Manitoba.
While they no longer have their crops officially certified, their growing methods remain the same.
“We grow organically because we believe in it,” says Larry. “I think far too many chemicals are used on our food crops these days. We somehow have to find a way of 'getting our farms off drugs'and going organic!"
The Powells have marketed much of their produce at farmers’ markets in Winnipeg.
“It’s a long way to go,” Larry adds, “but that is where we had to go to find a ‘critical mass’ of people interested in organics.
“Eventually, I’m sure the market for organics, specifically, will grow to the point where smaller, urban communities will also seek it out.


“We’ll have lots of "fresh from-the-ground" stuff on sale at the Roblin market on Sat., August 30th (the Labour Day weekend). We’ll see you there!”

The Powell's will also be selling a limited quantity of their pure, homegrown maple syrup at the market.


-----------------------------------------


Local horticulturist, Hugh Skinner will sell perennial flowers - hosta, daylily, lily, peony and possibly his comprehensive and authoritative gardening books
Isabel Wendell will sell her locally-produced honey।





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ARLENE ARNOTT (r.):
Knitted Items; Pot scrubbers from baler twine and dish cloths.
Crocheted; Purses, Barbie and Ken doll clothes, baby sweaters
and bonnets, dresser runners, doilies, hot-dish mats, pot holders
and kitchen towels.
------------

Brenda Neuhofer of the Inglis district will display the fine wools of "Asessippi Alpaca Products"(L), and finished goods made from the wool." These will include toques, scarves, socks and even blankets.
And, oh, by the way, don't be surprised if one or two of the animals themselves will make an appearance there!

INDIGENOUS CRAFTS WILL BE AVAILABLE.

Yvette Bouvier of Boggy Creek, north of Roblin,
will display an array of aboriginal art,
including

antler jewelery,
caribou pictures
and birch bark biting.
___________________
LATE ENTRY!
Pat Kisiloski of Lake of the Prairies, near Roblin, will be there with sweet corn and some zucchini!
____________________

Don't forget, all during the summer, every Tuesday,the Roblin Farmers Market is going strong - from 10am to 2pm - next to the Post Office on Main Street!

OTHER ATTRACTIONS: Plans are in the works for an herb demonstration, complete with recipe samples. (Those plans have yet to be finalized.)

Paul Chorney of the Manitoba Food Charter will be there with a display about his organization. Funding from Heifer International - a US-based charity which strives to achieve food security for people around the world - made available through the Food Charter, has made this event possible.

MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT:

Pint-sized fiddling sensation Scott Cornelius will drop by the market in the morning. (Not only will he be playing, he'll have his CD, "Fiddlin' Around," available for sale!)

The Storeys from Grandview will add their own brand of celtic entertainment; Doug on bagpipes and Kate on the tin whistle.

Larry Powell will play a few tunes on his clarinet and may (if he works up the nerve),
even sing a song.

DEAD ZONES: HOW FARM FERTILIZERS ARE KILLING OUR RIVERS, LAKES AND OCEANS

Greenpeace challenges the sacred cows of modern society -farmers - and calls them to task for their considerable contribution to the degradation of our planet.

SO WHO'SE UNFRIENDLY? MANITOBANS OR THE HOG LOBBY?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, May 19, 2008 Beyond Factory Farming Manitoba, a group promoting the ethical production of livestock, has launched a new website as a response to the "Unfriendly Manitoba" ad campaign by the Manitoba Pork Council. “It’s time to put the friendly back into Manitoba farming,” says BFF's Glen Koroluk. There is a small minority in our community who would make you believe that Bill 17 would devastate our province. The Truth of the matter is that the Bill does not go far enough! It will still allow unfriendly factory hog barns to continue to operate and expand in most of rural Manitoba. Bill 17 is an amendment to the Manitoba Environment Act which. If enacted, it will prohibit the construction of new, confined livestock areas for hogs and hog manure storage facilities, or the expansion of exisiting ones, in specific areas of Manitoba. It allows existing factory farms in these areas to operate business as usual. However, these areas make up less than a third of Manitoba’s farm land, leaving the rest of the province open for unfettered large-scale factory hog production. Shifting a polluting industry from one part of the province to the other is not friendly to family farms, not friendly to the environment, and not friendly to rural Manitoba. And as it stands, Bill 17 will not reverse the deterioration of our provincial waterways, including Lake Winnipeg. In fact, with millions of dollars of taxpayer aid, Manitoba’s hog industry is restructuring, consolidating and expanding its slaughter capacity. This means Maple Leaf Foods and Hytek will be building new factory finishing barns in western Manitoba. The launch of http://www.friendlymanitoba.org will take place: 11:00 am on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at the Forks Market: Tower Atrium (beside the canopy) For further information, call Glen Koroluk at 296-2872 cell 943-3945  

- 30 -

AGROFUEL MADNESS - by Larry Powell

WINNIPEG. Apr.29th - '08 - The awful consequences of the biofuel craze now sweeping the planet, were starkly brought to light at a public forum at the University of Winnipeg this evening.

(Car/Combine rendering courtesy of 
the Government of Manitoba।)

 Called "Crops, Cars and Climate Crisis," the forum featured four notable experts on the topic.

They all referred to the dramatic and disastrous food price increases that are devastating the world's poor and which are being aggravated by the diversion of so much food into vehicles.


One of the guest speakers was Javiera Rulli, of "Base Investigaciones" in Paraguay.
She told of an assault taking place on the environment, human health and human rights of citizens of that South American country।


It is all due to the transformation of the small nation to monoculture crops for the production of "biofuels" or "agrofuels" to power vehicles, rather than to feed people, she said.
Big landowners and farmers are clearing forests, displacing people, sometimes by force and treating the large, genetically-engineered fields with sprays that often inflict serious skin ailments on children living nearby, Rulli said।


(Rulli showed her large audience a slide of a young boy suffering from a serious rash covering his entire body।)


She added, this ruthless push to transform the country was being aided and encouraged by large chemical companies such as Syngenta.


People once used the disappearing forests to hunt, trap and log, she went on. Now, those opportunities are disappearing, too, along with natural places and the biodiversity of wildlife which lived there.


Another speaker, Pat Mooney of "ETC Group," Ottawa, said he has spoken directly with many of the "movers and shakers" in the biofuels industry.


Oddly enough, he says, many are, themselves renouncing this rush to divert food into fuel. Instead, he says, they are hinting at some, mysterious "second phase" of biofuels which will correct all the problems of the past. But, he adds, they won't come clean on the details. He notes that the players putting big money into researching this "second phase" are the same ones who've created the problems in the first place!


"Depending on biofuels to solve our problems," quipped Mooney, "is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine!"


The other speakers at the forum were Darrin Qualman of the National Farmers Union and Diddit Pelegrina of SEARICE, the Phillipines.

L.P.

(Also please read "Bursting the Ethanol Bubble.")

LOGGING AGGRAVATES CLIMATE CHANGE - GREENPEACE

A new report released by Greenpeace on the 10th of April 2008 finds that logging in Canada’s Boreal Forest is making global warming worse by releasing greenhouse gases and reducing carbon storage. It also finds that logging makes the forest more susceptible to global warming impacts like wildfires and insect outbreaks, which in turn release more greenhouse gases.

Executive summary

Canada’s Boreal Forest is dense with life. Richly populated with plants, birds, animals, and trees; home to hundreds of communities; and a wellspring of fresh water and oxygen, the Boreal has long been recognized as a critically important ecosystem. But as rising temperatures threaten to destabilize the planet, the potential of the Boreal’s carbon-rich expanses to mitigate global warming continues to be underestimated.

Based in part on a comprehensive review of scientific literature by researchers at the University of Toronto1, this report examines the complex relationship between global warming and Canada’s Boreal Forest. It finds that the intact areas of the Boreal are not only actively helping to slow global warming, but are also helping the forest itself to resist and recover from global warming impacts. These unfragmented areas are also helping trees, plants, and animals to migrate and adapt in response to changing climate conditions.

At the same time, however, it finds that logging is destabilizing the Boreal Forest in ways that may exacerbate both global warming and its impacts. The forest products industry and government regulators adamantly deny that logging in Canada’s Boreal affects the climate. But research shows that when the forest is degraded through logging and industrial development, massive amounts of greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere, and the forest becomes more vulnerable to global warming impacts like fires and insect outbreaks. In many cases, these impacts cause even more greenhouse gasses to be released, driving a vicious circle in which global warming degrades the Boreal Forest, and Boreal Forest degradation advances global warming. If left unchecked, this could culminate in a catastrophic release of greenhouse gasses known as “the carbon bomb”.

For these reasons, the report concludes that greenhouse gas emissions must be drastically reduced and that intact areas of Canada’s Boreal Forest must be protected—for the sake of the forest, and for the sake of the climate.
(For the complete report, click on the link to the right.)