KNFC News August 2009
The 2009-2010 KNFC Board:
President: Renee Ruchotzke
Vice President: Wendi Goldstein
Treasurer: Barb Tittle barbtittle@sbcglobal.net
Secretary: Fred Pierre peaceisprosperity@sbcglobal.net
Personnel Committee:
Nancy Grim
Heidi Shaffer hshaffer1@neo.rr.com
Jeff Ingram knfc@att.net
A Brief History of Kent Natural Foods Co-op by Fred Pierre, Secretary
Around 1970, a food buying club began at the Unitarian Universalist
Church on Gougler St . The buying club was able to obtain better prices
for food by buying in bulk. By 1976, the group was formally known as
the Kent Food Co-op, and had specific job descriptions for facilitators
of specific functions, including buying, composing buying sheets,
market day setup, communications, truck delivery, and scheduling.
As it grew, it became part of the Kent Community Project, joining with
Peaceable Kingdom Bakery and other cooperative stores, and inhabiting
the Kent Town House, or old hotel on Main Street.
By 1979, the Kent Food Co-op had incorporated as Council Rock, “A
non-profit corporation, organized and operating for benevolent,
charitable, civic and educational purposes. The Kent Community Project
dissolved, but Kent Natural Foods continued.
After a fire consumed the businesses in the old hotel, the Kent Natural
Foods struggled to find a new permanent home, existing at 266 North
Water Street before moving to 151 East Main in August of 1981. Current
members Mike Kreyche and Anne Durkalski were among those who staffed
the store. Store hours and pay were surprisingly similar to today. The
store was open 10AM to 6:30PM , and workers made about $30 per day.
In 1993, Kent Natural Foods Co-op was reinvigorated with member
ownership, and its membership grew rapidly. By 1996, KNFC was able to
put $10,000 down on the building at 151 East Main , which was sold to
the co-op for $92,000. Since that time, half of the building has been
paid off through membership contributions and store proceeds.
Kent Natural Foods Co-op currently has more than 1,300 members, and
over $80,000 in assets. Thanks for supporting us over the years. A
dialogue between members is helping to finalize plans for store
improvements. As we grow, we will need new ideas and enthusiasm, so
please lend your voice to the mix. Thanks!
MONSANTO'S BOVINE GROWTH HORMONE BEING DRIVEN OFF THE MARKET
Reprinted from Organic Bytes web newsletter
The Organic Consumers Association has been working to educate and
mobilize consumers and retailers (for example Starbucks) to boycott
milk and dairy products derived from Monsanto's recombinant
(genetically engineered) Bovine Growth Hormone since our founding in
1998. The synthetic hormone is banned in most of the world, due to its
links to prostate and breast cancer. Although it is still being
injected into thousands of dairy herds in the U.S., grassroots pressure
from health-minded consumers and public interest groups, like the OCA,
have caused Starbucks, Chipotle, and many supermarket chains to put
pressure on their dairy suppliers to stop using the drug. Monsanto is
furious that OCA and our allies have educated consumers about the
dangers of rBGH, but with recent polls showing 80% of consumers
concerned about artificial hormones in their food, there's little that
the biotech giant can do to stop rBGH from being driven off the market.
Here are some recent marketplace developments:
* California Dairies, which produces 8% of the milk supply in the US,
has banned the useof rBGH.
* Food retail giant Kroger recently announced they will be banning rBGH
in all of their stores by February 2008.
* All milk produced in Oregon is now rBST-free.
* In May, Publix Super Markets, with 900 stores in the South, went
rBST-free in its branded milk products.
Johnny Appleseed Trivia
By Jeff Ingram
The popular image of Johnny Appleseed had him spreading apple seeds
randomly, everywhere he went. In fact, he planted nurseries rather than
orchards, built fences around them to protect them from livestock, left
the nurseries in the care of a neighbor who sold trees on shares, and
returned every year or two to tend the nursery. Many of these nurseries
were located in the Mohican area of North-Central Ohio. This area
included the towns of Mansfield, Lucas, Perrysville, and Loudonville,
Ohio.
Appleseed's managers were asked to sell trees on credit, if at all
possible, but he would accept corn meal, cash or used clothing in
barter. The notes did not specify an exact maturity date—that date
might not be convenient—and if it did not get paid on time, or at all,
Johnny Appleseed did not press for payment. Appleseed was hardly alone
in this pattern of doing business; however, it was unique that he
remained an itinerant his entire life.
He obtained the apple seed for free; cider mills wanted more apple
trees planted since it would eventually bring them more business.
Johnny Appleseed dressed in the worst of the used clothing he received,
giving away the better clothing he received in barter. He wore no
shoes, even in the snowy winter. There was always someone in need he
could help out, for he did not have a house to maintain. When he heard
a horse was to be put down, he had to buy the horse, buy a few grassy
acres nearby, and turn the horse out to recover. If it did, he would
give the horse to someone needy, exacting a promise to treat the horse
humanely.
Towards the end of his career, he was present when an itinerant
missionary was exhorting to an open-air congregation in Mansfield,
Ohio. The sermon was long and quite severe on the topic of
extravagance, because the pioneers were starting to buy such
indulgences as calico and store-bought tea. "Where now is there a man
who, like the primitive Christians, is traveling to heaven bare-footed
and clad in coarse raiment?" the preacher repeatedly asked, until
Johnny Appleseed, his endurance worn out, walked up to the preacher,
put his bare foot on the stump which had served as a lectern, and said,
"Here's your primitive Christian!" The flummoxed sermonizer dismissed
the congregation.
"Here's your primitive Christian!" Illustration from Harper's, 1871
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Appleseed-primitive.gif