Environmental Insights

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The Conversation about our Industrial Food System Begins with Food, Inc.

Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: The College of New Jersey, Education Building, Ewing, NJ 08628, Room 113, Parking in Lots 17 and 18 (Directions)
Cost: Free and open to the public

Organic, Grow Local, GMO/GE, rBGH, antibiotic usage, factory farms, food labeling laws, processed foods, obesity epidemic, high fructose corn syrup… These are just a few of the issues about the American food supply that now bombard an awakening public. Its industrialization has filled our supermarkets with plenty, but at what cost? Are our bodies able to safely handle the thousands of chemical additives that are now routine in our diet? Is the American diet indeed responsible for the epidemic levels of food allergies, Autism, ADHD, Type  II Diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and many other conditions that are being suggested by some health and nutrition professionals? What do they all mean, how are they related, and finally, is our industrial food supply being properly regulated by the government agencies that are supposed to protect our health? Let’s start the discussion about our food in our town with a showing and discussion about documentary film Food, Inc.  Ewing Green Team is delighted to introduce as our moderator, Camille Miller, the Executive Director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

About Food Inc.

Food, Inc. is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner. The film lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (“Fast Food Nation”), Michael Pollan (“The Omnivore’s Dilemma”) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms’ Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals shocking truths about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

About Ms. Miller

camillemillerCamille Miller is an organic food advocate and has worked extensively in raising awareness around food and farming issues at the local, state and national levels.  She also serves as Vice-President of the Board on the NOFA Interstate Council, a seven state organic farming coalition. She is an active member in the National Organic Coalition (NOC), an alliance of grassroots organic groups and environmen-tal organizations working to provide a “Washington voice” for farmers, ranchers, environmentalists and others involved in organic agriculture as well as a national trained speaker for the Institute of Responsible Technology on Genetically Engineered food.

Master Gardeners’ Plant Expo and Garden Market Saturday, May 3rd

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Are you looking for quality perennials, herbs, and veggies of various types for your garden this spring?  The Mercer County Master Gardeners’ annual Plant Expo and Garden Market  on May 3rd will feature such from top notch local area nurseries.  The Master Gardeners and County Horticulturalist, Barbara Bromley, will also be on hand to answer questions and give assistance in making your selections.   A secondhand sale of gently used items will also be conducted.  So take this opportunity to reduce waste with a little reusing  instead of buying new. The Expo will be held at the Mercer Educational Gardens this Saturday, May 3rd from 9am – 2 pm.  Don’t forget to tour the gardens while you are there and catch up on all the Master Gardeners are doing.  For more information see http://www.mgofmc.org/compostsite.html.  The Gardens are located at the Mercer County Equestrian Center4 at 31A Federal City Road in Pennington.

National Drug Take Back Day This Saturday, April 26

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If your medicine cabinet is filled with expired drugs or medications that you no longer use, and you are concerned about detrimental environmental effects from improper disposal, here is the information that you need to properly dispose of them.

The Ewing Police Department will be participating in the DEA’s twice yearly National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.  This will take place on Saturday, April  26, 2014, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity for those who missed the previous events, or who have subsequently accumulated unwanted, unused prescription drugs, to safely dispose of those medications.  Just go to the Ewing Police Department at 2 Jake Garzio Drive.  Enter the main door and make a left to go down the hallway to the Police Department.  Ewing Police will have an officer between 10 and 2 to take the items.

All medications are accepted, prescription and over-the-counter, as well as liquids.  Hypodermic needles are not accepted.  The disposal is handled completely securely; all accepted medications with any labels that you leave on the containers are placed in a large cardboard box, lined with plastic.  At the end of the day the contents are taken to the prosecutor’s office.  The DEA will pick up and incinerate.

Guidelines for Drug Disposal

If you are unable to participate on the day the FDA’s guidelines for proper drug disposal follow:

  • Follow any specific disposal instructions on the drug label or patient information that accompanies the medication. Do not flush prescription drugs down the toilet unless this information specifically instructs you to do so.
  • If no instructions are given on the drug label and no take-back program is available in your area, take them out of their original containers and mix them with an undesirable substance, such as used coffee grounds or kitty litter — to make the medication less appealing and unrecognizable — then put them in a sealable bag, empty can, or other container to prevent the medication from leaking or breaking out of a garbage bag.
  • You should also remove any identifying information on the label to protect your identity and privacy.

Despite the safety reasons for flushing drugs, some people are questioning the practice because of concerns about trace levels of drug residues found in surface water, such as rivers and lakes, and in some community drinking water supplies. However, the main way drug residues enter water systems is by people taking medications and then naturally passing them through their bodies.  That said, the FDA does not want to add drug residues into water systems unnecessarily. The agency reviewed its drug labels to identify products with disposal directions recommending flushing or disposal down the sink. This continuously revised listing can be found at FDA’s Web page on Disposal of Unused Medicines.

National Take Back Day Information

Date: Saturday, April 26, 2014
Time: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Location: Ewing Police Department, 2 Jake Garzio Drive

Preserving Our Community and Transforming Our Future

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The Ewing Green Team is delighted to announce that the planning for a Ewing Conversation on Preserving Our Community and Transforming Our Future is now underway.  The year long visioning process is being funded by a $10,000 PSE&G grant from Sustainable Jersey through their small grants program.   A professional strategic planning team from Cherry Hill has been chosen to facilitate the group and citizens of Ewing to create a multi-year vision and action plan for sustainability.  Lori Braunstein and Natalie Barney have helped to organize several New Jersey municipalities and were instrumental to Cherry Hill’s success in implementing an extensive sustainability plan.

The process has already begun and will continue throughout 2014.   There will be two visioning sessions, for which a broad range of invited participants will lend their time and talent to create a vision and plan.  This strategic planning is the next step in growing the organization and coordinating with the community’s interests to make a strategic, positive impact for the future.  “We want to engage the citizens of Ewing in creating a vision for a very livable, prosperous Ewing that sustains itself for future generations” said Joanne Mullowney, communications officer for the Green Team.

While the vision for Ewing will be unique, actions will likely include aspects of the Sustainable Jersey framework.  The coming months will focus on the planning process, and will include a handful of Saturday and/or evening visioning meetings that are being scheduled.  The first community visioning meeting.  Check back here in the coming weeks to note our progress and see how you can get involved.

Mary Jane Leach, Vice Chair