Whole Foods Market® Partners With Non-GMO Project to Label Company’s
Private Label Food Products Using New Third-Party Standard

Whole Foods Market Encourages Other Retailers & Branded Product
Manufacturers to Make Similar Commitment to Non-GMO Food Supply Chain

Press Release
Source: Whole Foods Market
On Tuesday July 7, 2009, 9:16 am EDT
AUSTIN, Texas, July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Whole Foods Market
(Nasdaq: WFMI – News), the leading natural and organic grocer, today
announced a commitment to the Non-GMO Project – a non-profit
collaboration of manufacturers, retailers, processors, distributors,
farmers, seed breeders and consumers – to use the Non-GMO’s Product
Verification Program (PVP) in connection with Whole Foods Market’s
private label products.


(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090707/DA42720)
The PVP is the nation’s first system designed to scientifically test
whether a product has met a set of defined standards for the presence
of genetically engineered organisms.

“From the moment GMOs were approved for use in the U.S., we
recognized the need for transparency, but there was no definitive
standard by which to evaluate or label products,” said Margaret
Wittenberg, Whole Foods Market global vice president of quality
standards. “We searched high and low for years for a way to do this
and now, thankfully, the Non-GMO Project has answered that challenge
by creating a standard and a practical system by which manufacturers
may measure their products. At last, shoppers concerned about foods
made with genetically modified ingredients will be able to make
informed choices.”

According to the FDA, as much as 75 percent of processed food in the
United States may contain components from genetically modified crops.
Despite the abundance of products with genetically modified
ingredients, a Pew Initiative study on Food and Biotechnology shows
that 59 percent of Americans are unfamiliar with the issue of
genetically modified ingredients in food.

“In 30 other countries around the world, including Australia, Japan
and all of the nations in the European Union, there are significant
restrictions or outright bans on the production of GMOs, due to
environmental impact and concerns about GMO safety,” said Megan
Thompson, executive director of the Non-GMO Project.

While Federal law requires organic producers to comply with certain
non-GMO requirements identified in the USDA organic standards, there
is no standard for labeling GMOs in non-organic products.

The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to
allowing consumers to make informed choices and to working toward the
sustained availability of non-GMO options. Whole Foods Market is a
member of the group, which is a collaboration of manufacturers,
retailers, processors, distributors, farmers, seed breeders and
consumers. Together these members have established a working standard
and have developed North America’s first independent third-party
Product Verification Program.

The PVP uses a process that combines on-site facility audits,
document-based review and DNA testing to measure compliance with the
standard. For a product to bear the seal it must undergo a process
through which any ingredient at high risk for genetic contamination -
soy or corn, for example – has been shown to meet the non-GMO
standard through avoidance practices and testing.

Once a product has been approved through the PVP it can be described
as being verified by the Non-GMO Project and/or be labeled with the
Non-GMO Project’s compliance seal. The first Whole Foods Market
private label products to bear this seal are expected to be in stores
before the end of the year.

“Since there is no U.S. regulation regarding disclosure on products
manufactured with GMO ingredients, we are committed to helping our
shoppers make confident choices by knowing that what they are buying
has been verified as meeting the standards of the non-GMO Project,”
said Michael Besancon, senior global vice president of purchasing at
Whole Foods Market. “We are excited to partner with the Non-GMO
Project, and we strongly encourage other manufacturers and retailers
to act now and submit their products to the PVP as well. Taking a
stand together will make a more significant impact on our overall
food supply, which will help the environment and consumer choice in
the marketplace.”

Whole Foods Market applauds The Natural Grocery Company, The Big
Carrot Natural Food Market and Good Earth Natural Foods, the early
partners of the Non-GMO Project, and the companies that have lent
major support to the project and participated in the initial piloting
of the PVP including Eden Foods, Organic Valley, Lundberg Family
Farms, Nature’s Path Organic and United Natural Foods, Inc. Together
with numerous other companies and organizations, they created an
authoritative non-GMO standard.

Whole Foods Market invites the industry to join an educational
webinar on Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 1 p.m. CDT, to learn more about the
Non-GMO Project and the PVP. Webinar details are available at
www.wholefoodsmarket.com/nongmoproject.

“As you can imagine, the level of diligence involved will require an
enormous amount of effort at every step in the manufacturing
process,” said Joe Dickson, Whole Foods Market quality standards
coordinator and Non-GMO Project board member. “The more participation
we have in the program, the more rapidly the industry will realize
efficiencies. Economies of scale will ultimately have a real and
lasting impact on the available supply of non-GMO ingredients.”

Since 2004 Whole Foods Market strives to offer private label products
made with ingredients that have not been genetically modified. By
using a system that includes the evaluation of products, ingredients
and manufacturing facilities through audits, on-site facility
inspections and testing, Whole Foods Market is furthering that
commitment.

About Whole Foods Market®

Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market
(www.wholefoodsmarket.com), a leader in the natural and organic foods
industry and America’s first national certified organic grocer, was
named “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store” in 2008 by Health
magazine. The Whole Foods Market motto, “Whole Foods, Whole People,
Whole Planet”(TM) captures the company’s mission to find success in
customer satisfaction and wellness, employee excellence and
happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and
environmental improvement. Thanks to its more than 50,000 Team
Members, Whole Foods Market has been ranked as one of the “100 Best
Companies to Work For” in America by FORTUNE magazine for 12
consecutive years. In fiscal year 2008, the company had sales of $8
billion and currently has more than 275 stores in the United States,
Canada, and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods Market, Fresh & Wild(TM),
and Harry’s Farmers Market® are trademarks owned by Whole Foods
Market IP, LP. Wild Oats® and Capers Community Market(TM) are
trademarks owned by Wild Marks, Inc.

Contacts:  kate.lowery@wholefoods.com – 512 542 0390

“Hello,
I came to your site via the beecharmers site which I loved!

Your seed project also sounds amazing. I am living in Rwanda and one of the
things I am talking about with some folks is starting a national seed saving
program. There are NO seed saving skills here among farmers and most of the
seeds that you can buy in town are single generation monsanto seeds. It is
such a shame, and the audacity of a company to sell single seeds to people
who cannot afford to buy them every year. Ugh.

Anyway, I am contacting you because I am working with some beekeeping
associations (who work with beautiful tree-trunk hives around one of the
national parks) to get some of their honey into a national market so they
can generate some income and keep their beekeeping tradition alive. Though I
am not sure we will ever pursue organic certification, we would like to have
our trainings include organic methods and record keeping.  Where can I find
organic standards for apiaries if there aren’t really any organic standards?
What standards do you use? And for record keeping, are there some good
samples of record keeping for organic hive management. Currently there are
no records being kept and so we are starting from scratch. I would really
appreciate anything you can pass along.  I hope when I come back to the
states I can visit  you. It sounds like you have some amazing and important
stuff going on!”
Many thanks,
Molly

First off, thanks so much for writing us Molly!!  It is good to hear the perspective from some who is in Africa.  I was reading a new book on seed last month written by woman in Africa who was championing Monsanto for bringing Genetically Modified seed to her country.  She thought their seed would be an answer to the starving she has seen throughout her life.  She went on to validate all of Monsanto’s rhetoric in her book.  I was beginning to wonder if Monsanto didn’t pay for this book to be published as it is a know fact that most GMO seed has in fact produced less yields instead of more.  This woman was extremely well educated holding multiple degrees and yet she saw Monsanto as some sort of knight in shining armor.  At first I found the book interesting from another person’s perspective, but then I just got so sick to my stomach that I was physically ill.   I literally through the book down in utter disgust.

I’m so sad to hear that people there are not saving seed.  Even when people do save seed it is threatened by contamination from GMO pollen.  I remember a teacher here in California growing corn for the Hopi Indians of the South West part of North America.  When we asked him why he said their homeland was being contaminated with GMO pollen.  The corn they had grown for thousands of lifetimes was no longer growing the way that it had in the past.  Strange mutations were occurring and crop losses were causing corn shortages.  The Hopi people had sent some of the last uncontaminated seed to our teacher who was growing it here in an isolated region and then sending it back to them yearly so that they could have clean seed stock from which to grow their food.

The sad truth is there is no where safe anymore we have learned.  A couple of months ago we had a picnic with a dear friend.  She had invited a friend of hers who used to be a climatologist in England to the gathering.  This lady laughed at our ideas of growing seed in isolated areas.  She said they had conducted extensive weather samples on the coast of North America looking for pollutants that travel across the ocean from China’s coal factories.  They found plenty of pollution, but the one thing that stunned them was the amount of GMO pollen that was in those samples.  China is one of the world’s largest growers of GMO plant material.  They even have entire genetically modified forest of trees for their lumber industry.  Now here was proof that Gentically Modified pollen was traveling the trade winds to be dumped on our “isolated” gardens here on the West Coast of North America!

If we can do anything to help the people of Rwanda let us know.  We can start a seed saving campaign on our seed company website.  We could send you seed from open pollinated heirloom seeds gathered by anyone who wants to participate.  We could form a network of seed savers in fact just for this purpose.  I feel an idea hatching!  Perhaps, each year we can send seed to a different group of people throughout the world.   Incredibly important would be teaching people how to save seed.  One of the best books I know of is Suzanne Ashworth’s Seed to Seed.  I’m having lunch with her on the 19th, perhaps we can talk about publishing her book in different languages.  Maybe she already has.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to send seeds and information on how to save them to people who’s only choice now is Monsanto?  What do you think?  Would you be willing to start this on your end?

As for the bees….

I would love to see pictures of the hives you describe there!  Can you send us photos to share?  Sadly, there is not a standard here for “organic” honey production.  However, there is a source called International Quality Assurance. If you click on that link it will give you some excellent guidelines to consider when trying to produce “organic” honey.  Also, I’m sure you have heard of Makana Meadery in South Africa, but in case you haven’t they have some excellent ideas we have used ourselves.  So many people here in North America rely on buying the bee keeping supplies they need never giving a thought of how to create the things they need themselves like our grandfathers did.  Makana gives excellent “how to” manuels of making your own foundations for exmaple.  I would get in touch with them if you already haven’t as they seem to be an excellent source of information.

Let us here from you please!  I would love to post your response here.  Lets get this program up and going.  I will put an announcement on our seed company website.  I will talk to Suzanne about her book.  Let’s see if we can change the world one seed at a time!  Farmer John

In this case it is the creation of an heirloom open pollinated seed company….Sustainable Seed Company

The web is not totally finished as we have not got all the pictures, descriptions and seeds in yet.  AND we haven’t gotten all the bugs, spelling mistakes and grammar issues out!  But it is up for the the world to see because we didn’t want anyone ordering their spring seeds and not knowing we started a seed company!

You will have to read the web to find out the reason for all this….

Table of contents for Act Now

1. It’s not about fear, it’s simple economics!

I was talking with a friend this morning about the changes that are occurring in our world – such as the scarcity of food, rising fuel costs, farmland losses due to topsoil erosion, freshwater availability – and I was asking him how he was planning for the future – how was he going to mitigate any major changes that could cause “modern society” to come to a grinding halt.

I was speaking of course about becoming more self-sufficient, how did he plan to (as Farmer John says) “disentangle” himself from being only a tiny cog in the huge economic and agricultural machine that is todays world.  Did he have a garden?  What about a few chickens for his eggs?  How about planting some fruit trees so he could at least have fresh fruit for a few weeks a year?  Was he off the grid?  Did he have compact florescent as his light bulbs?  How about keeping his tires inflated or oil topped off so he used less gasoline?

These are all relatively harmless things that are becoming mainstream.  Not a huge leap.  It’s still allows a comfortable way of living.  However, he’s still in the middle of a big city, still buys 95% of his own food, 100% of his own fuel (car and electricity).  In a word, he’s still “dependent” on that giant machine called the global market!

I asked him to think back to this summer and how dangerously close we, as a country, came to loosing our food security.  We were down to less than a month of grain reserves.  That was the lowest we came as a nation in over 20 years to not meeting our own food needs!  That doesn’t count the additional cost we as a nation have to pay to transport and ship that food since we aren’t a local food producing economy.

If oil goes up, if food supplies go down, if costs of production rise (since fertilizer comes from natural gas, it will) what happens then?  What happens when supplies get slim and demand keeps up or raises (if the population goes up)?  You have runs on things.  Remember the articles about Costco and Sam’s clubs rationing wheat and rice sales to one bag per customer?

Well to be blunt, people begin to get desperate and buying up stuff which makes things MUCH more expensive!  If you believe in Peak Oil, if you believe that a higher demand coupled with a decreased supply equals worldwide problems, if you believe that honey bees are in trouble and having a harder and harder time doing their job, if you believe this is a throw-away society, then it’s not about fear!

It’s about being prepared for when things happen that are out of our control.  Buy seeds today – not in two years when they’re skyrocketing costs are prohibitive.  Buy those garden tools today – not when your worried about cutbacks at work and how you’re going to put food on the table.  Buy (or help to buy) land today – not when you’re 200 miles away sitting at a desk pushing papers – those papers will be there in two years, but the fertile land that has been worked for two years and produces beautifully will only be a dream.

Things take time to develop and grow.  Gardens take time to become fertile, water systems need time and several seasons to be prooven, housing takes time to construct, people need time to adjust to new ways of living.

If you’re not prepared today to move from the city and become a farmer, I understand!  There are those of us who are further along that path than you.  Let us pave that road for you.  You don’t have to do it now, but someone does!  If things aren’t prepared NOW, when things shift and change, they’ll be too expensive, or worse, simply NOT AVAILABLE!

As I said in the title, it’s not about fear – it’s about economics…what you put in today is an investment in the future.  Buy low today so that higher prices tomorrow won’t limit your choices.

Table of contents for Act Now

1. Your Future Well Being Depends on Your Actions Now

I get so frustrated with people I know and love who bury their heads in the sand of unconsciousness.  We all have our gifts, something we do better than others.  Mine has been feeling the pulse of humanity years before things would actually happen.  For years I’ve tried to find the courage to tell people what I felt was on the horizon for humanity and the United States in general.  Like others, I felt it was past time for a radical change in how we live our lives.  Most people listened politely, but thought I was nuts despite the fact I was not alone in my thoughts. Now as things come to pass (like our failing economy, global warming, etc…) those same people I wish I could say were realizing what is happening in the world and acting, but they are not.  They have simply taken a look outside their shells long enough to realize what they are “aware” of scares the hell out of them and they feel power less to do anything.  Most believe it is out of their hands anyway and the new president will fix everything.  The troubles our world faces is beyond the scope of one newly elected president no matter how well intentioned.

What should you do then? Disentangle yourself from non essential affairs that are not enhancing your chances of survival. Yes, I said survival!  This includes emotional, physical and financial attachments. Your new vehicle is not going to ’save’ you, it’s usefulness is limited and it’s future is already determined, it has a very short lifespan. That home you love is the same, if it’s not sustainable (for example: Do you control your water supply?  Where does your food come from…can you grow it?) and is located in an area that is not sustainable or safe, then this emotional and financial attachment will wind up killing you. Sell it while you still can before the bank takes it from you or it becomes worthless and you can’t even give it away.

The global economic crash that is happening now will affect everyone.  Can you really afford to wait for housing prices to continue to fall before you make your relocation move? Use any monetary assets you have now to invest with others that have the same goals.  Find land or communities to buy into.  The “AMERO” (our new currency to be representing US, Canada and Mexico) will be hitting the market as soon as the U.S. cannot afford to pay the interest on it’s debt any longer.  Which is projected by some to happen as early as February 2009!  At that point your dollar will be worth whatever the government decides it will be.  Some say the buy back could be as low as two pennies on the “AMERO”.  I know, almost does not sound real, but google it and see for yourself.  Educate yourself!

Wake up to the present situation and circumstances. Stop kidding yourself. Assess your own dependency upon the entire system – it’s what’s keeping you alive right now. Without it, you would die. Learn to live without it’s support if you can. Disentangle yourself more and more, working on it constantly so that you become self-reliant and self-sufficient and capable of dealing with a world in chaos. Dependency is also a one way street and has created a world full of incapable humans who really cannot take care of themselves. They lack even the basic skills to survive. The future won’t permit that, so do something about it.

Get educated, get trained, put real skills into daily experience and learn how to take care of your own needs.  Learn practical skills in self-sufficiency, gardening, animal husbandry, mechanical repair, including bicycles,  seed saving and alternative construction. Raising food is going to be essential for localized citizens and how to do it. Food storage, preservation and preparation will be essential skills. Start learning how to do this now while mistakes are easy and survivable. Seasonal crops are an easy way to try out your green thumb. Learning to grow things isn’t hard, but it does take time to learn from your mistakes, so get started now.

This is what we have done and why we have joined FOSL.  We have liquidated everything of value and invested in supplies, heirloom seeds, farm animals, fruit trees, tools, sustainable technologies and information.  We have allied ourselves with people that have the necessary skills and know how for our continued existence.  We attend workshops with the folks to continue our knowledge and most importantly we are laying the foundation of community.  FOSL currently has one property that when finished may sustain 15 people.  This property has been slated for retirees desiring to be close to health care facilities.

However, there is a larger group of us who are searching for the right piece of land to build another community on.  One that would sustain many more people and would be much more rural in its location.  FOSL is a non-profit land trust.  FOSL needs land for communities. One of its many missions is to protect farmland and help create community based agriculture.  Community farms not only produce food, but involve as many people as possible in that production and distribution.  Since FOSL is a land trust, a not for profit organization, part of FOSL’s mission is to educate.  FOSL seeks to involve communities in social issues associated with agriculture and care of the land.

Our future survival and well being depends on agricultural land.  It depends on community.  Community is people coming together for a common good or cause.  Your future depends on your ability to act now.  Please, bring your knowledge, will to create a brighter future, physical resources, monetary resources, whatever you have and join us now.  Time is running out.  If you are reading this article you all ready know this on some level or you wouldn’t be here.  Trust your feelings.  This is not about fear, I see it as an opportunity to enrich our lives with community. A type of community that our grandparents knew, but with a new awareness.  It is a challenge and we will have to change the way we live on this earth if we are going to survive.  If our children are to survive and prosper.  I’m not asking you to change the world, but start with something you can change…yourself.  Open your mind and heart to an awareness of what is happening around you in the world.  Decide that you do want to change and join us in making that change.  We need you and we need your help.   Will you help us?  Will you help yourself?  The choice is ultimately yours…

If you have land you would like to discuss placing in a land trust please contact us.  If you are interested in joining FOSL or have questions contact us immediatly.

However, without access and control over the germ plasma of appropriate, reproducible food, fiber, fuel, and medicinal plants nothing else we do will matter.  Non-Hybridized seed saving, production, distribution and the ability to grow our own plant derived needs is the base line of the entire agrarian part of what FOSL proposes. Control of our own plant needs is the only possible basis for long term regional localization of food production – the non-negotiable heart of the survival of the human race.

Quote from the Zend-Avesta

“He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers.”

Some of the other areas defining the importance of seed saving include:

• If there is an interruption in the distribution system, we may no longer have access to sources of seed that we take for granted now.  We need to start accumulating seed NOW for the crops we will need in the future for food, fuel, fiber, and medicine. Local growing and saving seed as a routine practice is the highest priority for sustainable living so that local communities have broad enough genetic diversity in the future to deal with the changes in climate and/economies that are coming.

• Food security is being independent of corporate seed sellers by growing our own seed, and preserving diversity in the face of adversity:  global warming will cause imbalances in pest/predator relationships, and diseases and pests will have new ranges, potentially challenging or even wiping out common commercial varieties.

• The nature of the globalization process and the perceived economics imperatives practiced by the increasingly larger Corporations are expressed by those who control seed worldwide as no interest in preserving regional varieties. If we are to survive in the future it is incumbent on local growers to preserve and increase biodiversity by using plants’ natural sexual reproduction, rather than cloning or breeding hybrids that will be infertile or will not grow true.

• Developing varieties that are well adapted to the climates and soils of each particular region by repeatedly selecting vigorous seed over several years has a 12,000 year history and is the highest expression of man’s backbreaking work and genius.

In my community, whether a village or neighborhood, I would like to be able to help my neighbors work together toward sustainability. If I can chose or help make a community it would, I hope, be a community that sees its duty to change the way we live and work together, to build the courage to make the changes required so that our children have a safe comfortable future.

In community, I would work with my neighbors to be as self-sufficient as localizing production of our basic needs can make us.  I would like to help to shorten the distribution web for what our community needs and produces, and trade with other locals for as much as possible. In my community we would make a unified effort would be directed to help all of us live and work together to break free of working for the unfriendly Corporations and Governments so we can be with our children, our neighbors, fellow sustainable workers, and friends more.

In the place I would like live, those with experience would mentor those without particular knowledge, older folks passing on to younger folks what they know, those with knowledge and skills teaching those who want too know. I think the best community, for me, would teach the children in place and make children part of each person’s day as they help by working in the community part of each day.

I would like to learn what I don’t know from those who do, until I pass.  In my community I would like to see respect for, and study of, the genius and work from those who went before us, employment of the best of today’s knowledge and skills, and discernment of the best of what is coming – all bent to an intelligent creativity for truly living sustainably.

In my neighborhood would I like to see those with a more “wealth” share what they can and choose to by sponsoring those with energy and skills for living sustainably.  While I want time and space for privacy, I would like to see my community more closely involved with one another – less divided in time and space to their “own” private estates.  My preference for my neighborhood would be to work to create community space; more shared space and facilities and less private redundancy – common assets directed toward common need to shift to living sustainably.

In my neighborhood I would like to see retirees helping to build a community with facilities and jobs for those who would help them to live useful, productive, dignified lives. In community I would hope that those with energy and skills will help those who may not need help now, but will.

It seems to me that there should be ways to make a smaller footprint, less impact on nature by a community sharing many things based on a shared commons: large gardens, orchards, small animal husbandry, water systems, local power production, a motor pool, and repair and/or mini-production shops and facilities.  I want my community, by working together, to teach the young what they will need for tomorrow, leave an improved bio-diversity, a cleaner environment, and larger productive commons to those coming after us.

I would like to live in a community where folks are glad to see me and one another, happy to help one another and help with common work and needs so all can become agents of, and participants in sustainability. The world is changing, and it seems to me that we will all have to live with less things material, so, why not work together to be richer in non-material things, and in our relationships, in our communities?

FOSL is purchasing a parcel of land that can be our first suburban campus with a central commons area in the unincorporated area of Cleone just North of Fort Bragg, CA.  There are other properties available in the neighborhood.

If you are looking for a place to retire, co-house, live more slowly/satisfactorily, raise your children, design and form community, to learn, and to share the coming time of transition with like-minded folks, please contact us.  We need people, teachers, farmers, gardeners, skills, craft persons, old knowledge, young energy, sustainable businesses, more aligned neighbors, and financial support to expand the start we have made – come and help us, yourselves, and those coming after us.  To learn more watch this video clip.

Concerned About the Future Yet?

Explore Transitioning to a Sustainable Life

By Hina Pendle, PhD, Facilitator, Community Organizer

October 2008

The fact that we are on a descent is no longer in question, but how we land is. As I write, we are living in a financial crisis, which will soon mean diminishing resources for most of us. This is the tip of the iceberg by many accounts including Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics this past week. The world is also facing a massively disturbed climate and environment, in an oil-dependent world, with an increasing world population creating rising demand for food, water, and shelter. And our national leadership has been busily dumbing-down education on issues and public education for our youth — while grabbing tighter control on power.

Changing the way we live in our modern societies is no longer optional. How we make the change is. Those of us with foresight can seize the opportunity today to use the resources we still have to build a sustainable tomorrow—if we act smart and quickly. New technology and a “Green Deal” cannot be the panacea people hope for. There are no magic wands. We are not going to invent our way out of this mess. Green strategies can certainly help stem the slide but, we have to realize how deep our society’s need for fossil fuels is. Almost everything we use and do every day depends on oil.

We don’t know what the future looks like. What we are witnessing is the breakdown of all the old ways that not longer serve us. It doesn’t have to be scary or scarce. The transition into a new era is being born out of the rubble and lessons of the old. Yes, it can be unnerving to watch the breakdowns. But we can’t afford to let fear to zap our power to design and birth our future. We were impregnated with the vision of love, peace and environmental sanity in the sixties. That baby has been gestating, wising up and now becoming our reality. Just like adolescents, we are emerging from our cultural evolution to question and rethink everything. Let’s reconsider together what we value from agriculture to health care, from economic systems to building community, from science to spirituality, from low to no carbon building to useful, green retirement. David Korten, businessman and writer and Joanna Macy, environmentalist and Buddhist, call this the time of “The Great Turning.” David says we’re evolving from empire to earth community. Our fears can help to propel us forward faster.

The Foundation of Sustainable Living (FOSL) www.thefosl.org has been ushering in this transition for several years. We are preparing for self-reliant, resilient communities. That means we are planning to be able to provide all of our basic and comfort needs within our local community. In modern society, living isolated many of us have lost critical contact with each other and with nature’s bounty. FOSL’s vision is to have many multi-generational, multi-racial, multi-cultural communities sharing resources and talent. Resilient communities are based on principles that support life. We respect nature, learning how natural systems have solve problems for ages. We will teach what we know and learn what we don’t, according to Parker, FOSL’s primary founder. The future may not be crystal clear but our values for the journey forward are.

George Soros speaking with Bill Moyers said, that for humanity to survive the calamity of our ways, we have to learn how to govern ourselves. To FOSL that means building caring, smart communities now. Together we can transition through the perfect storm and global chaos by designing a better future. FOSL is calling for more people of all ages who are interested in creating a vibrant, abundant future guided by our wisdom, intelligence, heart and fun to join in. We still have the time and resources to transition into a comfortable, sensible future for ourselves, our children and prepare for “green” retirement. The time is now.

Check out a great inspiring resource “The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency To Local Resilience” by Rob Hopkins. It tells of towns in England, Japan and around the world that are transitioning, each in their own way. FOSL is now building its first transition community. How we do it is up to us.

Hina Pendle, PhD is a facilitator, community and organizational evolutionary, and on the Leadership Council of the Foundation of Sustainable Living. hina@thefosl.org, 831.662.2232.

We maintain a pretty good list here on this web, but it is always growing.  The real purpose of today’s blog is to get people to participate in forming this list as well as their own. Most of us don’t have unlimited resources so we really need to think about what is important to stockpile in case of an emergency or long depression.  I’m inviting people from many different Yahoo groups today to participate in what they would consider is the top 20 things they would have on hand.

I would like you to think past the three day preparedness kit.  I think most of us know what we would need to survive for three days.  I want us to imagine having to be self-reliant for weeks or longer.  What would you want?  What would you need to live?

Please post your list under the comment section (below) for all to see or email me and I will post the result tomorrow.

Take a look at modern advertising.  See how the beautiful model calls that wonderful product amazing!  Watch their abs or breasts as the tout the great benefits this or that can give you.  Hear how the TV pundit says this stock or that stock is really going to rise in value because of X, Y or Z.  As a society we are cowed into thinking what the rest are thinking!

I’m not immune.  I look at TV and think, Hmmph, maybe the ShamWOW is really a great product!  I will sit and look at the attractive model show the great benefits.  I was really caught today when I entered a house today and looked around.  There were some items of substance, but most was for show.  There was the great hardwood flooring, the nice curtains, and the beautiful granite in the kitchen.  But the furniture was particle board, the knives were cheap serrated steel you buy at k-mart, and the miter joints in the molding didn’t join.

It was obvious to me that the owner cared more about show than real value!

I grew up not far from a fantastic Menonite community in south west Ohio.  Those people are slowly dying out for their own reasons, but their work ethic was purely artistic!  Go and look at an Amish or Menonite table, and you will appreciate the joinery, the hand-carved wood, the planed boards.  They took time and care, and a great deal of effort to create a product that would last generations!  Our society as a whole has gone backward from that ethic to, god I’m going to say it, a disposable society!

For me, it’s rather practical.  As my partner, Farmer John tried to point out to me, it’s about quality, not quantity.  You see, early in our relationship, we went shopping for sheets.  Come on, what couple hasn’t tried in vain to find the perfect sheet set to sleep upon?  You’re laughing, I know because it’s a totally common thread with couples!  And it’s the thread that we argued about!  “One THOUSAND threadcount!,” I laughed!  I thought he was living too high on the hog!  Wow, I couldn’t afford that, but jeez if he could…

Well, it turns out that Farmer John was right-on in his ideas!  Whereas I was concerned about keeping my sheet set to under $50, he was more concerned about keeping his sheet set for more than a year.  You see, if you wash, dry and use a sheet set that’s only 100 count often enough…it rips!  It makes FANTASTIC rags, but I didn’t want to buy $50 rags!  But if you spend $100 on a sheet set, and it lasts you 20 years…well, there’s your value!

Same thing with about everything I buy today.  If I really think about it, with a serious purchase, I try and consider if this item is naturally going to degrade, and I’ll be forced to buy another in a year, or is there a better, possibly more expensive option that I will have for a generation!

We have salvaged ruined scrap metal that today is a very active and loved member of our family in the form of garden tools.  There was a close neighbor who passed away and his property got flooded.  The family thought there was no value in the tools this man lovingly used, abused, and cared for many years.  They saw a shovel with an outdated wooden handle, and a rusted shovel head.  We saw a beautiful treasure waiting to be un-rusted (like how Michangelo said he saw the sculpture within the block of marble).  We took a wire brush and scoured the rust off, oiled the tool, and didn’t pay a cent for it except for a bit of sweat.

Now that’s value to me.