Thank your local organic farmer: help keep our food close to home
by Jody Aliesan, PCC Farmland Fund President and Operating Officer
This article was originally published in November 2001
According to a recent national defense report, “It is a principle of security that dispersal and redundancy create a survivable system.” That’s what the Earth has been doing for millions of years.
Our only real security is “human security” — built on the economic, social and environmental well-being of all people. Together we depend upon shared commons — air, water and pollinators moving through the land. Together we must work to preserve and protect diverse and overlapping sources of food that are close to home.
“There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Michigan foundation helps save Washington farmland
Heron Oaks, a family foundation based in Goodrich, Michigan, has given the Fund $1,282 “to help complete the purchase of an organic farm.” Olivia Maynard, President of the foundation, writes: “We wish you every success in the work you do to save farmland, protect habitat and develop urban/rural partnership.”
Protection shares make meaningful gifts
“Protection shares” provide a way to dedicate your donation to the Farmland Fund to the land itself, the farmhouse, barn, outbuildings, orchard, and even individual fruit trees. Stakeholders receive certificates on fine paper with a green ribbon and gold seal. Your name and the names of those you wish to honor or remember are inscribed on permanent plaques. In January of 2002 the first series of these plaques will be installed on the buildings and gates of the Delta Farm.
In this season of gratitude, we thank our Washington organic farmers. They do the work and take the risks to provide us with dependable sources of fresh, clean, local produce. Send a gift to the Farmland Fund and we’ll mail this card to the farmer of your choice or choose a farmer from the Washington Tilth Producers Directory. Let us know what you’d like to say.
Artist Marion Keen, who lives near our Delta Farm in Sequim, contributed the image of harvest bounty. Colors are green and brown on cream woven cardstock with matching envelope.
If you’d like more cards for your own moments of thanks, send $2 for each to PCC Farmland Fund, 4201 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105, or call in a credit card order at 206-547-1222.
Available in all PCC stores, this new tote is made of 100 percent certified organic natural cotton. It’s 17.5″ high, 12″ wide, with 7″ sides and two 25″ organic cotton web handles to fit over your shoulder. The handles can be knotted for a shorter grip. The tote is priced at $9.95; the entire $5.37 over cost goes to the farm.
Farmland Fund Highlights
Internet giving: The Farmland Fund is an approved cause on the Internet shopping site www.ShopsThatGive.com. Merchants donate up to 25 percent of sales when you select the Fund upon entry to the site. ShopsThatGive.com assures us that prices are not increased to cover merchant donations. Merchants and causes on the site share values compatible with PCC and with the Farmland Fund. If you purchase some of what you need via the Internet, keep this site in mind!
Chinook Book, the brightly-colored coupon guide now available for $18 in all PCC stores, describes itself as “over $4,000 in value; the book that pays for itself.” It pays for a lot more that that — when you buy a Chinook Book at PCC, the entire $9 profit goes to the Farmland Fund.
Contribute $100 or more to the Fund and get a free print! Original illustrations in color pencil and watercolor by NW artists printed on high quality recycled paper, donated by Good Nature Publishing. “Horticultural Fine Art!” says Sunset Magazine.
Tax Rebate Check Report: During September $600 arrived with notes attached. Another $1,200 arrived in rebate check amounts.
Donor Roster
(September 1 – 30)
Anonymous: 10
Carl and Jo Anderson
Barry Chernick
Deborah Daniels-Zeller/Tom Zeller
R.D. Dickerson
Mary Jane Helmann
Valerie Lawrence
Father and daughter Lester Nelson and Gail McCormick
Michael Popiwny
Judith Rickard
Donna Schaeffer
Lawrence and Nancy Parr Sides
Steven and Mary Porter Solberg
Helen Baker St. John
Erde Sun
Ian and Marcia Taylor
PCC staff
Over one hundred PCC staff members make voluntary payroll deductions twice a month. Leslie Brooke Weney began hers, and yet another PCC employee designated a tax rebate check to the preservation of Washington’s organic farmland.
Foundations
Heron Oaks
Businesses
Blue Willow Tea Company
In memory
Neko Grimmer