We had a very informative meeting with the Dearborn Sustainability Roundtable on Feb 15th. Thank you to everyone who came to the program. We had a potluck too, with soup, bread, appetizers, fruit, salad and dessert - YUM! Everything was excellent and we had a lot of people attending.
Kathleen Gapa and Mary Bugeia started the meeting with a brief overview of the League of Women Voters. The League's record for environmental causes showed the significant progress that has been made in the last century by grassroots advocacy, and yet there continues to be a battle to protect our natural resources and public health. What a strange era we are in now as hard-won environmental protections are under attack. We need to move forward on new fronts as we've learned in these round tables, yet we find ourselves also holding the line for protections that should be a given. For example, clean air is not an optional preference, it is a necessity. We should be able to focus solely on healthy sustainable foods, but find that even in the 21st century clean water and air are being jeopardized by misguided policy makers.
Lynna Kaucheck, of Food and Water Watch www.fwwatch.org spoke at this event as well. Not only does Ms Kaucheck work with that organization, but she also serves on the Ferndale Environmental Sustainablity Commission. Since Dearborn is in the early stages of sustainability as a city-wide policy, we can learn a lot from Ferndale's example. If you'd like to learn more about Dearborn's activities, visit their website.
The keynote speaker for this 3-part series has been HFCC Professor Lourdes Lore, a highly credentialed and interesting speaker. We are thankful that she has shared her expertise and vast knowledge with us in the series "Environmental Crisis on your Plate." The problems with our food supply would be overwhelming if we didn't have suggested ways to tackle the issues. Katie Hetrick, reporter for the Dearborn Press & Guide, has written a great article on this particular evening, Dinner bell is call to action at roundtable.
We expect to post handouts from Professor Lore's presentations so that those who miss any of the series can still review the resources she provided. Don't miss the third and last installment, “Who Really Controls Our Food Supply?" which will be on March 23, 2011 from 6-8pm at HFCC SME building. We will reserve time for the audience to ask questions, discuss solutions, make plans and network to wrap up this winter long focus on Sustainable Food.
written by
Mary Ann Baier and Jennifer Dunn
