My letter to Whole Foods Market about their changes at Greenlife
Dear Ms. Townsend:
First of all, I want to let you know that I am a long-time supporter of Whole Foods Market. In fact, I shopped at your original store when I lived in Austin during the 1990s. I appreciate your creating opportunities for folks to purchase healthy foods across the nation and wish you continued success in that regard.
I am writing to you today, however, about Greenlife Grocery in Asheville, North Carolina. Since Greenlife is less than a mile from my home, my wife Shonnie Lavender and I consider it our neighborhood grocery store. We shop there regularly and spend between $200 and $300 per week, primarily on groceries. We also frequently meet friends and business associates there for coffee and for meals.
When we discussed Whole Foods’ purchase of Greenlife with the staff members there, we were told that Whole Foods didn’t intend to change anything that made Greenlife the success it has been. Now, however, I’m finding conventional produce mixed with the organic produce, and I am very concerned about this.
I understand that Whole Foods thinks that taking such measures will bring in shoppers who may be interested in purchasing lower priced produce and other food items. Maybe so. But actions such as these may also drive shoppers such as my wife and me to back to Earth Fare or the French Broad Food Co-op, both within an additional five-minute drive of our home.
I’m guessing that you did a good bit of market research before you bought the Greenlife stores, so I’m sure that you know that Asheville is a unique market with many political progressives, spiritual activists, outdoor athletes, participants in holistic healing and a variety of combinations thereof. We are not purists, but we want what we want. And what we want is to be able to count on the grocery store to which we give our loyalty and our money to carry organic, locally grown produce whenever possible without adulterating it with conventional produce from factory farms. This is not only a personal health issue, it is also a values issue. We want to eat healthy food, and as much as possible, we want it to come from farmers and suppliers who really care about those who will be buying their products, from farmers who nurture the earth from which the bounty came.
I don’t want to have to regularly wade through the plethora of so-called “natural” foods that I see cluttering the aisles of Whole Foods Market stores when we visit Raleigh, Denver or NYC. There’s plenty of that stuff for sale in regular super markets for those who want it. In the end, I can only speak for myself: If Greenlife continues becoming more like your other stores, I will be taking my business elsewhere. Furthermore, I will be encouraging others to do so as well.
I would appreciate a response to this message.
Respectfully,
Bruce Mulkey
Friday, July 23rd, 2010On the sidewalks of Montford
Last Saturday I participated in the Asheville Z-Link effort to clear and clean sidewalks in Asheville, a project led by City Council member Cecil Bothwell. From the Asheville Z-Link blog:
Some of Asheville’s neighborhoods have wonderful sidewalks. Older areas, developed in the heyday of Asheville’s trolley system, were designed with walkers in mind. In the new era of raised environmental awareness, a national childhood asthma epidemic and expensive gasoline, more and more of us are rethinking our local travel options. Walking and biking are obvious choices.
A common problem with older sidewalks is that poor maintenance has resulted in accumulation of dirt and debris, followed by weeds and exacerbated by the encroachment of shrubs. The City sidewalk ordinance requires that property owners keep public sidewalks across their property clear, but enforcement is a low priority and there are some folks who are physically unable to perform the work. Then too, vacant lots often go untended for years. There are many places where perfectly good walks extend for blocks, only to be obstructed in one short section, rendering them impassable for wheel chairs, baby strollers or those with ambulatory disabilities.
The video below shows how you can join in.
Also be sure to visit the Asheville Z-Link blog for more information.
PARC Candidate Forum Today!
Please join PARC for a Candidate’s Forum today, Tuesday, April 13th, 7PM.
PARC (People Advocating Real Conservancy) and MVA (Mountain Voices Alliance) will host Patsy Keever and Bruce Goforth, Democratic candidates for the NC House 115 District Seat. This is an interesting election. Keever and GoForth differ on many land use issues that affect all of us, like steep slope development. Did you know that…
- There is no landslide insurance in NC! If your house is damaged or lost to a slide, you are not covered.
- Builders, developers and realtors are not required to warn buyers of the potential dangers of landslides – and they cannot be held liable for concealing this information if one occurs.
- Land, mud and rockslides are increasing in WNC, costing millions in tax dollars for repairs. In the last six months, land, mud and rockslides in WNC and east Tennessee have destroyed parts of three major highways, and damaged at least five
- In the aftermath of Hurricanes Ivan and Frances, 140 landslides occurred, destroying 27 homes and killing 5 people.
There are people whose homes have been condemned because of damage from land, mud, and rockslides who cannot return to these homes… but they’re STILL making mortgage payments!
This is just one of many issues to discuss with Keever and Goforth. Please come out and hear what they have to say.
The primary election takes place May 4th, and early voting begins April 15th. We know that many of you have questions for Patsy Keever and Bruce Goforth. Please email them to us at info@ashevilleparc.org. Call Elaine at 273-1781 for more info about the Forum.
Come join the fun on Tuesday April 13th, from 7-9PM. Doors open at 6:30.
LOCATION
The UU Church in Black Mountain
500 Montreat Road
Black Mountain, NC 28711
DIRECTIONS
Take I-40 East of Asheville, to Exit 64 (Black Mountain).
Go left at the end of the exit, and go north on Route 9.
The UU Church will be on your right in about a mile.
Trying to sustain an unsustainable culture
Our nation and our so-called leaders are paying scant attention, but in every moment, Reality is teaching the lesson of the day: We cannot sustain a culture that’s unsustainable. So the consensus trance prevails as we continue to disregard the magnitude of our challenges and futilely search for illusive signs of the much-anticipated economic recovery that lives only in our dreams.
I’ll have more to say about this topic in the weeks and months to come, but for now hear the words of James Howard Kuntsler:
What’s going on in the US economy is a slow-motion convulsion from which we will emerge as a very different nation with a different economy. The wild irresponsibility of the media in pretending otherwise is only going to make the convulsion worse, more painful, more socially and politically destructive. The convulsion can be described with precision as one of compressive contraction. Historic circumstances are requiring us to change our behavior, to make new arrangements for everyday life in all the major particulars: capital accumulation and deployment; food production; commerce; habitation; transport; education; and health care. These new arrangements must be organized at a smaller and finer scale, and on a much more local basis.
[ . . . ]
If we don’t attend to the transformation of American life by downscaling our activities and changing the way they are carried out, and re-localizing them, we will see our society disintegrate - and I use the word “dis-integrate” with purposeful precision. Everything will come apart - our political arrangements, our households, our health and well-being.
You can read the entire essay by visiting Kuntsler’s blog, but if you’re offended by the F-word, then I suggest you satisfy yourself with Kuntsler’s thoughts contained in this post. And though this is way off topic, if you’re interested in the many uses of that controversial word–as a verb, adverb, adjective, command, conjunction, exclamatory, noun and pronoun–click here for a thorough explanation by Tom Wolfe in his novel I am Charlotte Simmons, a book that Shonnie and I just finished listening to.
Monday, November 23rd, 2009City Council candidates answer questions “yes” or “no”
Folks running for political office frequently prefer to offer at least two answers to every question. At their candidate forum on September 15, People Advocating Real Conservancy (PARC) decided to ask candidates “yes” or “no” questions about local land use issues that have already been debated at length in our community.
Below is the Candidate Scorecard from the forum. You will notice that Cecil Bothwell was the only candidate participating who offered a “yes” or “no” answer on every question. In addition, Cecil was also the only candidate who said “yes” to #7–taking back our park land from Stewart Coleman by Eminent Domain and #10–creating a green space on city land in front of the Basilica.
You may watch the video version of the questions by clicking the links below:
Click HERE for questions 1, 2 and 3.
Click HERE for questions 4 and 5.
Click HERE for questions 6 and 7.
Click HERE for questions 8 and 9.
You may also wish to check out City Council candidates’ responses to the WNC for Change questionnaire by clicking here.
Remember to vote in the city primary election this Tuesday, October 6 from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at your precinct polling place.
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009Sign petition calling for a stronger energy bill
From MoveOn.org
Strengthen the clean energy bill
Powerful oil and coal interests have had a stranglehold on our energy policy, demanding loopholes, bailouts, and giveaways from taxpayers. They’ve won concessions in the energy bill to preserve their profits and weaken the bill’s ability to deliver on the full promise of clean energy jobs.
But now, progressives are coming together to push back. MoveOn has joined with groups across the progressive movement, from the Sierra Club to ACORN to Oxfam to Rock the Vote, to tell Congress to stand strong against the special interests that seek to weaken the clean energy bill at every turn.
We can strengthen and improve this bill, if progressive leaders in Congress will join our fight. Can you sign MoveOn’s petition to Congress?
A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to your Representative.
Sign the petition now by clicking here.
Of synchronicity, new friendships and global warming
Some sages say that there are no accidents, that everything happens for a reason. So I don’t think it was any accident that Chuck Dayton and I teamed up to travel to Al Gore’s Climate Project Summit in Nashville last weekend.
Chuck, a retired environmental lawyer from Minneapolis, spends around half the year in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife Sara Evans. Though we’d never met, we decided to drive to Nashville together and be roommates once we arrived.
The Climate Project Summit
The Summit itself was a deeply rewarding experience. Vice President Gore spoke to us about the challenges of global warming and took us through his updated slide show. The part of his message that has stuck with me most was about how we humans respond to fear. We respond well to immediate dangers—snakes, fire, attack. We also respond promptly to learned dangers, such as the smell of gas in the house. It is more challenging for us to respond appropriately to dangers that come at us incrementally, such as global warming, since the effects of any action we take to combat the climate crisis will only be evident years hence.
Chuck’s 70th birthday came on the second day of the conference, and all 500 participants who’d gathered from around the world sang “Happy Birthday” to him. When VP Gore took the stage immediately afterward, he had a few words to say 
about the occasion: “Happy birthday, Chuck. You know, of course, that 70 is the new 69.”
We were treated to some heavy hitters—R.K. Pachauri, Executive Director of the IPCC, the group that received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Gore; David Suzuki, award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster; and Maggie Fox, CEO of The Alliance for Climate Protection, among others.
At the beginning of his presentation, Suzuki thanked former President George Bush for stealing the 2000 election and setting Gore free to do the work he was doing. Gore said that Suzuki reminded him of story about Winston Churchill. After losing an election, one of Churchill’s aides stated that “This was a blessing in disguise.” “Damn good disguise,” Churchill retorted.
The American Clean Energy & Security Act recently passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee was recognized
as a huge step in the right direction. According to Gore: “The bill represents a crucial step forward in addressing the global climate crisis, the need for millions of new green jobs to end the recession, and the national security threats that have long been linked to our growing dependence on foreign oil and other fossil fuels.” Furthermore, it was deemed essential that the U.S. to go to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December showing that we mean business.
Heading back home
During the trip home (five or so hours from Nashville to Western North Carolina), Chuck and I had a chance to talk about a lot more than global warming and found lots of common ground. I learned that Chuck’s family had run an outfitting company at the Boundary Waters Wilderness for decades, that he’d played rugby at Dartmouth, that he’d left a large law firm in the early 1970s to start an environmental law firm, that he’d been deeply involved in helping protect the wilderness of the Boundary Waters, that he and his wife Sara Evans, spent around half the year in North Carolina and half in Minnesota, that the folks who’d been involved in his law firm got together regularly for outdoor adventures (the latest one a sea kayaking trip in the Sea of Cortez at Baja California), and that 11 of these folks were coming down to celebrate his birthday with him, Sara, and his newer North Carolina friends.
Honoring Chuck and his 70 years on this planet
Last night Shonnie and I traveled to Waynesville to join celebrants for a dinner to honor Chuck. We not only had nametags, but on them in a smaller font were the names of two other guests with whom we might want to connect since we likely had something in common with them.
Chuck was honored by a medley of songs from Charles Dayton’s Creative Weirdness Band made up of the Minnesota contingent, whose songs included one to the tune of the Beatles’ “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Big Bad 
Chuck” a la “Big John” and finally a version of “Those Were the Days My Friend.”
These are the days my friend
They just might never end
We’ll sing and dance forever and a day
We’ll watch the stars he’ll sight
At Jasper Lake at night
For we are friends, we’ll always be that way
Next a local fishing buddy recounted some stories about his outings with Chuck. After that Si Kahn, folksinger and grassroots organizer, led all of us in singing “We Honor the Dreamers,” a tribute to Chuck, a “dreamer who works for our dreams.”
Then Chuck took center stage, speaking of his gratitude for those in attendance and the sentiments they’d expressed that evening. “This would be a good memorial service,” he declared. Chuck spoke of his hopes and dreams for the future, indicating that at the age of 70, he wasn’t done yet. In closing, he quoted a portion of Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses.” The final lines:
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Finally, some square dancing to the tunes of the bluegrass band and led by Joe Sam Queen, state senator for Haywood and surrounding counties.
The celebration continues for Chuck, Sara and the friends from Minnesota, including hikes on local mountain trails and other adventures before the guests head northward on Monday.
Right now I’m sitting here feeling deep gratitude for my new friendship with such an honorable, compassionate and courageous man and for the synchronicity that brought us together.
Happy birthday, my friend, and may you celebrate many more!
* * *
Our Creator, throughout the heavens,
Hallowed be your flame.
In a trillion suns your kingdom comes,
In the tiniest cell, your will be done.
Give us each day, a bird in flight,
a flower’s perfume, a bright star’s light.
Lead us not on a path of greed,
Teach us to tread lightly,
taking only what we need.
For ours is a journey from ignorance to understanding
From separation to Oneness with You,
In the glorious energy of the universe.
Amen
Strive Not to Drive Week May 11-15
Help Mother Earth and reduce your carbon footprint. Participate in Strive Not to Drive during the week of May 11-15 by walking, biking, carpooling and riding the bus. Pass this along to your friends and family and encourage them to do the same. If you live in Western North Carolina, sign up now at Blue Ridge Commuter Connections.
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
