Just a quick note to let our local readers know that our friends at C’ville Foodscapes, a worker owned cooperative that designs and installs food gardens in the Charlottesville area, are accepting applications for their 2011 Garden Grants program.

The C’ville Foodscapes’ Garden Grants Program, in partnership with Charlottesville’s Quality Community Council (QCC) will help low-income individuals and families have their own vegetable garden.

Tax deductible donations can be made to Quality Community Council (QCC), which will act as the fiscal sponsor for this program and manage the application process and criteria for awarding a grant. QCC, is a Charlottesville non-profit organization dedicated to improving the community by addressing the problems that detract from a higher quality of life for its citizens.

Can you help a deserving family receive the gift of their own food garden? Please contact us to contribute to the Garden Grants Program. Donations may be sent to:  QCC Garden Grants, 327 W. Main St, Ste 101, Charlottesville, VA  22903.  Thank you!

Check them out here.

The Organic Consumers Association has started a campaign that could do some good in checking some of the egregious abuses of the public good coming from the GMO industry. They have drafted an open letter to Natural Food Stores and Coops calling upon them to label all food not certified organic or certified non-GMO as possibly containing GMOs and all meats not certified organic or humanely raised as likely coming from a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation, the worst of the factory farms).

Buyer beware as saying is very powerful, and yet to some it goes ignored. You can only place so much trust in the product, whatever it may be, as it is offered to you. Sometimes further research can reveal you could be making a better decision, and there might not be any way to tell other than you figuring it out on your own. Take home insurance and open peril insurance options for example. Who you decide to work with to get your property insured is extremely important. Some houses do not come with fire suppression systems, and for this, a Fire Watch service must be hired to protect oneself from uncertainty till the system is in place. You can be looking at spending more than you have to for years, or even worse, you could be looking at an insurance company that will not help you out of a bind should tragedy strike. Perhaps it would be too far-fetched to assume these companies are out to take advantage of you, but it would be wise to make the best informed decision possible with so many options available to you. If you need auto insurance, homeowners insurance, renter’s insurance, boat insurance, motorcycle insurance, liability insurance, life insurance, health insurance, or business insurance, then we’re the insurance agents for you. Then this Rockwall insurance company suggests for your home insurance.

Life insurance is something that consumers hear about all the time, but it is important to know the real differences between the different types of insurance. Insurance can be a significant investment and expense, so it is important to use your money wisely and figure out what type of policy will meet your needs. One of the first questions that life insurance customers must decide upon is if they want to be insured for a limited duration of time or for their entire life. One of the biggest distinction between life insuranc agreements is the duration of the coverage. There are two basic options for these policies. A policy may either have a term or cover a person for his or her entire life. Term life policies can be purchased for a specific length of time to protect your family from financial woes in the event of your tragic passing. Whole life insurance policies are applicable for the entire life of a person without ever changing their premium.

Whole life policies will protect a person for their entire life, so that if they were to pass on at any time, their beneficiary would receive the financial support that they need. This type of policy will be active as long as a person pays their monthly premium. This premium will often be a fixed amount so that a policy holder is always aware of exactly how much they are paying for this security. Insurance policies that operate in this way can provide you with the security of knowing your love ones will be protected at any time. The lack of adequate labeling of potentially dangerous, or in some cases demonstrably dangerous, GMO ingredients is criminal. GMOs have been proven time and again to carry a set of risks to consumer health, not to mention environmental health, that is not shared by conventionally bred plants and animals. If they are going to be allowed on the market then consumers should at the very least know whether or not they are buying and eating them. While it is estimated that 60% of the food on grocery stores shelves in America contain GMOs only 20% of American consumers believe they have eaten food containing GMOs. An informed citizenry is something we should all be able to get behind, regardless of our feelings about whether GMOs are something we personally want to eat or not.

Customer appeals to natural food stores and coops sounds like an easy way to start a market led effort to label GMO foods, raise awareness about their ubiquity in America, and raise awareness of what the certified organic label stands for. A recent New York Times poll suggests that nearly 90% of US consumers want GMO foods labeled. Hopefully the many groups fighting for a regulatory fix find success but in the meantime a little bit of market based pressure from below can only help.

If you want to send your local grocers a copy of the letter you can find it on the OCA site, here: OCA: Open Letter to Natural Food Stores and Coops