The slaughterhouse leftovers and trimmings recently tagged as “pink slime” that are present in many meats has brought nationwide attention to the content in store-bought meats, and The Daily published a graphic on Monday showing which large retailers do and don’t stock “pink slime.” The Sacramento Press looked at some local grocery stores and asked if they carry “pink slime,” and other local options, such as Safeway and Target, were included in the larger report. Locally, representatives of both Corti Brothers and the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op said they do not sell “pink slime.” “Corti Brothers grinds its own ground beef,” said Corti Brothers Owner Darrell Corti. “Corti Brothers ha

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op is looking at the possibility of moving its store from the current site at 1900 Alhambra Blvd. to a larger location with more than double the parking at the block that borders R, S, 28th and 29th streets  24th and S streets . Members will vote on the potential move toward the end of March or early April, and if approved, the new store could open in 2014, said Wendy Hoyt, an urban planer who works for the new site’s developer, Separovich/Domich Real Estate Development. Ravel Rasmussen Properties is also part of the development team. Co-op General Manager Paul Cultrera said Tuesday that the proposed move would be advantageous for a number of reasons. “Ou

Neighborhood streets and intersections in Portland, Ore. have become public gathering places and people have reported that they’ve felt much safer in their communities, a testament to community building through the City Repair project – the topic of Mark Lakeman and Marisha Auerbach’s presentation on Permaculture in an urban context Wednesday night, hosted by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. City Repair is a small grassroots nonprofit organization, founded in 1995 in Portland by a group of neighbors, that facilitates multiple “placemaking projects” geared toward reclaiming one's neighborhood and inspiring alternative ways to think about what it means to have a community gathering space

A lawsuit against the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op has been dismissed at the request of those who filed it, members of the co-op who earlier this year sought to ban the sale of Israeli-made products at the grocery store. “We, the petitioners, chose to dismiss this case,” said Sharon Adams, Berkeley-based attorney for Maggie Coulter and Robin Kristufek. The lawsuit, filed June 30, alleged that the co-op’s board was violating its bylaws by not allowing a ballot initiative to ban Israeli-made products to go to a vote by the full membership. The Sacramento County Superior Court denied a request to expedite the case on July 28, which could have brought a resolution in advance of ballots go

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op held a community forum Tuesday night to hear from the five candidates running for the Board of Directors. After the meeting, The Sacramento Press asked attendees for their thoughts on the candidates and the future of the co-op. To read the full recap of the meeting, click here. The responses of the four candidates interviewed are below.   Co-op Candidate Forum Interview with John Boisa from Dora Bromme on Vimeo. John Boisa, director of Jewish Community Relations Council   Co-op Candidate Forum Interview with Curtis Payton from Dora Bromme on Vimeo. Curtis Payton, geologist for US Army Corps of Engineers   Co-op Candidate Forum Interv

Though the financial stability and the future expansion of the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op factored into a board of directors candidates’ forum Tuesday night, it was dominated by another issue that has recently divided the co-op members. The recent efforts to ban Israeli products from co-op shelves has led to discussion over whether a grocery store is the appropriate venue for a political boycott and the power the board of directors has over proposed boycotts. It has even spawned a lawsuit. Five candidates are running for two open spots on the co-op board, and those elected will serve three-year terms. Incumbent board members Alicia Dienst and Ann Richardson are up against Phyllis Eh

David Barton’s opinion piece, “The view from downtown on BDS”, unfortunately relies on considerable misinformation, fact twisting, and ultimately resorts to the weakness of name calling. Mr. Barton says “the Co-op would like to leave politics out” of its choice of products. However, the Co-op makes political decisions all the time about products based on sustainability, supporting local farms, supporting fair trade, etc. Mr. Barton acknowledges that the Co-op is political: "The co-op … is subversive of the whole factory farming, corporate, pesticide-dependent, nonlocal, unsustainable farming and grocery model that many of us grew up with.” This is not an issue about keeping “politics” ou

A request for an expedited hearing by two shoppers suing the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op was denied Thursday, according to court documents, meaning that the case will not be heard before board elections this fall. The lawsuit was brought against the co-op earlier this month and claims that the co-op is not following its bylaws as board members refuse to ban Israeli-made products from the store’s shelves. According to the documents released Thursday, the plaintiffs, Maggie Coulter and Robin Kristufek, “will not suffer irreparable injury if the hearing is heard according to the Court’s normal procedures.” It was unclear Thursday evening when the case will be heard. Had the expedited h

It’s been a popular tactic in grass-roots protest and has been used effectively in the past, particularly against the apartheid regime in South Africa: BDS. It stands for Boycott, Divest, Sanction. But over at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, BDS is coming to mean something different: Bully, Distract and Subvert. Led by Maggie Coulter, a self-described human rights activist, a small group of passionate zealots has consumed the attention of the grocery store’s board, irritated shoppers who have to run a gauntlet of petition-thrusters and could cost the co-op as much as $25,000 of its members’ money. All over bath salts and matzo. Oh, sorry: all over human rights. Coulter is an anti

The ongoing controversy about members’ democratic rights continues with a new twist at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. This week the Co-op Board placed a ballot argument on its website that many of its members are calling a fake. Charles Steven Arevalo is listed as its author. The ballot argument addresses a Board-proposed Bylaws amendment, which would prohibit the Co-op from using criteria related to “political opinion” or “national origin” in making purchasing or any other decisions. The Board's amendment was drafted in apparent response to members, who were trying to put a proposed human rights-based boycott initiative on the Co-op's ballot. “After refusing to allow Sacramento Nat

A group of Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op members who seek to ban Israeli-made products at the store began court proceedings Thursday, saying the co-op’s board is violating its bylaws by not opening the decision to a vote by members. “Our ultimate goal is to have the co-op’s bylaws maintained, and those bylaws require and give members the right to put initiatives on the ballot,” said Maggie Coulter, who sponsored the “Human Rights Initiative.” To read more about the issues behind the legal action, click here. Coulter said Friday that the group filed a writ of mandate in Sacramento County’s court system Thursday in hopes that a judge will require the co-op board to allow the membership t

A proposed amendment to the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op bylaws is being seen by some as a necessary procedure to ensure equality, while others see it as an attempt to take the members’ voice away on certain issues. All 12,000 co-op members will have the chance to vote on the amendment, which must pass with at least a two-thirds majority in the next election cycle, scheduled for late summer or fall, said Board Member and Policy Committee chairwoman Michelle Reynolds. According to Reynolds, the amendment proposed at the June 7 board meeting is a procedural process designed to ensure that the co-op has written anti-discrimination policies in its bylaws after a restructuring of its polici

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op has become a battleground for Middle East politics as some members are trying to get the board of directors to sign off on a boycott of Israeli products. Arguing that Israel is violating human rights by occupying Palestinian territories, the group of members says that the co-op should not sell products from Israel because that supports human rights violations. All co-op members are considered partial owners as well. Co-op General Manager Paul Cultrera said he does not support the boycott in the store. “We’re here to run a store,” he told The Sacramento Press Wednesday. “I think that the issue about Israeli human rights violations – it’s a valid issue.

Watching Maggie Coulter in action at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op becomes a study in the use of propaganda, and a challenge to those of us committed to the idea that reasonable people can work out their differences. The challenge, one soon learns, is that Maggie’s BDS ensemble is simply not available for a reasoned search for agreement. Instead, dialogue is a mere platform for additional misinformation and historical distortion, offered loudly and dramatically, in search of their audience. While it may be tempting to ignore this behavior and hope it goes away, when the lies and distortions get big enough, it is necessary to speak out and help people figure out what’s going on. So, fo

Midtown Deli is expected to open next week at the Alexan Midtown complex. Subcontractor Butch Plank came up with the idea to open an upscale deli when working at the apartment complex while it was under construction in 2009 at the northeast corner of Alhambra Boulevard and S Street. He plans to have a soft opening Monday and Tuesday, followed by a grand opening Wednesday. Plank had a hard time finding sit-down restaurants nearby as he installed all the doors on 275 apartments at the site, which sits across from the California Department of Transportation. The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, which is kitty-corner from the apartment complex, also has a deli with a dining area. But Plank

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op is the best place in the state to purchase sustainable seafood, and No. 2 in the nation, according to Greenpeace. “(The co-op) is one of those great stores that has taken amazing steps in realizing that sustainable seafood is incredibly important,” said Casson Trenor, seafood campaigner for Greenpeace. Greenpeace ranks the 20 biggest grocery store chains on how sustainable their seafood is, and Trenor said some smaller grocers are included as well due to their commitment to ensuring seafood is sustainable. Sustainable seafood is seafood that is not being overfished or fished in hazardous ways that deplete the ocean’s stocks or destroy the environment.

A small group of 15 escaped the cold darkness of Alhambra Boulevard as they stepped into the Natural Foods Co-Op Learning Center and Cooking School Monday night. The class settled into four set tables for the “Curries From Around the World” class. Dionisio Esperas instructed the class and taught four recipes: Indian lamb vindaloo; gaeng mussamun; Indonesian chicken and lemongrass curry; and crab ginataan. The place settings included a cooking class pamphlet, a recipe pamphlet, evaluation form and coupon for Natural Foods Co-op. “It seems like there are always people who wanted to learn how to make curries,” Esperas said. He is the co-owner of A Healthy Kitchen with his wife, Terese. He

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op brought a fresh perspective to sustainable farming last Friday. Forty community members gathered for a screening of “Fresh: The movie”— a film by Ana Sofia Jones that focuses on sustainable agriculture. Proceeds from the film sales will benefit the co-op’s One Farm at a Time project. The documentary follows sustainable farmers in America, including pig farmers, chicken farmers and an urban farmer  who farms in the middle of a metropolitan city, to demonstrate the contrast to industrial mass-produced agriculture. “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” author Michael Pollan said in the film that “cheap food is an illusion.” Feed lots used in factory farming that hold

There were several Earth Day celebrations and events Thursday. One of the biggest and most successful was the official City of Sacramento Earth Day Celebration. The event was held at Cesar Chavez Park and in the plaza of City Hall. An estimated 3,500 people of all ages attend this years' event. It was supported by Mayor Kevin Johnson and the City Council. The City of Sacramento Neighborhood Services Department organized the event.   I spoke with Neighborhood Services Department Director Vincene Jones. Jones and her staff started back in January giving early notice to Sacramento area schools, informing them of the event and its value as a field trip. Local media was enlisted to help get t

Attention Bargain Shoppers: the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op is launching "Anti-Depression Fridays" where shoppers (including non-members) can get 10 percent off everything in the store. This Friday, April 2nd, is the first of what the Co-op hopes will be an effort to help families on a budget. And they're having a little fun with the promotion: "The all natural stimulant for your economic blues!," says its flyer. "Possible side effects may include: healthier diet, tastier meals, more money in your pocket, fewer chemicals in your body." The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op has, according to Yelp! comments, the best natural foods selection in the city, as well as the best local produce. A