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1. Thanksgiving Blessings For All
2. Corngrowers Form Wind Power Coalition
3. EPA Launches On-Line Facility Database
4. This Thanksgiving Buy Organic

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When you sit down to dinner this Thanksgiving try this simple practice. Before you start eating, study your food and try to trace its path on the way to your plate. It's a simple game you can play with yourself or your kids. Begin with any dish. How was the food prepared and who cooked it? Where did they buy it? If you don't know this part, make up a likely scenario and keep going back.

What store was it purchased at? Who processed and packaged the food; how far was it transported? Imagine the vehicles, the trains, the trucks and the tractors. Did it come from another country? Then, think about the farmer. Who were they? How was the food grown and harvested? Was it raised on a family farm? Don't stop there. What did the seeds look like -- the soil, the fertilizer?

Imagine the intricate photosynthesis with the plant transmuting energy from the sun into calories - into carrots, peas and potatoes. See the plant or animal growing, maturing. Imagine its mother, the rain that fell, the color of the soil, the synthesizing of nitrogen into proteins, carbohydrates, sugars. When you finish, sit back and take stock. Assess as best you can how the production of this food treated the Earth, the wildlife and those who grew and transported it to you. Thanksgiving reminds us this food is a blessing to eat.

Was growing it a blessing to the land, its inhabitants and all who participated? As your food dollar supports this process three times every day, the conclusions you make may radically alter what you eat.

The American Corn Growers Association announced last week the formation of the American Agriculture Wind Coalition. This initiative is intended to "bring many of the nation's farm and commodity associations to speak with one voice on various issues surrounding wind development," according to Dan McGuire, ACGA's director of wind power programs. The coalition intends to facilitate development of new windpower projects authorized by the Energy Title of the 2002 Farm Bill, and also to guard against cuts in funding for the new program. For more information, please visit http://www.acga.org/news/.

The Environmental Protection Agency last week announced the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO), a searchable database "that gives the public and industry direct access to the current environmental compliance record of more than 800,000 regulated facilities nationwide." ECHO's web site allows users to search for facilities in their community to determine weather: 1) EPA or State/local governments have conducted compliance inspections, 2) violations were detected, or 3) enforcement actions were taken and penalties were assessed in response to environmental law violations. The website searches by zip code or city and state, with advanced search options that allow searches by facility name, county, EPA region, and specific permit type or violation history criteria. The EPA is accepting comments on the database until January 19, 2002. ECHO is available at http://www.epa.gov/echo/.

Thanksgiving is a stark reminder how much food production in our country has changed. Where starving pilgrims once bowed in gratitude, well-fed Americans now expectantly graze supermarket aisles. Moreover, modern industrialized food production reveals a legacy of polluted rivers, toxic sludge, poisoned wildlife, escalating antibiotic resistance, viral mutations, dismal confinements and the global dessication of family farm agriculture. The one bright spot on the horizon is family farm organic production. Methods used in organic production produce few of the ills mentioned above and offer the local consumer a way to support local producers. This Thanksgiving buy organic. If you want to find a grower near you and buy from them directly, see the Organic Consumer Associations web page at: http://organicconsumers.org/linkusdamkt.cfm.