Submitted by Sally Stovall Over twenty people gathered at Greenline Wheels on May 20th to learn about and talk about the two topics that all life depends on -- safe and healthy food & water. The focus was on the threats that are facing food and water, and also the solutions that are being addressed right here in our community, as well as nationally and globally. Two films, Food Patriots, a work in progress currently under production by local film producer, Jeff Spitz, and Tapped, a film about the bottled water industry were the focus of the gathering.

In the US we often take the availability of safe and healthy food and water for granted, but there are many challenges that face us today when we look at these issues. It is important that we become educated on these topics, and that we take action in our personal lives and as advocates on behalf of wise policies and practices that protect and preserve sustainable food and water systems. For information and resources on these two issues, I highly recommend "Food and Water Watch" Their mission:

Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping the global commons — our shared resources — under public control.

You will find that their web site has great tools resources to help us educate ourselves and our community, for example:

"Take Back the Tap" curriculum for schools and communities,

"Smart Seafood Guide" which gives recommendations & information to help you take into consideration environmental impacts, socio-economic issues & health implications when choosing seafood

"The Meatrix" which offers information on factory farming and alternatives to meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs produced by them.

Contrary to what many people believe about bottled water, bottled water is not safer than tap water.

Bottled water is not safer than tap water. Increasingly, bottled water comes from the tap. Bottled water creates mountains of garbage and causes other major environmental problems. Bottled water is thousands of times more expensive than tap water.Bottled water companies mislead communities into giving away their public water in exchange for dangerous jobs.

Learn more and find resources about this issue and other important Food and Water topics at Food and Water Watch.