By Robin Ostfeld,
Blue Heron Farm

Everyone who has the opportunity should grow some of his or her own food. Even if it’s just a container with herbs or a single tomato plant, it’s worthwhile to grow something. Of course, I’m biased. Plants play a huge role in my own life, being both my livelihood and my hobby.  But there are so many reasons to get your hand dirty!

One morning last summer, a friend brought a copy of the magazine Discover to the farm. In it was an article that linked contact with soil bacteria to the release of serotonin in the brain.  In other words, inhaling or touching the soil bacteria (called mycobacterium vaccae) can cause a peaceful state of mind or, in a depressed person, an alleviation of the symptoms of depression. Wow! A new reason to garden! Not only is it good for the environment (there’s no food more local than that which you pick from your own backyard) and personal health (from the standpoint of the exercise involved and the fact that fresh picked produce has the highest amount of nutrients), but now it’s been shown to promote mental health as well! Of course, I knew it all along.

By Kristie Snyder,
Marketing Assistant

Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!

—James Oppenheim, from a 1911 poem supporting a Lawrence, Massachusetts textile worker’s strike

The workers that James Oppenheim’s poem paid tribute to were mostly immigrant women, who fed their families mainly—and meagerly—on a diet of bread. They were striking, ultimately unsuccessfully, against a pay cut. Starving was a very real threat; presumably they were less worried about their hearts. But the “bread and roses” quote endures—a testament to the power that the beauty of flowers holds.

Today, it’s South American flower workers, most of whom are also women, who might well be seeking “bread and roses.” Amy Garbincus, a flower and vegetable farmer at Three Sisters Farm and GreenStar Wellness staffer, says she is often asked, “Who cares if flowers are organic?”

By Brandon Kane, Jason Blake-Beach and Michael Hoysic, Council-Management Liaisons; and
Dan Hoffman (President) and Claudia Stoscheck (Personnel Committee chair) for GreenStar Council
              

April 15, 2008

Thank you to all co-op and community members who have voiced their concern about GreenStar’s recent decision-making process regarding GreenStar Oasis. We appreciate your active engagement; it is gratifying to know we live in a community so willing to support its members when they see a need. That being said, we see from some of the communications about this situation that many people have incorrect, incomplete or out-of-date information.  Some messages circulated via listserves and other means have oversimplified a complicated situation. This joint Council/Management statement represents our effort to provide a clarified and more complete picture of how we got to this point and where things stand now.

The good news is that there is a solid plan to keep GreenStar Oasis open and move the store toward financial sustainability, that this plan is being continuously improved as a result of constructive input from affected staff and others, and that while staffing for GreenStar Oasis will be restructured in order to bring costs in line with revenues, all GreenStar Oasis employees who want to continue to work at GreenStar will have a job, and any reduction in hours or pay for those staff will be minimized.