Most of our products make great gifts in their own right. We've put together a few combos and priced them for the gift-giving season. And some of our suppliers, like River Chocolates, make special gift boxes which we carry. Please check out the back page for more ideas...

In addition to our regular supply of ground beef, Just Local Food is now offering limited supplies of prime beef cuts from Wheatfield Hill. These items are only available while supplies last. Please call for availability.

Wheatfield Hill Organics certified organic beef is not injected with antibiotics or other drugs, steroids or other growth hormones, implants or genetically modified organisms, nor is it ever irradiated. Our beef graze on native natural pastures from early spring through late fall. During the winter months are beef are fed certified organically grown grains and choice mixed alfalfa hay.

Wheatfield Hill Beef drink year-round from a spring-fed creek and have access to loafing sheds during the winter months. Our cows are not artificially inseminated but rather are naturally bred while on pasture. Calves are born on pasture during the spring and spend nearly the first year suckling at will at their mother's side.

Wheatfield Hill is a fourth generation family farm dedicated to maintaining a sustanable Agri-Culture. If you find beef from corporately owned factory farms or feed lots unhealthy, socially unjust, environmentally unfit and nutritionally unacceptable, then you deserve Wheatfield Hill Beef.

We also have certified organic Festival and Acorn Squash from Wheatfield Hill, while supplies last!

Through our Buying Club you can stock up on organic frozen vegetables from nearby Caledonia, Minnesota. Sno-pac has a full line of frozen vegetables, fruits and berries. For example, organic corn is only about $1.75 for a 10oz bag. Green Beans are on sale in December for $1.35 a bag.

We now stock paper catalogs listing the thousands of grocery and home products available through our wholesaler Natural Farms every four weeks. The paper catalog lists items, manufacturers, case sizes and prices. Their online catalog has much more content, including ingredients, pictures and stock available. They’re $1.50 and you can join our buying club anytime, for free, with no obligations or minimums. Call Crystal for a password at 579-0106.

Most Buying Clubs rely upon volunteers to carry out all of the work involved. The service we offer is different in that the only responsibility our members have is ordering and paying for their food on time. We take care of the rest. The Just Local Food Coop includes a very small markup on all of your Natural Farms purchases. This markup helps cover some of the costs, but not all. We're told that's not good business practice, but we trust that by keeping our markup low we can help more people to buy more food, and eventually the small markup will cover our costs.

We've discovered that the most costly and labor intensive part of our buying club is delivery. Storing that much food, even temporarily, is hard to do without oversized freezers and coolers. To help, we've recently moved into a warehouse in downtown Eau Claire that will serve as the distribution point for the Natural Farms Buying Club. Starting in December, we are asking our buying club members to pick up their order at our warehouse on delivery day between 4:30 and 6:30pm. If that is not possible, we will arrange for delivery of your order for a flat fee of $5.

What could be wrong with farming in concert with nature­eliminating toxic agrichemicals and the use of genetically engineered crops? Well, plenty if you are a CEO at Monsanto, Dupont, or any number of other "life-sciences" companies that have invested in an escalating smear campaign aimed at discrediting organic farming. Promulgated by such well-funded surrogates as the right-wing Hudson Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the American Chemical Society, these multinational corporations can’t stand that consumers are voting with their pocketbooks because of their discomfort with conventional farming practices and have turned organic food marketing from a small, eclectic niche into the fastest growing segment of the food industry, with over $12 billion in sales this year.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." The agrichemical industry is definitely itching for a fight.

Spreading animal manure on farm fields to renew soil fertility is one organic agricultural practice that’s under attack. Never mind that over 90% of all manure is spread on conventional farm fields or that organic farmers took the lead in developing strict limitations governing the use of raw manure.

The Hudson Institute charges that manure use increases the incidence of food-borne diseases. Hudson’s claim completely twists the results of a recent independent University of Minnesota study that found no statistically different risk in the pathogenic contamination of certified organic food verses its conventionally produced counterparts, according to lead author, Dr. Francisco Diez-Gonzalez.

In fact, according to Dr. Diez-Gonzalez, he had a very "heated discussion" with a Hudson Institute representative who was dissatisfied with the study’s findings and who told the researcher, "you are wrong." One concept we might agree on is that more research is required in order to measure chemical residues on all food products and to determine the consequences of eating those contaminants. However, in the midst of the attacks against organic, is it useful to demean those of us who do not use chemicals on the food we eat or produce for others? Why are we the ones who have got it wrong, when history overwhelmingly indicates that we are prudent to be cautious?

The chemicals used in conventional agriculture are considered highly toxic by themselves and have been proven to be unhealthful, even minute doses or as residues, no matter whether one is reviewing cancer studies, endocrine systems research, or environmental data. Pesticides and herbicides are designed to kill things, and they sometimes kill things unintentionally. Farmers (who have the highest occupational cancer rate in the country) and farm workers continue to be at risk from these chemicals, but there is little danger from the botanical pesticides organic farmers infrequently utilize.

Millions of us are also concerned that synthetic agricultural chemicals may be contributing to, or causing outright, a host of life-shortening illnesses and conditions, so we have elected to minimize exposure to such substances. It’s that simple. This is why many of the synthetic substances used in the 1960s and 1970s have been banned and why more are now listed for prohibition. Continued prohibitions have been incentives for many farming operations to adopt low-input and conservative pest management strategies in order to learn to farm without damaging health or the environment.

Large-scale conventional farms that have been experimenting with organic management are now adopting some of these methods on their conventional acreage because they are good agronomy, not because cover cropping, leaving land fallow, crop-based remediation, and beneficial insect habitats are trendy. Many new-generation organic growers are attracted to nonchemical farming because it promotes creativity and reestablishes agriculture as an art, not merely a form of manufacturing ­ the fact that organic farmers are fairly paid is just icing on the cake.

Most farmers relish their relationship with nature, which is one reason why they are farmers. Organic practices empower that relationship and make the environment a safer one for workers, neighbors, and consumers. We consumers pay into that partnership every time we buy a product grown without toxic chemicals. We buy organic foods not simply for their own sake, but because of concerns outside our own personal circle.

We’re glad there are a lot of fair trade and organic sources for coffee here in Eau Claire. The Coffee grounds is a fair-trade roaster now, and we applaud them for that. At Just Local Food, we wondered how "local" can coffee really get? Enter the non-profit organization, Farmer to Farmer (F2F).

Based in nearby Glenwood City, F2F offers good prices on quality coffee. Better yet, F2F offers a genuine, caring relationship between you and the coffee growers in Central America. I’ll be reprinting a recent trip report from F2F in the next JLN. Below is their mission:

Farmer to Farmer is organized to build mutual friendship and cultural understanding among rural people so that we might better understand and accompany each other in our common struggles. We seek to promote peace within ourselves, within our community, and across international boundaries.We envision agriculture that is sustainable and respectful of the earth, and one that remains in the hands of the people who live on and work the land. We support grassroots agricultural projects that are democratically initiated and managed. Always, our decisions about a project will be guided by the respect that characterizes the relationship between friends. As an organization, we affirm the sacredness of the earth and shall work for and respect the rights of all people and cultures to self-determination.

Thanks to those who responded to our requests in the last News, we sure appreciate the electrician referrals, reception desk and milk spill towels. Speaking of those towels, we put them to good use last week. While Jordan was at a customer’s door, I was arranging milk in the back of the truck. A full crate slipped from my grasp and fell six inches to the floor, just enough to crack two of the six bottles in the case. Thanks to those old bath towels I was able to contain and remediate the spill. Well, some milk did drip in the customer’s driveway. Sorry about that again, Patti!

As always, let us know if you can help or know someone who can! Here goes: