Saturday opening times

The coop is now open from 9 am tll 5 pm on Saturdays, with a happy hour for fresh vegetables between 4 and 5 pm. Come and get your wholefoods and organic produce earlier on Saturdays.

tags technorati : organic wholefoods

Meat and global warming

Eating meat contributes more to global warming than all forms of transport put together. The greatest single contribution you can make to a liveable future is to stop eating meat altogether.
Eating animals accounts for 18 percent of global warming emissions, whereas cars, trucks and planes contibute 13 percent. Just as driving a smaller car can make a contribution so can cutting back on meat. If each American skipped one chicken meal per week, it would be equivalent to taking half a million cars off the roads.
The Live Earth Survival Handbook says: “refusing meat” is “the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint”.
If all the 4WD meat eaters of Manly would ride a bicycle and grill vegetables at their BBQ, maybe their children could survive just a little longer in the long hot decades of mega-summer ahead.
image from mnly

Insecticides and the mass death of bees

Researchers have identified an Australian virus as a possible factor in the death of bees. Bees are essential in fruit growing industries to pollenate almonds, apples blue berries and lemons. They are worth $US14 billion to US agriculture.

The honey which is produced by the bees in the American plantations is so heavily contaminated with pesticides that it is treated as a waste product and is not consumable.

Could it be that the death of the bees has something to do with collecting all those toxic substances? Might the toxins make them susceptible to illness, such as viruses? Would the bees be better able to resist illness if they didn't have to carry around so much poison instead of pure pollen and concentrate it in the honeycomb in their hives?

Unpackaged food.

The Manly Food Coop is the place in Manly to buy unpackaged food. As well as fresh food and vegetables from organic farmers, organically grown dried food in bulk and goods in recyclable containers are available. Environmentally-friendly cleaning agents can be purchased in bulk.
Bring your own containers or use recycled containers and environmentally-responsible paper bags at the shop.
Members enjoy shopping at a cheaper rate and energy point can be earned for various jobs which need to be done to further reduce the prices you pay.
Unpackaged goods reduce the load of your shopping on the environment. You don't need to throw away all your containers and buy them again next time.

Larger view
An interactive map of Manly featuring the Manly Food Cooperative is now found in the right sidebar of this blog. You can view it as a traditional map, as a satellite view (sat) or as a hybrid of both (hyb). Zoom in or out to look around the area.

Happy hour for vegetables and fruit

Every Saturday and Thursday between 4 and 6 in the afternoon is happy hour. All fruit and vegetables will be available at a 25% discount at these times.

Thanks to edible culture for the graphic.

World Environment Day Expo Warringah

The Coop had at stall at the Warringah World Environment Day Expo which was held at Dee Why Lagoon on Sunday 27 May 2007.
There were also stalls exhibiting matters of environmental interest such as wildlife and feral animals, frogs, lizards, flying foxes as well as information on sustainable energy and water storage.
This video shows some of the interesting moments at the expo.

Tour of the Co-op

On Sunday 3. June 2007 at 2 pm there will be a tour of the Manly Food Cooperative. This is part of the Manly sustainability events being organised by the Manly Council for that day.
If you would like to come and find out more about the Co-op, please be there on Sunday at 2 pm.
Original graphic deleted.
Thanks to MNLY for this image.

Co-op Community Party

Free!
Everyone welcome
3.00 - 6.00pm
Sunday, 20 May 2007
North Steyne Surf Club
Featuring:

• Great entertainment
• local bands and musicians
• Wonderful food
• Kids activities
• Stalls
• Co-op information
• Healthy eating tips
• Environmental living tips
• Great raffle prizes

For information or to help with the party:
Ring 9976 0115
Email jaimehilbert@yahoo.ca

Bee disappearance and mobile phones

Research has found a link between the disappearance of bees and mobile phone radiation. Mobiles may be the reason why bees cannot find their way home. The towers interfere with their navigation. This suggests that the love of mobile phones may be the reason why there will be serious famines in coming years as food crops are not fertilised.
In addition it is suggested that mobiles will bring a wave of premature senility as current generations of young phone users become middle age, because they kill brain cells.
Finnish research has also established a link between long-term mobile phone use and brain tumours on the side of the brain where the phone is held.
Photo by Yewenyi

Reduce packaging

This video on the effects of plastic packaging on our oceans reinforces the efforts of the coop to reduce waste and bring your own containers.

GM corn linked to bee deaths

A recent study has suggested that the mass deaths of bees in North America and Europe may be linked to genetically modified crops. Bees fed on a diet of GM maize pollen die in large numbers if they are infested by parasites. Healthy bees appear to be not affected.
Bees play a crucial role in agriculture pollenating plants from strawberries, apples and cucumbers to almonds. Without them, the work of bees has to be done by human hand. In the USA, farmers already have to pay bee keepers to bring hives to their crop. Almond growers pay $150 per hive.
The health effect on bees does not occur until the bees are weakened from another source. Similar studies on the effect on unhealthy humans have not been carried out.
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."
Albert Einstein.