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We have until December 12 to comment on the Supplementary Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS)--after that hydrofrack drilling can begin in New York State, unless our comments make it clear that the proposed regulations are not sufficient. Hydrofrack drilling will endanger our water supply, the organic farms we work with upstate, the land of property owners as well as the general environment in New York State. The SGEIS is a large, technical document (several hundred pages). If you can come to one of our upcoming workshops at the Food Coop , we will assist you in writing a letter then and there. If you want to get started writing on your own, here is a valuable resource suggesting the different topics you might want to comment on. If you can, please write to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) now. If the SGEIS is accepted on December 12, gas drilling companies will start drilling. image courtesy of Julian Stark

Slowing Down the DEC on the Fast Track to Frack New York State Governor Cuomo and the Department of Environmental Conservation are putting the Energy Industry on a fast track to frack New York State. Why the hurry ? The NYS DEC recently issued a Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) which, if accepted, will allow hydro-fracking to begin. We have until December 12 to send comments to the DEC. The Environmental Committee is organizing a series of workshops to provide guidance for writing an effective letter to The DEC commenting on their regulations. Individual letters make a difference--the DEC is required to read every one, whereas form letters are merely counted. We will help you complete a letter at the workshop and mail it for you. Stop by at any point during one of the workshop sessions: Saturday, 10/15: 1-3pm Saturday, 10/22: 10am-2pm Sunday, 11/06: 12-2 pm Saturday, 11/19: 2-4 pm Bring friends—coop members and non-members are welcome!

"The question is not 'can you make a difference?' You already do make a difference.  It's just a matter of what kind of difference you want to make, during your life on this planet." -- Julia Butterfly Hill Some coop members are using less plastic these days.  Seven of them were interviewed about what they're doing, how, and why.  Thank you to Anna Amadei, David Barouh, Michael Braudy, Laura Sheinkopf, Moraima Suarez, Majo Tinoco, and Gabriel Willow for generously sharing their experiences and thoughts. The common feature of what these members are doing in the produce and bulk aisles is simple:  they make another choice instead of taking a new plastic bag from the roll.  Either they use no bag or a cloth bag, or re-use an old plastic bag.  Beyond this shared choice, they have individually found other ways to reduce plastic use. Some of what inspired these people to reduce their plastic use:  for Majo, "increasing awareness of the Great P...

Sandra Steingraber is one of my heroes. A bladder cancer survivor at 20 years of age, she went on to get a PhD in biology and devote herself to environmental work. She writes poetry, too, and lives in upstate NY with her family. If you haven't read Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment , I highly recommend it. We just learned that Dr. Steingraber won the Heinz Award: an unrestricted $100,000 cash prize. She has announced that she will use her award to fight hydrofracking. Read her own words about this decision.

Please join us as we partner with Josh Fox, the National Grassroots Coalition, Food and Water Watch, Credo, Democracy for America, Working Families Party, United for Action and many others this Tuesday, September 13th in calling President Obama and telling him we want hydrofracking banned. The threat to our drinking water and our health is unacceptable. Your call does matter. Call the White House at 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414 between 9 am and 5 pm EDT on September 13th. Say, " Hello my name is _, I live in (City, State) and I want fracking banned and a sane, renewable energy policy for this country ". If the phone lines get jammed, send an email through the White House Contact page here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact We need to let President Obama know that Americans do not want fracking.

The Lower East Side Ecology Center is holding 17 electronic waste ("e-waste") recycling events in all five boroughs in September and October . The dates and locations of the Brooklyn are listed below along with links to flyers (PDF) for each event. Please post or distribute flyers to help us get the word about about the event. To see events from other boroughs, look here . All events will be held rain or shine and will run 10am to 4pm (with the exception of the September 20th event which will run 11am to 7pm). Check the list of acceptable materials . They accept electronics from households, small businesses (less than 50 employees, please call ahead) and not-for-profits. They do not accept home appliances such as microwaves, refrigerators, or air conditioners. September 24, 2011 | 10:00am - 4:00pm Directions Flyer Habana Outpost, Fulton St. b/w S. Portland Ave. & S. Oxford St., Brooklyn October 01, 2011 | 10:00am - 4:00pm Directions Flyer Smith Street b/w Presid...

Most people have heard of BPA-free plastic, but a recent study has found that nearly all plastic , even that which claims to be BPA-free, releases chemicals that have estrogenic activity (EA) and cause hormone distruption. Their results found that: "Almost all commercially available plastic products we sampled—independent of the type of resin, product, or retail source—leached chemicals having reliably detectable EA, including those advertised as BPA free. In some cases, BPA-free products released chemicals having more EA than did BPA-containing products." They noted that: "Chemicals having estrogenic activity (EA) reportedly cause many adverse health effects, especially at low (picomolar to nanomolar) doses in fetal and juvenile mammals." Their conclusion indicates that the industry does have access to additives that have no detectable EA and have similar costs. If these were used by the plastics industry, we could: "eliminate a potential health risk po...