On rich farmland along the American River and tucked next to Hagan Park is Soil Born Farms, the site of the fifth annual “Day on the Farm.” The May 19 event is billed as an opportunity to “Learn, Eat and Celebrate!” and will feature a fresh farm stand, cooking classes, farms tours, farm animals, plant sale, nature walks, live music, workshops, food, and arts and crafts. At the event, participants can experience Soil Born Farms, which produces certified organic produce for local farm stands, restaurants and grocery stores. Soil Born Farms Urban Agriculture and Education Project was started in 2000 to connect urbanites with healthy, local food. Soil Born Farms also offers experiential farm,

Tequila, tacos, maybe some more tequila—these are but some of the tasty aspects of the quickly-approaching Cinco de Mayo. If you're lucky enough to spend this fifth of May in Sacramento, there's also comedy, music, and more to make your Cinco de Mayo celebration a festive one. In addition to the events below, find even more in Sacramento365.com's Holiday Events section. Laugh a lot: Sacramento Cinco de Mayo Festival: Sleep Train Arena; Sun 6pm Enjoy non-stop laughter on stage with the Latin Stars of Comedy, row after row of low rider cars on display, and Latin All-Stars Band playing all your favorite songs non-stop live. Cinco de Mayo Comedy Jam: Punch Line Comedy Club; Sun 7pm Come c

Mayor Kevin Johnson and the Sacramento City Council have unanimously approved a resolution declaring October 2012 as “Co-op Month” and honoring 2012 as the “Year of Cooperatives” in Sacramento. “Co-ops are a vital part of Sacramento’s economic lifeblood, employing hundreds of workers and injecting millions of dollars into our economy,” said Steven Maviglio, President of the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, one of the largest co-op’s in the city. “We appreciate the recognition by the Mayor and Council of the critical importance of co-ops to our city and nation.” Co-ops are member-owned and controlled businesses that operate for the mutual benefit of members. For more than a century, they h

Soon after we published an article about a community meeting held by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op to present preliminary designs for its new location to residents and and business owners who might be impacted by the move, questions started pouring in, and parking-related questions topped the list. “Why are they building another huge street-fronted parking lot in the urban core,” Sacramento Press reader Tom Runge asked in a story comment. “This will do nothing but create more dead space for the area.” The co-op’s plan to move from its Alhambra Boulevard at S Street location to a new, larger store four blocks away at 28th and R streets has largely received positive feedback, accordin

Preliminary designs for the new Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op at 29th and R streets that will offer shoppers nearly 10,000 additional square feet of store space and more than double the amount of available parking were unveiled to residents and business owners at a community meeting Tuesday at Revolution Wines. “I’m excited for every aspect of it,” said Tahoe Park resident Donna Parten. Parten, a co-op member since the 1970s, said she is looking forward to more parking outside of the new location, and the increased space on the inside – similar to what she experienced at the former Elk Grove co-op location. “I’m hoping it will be spacious and have more room for products so we’re not ru

The slaughterhouse leftovers and trimmings recently tagged as “pink slime” that are present in many meats has brought nationwide attention to the content in store-bought meats, and The Daily published a graphic on Monday showing which large retailers do and don’t stock “pink slime.” The Sacramento Press looked at some local grocery stores and asked if they carry “pink slime,” and other local options, such as Safeway and Target, were included in the larger report. Locally, representatives of both Corti Brothers and the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op said they do not sell “pink slime.” “Corti Brothers grinds its own ground beef,” said Corti Brothers Owner Darrell Corti. “Corti Brothers ha

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op is looking at the possibility of moving its store from the current site at 1900 Alhambra Blvd. to a larger location with more than double the parking at the block that borders R, S, 28th and 29th streets  24th and S streets . Members will vote on the potential move toward the end of March or early April, and if approved, the new store could open in 2014, said Wendy Hoyt, an urban planer who works for the new site’s developer, Separovich/Domich Real Estate Development. Ravel Rasmussen Properties is also part of the development team. Co-op General Manager Paul Cultrera said Tuesday that the proposed move would be advantageous for a number of reasons. “Ou

Neighborhood streets and intersections in Portland, Ore. have become public gathering places and people have reported that they’ve felt much safer in their communities, a testament to community building through the City Repair project – the topic of Mark Lakeman and Marisha Auerbach’s presentation on Permaculture in an urban context Wednesday night, hosted by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. City Repair is a small grassroots nonprofit organization, founded in 1995 in Portland by a group of neighbors, that facilitates multiple “placemaking projects” geared toward reclaiming one's neighborhood and inspiring alternative ways to think about what it means to have a community gathering space

A lawsuit against the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op has been dismissed at the request of those who filed it, members of the co-op who earlier this year sought to ban the sale of Israeli-made products at the grocery store. “We, the petitioners, chose to dismiss this case,” said Sharon Adams, Berkeley-based attorney for Maggie Coulter and Robin Kristufek. The lawsuit, filed June 30, alleged that the co-op’s board was violating its bylaws by not allowing a ballot initiative to ban Israeli-made products to go to a vote by the full membership. The Sacramento County Superior Court denied a request to expedite the case on July 28, which could have brought a resolution in advance of ballots go

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op held a community forum Tuesday night to hear from the five candidates running for the Board of Directors. After the meeting, The Sacramento Press asked attendees for their thoughts on the candidates and the future of the co-op. To read the full recap of the meeting, click here. The responses of the four candidates interviewed are below.   Co-op Candidate Forum Interview with John Boisa from Dora Bromme on Vimeo. John Boisa, director of Jewish Community Relations Council   Co-op Candidate Forum Interview with Curtis Payton from Dora Bromme on Vimeo. Curtis Payton, geologist for US Army Corps of Engineers   Co-op Candidate Forum Interv

Though the financial stability and the future expansion of the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op factored into a board of directors candidates’ forum Tuesday night, it was dominated by another issue that has recently divided the co-op members. The recent efforts to ban Israeli products from co-op shelves has led to discussion over whether a grocery store is the appropriate venue for a political boycott and the power the board of directors has over proposed boycotts. It has even spawned a lawsuit. Five candidates are running for two open spots on the co-op board, and those elected will serve three-year terms. Incumbent board members Alicia Dienst and Ann Richardson are up against Phyllis Eh

David Barton’s opinion piece, “The view from downtown on BDS”, unfortunately relies on considerable misinformation, fact twisting, and ultimately resorts to the weakness of name calling. Mr. Barton says “the Co-op would like to leave politics out” of its choice of products. However, the Co-op makes political decisions all the time about products based on sustainability, supporting local farms, supporting fair trade, etc. Mr. Barton acknowledges that the Co-op is political: "The co-op … is subversive of the whole factory farming, corporate, pesticide-dependent, nonlocal, unsustainable farming and grocery model that many of us grew up with.” This is not an issue about keeping “politics” ou

A request for an expedited hearing by two shoppers suing the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op was denied Thursday, according to court documents, meaning that the case will not be heard before board elections this fall. The lawsuit was brought against the co-op earlier this month and claims that the co-op is not following its bylaws as board members refuse to ban Israeli-made products from the store’s shelves. According to the documents released Thursday, the plaintiffs, Maggie Coulter and Robin Kristufek, “will not suffer irreparable injury if the hearing is heard according to the Court’s normal procedures.” It was unclear Thursday evening when the case will be heard. Had the expedited h

It’s been a popular tactic in grass-roots protest and has been used effectively in the past, particularly against the apartheid regime in South Africa: BDS. It stands for Boycott, Divest, Sanction. But over at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, BDS is coming to mean something different: Bully, Distract and Subvert. Led by Maggie Coulter, a self-described human rights activist, a small group of passionate zealots has consumed the attention of the grocery store’s board, irritated shoppers who have to run a gauntlet of petition-thrusters and could cost the co-op as much as $25,000 of its members’ money. All over bath salts and matzo. Oh, sorry: all over human rights. Coulter is an anti

The ongoing controversy about members’ democratic rights continues with a new twist at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. This week the Co-op Board placed a ballot argument on its website that many of its members are calling a fake. Charles Steven Arevalo is listed as its author. The ballot argument addresses a Board-proposed Bylaws amendment, which would prohibit the Co-op from using criteria related to “political opinion” or “national origin” in making purchasing or any other decisions. The Board's amendment was drafted in apparent response to members, who were trying to put a proposed human rights-based boycott initiative on the Co-op's ballot. “After refusing to allow Sacramento Nat

A group of Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op members who seek to ban Israeli-made products at the store began court proceedings Thursday, saying the co-op’s board is violating its bylaws by not opening the decision to a vote by members. “Our ultimate goal is to have the co-op’s bylaws maintained, and those bylaws require and give members the right to put initiatives on the ballot,” said Maggie Coulter, who sponsored the “Human Rights Initiative.” To read more about the issues behind the legal action, click here. Coulter said Friday that the group filed a writ of mandate in Sacramento County’s court system Thursday in hopes that a judge will require the co-op board to allow the membership t

A proposed amendment to the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op bylaws is being seen by some as a necessary procedure to ensure equality, while others see it as an attempt to take the members’ voice away on certain issues. All 12,000 co-op members will have the chance to vote on the amendment, which must pass with at least a two-thirds majority in the next election cycle, scheduled for late summer or fall, said Board Member and Policy Committee chairwoman Michelle Reynolds. According to Reynolds, the amendment proposed at the June 7 board meeting is a procedural process designed to ensure that the co-op has written anti-discrimination policies in its bylaws after a restructuring of its polici

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op has become a battleground for Middle East politics as some members are trying to get the board of directors to sign off on a boycott of Israeli products. Arguing that Israel is violating human rights by occupying Palestinian territories, the group of members says that the co-op should not sell products from Israel because that supports human rights violations. All co-op members are considered partial owners as well. Co-op General Manager Paul Cultrera said he does not support the boycott in the store. “We’re here to run a store,” he told The Sacramento Press Wednesday. “I think that the issue about Israeli human rights violations – it’s a valid issue.

Watching Maggie Coulter in action at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op becomes a study in the use of propaganda, and a challenge to those of us committed to the idea that reasonable people can work out their differences. The challenge, one soon learns, is that Maggie’s BDS ensemble is simply not available for a reasoned search for agreement. Instead, dialogue is a mere platform for additional misinformation and historical distortion, offered loudly and dramatically, in search of their audience. While it may be tempting to ignore this behavior and hope it goes away, when the lies and distortions get big enough, it is necessary to speak out and help people figure out what’s going on. So, fo

Midtown Deli is expected to open next week at the Alexan Midtown complex. Subcontractor Butch Plank came up with the idea to open an upscale deli when working at the apartment complex while it was under construction in 2009 at the northeast corner of Alhambra Boulevard and S Street. He plans to have a soft opening Monday and Tuesday, followed by a grand opening Wednesday. Plank had a hard time finding sit-down restaurants nearby as he installed all the doors on 275 apartments at the site, which sits across from the California Department of Transportation. The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, which is kitty-corner from the apartment complex, also has a deli with a dining area. But Plank