Our Philosophy

Ethics | Local Products | GE Free | Take Action

Ethics and Commitment: Safe Food, Healthy Earth

Your eating choices can be a powerful form of personal activism.  Whether by supporting organics, avoiding genetically-engineered (GE) foods, choosing fair trade or local food, following a vegan or vegetarian diet, or buying food from independent companies, you are making a statement about the kind of world you’d like to live in. Season's Harvest was founded by individuals who understood that their own simple daily decisions could help make a better world, one little bit at a time, and we strive to perpetuate this legacy. 

Local Products

We love being able to offer as many locally produced items as possible!  You’ll notice this as soon as you enter our produce department, where we feature fresh greens, produce and dairy products grown and raised at family farms located in the Ridgway and Montrose areas.

Why local?

As a business located in a small remote community, it’s important to us to support the local economy.  We also are in favor of cutting down on the environmental strains involved in importing goods across distances—it’s simpler and smarter to get it from our own backyard when we can.  And, of course local items are always fresher and more delicious!

If you have a local product you’d like to see at Season's Harvest, please let us know by stopping in, calling, or sending us an email from our contact page.

GE-Free
What is Genetic Engineering?

Genetic Engineering is a process by which genes are taken from one species and inserted into another in an attempt to transfer a desired trait.  It is different from traditional forms of breeding in that it doesn’t adhere to the confines of natural possibility.  For example, in traditional breeding practices, two types of tomatoes can be crossed to form a new tomato, and this could happen in nature (without human interference) as well.  On the other hand, with genetic engineering, the anti-freeze gene from a fish can be inserted into a tomato.  Such experiments alter DNA beyond the scope of nature, and the repercussions are uncertain.

While it is not yet clear how safe genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are for human consumption, it is becoming increasingly apparent that they are not at all safe for the environment.  GE species such as Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Corn (which was genetically engineered to be tolerant to greater quantities of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready pesticide) have been documented to contaminate traditional strains of corn in neighboring fields.  Because pollination occurs beyond human control (e.g. through wind and birds), there is no way to confine GE crops once they are being grown out in the open, and therefore genetic diversity is at risk.

Finally, large biotech corporations such as Monsanto are using genetic engineering to literally patent life, attempting to gain control over the genetic wealth of the planet.  For this and the other reasons described above, Season's Harvest supports the perspective that genetic engineering is a threat to traditionally-proven, safe food production, and we do not carry any products known to contain GE ingredients. 

As of fall 2005, according to The Campaign (http://www.thecampaign.org), the crops currently being genetically engineered for public consumption are soybeans, corn, cotton, canola, rice, and Hawaiian papayas.  Keep in mind that soy and corn especially are used to make many derivative products (e.g. soy lecithin, corn starch, etc.).  As we engage in the ongoing project of updating our educational shelf tags at the Co-op, we keep an eye out for these ingredients, and we communicate with our manufacturers to determine whether or not they are GE-free.  When products containing ingredients at risk for genetic engineering are not guaranteed GE-free by their manufacturer, we discontinue them.
 

Take Action

To learn more about genetic engineering, please visit
http://www.organicconsumers.org/

Find out how to support current food safety and sustainability campaigns:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/

Learn more about preserving our precious water resources:
http://waterkeeper.org/

Why vegan?  Find out at:
http://www.veganoutreach.org

Support fair trade, and learn more about why:
http://transfairusa.org/
 

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