TAKE ACTION! Still Time Left to Speak Out About FDA's Draft Guidance Forcing All Chickens to be Raised INDOORS!!

At Wise Coffee, we take our role as members of the organic, sustainable food movement very seriously.  Nothing is more important to us - and to our customers - than to provide a product that is unadulterated and produced sustainably and responsibly and in a way that protects our environment.  As part of what we do, we stay informed about the government's role in protecting - or potentially destroying - our efforts to maintain good and trustworthy food supplies.  It's our responsibility to speak out about injustices that we find and to call upon our customers, friends, colleagues and fellow members of the sustainable food movement to take action wherever possible.

In an article on NaturalNews.com entitled "FDA targets free-range, pastured poultry and eggs with ridiculous new draft guidance pushing for all chickens to be raised indoors," they expose an FDA threat to the pastured poultry and eggs.  According to NaturalNews.com, "America's small farmers are once again under attack, this time by a new draft guidance issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that threatens to eliminate truly free-range and pastured poultry and eggs. Entitled 'Questions and Answers Regarding the Final Rule, Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs During Production, Storage, and Transportation,' the new agency report basically suggests that all egg producers with 3,000 or more laying hens be forced to raise their birds indoors to avoid bacterial contamination, which would eliminate consumer access to chicken and eggs from birds raised naturally outdoors on pasture."

If put into law, this change would effectively shut down the free-range and pastured poultry and egg small farmers throughout the United States!

The good news is that there is STILL TIME TO ACT!  "This new FDA guidance is only a draft," says NaturalNews.com, "which means the agency is still receiving public comments on the issue. This means that, as an advocate of natural health, you have the opportunity to help guide the process along and ensure that pasture-based egg and poultry producers are not unfairly targeted and forced to convert their methods to unscientific ones that have been concocted to reflect the interests of factory producers.

You can urge the FDA to reevaluate its position on pastured poultry and instead go after the factory-scale producers responsible for nearly all disease outbreaks by submitting a comment through the Federal Register. The FDA will accept public comments on this issue until September 23, 2013:
http://www.regulations.gov

You can also take action through this ANH-USA comment submission portal:
http://www.regulations.gov."

Please join Wise Coffee in taking action today.  Don't let this draft go through.  We have to work together to make sure that we protect pastured poultry from the irresponsible and profit-driven conventional factory farming practices that pervade throughout the US.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041996_FDA_free-range_poultry_pastured_chicken.html#ixzz2ed6JJVCC

What Coffee Has to Do With BIRDS...

All of us know about organic coffee, fair trade coffee, and the importance of shopping your conscience with the right product companies.  Those in the know only purchase coffee that can show certifications that they are organic and fair trade. 

There is also shade grown coffee, which is as very close to natural coffee growing conditions.  Coffee is actually a shade crop.  Growning in natural shade and environmental conditions not only produces a better cup of coffee, it also protects the wildlife and ecosystem that support the coffee crops and ensure a long and fruitful future coffee crop for all of us to enjoy - without destrying the ecosystem in which this crop (and the people who live and work in the regions) exists.  Unfortunately, there has been no certification or oversight for shade grown verification of coffee crops -- until now! 

The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) has developed the only 100%-organic shade-grown coffee certification.  According to the SMBC, "Every day more and more coffee plantations are being certified with the SMBC "Bird Friendly®" seal of approval because it is the only 100%-organic shade-grown coffee certification available."

But what do birds have to do with coffee?  "In the time that it takes you to drink your next cup of coffee, acres of tropical forest will be lost. Along with it will go the birds and other wildlife that depend on it."

Thanks to the SMBC, Shade-grown organic coffee plantations carrying the "Bird Friendly®" seal of approval "play a key role in the conservation of our global environment and of migratory birds that find sanctuary in their forest-like environments." 

Wise Coffee is currently working with the SMBC to be certified and approved by them to carry the SMBC seal of approval.  This includes donating back to the SMBC a percentage of all coffee purchsed and sold by Wise Coffee, as well as working with them to promote their vital message. 

We current offer Colombian Sierra Nevada SMBC coffee to our private clients and via our website at www.wisecoffee.com.  More SMBC coffees are being added this Spring to our inventory.

To learn more about SMBC coffee and how you can become active in promoting their message of ecological responsibility and hope for the future of shade-grown and organic coffee production around the planet, please visit their site at http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/coffee/default.cfm.