To:                Paul Cultrera & Members of the SNFC Board

From:            Mark Blackburn,  6-year Co-op Member

Subject:        Whether to sell red meat at the Co-op

Date:            September 22, 2001

I understand that the co-op must live in a world of economic reality and service to it's customers!

However:

I am just one of a number of shoppers whose main reason for shopping at the Co-op is to NOT be around or near places where meat products with their well-documented health hazards are handled, sliced, packaged, and are placed on checkout conveyers along with the healthy food I choose to buy.

All of the latest studies indicate that eating meat is very hazardous.  In fact, according to most dietary experts, eating meat is the largest single cause of disease and suffering in western societies.  Here, in a country where our Surgeon General says 6 o f the top 10 causes of death are dietary-related, we know there is something very wrong with our meat-centered diets.  

Given a choice, and faced with the facts, how can any informed, moral, thinking person sell a product known as the #1 killer in America?  What is our commitment to the well-being of our members & shoppers, and how might this influence our product line?  I would think we should be considering how to reduce further the non-healthful foods carried at the Co-op, not increase them.

Meat and other incapacitating foods are available at all those 'other stores.'  I urge the Co-op to continue to distinguish itself as a special and healthy niche in the greater marketplace!

Yours for the health of the Co-op and its members,