Greetings and thanks for writing. As usual, suggestions and responses may have been edited for brevity, clarity and/or comedy. In addition, no idea, concept, issue, remark, phrase, description of event, word or word string should be taken seriously. This also applies to the previous sentence.

This past month, our IT staff provided the option for member shoppers to get their receipts emailed to them after each transaction. You can also see transactions via the Online Member Center, in the “My Purchases” section (www.weaversway.coop and click on “Member Center” at top of the screen — you’ll have to log in). This is a bigger deal than it first appears because receipt paper is pretty bad. Most receipt printers today use thermal paper, basically a printing process that uses paper with a coating that turns black when heated. The problem is the coating contains either BPA (bisphenol A) or its cousin, BPS (bisphenol S). A number of studies have shown significantly elevated levels of BPA in people who handle this paper a lot, and there is evidence that BPA is a hormone disrupter with negative effects on health. People like cashiers are at higher risk, but anyone handling receipt paper is subject to potentially elevated levels. Apparently if your hands already have oil on them (from handling food or using sanitizer or hand cream), you absorb even more. Gloves help. Some receipt paper is labeled “BPA-Free,” but that can be a bit of marketing ploy, as BPS is substituted and is reported to be just about as bad. 

At the Co-op, we did experiment with some truly BPA- and BPS-free paper last year, but customers complained the printing was too light and faded quickly, so we went back to “BPA-Free.” We are looking at some samples of another “phenol-free” paper; hopefully we can switch to that. 

Remember paper, all paper, uses resources, even if it’s recycled, because so much energy and water and chemicals go into paper manufacturing. So, now you have an opportunity to skip having a receipt printed, and still have a receipt. You can turn on email receipts for your household via the Member Center. Just click on Edit Details under My Household. Select a cooperator to edit; the “Get Email Receipts” option is near the bottom. Saves paper, saves toxic chemicals, saves energy — seems worth doing.

Also in the news this past month was a recall of sunflower seeds by SunOpta, a very large natural and organic commodity food company. Recalls are very revealing. Sometimes it’s difficult to find out who is actually making all the products we stock. For example, although we’ve adopted the Field Day line as part of our Co-op Basics discount program, and although Field Day products seem to be of good quality and reasonably priced, we don’t really know who is making all of them, so we can’t really find out about things like labor practices, environmental stewardship and other things that we care about. It’s sometimes difficult to get information because it’s proprietary, or just takes too much digging. But ironically, one way we do find out who makes food products is when there are recalls. Although most people have never heard of SunOpta, the recall affected many familiar items containing sunflower seeds, including brands like Trader Joe’s, Giant Eagle, Kroger and Planter’s, and our own bulk roasted and salted sunflower seeds. Another revealing recent recall was by CRF Frozen Foods, which affected 358 products under 42 different brands, mostly house brands like Trader Joe’s, Safeway and Costco. 

Recalls offer a glimpse into our heavily concentrated and industrialized food system. You start to see that many of the over 40,000 products stocked in a typical supermarket use ingredients from a comparatively small number of growers, importers, processors and manufacturers. This is one of the reasons dealing directly and/or locally is valuable, because you get to know who (and what) is involved in producing the products.

suggestions and responses:

s: “Would love to have another option for gluten-free bread besides Udi’s in Mt. Airy. They have Amaranth at our Chestnut Hill store. Thanks!”

r:  (Matt MA) Take a look above the bagel bins for locally baked gluten-free bread from Amaranth every day and Taffet’s on the weekends.

s: “Any chance we’d add Udi’s gluten-free Flax etc. — purple-label bread? CH carries it but Mt. Airy is more convenient for me!”

r: (Kathryn MA) Thanks for the suggestion, we’ll add it to the wish list, but Udi’s products sell very slowly here. It’s unlikely we’d add it without a lot of shopper interest. 

s: “Can we carry Helen’s Sun Dried tomato and basil hummus? Maybe it could replace the jalapeno hummus. We have other spicy and hot types of hummus. How about more things for those of us who dislike the heat? Also, how about some organic pears? I would like organic Bartletts.”

r: (Kathryn MA) Thanks for the hummus suggestion, I’ll add it to our wish list. (Jean MA) We do carry organic Red Bartlett pears.

s: “Please carry the divine chocolate sorbets from Zsa’s ice cream. So many of us are dairy-free and deprived of these extraordinary treats!”

r: (Kathryn MA) When we carried Zsa’s chocolate before, it didn’t sell well. Maybe it’s time to try it again. We’re also bringing in another non-dairy chocolate dessert — Larry & Luna’s dark chocolate.

s: “Could we stock Artisan Pasta Cheese Ravioli? They are so good!”

r: (Kathryn MA) Thanks for the suggestion! We currently carry it at our Farm Market at Saul High School, open Tuesday (noon-7 p.m.) and Friday (noon-6 p.m.) through October. Otherwise we rotate them in with the other varieties.

s: “The Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy co-ops used to carry soy candles made by Zia. Their vanilla candles were the best, and far too inexpensive for the quality of the product. I bought the last two just before the holidays and then the Zia candles disappeared. I am trying to find out where they have gone or whether they will be back.”

r: (Amira CH) We still carry the Zia candles at Next Door. (Lisa MA) Across the Way discontinued them when we cut back a bit on candles. Unsure if we'll be reordering, but it's good to get this feedback.

s: “I was thinking of getting some backyard chickens but I am allergic to eggs. Are there chickens that produce egg-free eggs?”

r: (Norman) “Egg” is such a bizarre word, no wonder you’re allergic. We frown on shoppers having backyard chickens as it cuts into our egg sales. In business, more is usually better — more sales, more products, more profit. Even though we benefit from shoppers buying chicken feed, it’s not enough to offset the potential loss of egg sales. If people started producing more of their own food, where would that leave grocery stores? Not to mention the entire supply chain — backyard chickens and gardens don’t require packaging, transportation, high-tech refrigeration and the people and systems to manage it all. People providing for themselves is not economically sustainable, hence we’re offering our political support to the first candidate that proclaims a campaign slogan of “a factory-farmed, plastic-packaged store-bought chicken in every pot.”