Fwd: Learn & Talk about Issues in our Region: Working Snake River Project & Prop 4 in Spokane
Slow Food Spokane River Hall
From: Sam Mace <s...@wildsalmon.org>
Date: Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Subject: Lunchtime talk: The Working Snake River Project, featuring historic photos of the free-flowing lower Snake River
To: Sam Mace <s...@wildsalmon.org>
Join us for a lunchtime presentation of the Working Snake River Project.
Where: The Magic Lantern Theatre, 25 W Main Ave.
When: Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 12-1 pm
Admission: Free, light refreshments provided
The Presentation:
The Working Snake River (WSR) Project promotes a thoughtful, comprehensive solution to restore wild Snake River salmon that benefits farmers, fishermen, local communities and the Inland Northwest economy.
The project reaches out to businesses, sportsmen, farmers, conservationists and citizens committed to restoring eastern Washington's lower Snake River corridor and endangered wild salmon by replacing four aging and costly dams with modern transportation and clean energy alternatives.
Removing the four lower Snake River dams will restore more than 60 rapids and 30,000 acres of parklands, wildlife habitat and public access. Increased fishing, tourism and recreation along with transportation and energy investments will provide jobs, improve quality of life and expand local economic opportunities.
The WSR presentation also includes a remarkable set of photos that show the river in its healthy, free-flowing state prior to 1975. These photos point the way in creating a northwest supported by sustainable jobs, recreational opportunities and a high quality of life for future generations.
Save Our Wild Salmon is a coalition of sport fishing groups and businesses, conservation organizations, commercial fishermen, clean energy advocates, taxpayer groups and others working to restore wild salmon and steelhead to the Columbia and Snake Rivers.
For more information call, Jerry White, (509) 209-2601 or (509) 475-1228, email je...@wildsalmon.org
Also, please visit www.workingsnakeriver.org to learn more.
An educational message from the Envision Team - Proposition 4 has critical implications for our City and the Slow Food Movement.
Corporate America took our seeds, our land, our health and now sells it back to us. Nature provided all these free of charge when we chose to give back. The same philosophy is at work when healthy communities flourish. Power and resources are shared. We all decide what to buy, what to read, what to wear, and what to eat. As it is, every year we lose more and more small and family farms, and the companies that can support them effectively.
Proposition 4 is about creating community self-government – so that we get to decide what happens in our community, instead of big business. There are communities that have already adopted local laws which ban corporations from factory farming and which prohibit corporations from spreading sewage sludge on cropland. These communities understood that they needed to put in place measures which allowed them to decide what happened in their community – not Smithfield or Hatfield Foods.
We have an opportunity now in Spokane through Proposition 4 to do something similar – asserting our local self governing authority so that we make decisions for our community about what we eat and where our food comes from, not corporations.
Proposition 4 will support local growers, restaurants, farmers markets, and food retailers. The measure includes provisions to ensure local business the equal access to capital, meaning support for local enterprises which promote local foods. The measure also includes provisions which require business to source locally when they can. This will create new markets for our locally grown and produced foods.
Proposition 4 also includes provisions to protect our environment. The Spokane River is one of the most polluted in the nation, despite decades of trying to clean it up. Proposition 4 will put in place provisions which will give us the power to finally restore our river. Further, it includes provisions to protect our aquifer – our sole source of drinking water, and a critical source of water for food production.
Proposition 4 was drafted by people from across our community – representing workers, the homeless, the environment, neighborhoods, and others. Over 5,000 people signed it to put it on the ballot, and now we have the chance to make change in our community by voting “Yes on Proposition 4” this November. It is interesting that the majority of the community opposed to Prop 4, typically the conservative side that dominates in conversations supporting individual rights vs. big brother, is now on the other side of the fence, nervous that the same values (that individuals should have the power to determine their destiny) might undo the structure that supports corporate dominance. Suggesting perhaps it's not at all an issue of individual rights, as much as it is the right to make money at the expense of people and planet.
To learn more, check out the campaign website at www.envisionspokane.org.