NRDC Celebrates Sustainable Food Movement at L.A. Benefit

LOS ANGELES (May 29, 2014) – The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) celebrates the growth of the safe and sustainable food movement tonight at a one‐of‐a‐kind benefit featuring the work of the organization’s food and agriculture program.

“Americans are realizing that if we change the way we eat, we can change the way the food system works,” said Frances Beinecke, president of NRDC. “When we grow, purchase, prepare and enjoy food with care, we do more than provide our loved ones with delicious meals. The food we eat every day is also an incredibly powerful tool for preserving our communities, safeguarding the planet and protecting our families’ health.”

NRDC’s aims to tackle the greatest human health threats posed by industrial food production practices, including the misuse of antibiotics in livestock, the environmental and energy impact of food waste, soil degradation due to toxic over‐fertilization, and pesticides in food and water.

In recent years, the NRDC’s advocacy and litigation efforts have resulted in a landmark legal win against FDA over the misuse of antibiotics in factory farms, the banning of dozens of toxic pesticides called organophosphates that threaten human health, an overall reduction in pesticide exposure to children, and heightened consumer awareness of food waste on the farm and in the kitchen.

The benefit will be held in Santa Monica at the site of the City’s Main Street Farmers Market and will feature a musical performance from Aloe Blacc. Stanford University infectious disease specialist and microbiologist, Dr. David Relman will speak about the human health risks created by the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals.

Dayna and Steven Bochco & Cami and Howard Gordon serve as benefit co-chairs. Host committee members include Beate and Christopher Chee, Laurie David and Bart Thorpe, Janet Friesen, Alan and Cindy Horn, Kelly and Ron Meyer, Audrey Sarn and John Peed, Lauren and Benedikt Taschen, the David Geffen Foundation, Jena and Michael King, and Bob Barth and Nichole Frank, among others.

The benefit will celebrate the local, organic and sustainable cuisine in the following ways:

  • The menu features seasonal, organically-grown and sustainably harvested ingredients and following the “100-mile diet” philosophy.
  • The meal will be 100% vegetarian
  • Edible/living centerpieces will be locally sourced from One Gun Ranch and will be replanted following the event or donated to a local school
  • Invitations and programs for the evening are all produced with 100% post-consumer recycled content paper using plant based inks
  • No disposable utensils, plates, or cups will be used.
  • No plastic bottled water will be served

Organic waste from the event will be composted.

 

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