Author Archives: East Bay Express

Best of East Bay Express: Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative

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Best of East Bay Express: Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative
Nothing brings people together quite like a garden, and nothing brings small-scale urban farmers together quite like the Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative. Founded in 1995, the collaborative now supports nineteen schoolyard gardens and eleven neighborhood gardens on public and private land throughout Berkeley by securing funding, serving as a liaison with the city, and facilitating… Read more »

City of Oakland Shuts Down Novella Carpenter’s Urban Farmstand

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City of Oakland Shuts Down Novella Carpenter's Urban Farmstand
Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, has shut down her Oakland-based farmstand in response to a warning the City is imposing for lacking a conditional use permit to sell chard at her farmstand. “I’m getting in trouble for selling the chard. It is legal to grow vegetables and… Read more »

Can hexane-extracted soy protein isolate be considered organic?

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Can hexane-extracted soy protein isolate be considered organic?
Next time you’re buying veggie burgers or energy bars containing soy protein isolate, think twice. “Hexane is commonly used in the processing of non-organic veggie burgers, meat alternatives, and nutrition bars,” an East Bay Express article reports. “To produce soy protein isolate, manufacturers immerse whole soybeans in a bath of the synthetic, petroleum-based solvent. A… Read more »