MORE OF WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

When the plans to revitalize Coatesville were made; jobs for Coatesville residents were not forgotten:

Bart Blatstein and all other developers building in Coatesville RDA land were compelled by Coatesville Redevelopment Authority contract to hire qualified Coatesville residents first, then Coatesville School District residents, then Chester County residents and finally from any area. But the construction industry, especially the high rise building construction using Steelworkers Union workers, can be dangerous and demanding. It demands trained and skilled workers.

You can make demands for developers to hire Coatesville residents but if there are no residents that qualify for the jobs they will be filled by outside people.

Some Coatesville community activists, religious leaders and government representatives got together with a plan to train willing Coatesville residents for those jobs in a trade that they could carry with them all through their lives.

Coatesville activists Elwood Dixon and Bill Washington, Andrew Dinniman (then Chester County Commissioner), PA Career Link, The Laborer's District Council Education and Training School and former Coatesville City Manager Paul Janssen (sorry if I forgot anyone) formed and put in place an education and training program at the Laborer's District Council Education and Training facility in Exton, PA for Coatesville residents.

That education and training program has so far enrolled more than 200 Coatesville residents and residents from the Coatesville School District. Coatesville residents signed up and took preliminary testing at several sessions in the Hutchinson Church, on Chestnut St. in Coatesville.

Even drug users were not turned away. If you passed the written test and failed the drug test you could still enter the program by enrolling in a drug rehabilitation program. Upon completion those students will be and many are ready for employment as apprentice construction workers in various union trades.

Many Coatesville residents could have pointed out one of Bart Blatstein’s buildings and said I helped build that; could have.

THE NATIONAL ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM is a direct threat to our ability to build community gardens and city farming in of Coatesville

This post is related to the Meeting concerning Community Gardens in Coatesville:
http://coatesvilledems.blogspot.com/2009/03/do-you-want-community-gardens-and-city.html

“Radio Chip Animal Identification Would Do ALL Harm To Our Real Food Safety, And No Good”

It is almost a monthly ritual, nationwide peanut butter fecal contamination, beef fecal contamination, lettuce fecal contamination, tomato fecal contamination and whatever is next. The source of the contamination is self evident:

“It's the huge factory farms that overflow with seas of untreated animal waste, that then spill into our food supply, including through our agricultural plant crop fields.”

More at:
ACTION PAGE:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum942.php

I believe that industrial farming is a bio hazard. It is not only all our non-organic food supply that is subject to biological contamination emanating from the raw sewage in the open effluent pits of factory farms. The larger factory farms dump raw fecal effluent into their pits that can be equal to the entire fecal effluent output of New York, NY.

I believe that Monsanto, industrial meat producers such as Cargill and Tyson have reached into our land use laws. Our aquifers and waterways in rural areas of Pennsylvania that are nearby the open sewage pits of factory farm operations are in danger of fecal contamination. Our zoning laws were recently revised so that the small municipalities cannot regulate the industrial farming operations in their townships. Our tiny townships can have the potential of a New York City sized fecal effluent dump in their township with no ability at all to regulate it.
Jim Pitcherella

More at:
"Living a Nightmare: Animal Factories in Michigan"
A 24-minute documentary about the horrors of industrial agriculture in Michigan.
Click the "play" button at the bottom of the screen to watch the movie
http://www.sierraclub.org/factoryfarms/nightmare_documentary.asp

See also:
the ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_16869.cfm

DO YOU WANT COMMUNITY GARDENS AND CITY FARMING IN COATESVILLE?

We are exploring ways to bring city farming, availability of healthy foods, community gardens and jobs to the City of Coatesville.

OUR MEETING IS SCHEDULED FOR:

Wednesday March 4, 2009
at 7:00PM
at the Senior Center on North Fifth Avenue(opposite the City Library)

THE MEETING IS TO DECIDE ON THE DIRECTION (S) FOR ESTABLISHING CITY FARMING , AVAILIBILITY OF HEALTHY FOODS, COMMUNITY GARDENS, AND JOBS RELATED TO THIS PROJECT.

Any one interested in involvement in any aspect of this, or volunteering, please attend.

Questions?
Please call
Keith Gargus 484.947.1937
or Phila Back 610.334.5563

We are considering modeling our Coatesville project after "GreensGrow" in Philadelphia, PA
http://www.greensgrow.org/

Mary Seton Corboy is the co-founder of GreensGrow Farms, founder of the Neighborhood Urban Agriculture Coalition, and co-founder of the Farmers Market Alliance. She is an advocate for improving access to fresh food in low-income communities and brownfield redevelopment in Philadelphia.

Listen to Mary on WHYY's Broadcast of "THIS I BELEIVE"
http://www.whyy.org/podcast/thisibelieve/tib20090213.mp3