Letters to Artvoice |
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More Twelve Tribes Tales
Dear consciously minded grocery shoppers,
Michael Niman’s article two weeks ago [“Getting a Grip,” Oct. 20-26, 2005] on the horrors that are the Twelve Tribes community and their “hate bread” rocked the opinions of Buffalo’s small co-op shopping consumers. Although, I do not agree with the beliefs of the Twelve Tribes religious group, I feel as though the focus and uproar around them is shortsighted. Yes, the Twelve Tribes have some despicable beliefs and practices that go against the morals of many co-op members, but a trip down the aisles quickly shows that there are bigger proverbial fish to fry. I wonder if anyone ever stopped to question why the Co-op carries companies like to Dole whose cash crop farming habits have ruined usable land and enslaved poor farmers in many countries in the same way that sweatshops have enslaved the poor in Asia. Or Poland Spring, which is owned by notorious rainforest rapist, Nestle, who quite frankly does not have one bit of concern for which environmental habitat it ruins or endangered species it endangers even more. Companies like these have oppressed entire continents of people and environment. Surely in the shadow of such mega-corporations the Twelve Tribes group, whose members are there because to a great extent they choose to be, is insignificant and though in some practices they are similar, (racist, child labor enforcing, etc) they have done far less harm to world at large.
By no way does this necessarily mean that they should be supported either. Perhaps those that are so angered at the Twelve Tribes should also fight against the larger evils at the Co-op or, and this may just be a crazy suggestion: just don’t buy their bread.
Let’s get our priorities in check, folks.
Sincerely,
Long time Co-op member,
Shirley B.
Dear Artvoice,
In the summer of 1995, a nice young man with a beard walked into Yeast West Bakery, a wholegrain bakery on Lexington Ave. that I worked at then. He asked me all sorts of questions about our bread, and then he told me he was from Common Ground, a bakery that had just recently started a vending account with the Lexington Co-op across the street. In the spirit of competition, I asked back, “So what do you put in YOUR bread? Do you add dough conditioners and gluten?”
“Oh yes,” he replied, “you have to to keep it consistent.” I was totally surprised. I had just uttered the names of the two ingredients that make wholegrain bakers hiss and hold up a crucifix, and he had just admitted to using them as if it were nothing. So maybe it wasn’t about the bread? What he did next told me it DEFINITELY was not about the bread. He smiled and handed me several pamphlets with the obvious look-how-wonderful-the-world-could-be-if-you-just-believed-what-we-believe theme, told me how to get touch if I was interested, and left. I watched out the window as he walked next to the Co-op to pursue, I found out later, a possible recruit - a young, female, and Jewish employee.
After that visit I did a little bit of research, and found that Twelve Tribes was possibly affiliated with New Jerusalem, a fairly established and seemingly non-threatening (as in not hate-mongering) cult. I told several people at the Co-op, including the general manager at the time, “Hey, you know those Common Ground guys are a cult?” From then on they were regarded as nothing more than a curiosity, by the Co-op and by us at the bakery. They continued to show interest in the aforementioned employee, and she even visited their Hamburg property at their request. She quickly discovered that if she had joined, she would have, in her words, “become a baby machine.”
Allegations started surfacing here and there about the Hamburg sect, and there were moments where I was peeved that the Co-op still carried their bread. I didn’t voice this but there were others who did. Let’s just say that Michael Niman wasn’t the first to bring up the issue to the Lexington Co-op about where the revenue from Common Ground bread was really going, but a reminder doesn’t hurt, and his was a commendable one. I wouldn’t say that the Twelve Tribes “support [of] those organizations who are ideologically opposed to their very presence” is “apathetic” so much as it is Machiavellian. They’re simply keeping their enemies very, very close.
Dianne Gilleece
Allentown
Food for Thought
Dear Editor:
The fossil fuel crisis is only likely to get worse, as an exploding global demand confronts the reality of a limited supply and the vagaries of Middle East politics. We can blame the Bush Administration and the oil companies for the current crisis. But, for the long run, we must reduce drastically fossil fuel consumption in our cars, our homes, and our diets.
According to Cornell University researchers, production of meat and dairy products accounts for approximately 15 percent of our national fossil fuel consumption. Most of that goes to manufacture fertilizers, operate farm machinery, and run irrigation equipment for growing animal feed. The rest is used to operate factory farms and slaughterhouses and to process, transport, refrigerate, and prepare meat and dairy products.
Anyone who cares about the cost of fuel this winter should consider these impacts of meat and dairy production on their next trip to the supermarket.
Sincerely,
Bill Blake
Buffalo
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