Public Policy Teach-in To Focus on Keeping Kids Safer and Healthier
Saturday at 1:00 in the AV Tent

We are swimming in a sea of hazardous and untested chemicals used in common consumer products. The federal government has been off duty, providing virtually no oversight to ensure product safety. Maine is leading the nation in finding safer alternatives to toxic chemicals in every day products. Learn more at www.cleanandhealthyme.org.

MOFGA promotes the childhood benefits of eating fresh, local, organic foods. And through its membership with the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine, MOFGA also promotes and develops safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals commonly found in children's products. This year, our Public Policy Teach-in will focus on opportunities for protecting Maine children from unnecessary industrial chemicals, and the chemical policy reform that needs to happen at the State and Federal levels.

There will be a panel presentation followed by a question and answer period.

Heather Spalding, MOFGA's Associate Director, will talk about research on benefits of organic foods, and approaches to encouraging children to eat healthier.

Nancy Ross, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy at Unity College, will present a slide show on local, healthy foods served in schools in California and talk about how some of the systems in place there could be implemented in Maine.

Amanda Beal, MOFGA Board President and Healthy Maine Partnership Director for the Communities Promoting Health Coalition, a program of the non-profit People's Regional Opportunity Program (PROP), will carry on sharing the experiences she has had getting healthier foods into Maine schools.

Melissa White Pillsbury, MOFGA's Organic Marketing Coordinator, will participate as an expectant mother talking about her experiences trying to find information about chemicals in products for her new home.

Amanda Sears, Associate Director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, will present a slide show on toxics commonly found in Maine children's products, and the informational resources available to Maine families.

Mike Belliveau, Executive Director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, will discuss how chemicals policy affects children in Maine, and what the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine is doing about it.

Sharon Tisher, Professor of Environmental Law and Honors Courses at the University of Maine, will moderate.