+ pat et RRA EEN DS ATDIS SIF

produce.

NEWS photo Nell Lucente

RUSSELL PRECIOUS, co-owner of Capers food store in West Van-
couver, displays organic romaine lettuce and other organically-grown

in-home. consultation.”

877 Marine Drive,

Mom
needs to
butt out

PAGE 38

THE ENVIRONMENT
Organic grocer does his job
‘to create a new culture’

FOR MANY recent cenverts to the environmental move-
ment, buying organic food is a new trend. For the owners of
Capers food store in West Vancouver, however, it’s been a

way of life for years.

‘““We’re not responding to what
people want, per se,”’ said Russell
Precious, who along with his wife
Teresa and friends Fred and Linda
Link own the market and cafe at
2496 Marine Drive.

They have always made a point,
he emphasized, of offering only
natural, high-quality food — even
when they opened four years ago
and it was ‘“thard to get noticed.’”

“We certainly believed in what
we were doing,’’ Precious
remembered -- and their con-
tinued dedication is, with the cur-
rent surge in environmental
awareness, now paying off.

“Things are swinging radically,”"
said Precious of shoppers’ new
preferences for organic goods, but
he notes that we al! have a long
way to go to achieve the ‘‘reduce,
reuse, recycle’? concept in this
consumer society.

And it’s up to the economic sec-
tor to do that promotion, he
believes — stores should be in-
itiating change, not responding to

it. .
“You don’t get points for being
an environmentalist anymore,’’ he

By PEGGY TRENDELL-WHETTAKEK
News Reporter

said. “You get spanked for not be-
ing one.’”

At Capers, being able to buy
organic produce — that is, food
that has been grown without the
use of pesticides, herbicides,
fungicides or chemical fertilizers --
is important from both a health
and an environmental standpoint.

“Commercial farming is one of
the most environmentally damag-
ing things on the face of the
planet,’? Precious emphasized.
Chemical run-off in the water
supply and airborne pesticides are
just two of the serious problems
asscciated with it.

And when it comes to one’s own
health, Precious notes that plants
grown commercially have reduced
nutritional value over organically
grown food. ©

The living organisms in healthy
soil form a ‘‘bridge’’ between the
soil and the growing plant, said
Precious, which enhances the
plant’s vitality and nutritional con-

Malibu Dimension i1

tent. According to many studies,
organic farms have I! tons of
these living organisms per acre,
compared to .the two tons
measured at commercial! farms.

Precious is fooking forward ta
expanding on Capers’ organic food
selection — already the largest in
Canada — as more produce
becomes available.

He is expecting a shipment of
the first certified organic beef, —
from cows that have not been in-
jected with hormones, and that
have been fed organic grain —
and in the fall organic chickens
from the Fraser Valley should be
available for purchase.

Fortunately for his customers,
Precious promises that the price of
organic produce :von’t be nearly as
high as it was in the spring, when a
sudden demand and limited supply
sent the prices skyrocketing.

Capers aiso provides shoppers
with an alternative to bleached
paper preducts, as it has been
discovered that the dioxins pro-
duced by the bleaching process
pollute the environment.

Currently available are
unbleached paper towels and cof-
fee filters, and Precious has a
“lead"’ on unbleached toilet paper
from Quebec.

See Environment
Page 39

Brighten - Up your summer evenings with Outdoor Light-

ing from Light Ideas. We have one of the largest selections
of Outdoor Lighting in the Lower Mainland. From July 21

- July 31, 1989 every outdoor, in-stock fixtureis On Sale.

28% A Westburne Company.

345 Terminal Avenue, Vancouver 685-0220