Wednesday, September 9, 2009
{The Blue Banner}
Page 9
Organic food hits the streets for better health
By Alex Hammond
Staff Writer
RAHAMMON@UNCA.EDU
Local business owner Debi Athos is
ready for this weekend, dressing kids
like bugs for a parade to promote organic
food in Asheville.
“My life’s mission is to promote organ
ics in everything I do,” she said. “I wanted
to reach out to people who weren’t shop
ping at Earth Fare and Green Life.”
Organicfest is a downtown street festi
val in its eighth year that takes place on
Battery Park Road.
One of the activities this year is a kids
garden parade, where children can come
in costumes and march around. Athos is
the founder and director of the Imagine
Center, an organization that hosts Organ
icfest every year.
“We invite kids in the community to
come dressed as their favorite bug or gar
den fairy,” she said. “For an hour before
the parade, we have activities for the chil
dren who don’t come dressed.”
She barely has time to do anything but
plan.
“I’ve been talking on the phone non
stop for two days,” she said. “We’re very
rich in the organic community we have in
Asheville.”
This year’s Organicfest will happen
on a Sunday instead of the usual Satur
day, Athos said, because of overlap with
Asheville’s half-marathon.
An Organicfest regular, Paul Littman,
is also a manager at the weekly North
Asheville Tailgate Market. He says that
the half-marathon will hurt business sub
stantially, especially since the produce at
the market is so fresh.
“People simply can’t get to it,” he said.
“This stuff was picked yesterday. It’s per
Taliaferro Pollock - Staff Photographer
Tom Elmore, owner of Thatchmore Farms, grows organically grown tomatoes in his greenhouse.
ishable. It needs to be sold today.”
However, the market is preparing for
Organicfest. Signs were posted at last
week’s tailgate market reminding patrons
to go around the marathon’s path.
“Our community is full of amazing and
wonderful things. One of them is people
pushing the limits on growing food or
ganically,” he said. “It’s an enormous
amount to have in our community.”
Littman said that it is easy to start
See organicfest Page 12 |
Amnesty
Continued from Page 7
McHargue said the university uses a simi
lar unwritten practice.
“The first and foremost thing is we want
that student to get medical attention. Af
terward, when the dust settles, we’ll figure
everything else out,” she said. “The follow
up is more to see if they need counseling
afterward and that they get that.
“If there needs to be a probationary pe
riod because it was a dangerous situation,
and they knew it and engaged in it anyway.
We are going to work really hard to find out
what was going on with this student and
what led up to this.”
McHargue said gray areas are the reason
the school lacks a written amnesty policy.
“In some cases there could be the need
for disciplinary action or a parental noti
fication. If you have a medical amnesty
policy that says none of that stuff will hap
pen to you, as a university, we could incur
a lot of liability and risk should something
happen to that student a second time,” she
said. “We choose to not have a policy be
cause we choose to work with students on
an individual basis.”
Bill Haggard, vice chancellor for student
affairs, agrees that a written policy can po
tentially lead to problems.
‘ I m often cautious about blanket poli
cies, not just the medical amnesty, but I
don t even like what I call prescribed sanc-
tiop, per say, for any violation,” he said.
It s not like you use the same sanction for
every person because every person is dif
ferent and every case is different.”
The big argument against the policy falls
under moral obligation and the debate that
students’ desire to help save their friends’
lives outweigh the fear of legal repercus
sions, according to Werle.
“I’ve talked to some students who say
anecdotally that the policy would have
caused them to call for help in certain
situations,” Werle said. “Although, I have
heard some students say that if someone is
in trouble they will call regardless.”
Some students decide to stay with their
friend throughout the night and attempt to
help them themselves, the counselor said.
“Some students have been in trouble be
fore and that was enough for them to de
cide that they won’t stick out their neck for
anyone,” she said.
The medical amnesty policy idea follows
very closely with the schools practice on
students who report sexual assault or rape.
Haggard said.
“Any person reporting sexual assault or
any type of victimization is not going to be
charged with anything because they came
forward to report,” he said.
One suggested compromise allows stu
dents to avoid legal repercussions but still
requires the student to complete a course in
the Citizenship Education Process.
“You have to weigh it for yourself,”
Werle said. “I mean yes, you get a pot ci
tation on campus and have to go through a
screening, but you just saved your friend’s
life. It is a citizenship and a humanity
thing. Do you put yourself before some-