March 28, 2024 Breaking News, Latest News, and Videos

Letter to the Editor:

Threat to Farmers’ Markets

Dear Los Angeles City Councilmember:

As a supporter of fresh food access programs in the City of Los Angeles, I am writing to express my concern over the Special Events Ordinance (Council File Nos. 99-1582 and 02-0088), which has now been passed onto the full Council for a vote.

The proposed changes to the special event permit process will have profound effects on certified farmers’ markets in the City of Los Angeles. We urgently request your support in amending the current language of the Special Events Ordinance to provide an annual waiver of fees and other charges to Certified Farmers’ Markets.

The current language of the ordinance would require a weekly certified farmers’ market to pay $26,400 each year. Certified farmers’ markets are part of a statewide program intended to be a service to both small farmers and local communities. They serve small family farmers as a direct outlet for their produce and provide local residents with increased access to a healthy and more nutritious diet including fresh fruits and vegetables. The exorbitant fees proposed under the ordinance would seriously jeopardize the existence of certified farmers’ markets in Los Angeles and would force a majority of markets to close. Closure of markets would be detrimental to the existence of state and federal nutrition programs operated through certified farmers’ markets including the Food Stamp Program and the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Programs, which enable your constituents, including low-income residents, women, children and seniors, to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables.

Thank you for your work to maintain fresh food access in the city of Los Angeles and improve the nutrition of all Angelenos. Please vote to change the language of the Special Events Ordinance and waive fees for Certified Farmers’ Markets.

Jay Handal II

San Gennaro Cafe

President

Greater West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce

Military recruiting

To the editor:

I am writing to voice my concern about military recruiting in our public schools. While I support the troops and the rights of a volunteer military, I do not support institutionalizing involuntary recruitment practices.

The No Child Left Behind Legislation automatically gives the military the right to take any student’s private information without any form of parental permission or notification! This snooping into students’ private school information needs to stop! There is an opt-out provision in the legislation, but rarely are students or parents informed of it.

I encourage students and parents all over our state to send a letter to their school’s administrators asking them to keep their information private! A sample form can be found at www.militaryfreezone.org/opt_out

Elle Saling

Van Nuys

Whites are there, too

To the editor:

Perhaps Ms. Stone might review the history of South Africa before showing outrage because Ms. Kidman’s character is white. Whites have certainly played a questionably important part in the last century in the country as it was the white Afrikaners who were responsible for apartheid (For the British excursion into South Africa, see ZULU with Michael Caine). The white Afrikaners, originally Dutch, and mixed ancestry ’colored’ Afrikaners are much in dispute today over the ownership of the Afrikaans language.

I don’t see why the white African Kidman character isn’t as appropriate for the part as a black African character would be.Dinah Hatton

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