Nature's Food Patch, a natural grocery store and cafe in Clearwater, Florida, has decided to ban plastic bags as part of its commitment to environmental sustainability and public health. The store aims to eliminate its use of plastic bags by Earth Day in 2008 and encourage customers to instead bring reusable bags by donating 5 cents for every reusable bag usage to a local charity selected by customers. Plastic bags have severe environmental impacts as most are not recycled and can take over 1,000 years to decompose, threatening wildlife and contaminating land and waterways.

1. Nature’s Food Patch
To Ban Plastic Bags
For Good!
by Cheryl Rosselle
N
ature’s Food Patch, your neighbor-
hood Natural Market & Café, has
decided to join the growing national
and international movement to ban plas-
tic bags. This decision was made as a
part of the store’s ongoing commitment
to inspire people to wellness; both inside
and out. Reducing consumption of plas-
tic bags while it may not directly effect
one’s health in such a way that choos-
ing a healthy diet does, still fits into a
healthy lifestyle because over-consump-
tion has led to environmental problems
worldwide.
Established in
1987, “The Patch”,
affectionately termed
by the locals, is a
community grocery
store dedicated to
offering a complete
selection of quality
organic and natu-
ral products. They
carry north Pinellas
County’s largest
array of organic produce, bulk foods,
herbs, vitamins, pet supplies, natural
bodycare, books and videos. Their popu-
lar café serves up an abundant display
of healthy cuisine, helping to make the
store a friendly gathering place, known
for its commitment to organic foods,
quality natural products, community in-
volvement and health education.
Laurie Powers-Shamone has been
the guiding light for Nature’s Food Patch
for nearly 2 decades. With lots of natu-
ral foods experience, she exemplifies the
spirit of diversity and sustainable, con-
scious living that Nature’s Food Patch
embodies. Voluntarily banning the plas-
tic bag, and being one of the first store’s
in the area to do so, is just another move-
ment towards following that spirit.
More than 100 billion plastic bags
are used each year in the United States,
accounting for about 12 billion barrels of
oil needed to produce those bags. Those
100 billion bags will take an estimated
1,000 years to decompose, and they don’t
biodegrade, they photo degrade. This
means it takes sunlight to break the bags
down into tiny toxic bits that will even-
tually contaminate the soil and water-
health food
advertising@naturesfoodpatch.com
PHONE: 443-6703
Nature’s Food Patch
Cheryl
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Nature’s Food
Patch
ways. Often times,
sunlight will never
even reach the
bags because they
are buried in ever
growing landfills.
What about
recycling? Accord-
ing to the World-
watch Institute,
less than 1% actually gets recycled. The
rest, if not waiting years in a landfill to
decompose (with everything inside the
bag waiting as well), are likely to be lit-
tering the earth; hanging from trees,
clogging storm drains and threatening
marine life. Plastic bags are often mis-
taken for jellyfish or squid then eaten by
turtles, sharks or even birds where they
cause blockages and death.
San Francisco was the first US city
to ban plastic bags at major supermar-
kets. Oakland soon followed suit. Other
cities considering the ban are Boston,
Baltimore, Annapolis, Portland, Seattle,
Santa Monica, Santa Cruz and Steamboat
Springs. New Jersey
is the first state
considering the ban
while several coun-
tries including Aus-
tralia, Bangladesh,
France, India, Italy,
South Africa, Kenya
and Taiwan have al-
ready done so. The
Republic of Ireland
put a tax on plastic
bags called the “plastax” in 2002. This
cut down the usage by 90%!
As Nature’s Food Patch approaches
its 21st Anniversary on February 22nd,
the 14,000 sq. ft. (soon to expand!) estab-
lishment has begun to implement a plan
to return to the days where bringing your
own shopping bag was the norm, not the
exception. In order to encourage this be-
havior, the Patch will donate 5¢ for every
re-usable bag a customer utilizes for their
groceries or café items to a local charitable
organization. Customers can help choose
the charity by voting for their favorites at
the Customer Service counter.
By Earth Day: April 22nd, 2008, the
Patch hopes to be rid of its dependence
on plastic bags. Paper bags will still be
available, but as they have their own en-
vironmental issues, the real hope is that
conscious consumers will be bringing
their own re-usable bags. ◆
Nature’s Food Patch is located at
1225 Cleveland Street, Clearwater,
www.naturesfoodpatch.com, (727) 443-6703.
Hours of Service: Monday-Saturday
9am-9pm, Sunday 11am-8pm, café closes
one hour earlier than store.
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