A commitment to Core Values. (New England).

CLF's Boston advocacy center is now home to Core Values Northeast, a coalition of New England and New York State farmers, environmentalists, and consumer advocates that works to promote sales of sustainably raised apples, peaches, and other fruits and vegetables. The coalition inspects and certifies northeast farms that minimize reliance on pesticides by using "integrated pest management" techniques. Then it works to help the farms get good prices in the marketplace.

Core Values is part of a CLF initiative to boost demand for locally and sustainably raised food, and to replace marketplace connections between farmers and consumers that have been severed by globalization. New England's largest supermarket chains--and its leading natural foods chain--are headquartered thousands of miles away, in places such as England and Texas. Consumers can no longer count on finding fresh local produce in the markets--even at the peak of New England's growing season. CLF joins the ranks of farmers, distributors, and grassroots activists who are working to change this.

The CLF-Core Values partnership grew out of a chat between CLF general counsel Stephen Burrington and Connecticut apple grower John Lyman, III at last year's meeting of the New England McIntosh Growers Association, where Burrington was the featured speaker. Eight generations of Lyman's family have grown apples in Middlefield, Connecticut. CLF and Core Values are trying to help ensure that the family can make a living on its land for another eight generations.