Food Festival Draws Ranchers’ Ire

Feb 1

Event organizers reached out to us about publicizing the Mindful Eating Film Festival and Expo after the posters they put up around the county were torn down. Some ranchers strongly objected to the event and screening such films as “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret,” and "The Shame of Point Reyes” which are critical of ranching. In response, organizers have invited Seashore ranchers to participate on a panel with the filmmakers to discuss the issues raised in the films.

The day-long expo includes lunch with the filmmakers from 11am-noon, featuring food by Nick's Kitchen, Om Sabor, ChefLisaVeg, Conscious Creamery, Miyoko's, KeVita, Mylk Guys and Levi Fisher's Green Machine.

The film festival and what promises to be a lively conversation begin at noon. Sliding scale $0-$20.

Elephant Seals Reclaim Seashore
When National Park Service employees returned to the Seashore after the month-long government shutdown, they found that 90 Northern Elephant Seals had encamped on Drakes Beach, including newborn pups. The species, declared extinct in the 1880s, has come to occupy a beach at the Seashore’s Chimney Rock. There, park visitors can view the enormous animals at a safe distance. But storms, king tides, and climate change have reduced their Chimney Rock haul out and the seals have taken to Drakes Beach instead. The seals give birth in the winter and Drakes Beach appears to be a good place to rear their pups. According to NPS’s John D’ Osso, chief of interpretation and resource education at the Seashore, the Park Service is attempting to discourage the colonization at Drakes Beach by hazing the seals. Park employees wave tarps to chase them farther down the beach. According to reports, two male adult seals have been spotted in the Drakes Beach parking lot, one on the ramp to the shuttered Kenneth C. Patrick Visitor Center, and another beneath a picnic table.The Park Service has temporarily closed Drakes Beach to human visitors.

Speaking of hazing…

Meanwhile, Park Service employees at the Seashore continue the daily practice of hazing native Tule Elk off pastures leased for cattle grazing. The Seashore is proposing its staff relocate or lethally remove tule elk, specifically those within the free-roaming Drakes Beach herd, among the many demands ranchers and dairy operators on the peninsula having been actively lobbying for.