Saturday, February 6, 2016

Creating Change With Our Forks

When you let mega corporations take over your food supply you concentrate one of the most truly essential aspects of your life into the hands of a few businesses that have profit as their primary concern, not your health.  Over the last 60 years this has become extremely clear. Is this good sense?

Vote on that with your fork at your own table every day.

In the Capital Region we have the extraordinary good fortune to be surrounded by small farms.  Many of them are run by farmers who believe that we should be eating sustainably grown food. Along with a new generation of farmer entrepreneurs, we have the kind of farmers around here who are inheriting farms that have been in their families for generations - like sometimes seven generations. They are not in it for the fly-by-night quick bucks.  Both of these kinds of farmers want to give you the very best that they can offer.

All that is to say that we are living in the middle of a world class food shed, complete with sustainably grown meats, produce and exceptional artisanal cheeses and other foods, beers and spirits. We're even seeing the comeback of hops  for our burgeoning breweries and grains for our bakeries. We can celebrate this three times every day!

In our country, 1% - 5%  food in an average household is local.  Let's make our Capital Region percentage a whole lot higher than that, because we can. And we can have an awesomely pleasurable time while we go about doing it. And the best part is that we can develop a food community that is strong and healthy while we support our local farmers with our business.

Once we get to know our farmers we may even want to persuade our legislators to help them out, rather than try to force them to comply with regulations that are designed for mega corporations rather than small businesses.  Let your farmer inform you about this.


Inspiration for this post provided by:

REAL. FOOD. Summit - Conversations with farmers and the people that are making real food really happen.January 29, 2016, Athens, New York.

Organizers:

Peectures!
Dignitaries, farmers, gadabouts and businesswomen, Even famous journalists! Oh My!
We met in the new warehouse of Field Goods, Athens, New York.













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