This Saturday morning, as usual, Susan and I walked the two short blocks from our house to the local farmer's market where twenty or so vendors offer their wares from the back of trucks or under portable awnings from May until September or early October, depending on the Fall weather. We are truly fortunate to live so close to the market.Georgia's long and diverse growing season means we have a wide choice of fresh veggies and fruits, usually organic. Local honey, fresh breads and fresh cut flowers round out the offered goods.
The husband and wife team from May Tree Farm are typical. They drive about 40-miles each Saturday to bring their fresh eggs from range free chickens, along with "natural" beef and chicken products. "Natural" does not mean organic since their local grain dealer cannot guarantee that the supplemental feed they sometimes use is organic or not genetically modified. Even so their eggs, at $3.50 a dozen, are fresh and tasty and it's not going to break us financially since it takes 2-3 weeks for us to go through a dozen. The range meat on the other hand is expensive and for the first time we bought two T-bone steaks at $17 a pound and one chicken at $5 a pound. Now that was sticker shock - almost $44 for the meat and eggs when all the veggies added up to but $10.
Susan and I seldom eat out, rarely patronize a fast-food joint, and try to eat healthy meals that include lots of home-cooked veggies and limited meats, but after watching the movie Farm, Inc. we knew there was room for improvement. So we have vowed to be more conscious about what we consume, and living near the farmer's market makes it a bit easier and affordable.
I made it a point to watch Food, Inc after reading fellow FaceBooker and high school classmate, Lyn Caldwall, comment on the movie. Although all of what was addressed in the movie did not surprise me, there were enough new revelations to convince me that each of us can do something, no matter how small, to push for change in our food system. For me, this means silently letting my "feet do the walking" to grocers who offer products that are better for me, less cruel to the animals (albeit they will die in the end), and friendlier to Mother Earth.
Food, Inc is a must see movie and I suspect it will soon be available for rental. During the movie I watched mega-farms produce huge, antibiotic-laced, genetically modified grain-fed animals with little concern about the nearby "little man" trying to make a living or the end consumer like you and me. For a while my mind wandered. It was the early-1950's and I was at Uncle Bab's farm in upstate New York. He milked his own cows twice a day, by hand and not machine, and we drank the raw milk without worry. The corn, wheat, and hay he planted and harvested himself. There was Aunt Ethel's ample garden, full of fresh produce and plenty of potatoes to fill up the root cellar each year. We had a smoke-house that always seemed to have a hog hanging in it, we collected warm eggs from under the chickens, we hand-fed the calves with milk, and once a week we chased down an unlucky chicken or duck that provided Sunday dinner. Early each Spring we could count on Johnny, the hired hand, returning from the field through the snow carrying a frail, newborn lamb or calf.
But that was then. Now is now. Uncle Bab would have struggled to survive in today's agricultural world. But somehow he would have survived. Perhaps we need to seek out the few remaining Uncle Bab's, support them, and provide a willing consumer and a reason for them to multiply.
Please, go see Food, Inc, then Google around on the Internet and do a bit of research, draw your own conclusions about the health of our agriculture and food system, and finally, decide what you can do, if you so wish, to change the system.
The husband and wife team from May Tree Farm are typical. They drive about 40-miles each Saturday to bring their fresh eggs from range free chickens, along with "natural" beef and chicken products. "Natural" does not mean organic since their local grain dealer cannot guarantee that the supplemental feed they sometimes use is organic or not genetically modified. Even so their eggs, at $3.50 a dozen, are fresh and tasty and it's not going to break us financially since it takes 2-3 weeks for us to go through a dozen. The range meat on the other hand is expensive and for the first time we bought two T-bone steaks at $17 a pound and one chicken at $5 a pound. Now that was sticker shock - almost $44 for the meat and eggs when all the veggies added up to but $10.
Susan and I seldom eat out, rarely patronize a fast-food joint, and try to eat healthy meals that include lots of home-cooked veggies and limited meats, but after watching the movie Farm, Inc. we knew there was room for improvement. So we have vowed to be more conscious about what we consume, and living near the farmer's market makes it a bit easier and affordable.
I made it a point to watch Food, Inc after reading fellow FaceBooker and high school classmate, Lyn Caldwall, comment on the movie. Although all of what was addressed in the movie did not surprise me, there were enough new revelations to convince me that each of us can do something, no matter how small, to push for change in our food system. For me, this means silently letting my "feet do the walking" to grocers who offer products that are better for me, less cruel to the animals (albeit they will die in the end), and friendlier to Mother Earth.
Food, Inc is a must see movie and I suspect it will soon be available for rental. During the movie I watched mega-farms produce huge, antibiotic-laced, genetically modified grain-fed animals with little concern about the nearby "little man" trying to make a living or the end consumer like you and me. For a while my mind wandered. It was the early-1950's and I was at Uncle Bab's farm in upstate New York. He milked his own cows twice a day, by hand and not machine, and we drank the raw milk without worry. The corn, wheat, and hay he planted and harvested himself. There was Aunt Ethel's ample garden, full of fresh produce and plenty of potatoes to fill up the root cellar each year. We had a smoke-house that always seemed to have a hog hanging in it, we collected warm eggs from under the chickens, we hand-fed the calves with milk, and once a week we chased down an unlucky chicken or duck that provided Sunday dinner. Early each Spring we could count on Johnny, the hired hand, returning from the field through the snow carrying a frail, newborn lamb or calf.
But that was then. Now is now. Uncle Bab would have struggled to survive in today's agricultural world. But somehow he would have survived. Perhaps we need to seek out the few remaining Uncle Bab's, support them, and provide a willing consumer and a reason for them to multiply.
Please, go see Food, Inc, then Google around on the Internet and do a bit of research, draw your own conclusions about the health of our agriculture and food system, and finally, decide what you can do, if you so wish, to change the system.
1 comment:
Amen! Great post! Gwendolyn
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