Where Food Comes From

I love the idea of place-of-origin labels. It may change the buying habits of some people. Unfortunately, the two big obstacles of time and money remain as a barrier to most people going local in any major way. I come at this from the perspective of both producer and consumer.

My husband and I have a farm in Epsom, and right now we're selling organically-fed, grass-raised chickens for $3.50/pound. Some people see the value in this, and they come to our farm and buy our birds. They know the meat is healthy, and they know the animal had a decent life. Plus, they like supporting a local farmer (hurray!) and reducing transportation costs. Others see the value in all of that but lack the time or the money to shop this way.

As a consumer, I have a hard time coughing up the money for food I can trust and feel good about. I do it anyway, but it hurts! This summer, I decided I would try to pick and preserve enough fruit to last our family the whole winter -- so we won't be tempted to buy strawberries from Chile or wherever. But what a commitment! You have to have the time to go out and pick a WHOLE lot of fruit and then wash it and preserve it one way or another. How many people have the time to do this?

I tried to call and could not get through! We are a family who makes local food work for us. When I was pregnant and nursing our first child, my relationship to food changed. I'd always been a pretty 'healthy' eater, but was not opposed to the occasional McDs meal. Grwoing a baby and sustaining him with my body made me ask questions about food that I'd never thought to ask.

We decided to move away from the Boston area, in part to be closer to a local, organic food supply. We decided to not just embrace the Slow Food philosophy, but an entire Slow Life one. I stay home with our two children, and start them out right with the original organic, local food; breastmilk. I nurse them until they self-wean (still going at nearly three!), and I spend a good part of my time finding local food scources for our family, then processing them for winter use. I make my own baby food, we make our own bread, we never eat fast food, and pick other resturants with care.

We are on a very tight budget, and a great part of the way we eat is that it's actually cheaper than just going to the supermarket. We were apprehensive when we originally decided to go organic, thinking that we would be trapped into paying Whole Foods prices in order to do what we believed was the best for our kids. Buying local cuts out the middlemen, and the transportation costs. Other side perks have included the valuable teaching tool of having my boys see how and where their food comes from and the trust that I've gained in the local farmers. I know that they have chatted and laughed with my little guys, and I know that their safety standards are high because they know and love the folks that they feed.

Another perk is that just having to find all of our food like this has brought us more in line with eating like the FDA Food Pyramid recmmends. Meat is expensive when it's raised and processed respectfully, so we eat less (and enjoy it more!), and we find lots of places to buy grains in bulk, so we eat a lot of interesting homemade breads and cereals. And beans make an appearance in September and increase through the winter.

Is this for everyone? No, it's a commitment to opt out of some pretty deeply-entrenched American norms. Part of our lifestyle change has meant fewer conformities to the rat-race. We try to eschew plastic toys and branded toys, and we have no TV. We eat our dinner together every night, and we often prepare it together, too. And we love it!
Gwen