Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food

I work in the produce department of an international grocery store chain, and the produce we get in comes from all over the world. And it's not specialty items, but basics like corn, apples, or oranges. I'd love to see the return of small local farmers.

Despite any ulterior motives the theorists might detect, this video does achieve it's goal: Starting a dialog about fresh food and rejuvenating local economy. A national dialog brings us one step closer figuring out what we can do to have a healthier country, both physically and financially.

If you're interested, check out clips from PolyCultures: Food Where We Live on LESS Productions' channel. It's a documentary about the efforts of local farms in NE Ohio. If you like what you see, subscribe!

Regardless of what the USDA actions are, the USDA Secretary asked some very pertinent questions. Do we know our farmers? How many of you know who grew the head of lettuce you bought at the supermarket? Where does it come from? Whenever I go to the supermarket I don't where it comes from besides the occasional label stating where the produce was shipped from.  How can we find out where our food comes from?

It's sad to see so many Americans have doubts about this video (not that I believe the government has not done plenty to deserve this cynicism!)
However, in the event that USDA is truly trying to find out how many folks support this idea, I want to be counted.
Secretary Vilsack is saying the right things here.
I want to know my FARMERS (small, local, competitive = plural) and see where my food comes from. I want organic, humane, environmentally sound small farms in my neighborhood!

GE research has nothing to do with knowing your food either, as we don't even have the right to label GM foods in this country.

People wake up . . . this man today announced $7 million in grants for research on genetically modified crops. No matter how you slice it, there is no way the type of "Pharming" has anything to do with "knowing your farmer." But it sure goes a long way to ensuring vast, potentially dangerous monocultures in a field near you!

I hope this means the USDA will stop buying junk food for school lunches! And by junk food I mean corn syrup, corn oil, corn starch, corn feed animals, and the milk from those animals.

I shop at my nearest co-op and farmers markets while at the same time working to get one of each even nearer to me. I feel lucky as I am in WA state, even though we've been losing many of our small mainstream farms, there seems to be a growing and successful sustainable ag and organic ag movements.

Thank you Secretary for what appears to be your authentic concern about the small and medium sized farms in America--- those Farms in the Middle.

I hope that Know your Farmer resonates throughout our country and people begin to value all the benefits of a local and regional food system.

I'm really struggling to believe that this plan is more than a marketing scheme to made the USDA look like it cares about small farmers. What about every policy change that has implied a complete lack of concern? Even requirements for organic agriculture, which used to speak to the nature of local farmers, have become unattainable. We are fully invested in industrial agriculture, and I just don't see how this program is any more than a public relations effort.