Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Does where you buy you food make a difference?
“3 Green events to help shrink your footprint” a collaboration of 9 environmental groups.
Gina Purtell of Mass Audubon’s Allen’s Pond Wildlife Sanctuary states, “Back in the summer of 2007 there was a realization that the environmental groups would do better to know about each other’s scheduled events then to compete for the same audience. A few of us Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust, Lloyd Center for the Environment, Coalition for Buzzards Bay, Trustees of the Reservation, and Westport River Watershed Alliance met to sort it all out. It was a perfect opportunity to see where we could support each other. That launched a discussion on how we could reach a broader audience. We batted around a few ideas that evolved into the Shrink Your Footprint series.”
The first in the series entitled “Eat Green”. Participants came to find out how to buy local in the dead of New England winters. There are no farmers markets to speak of and all the green leafy vegetables have long passed.
Andy Pollock of Silverbrook Farms, Dartmouth reminded participants “A farm has more to offer then just summertime vegetables. It is a way of life, a spiritual journey of peace and understanding. A way to bring our families closer together at the dinner table. If we want to see our ecosystem thrive then we must encourage our community to preserve local agriculture. Buying local all year round is possible, jams, jelly, breads, cheese, milk, meats, herbs and so much more are available.” Pollock continues, “ We need to stop thinking about quick and easy and start thinking about how much better our bodies feel when we eat quality.”
Whether it is family health or wanting to save the local watersheds, natural resources, or the whole planet is what brought people here, sometimes starting small in your own backyard is best. Nanci and Bob Carroll owners of Bayside Restaurant, Westport were the first Massachusetts restaurant to be certified green in 2001 by the Green Restaurant Association. They have been making green choices ever since. Package that could stand up to the job but be biodegradable not just recyclable and paper products and disposable utensils are corn based, biodegradable. Right now they can not buy everything locally but are always on the look out for more. Bayside buys meat from Maine, eggs from a farm down the road, breads are baked local and right now Bob says, “about half of what is served is local“. Carol suggests. “People ask questions when they go to a restaurant . Where do they get their meat? Are the fish wild or farmed? Do they buy local? Do they use recycled products? If you are not satisfied with the answers take your business somewhere that does care about buying local and our environment. Asked the owners of your favorite restaurant to buy local and when they do spread the word.”
Family farms produce our food. Thou farmers often wonder, Will there still be any farms in ten years? Are we so busy with everyday life that we poison our drinking water and live stock without concern. Do we not realize what we are doing to our bodies and our planet? When we shop are we shopping with health in mind or are we just looking for the cheapest price. We need to consider how and where our food is raised? How far it traveled to get to our plates. Paul Schmid of River Rock Farm, Westport , came fully charged. People need to know that they can buy their beef, poultry, lamb, pork, and wild caught fish right here in their own community. They don’t need to worry about antibiotics, growth hormones or chemical additives. The farms here, right now, are raising grass fed, free range meats. Mr. Schmid offered up ten different farms within ten miles of the zoo that could supply every participants family with quality meats. These family farmers want you see how their livestock is cared for. Mr. Schmid’s enthusiasm energized the room. “I have medical professors drive over an hour to buy my grass fed beef. It is the only meat they will feed their families.” Schmid states. Find your local farm at http://www.farmfresh.org/
Healthy food should be for everyone. How can we make sure that everyone is getting quality food. There are school lunch programs and food assistance but what are they serving. Tyrone Bowie II, Youth Video Coordinator for Nuestras Raices, Holyoke, Ma states, “I have been working hard to bring quality food to the schools in our area. I have a son in the school system so I have a vested interest. I think they are getting tired of seeing me but I believe it is important that quality local food makes it to schools.” Julia Rivera, President of Nuestras Raices states “There are people who are working right now in communities across the state to start community gardens, youth gardens and promote agriculture enterprise development in the inner cities.” Founded in 1991 Nuestra Raices started its first community garden at present they are working ten community gardens in western Massachusetts.
At the end of the day the answer is: Yes, what we choose to eat each day does make a difference. To find a local farm, store or restaurant near you go to http://www.semaponline.org/
Gina Purtell of Mass Audubon’s Allen’s Pond Wildlife Sanctuary states, “Back in the summer of 2007 there was a realization that the environmental groups would do better to know about each other’s scheduled events then to compete for the same audience. A few of us Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust, Lloyd Center for the Environment, Coalition for Buzzards Bay, Trustees of the Reservation, and Westport River Watershed Alliance met to sort it all out. It was a perfect opportunity to see where we could support each other. That launched a discussion on how we could reach a broader audience. We batted around a few ideas that evolved into the Shrink Your Footprint series.”
The first in the series entitled “Eat Green”. Participants came to find out how to buy local in the dead of New England winters. There are no farmers markets to speak of and all the green leafy vegetables have long passed.
Andy Pollock of Silverbrook Farms, Dartmouth reminded participants “A farm has more to offer then just summertime vegetables. It is a way of life, a spiritual journey of peace and understanding. A way to bring our families closer together at the dinner table. If we want to see our ecosystem thrive then we must encourage our community to preserve local agriculture. Buying local all year round is possible, jams, jelly, breads, cheese, milk, meats, herbs and so much more are available.” Pollock continues, “ We need to stop thinking about quick and easy and start thinking about how much better our bodies feel when we eat quality.”
Whether it is family health or wanting to save the local watersheds, natural resources, or the whole planet is what brought people here, sometimes starting small in your own backyard is best. Nanci and Bob Carroll owners of Bayside Restaurant, Westport were the first Massachusetts restaurant to be certified green in 2001 by the Green Restaurant Association. They have been making green choices ever since. Package that could stand up to the job but be biodegradable not just recyclable and paper products and disposable utensils are corn based, biodegradable. Right now they can not buy everything locally but are always on the look out for more. Bayside buys meat from Maine, eggs from a farm down the road, breads are baked local and right now Bob says, “about half of what is served is local“. Carol suggests. “People ask questions when they go to a restaurant . Where do they get their meat? Are the fish wild or farmed? Do they buy local? Do they use recycled products? If you are not satisfied with the answers take your business somewhere that does care about buying local and our environment. Asked the owners of your favorite restaurant to buy local and when they do spread the word.”
Family farms produce our food. Thou farmers often wonder, Will there still be any farms in ten years? Are we so busy with everyday life that we poison our drinking water and live stock without concern. Do we not realize what we are doing to our bodies and our planet? When we shop are we shopping with health in mind or are we just looking for the cheapest price. We need to consider how and where our food is raised? How far it traveled to get to our plates. Paul Schmid of River Rock Farm, Westport , came fully charged. People need to know that they can buy their beef, poultry, lamb, pork, and wild caught fish right here in their own community. They don’t need to worry about antibiotics, growth hormones or chemical additives. The farms here, right now, are raising grass fed, free range meats. Mr. Schmid offered up ten different farms within ten miles of the zoo that could supply every participants family with quality meats. These family farmers want you see how their livestock is cared for. Mr. Schmid’s enthusiasm energized the room. “I have medical professors drive over an hour to buy my grass fed beef. It is the only meat they will feed their families.” Schmid states. Find your local farm at http://www.farmfresh.org/
Healthy food should be for everyone. How can we make sure that everyone is getting quality food. There are school lunch programs and food assistance but what are they serving. Tyrone Bowie II, Youth Video Coordinator for Nuestras Raices, Holyoke, Ma states, “I have been working hard to bring quality food to the schools in our area. I have a son in the school system so I have a vested interest. I think they are getting tired of seeing me but I believe it is important that quality local food makes it to schools.” Julia Rivera, President of Nuestras Raices states “There are people who are working right now in communities across the state to start community gardens, youth gardens and promote agriculture enterprise development in the inner cities.” Founded in 1991 Nuestra Raices started its first community garden at present they are working ten community gardens in western Massachusetts.
At the end of the day the answer is: Yes, what we choose to eat each day does make a difference. To find a local farm, store or restaurant near you go to http://www.semaponline.org/
Labels: Buy Local
Saturday, March 7, 2009
A Government for Change...where are we heading now?
There is a passion in other countries that you do not see in the US. People who stand up against their Goliath and know they will see death but all the same they stand up. They have beliefs that are so deeply embedded in them that they can not possible stop believing or their world would crumble so they fight on. Here in the US we think they are crazy left wing terrorist that should all be mowed down.
But for one day if all of us believed that deeply we could find an answer and came together to fight for what we believed in maybe we would have a chance. But if that believing means more cell phones more shopping sprees more stuff to fill the castles we have built around us while others starve and children die of hunger then we as a nation have failed.
I have to explain everyday to my children why people are being killed why they see parents carrying their fallen babies down the street and the US says we are "Saving them" The cost of which is trillions. We could be using those same resources to house the homeless, teach our children, care for the aging. There are those who will look at the past and say that when we fight in a war we have come together and pooled our resources and it has brought us out of depression. But since the Vietnam war we have not rallied around war. It has divided our nation The generals convince the legions that they must fight and the government feeds this angry beast our money and children. Today we have a new foe and with it we are feeding it our weak the old, the sick the homeless the children of underprivileged and every time we turn on the TV or pick up the paper they are convincing us that we must feed this animal or else .... the question is or else what? we will have more hungry, old and poor? Maybe if we feed and care for the old, hungry and poor instead of the beast they will fight with us to stop the beast from taking us over.
There is this simple saying I tell my children when you make a mistake and have fallen in to a pit put the shovel down and stop digging. it will give you a chance to think about what you must do and then when you pick it back up you can build stairs to help you climb back out other wise the hole will get to deep and the walls unstable and it will fall in on you.
My letter to our Government would start with:
Dear President,
Please put down the shovel. Take a deep breath and find the firm part of earth around you to build the first step. Stop feeding all the fires around you let the flames die down so that you can see them for what they truly are.
For me I hope that I can take the time to help my own community see these beasts so that we can put our shovels down and find that firm part of the earth in which to build the first step
But for one day if all of us believed that deeply we could find an answer and came together to fight for what we believed in maybe we would have a chance. But if that believing means more cell phones more shopping sprees more stuff to fill the castles we have built around us while others starve and children die of hunger then we as a nation have failed.
I have to explain everyday to my children why people are being killed why they see parents carrying their fallen babies down the street and the US says we are "Saving them" The cost of which is trillions. We could be using those same resources to house the homeless, teach our children, care for the aging. There are those who will look at the past and say that when we fight in a war we have come together and pooled our resources and it has brought us out of depression. But since the Vietnam war we have not rallied around war. It has divided our nation The generals convince the legions that they must fight and the government feeds this angry beast our money and children. Today we have a new foe and with it we are feeding it our weak the old, the sick the homeless the children of underprivileged and every time we turn on the TV or pick up the paper they are convincing us that we must feed this animal or else .... the question is or else what? we will have more hungry, old and poor? Maybe if we feed and care for the old, hungry and poor instead of the beast they will fight with us to stop the beast from taking us over.
There is this simple saying I tell my children when you make a mistake and have fallen in to a pit put the shovel down and stop digging. it will give you a chance to think about what you must do and then when you pick it back up you can build stairs to help you climb back out other wise the hole will get to deep and the walls unstable and it will fall in on you.
My letter to our Government would start with:
Dear President,
Please put down the shovel. Take a deep breath and find the firm part of earth around you to build the first step. Stop feeding all the fires around you let the flames die down so that you can see them for what they truly are.
For me I hope that I can take the time to help my own community see these beasts so that we can put our shovels down and find that firm part of the earth in which to build the first step
Labels: government
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