We watched the documentary “Food Inc” tonight and it resonated with both of us, thinking back on the dinner that preceded the showing of the film about America’s industrial food production system.
I had stopped by M&M Green Valley Produce, a little farmstand and store on Rte 5 in South Deerfield, and as I picked out my local veggies I chatted with the friendly proprietor John. Tomatoes, basil and eggplant from our garden was rounded out with the corn and cucumbers grown in our town.
While this documentary can make you feel a little queasy with the scenes of the slaughterhouse ‘downers’ being dragged by front end loaders to their grisly deaths, there were a lot of reasons to be more optimistic about our nation’s food supply. Wal-Mart, for example, is now the nation’s largest purchaser of organic vegetables and milk, and it’s all because customers wanted it.
The message at the movie’s end was that we vote every day when we shop, and it gave on screen encouragement to shop at farmer’s markets, choose organic and non-GMO foods, to support laws forcing tougher food safety regulations, and to plant our own gardens.
Today’s news story in the Gazette about CitySprout is another good development–this website matches consumers up with local farmers to allow them to have Valley-grown food delivered to central locations to provide much of the same benefits as CSAs without the big upfront cost.
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