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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] eat healthy - how?

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] eat healthy - how?
  • Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 11:33:19 -0600

I'm with you on this, Paul:

I'm only one and I'm not well known enough to make the lecture circuit. Or
inclined to try. People are afraid of Work.
But...I think they are also afraid of the unknown. Many don't realize that
they are spending most of their value and money and time just setting
themselves up to be ABLE to be employed (car, house in town, insurance, gas,
clothes, fast foods, daycare, etc). They are TOLD that farming is nasty work,
while they may be spending 14 hours a day cleaning offices with toxic
chemicals or breathing all of the synthetic outgassing molecules of an office
itself, not to mention the toxic wage slave mentality.
As for trying, you already do some of it by hosting this newsletter. Every farmer that I've worked with at the markets puts out some flyers and information. It's the little bits that 'stick' that will do the most good, but we have to keep throwing spitballs at the billboards. Those lecture tours and TED talks are great showmanship, but there's always an animated cartoon or a soft porn show on prime time TV to follow anything that looks like "knowledge."

It's the neighbors talking to neighbors that will have the only real effect,
I think. More market farmers, more farm stands and signs on the side of the
road seem to help a lot to get people interested (because they are always
driving: cars ARE the dominant species), but up here in the snow, it only
works for a few months of the year. I think that may be also why CSA is more
active up here. It helps get people involved in the whole calendar.
Otherwise, they're just tourists when the market is open.

That said, there are more winter markets popping up around here. Many of them
are focusing on food and trying to avoid the craft-fair atmosphere, and
working with food pantries to spread the knowledge to people who otherwise
wouldn't get it.

Dan C.
Belgium, WI

P.S. I'm in favor of more trains so that there can be more seasonal migration
of people without cars from north to south. Perhaps following herds of
grazing animals.....


On 1/22/2014 11:00 AM, livingontheland-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 17:14:01 -0700
From: tradingpost<tradingpost@lobo.net>
Subject: [Livingontheland] eat healthy - how?
To:livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID:<52DF0D49.8040503@lobo.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed


We keep seeing articles and food experts urging everyone to eat healthy,
focus on your veggies, provide good food to "food deserts", farm to
school, and so on. But something's missing and nobody here talks about
it. It's the fact that there isn't enough of the healthy food being
grown to supply all these people. We've seen farmers markets multiply
across the US, yet from what I've seen, most can't even meet demand in
the local neighborhood - much less a town or large institution. We've
checked in on several around this state and only a handful out of dozens
seem to have enough growers to justify even having a market. The problem
with that is it takes a certain critical mass of growers to attract the
buyers, and enough buyers to justify the growers' showing up. A lot of
talk and not enough growing. I know the main reason for it and what it
takes to change that, but I'm only one and I'm not well known enough to
make the lecture circuit. Or inclined to try. People are afraid of Work.

paultradingpost@lobo.net






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