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market-farming - Re: Methyl Bromide till 2015/

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Subject: Market Farming

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jill Taylor Bussiere" <jdt AT itol.com>
  • To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Methyl Bromide till 2015/
  • Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 11:43:31 -0500


From: Alex McGregor <waldenfarm AT sprintmail.com>

> A noble cause! (The community kitchen.) And one that strikes a chord in
me. You have my
> appreciation and admiration for taking the time for such work.

Well, our community kitchen is not the kind you are thinking of. We have
several food pantries in the county, but as our county is extremely rural, I
don't think there would be enough need for a kitchen here. Not that rural
counties can't be very poor, but ours isn't.
>
> I've been feeling like the direction I've gone with growing food has been
wrong. I grow
> high nutrient, chemical free food for direct sales, but have seen that
only those on the
> top of the social system can afford to buy from me.

I grow the same kind of food you do, but since our farm market is downtown,
anybody in town can, and does, come. We have many elderly in our county,
and the market is largely supported by them. That might also account for
the lack of a need of a community kitchen that you were speaking of - there
are senior meals available for all. Why is your food unavailable to the
lower economic end? Location? Price? awareness? Perhaps if we all
brainstormed here, we could come up with some ways to get your food to the
people whose well-being you are caring about.

The community kitchen I am helping a bit on is a community processing
plant/incubator - where regional people can come try out ideas for sales
while meeting all the regulations, restaurants can try ideas, community
groups can cook together. The main focus is on the small
grower/baker/entrepreneur who wants to start up a small business using food.
I will just send an article that a friend and I wrote so that you have more
of an idea of if, rather than recreate it here.
>
> I've been trying to come up with a way to get this kind of food (and at
least some of
> mine) to the people on the bottom. We have a Community Kitchen and I've
taken them some
> things they don't usually get donated, like salad greens. What I would
like to do is get
> something larger going and get ALL of my production and/or some high
quality food from
> others to the Kitchen.
>
> Could you share your project with us (or at least me)? I'm looking for
ways to make this
> happen and would appreciate any ideas. Anyone else out there doing
something similar?
>
> (I realize that these are stop gap measures- treating symptoms rather than
addressing the
> real source. This source is economic systems which allow
wealth/power/information to be
> concentrated in the hands of the few. But, people need to eat until the
system is
> changed. I would like to feed some while working towards a system in
which we all thrive
> and there is no hoarding.)

I share your vision in working toward such a system, and in the necessity
for eating in the meantime!
Jill
PS I still didn't weed the strawberries, but did move the pasture fence,
weed the broccoli, check the blossoms on the tomatoes, and chase the goats
away from my flowers!






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