Society has grown so detached from the food that they put into their mouths that they would rather pay more for material things that give them pleasure rather than nourishment. Food is packaged...heated...and served in a plastic wrapper. It’s in every corner of the street. It’s in every sidewalk. Every bus stop. Buy-One-Take-One burger stands are everywhere. Food is omnipresent.
I don’t know why the same fast food chain needs to have three branches in one small town. I guess “marketing strategy” is the new term for greed.
Why can’t we make a stand and demand for healthy food? Why is health of least importance when so many people are sick? Food, the environment, and our health (and economics!), it all belongs to one conversation. Actually, it should be one word: foodenvironmenthealth(andeconomics!).
Today is the day that we start to do things differently.
Most of you see me gardening and farming on Facebook. That’s because I’ve been practicing organic agriculture for 2 years now, blame it on the UP Open University’s Organic Agriculture program. I grow vegetables without any chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers or even heavy machinery.
It’s just ecology and hard work.
Fast forward to today, I’m now working for Good Food Community--a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) group that helps smallholder organic farmers in far-flung places find stable markets in the city.
I decided to join Good Food Community because I always believed in an alternative food production system where consumers actually know (and trust!) the people who grow their food, farmers are paid fairly and vegetables are grown organically. Which translates to creating meaningful relationships while having a stable livelihood and taking care of the environment--a concept that’s so alien nowadays in this individualistic, resource-hungry and efficiency-obsessed economy.
How does CSA work?
By paying upfront, the farmers get the necessary capital to start their farm operations without throwing punches in the air and walking blindly in the dark--planting randomly and hoping that someone will buy their vegetables. CSA guarantees the farmers a sure market because people (or shareholders in CSA jargon) “invest” in the farm and share in the risk of the whole operation. Now it’s up to the farmers that they deliver top notch healthy produce. That’s where we step in.
Obviously, these backyard farmers don’t stand a chance against heavily-funded, large-scale conventional farms that supply a vast network of supermarket chains and public markets where 99.99% of people buy their fresh produce.
Just like the smallholder farmers which do more for less (organic agriculture is hard because man messed up the environment), stakeholders also struggle because they pay more for less (because organic produce costs more than cheap, pesticide-happy veggies)...for now.
Today is the day that we start to do things differently.
Click “Be a Stakeholder” and Change the World with Food today.
Watch the Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_iPv91pxxQ
Visit: http://www.goodfoodcommunity.com
