Farms and free food

July 11th, 2008 • chatter
Tags: farming, food bank

This weekend, we’re planning our first trip to D&D Farms for some fresh veggies that we’ll hopefully be picking ourselves. If not, I won’t have a heart attack. I’m mainly interested in bulking up my meager supply of dried peppers. Right now, I’ve only got about a dozen red chilis, jalapenos, and cherry peppers that I’ve dried for food additives. I hope to add at least a pound or more to that come Saturday. Maybe we’ll come home with some more juicy heirloom tomatoes and some fruit if they have any. I can’t wait to bring home inexpensive fresh produce, makes me wish I had room to do a little urban farming!

And this brings me to another point: food prices, right now, suck. I understand that prices of fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables will swing frequently due to market prices but at least we can still get the same amount of food for relatively the same cost versus what packaged food producers are now doing with the Grocery Shrink Ray (TM); consumers get to pay the same price for reduced portions. A big problem is that big box stores such as Publix, Winn-Dixie, and Wal-Mart don’t support the local farmers that exist in just about every state of the Union (OK, I know that Wal-Mart just recently became the single largest purchaser of locally grown foods). Being a locavore or slow food supporter definitely has its upside in that you can typically pay less for more food. But not everyone has this available to them — to their knowledge — and now food banks such as Farm Share are taking huge hits due to increased reliance on them by consumers. Farm Share supports residents in every county in Florida but cannot keep up with current rising demands for fresh foods and declining donations.

Why is this happening now?

The easiest answer is because of gas prices going up, increasing the cost of food shipment, food farming and production. But this is simply the easiest answer to an upward trend that’s been going on for a few years now. As more major farms are switching from food stream farming to farming for biofuels, supply of foods has decreased and the market price has had to adjust accordingly. And this goes beyond fruits and vegetables, it too extends to the various meat industries as they have many of the same costs and production to do. The long answer goes beyond this as it’s a more complex issue than I’m going to devote to here. With more people having to change jobs, or get second jobs, just to have money to get gas to get to work and pay the bills, family food budgets are getting cut. This means that more low-income families are having to rely on free food stuffs from places such as Farm Share but with supplies going to 67 counties, your resources wear thin quickly (especially when it’s costing you more to get food to other counties). Farm Share is having to reach out to more local growers and communities for help because they say people don’t want canned foods but instead want fresh foods. I understand that fresh foods are more preferable to something from a can but if you’re getting food assistance, can you really afford to be picky when your kids may not be able to eat? If I can get enough cans of green beans to feed my family for a few weeks but can only get enough fresh beans to feed them for a few meals, do you think I’m going to turn down packaged foods over fresh? Don’t bet your life on it.

What can be done to help out the food banks?

People can do a lot without much effort. If you’re a farmer, donate part of your crops. Let’s face it, you won’t sell or consume 100% of it anyway, let the extras help others. If you’re just a concerned citizen, donate whatever you can, monetarily or not. Get your local grocer to support local growers in order to help curb costs. Or go to your local farm and get your food at or below cost while supporting your local growers (farms are everywhere in this country, we even have them here in Boca, just a few miles away). If you can help get local foods into your local stores, you can help control the overhead on foods and this will help everyone that shops there. Start programs to re-introduce people to growing their own foods (which is part of the problem in the first place). Farming small vegetables like peppers and lettuces or fruits like tomatoes and key limes can be accomplished in nearly any urban setting if one devotes space to it. Urban farming initiatives are spreading pretty rapidly on the West Coast with it finally catching steam in the North and Northeast. Petitions can be made to cities to develop unused lands as small urban farms in order to help feed the community and bring them closer together. This can be especially effective in low-income areas with small open grassy areas that are often overlooked or forgotten about and thus, will also help feed just those who are straining already strained food banks. This would be a win-win since people can get the fresh foods they desire and if enough is left over, donate food stuffs to those who’ve helped them in the past and keep the circle going.

While I had no idea Farm Share was actually having a problem, I’m going to do what I can to help them. With the huge bevy of farmers here in South Florida, I hope that Farm Share’s dire state will convince them to look past making money and start looking at their neighbors who can no longer afford to feed their families. Or maybe some of those very same farmers will donate portions of their land to help families in need cultivate and harvest food to eat, that’d be an even better outcome.

A win in the war against cotton

July 11th, 2008 • funny
Tags: fail, satinism

All you other textiles beware, Satinism is on the loose. The comments are pretty funny as well.