A tidal wave of petrochemicals, industrial toxins, genetically engineered components, and peculiar processes continues to adulterate our grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish. In response many more people are turning to CSA — Community Supported Agriculture — to ensure clean food for their families.
It’s fundamental. Clean food is essential to good physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. If you eat crappy food all the time — knowingly or unknowingly — you will diminish yourself, and eventually become sick. Over the last 10 years it has become more and more difficult to know what is in food, or how clean it may or may not be. It could soon become exceedingly more difficult.
Just now Congress is advancing a bill that will keep individual states from adding warnings to food that go beyond federal rules. If this bill passes, consumers will have even less chance of knowing what strange things may have happened to, or have been added to, the food they eat.
The bill (HR 4167) will federalize and “make uniform” the food safety and labeling laws of all 50 states. It will block individual states from telling their citizens more information about the food than the federal government — and food industry lobbyists — want them to know.
For more information, and to take action to preserve the state laws that now require more complete information on food, see http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_food_safety/003165.html
To take active steps to insure a direct, local, clean supply of food for your family, you may wan to look into CSA farms. There could be, and probably should be, one in every town, village, and city.
Come November, 2006, I will join with farmers and consumers from across the upper Midwest of America to explore in depth what is going on with our food, how CSA farms are responding to insure clean food for the communities they are part of, and where the CSA movement may be headed in the years to come. I have posted the conference notice below.
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Raising Vegetables and Civic Values: CSA in the 21st Century
A Conference for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
When: November 10-12, 2006
Where: Kettunen Center, Tustin, MI (just south of Cadillac)
We are building on the success of the CSA Conference held in 2004 at this location, also sponsored by CSA-MI. Look to the website for the latest news. Workshop planning is underway, and registration pricing and downloadable registration packets will be available soon. Some scholarships will be available to help with cost; applications on the website. We expect another capacity crowd, so register early!
Workshops for experienced and new CSA farmers, CSA wannabes, small farm advocates, community food/health advocates, educators and extension personnel.
Speakers like visionary, author and journalist Steven McFadden (Farms of Tomorrow Revisited) and farmer/poet/author Scott Chaskey (Quail Hill Farm and This Common Ground) …
…and many more who will inspire and educate
PLUS an intensive 1/2 day mini-school for new and prospective CSA growers: Learn the basics.
Join in good company to celebrate good soil, good work and good food
Get on our mailing list: CSA-MI, 3480 Potter Rd, Bear Lake, MI 49614
call 231-889-3216 (toll free 877-526-1441)
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