06/22/2010 02:20:18 Declare your food independence on July 4!
July 4th comes once a year, but every day can be Food Independence Day if you make efforts to source your meals locally and grown some of your own food. Please sign our pledge/petition below to express your support for kitchen gardens, local foods, farmers, and food producers in your area. Learn More and Sign Petition03/31/2010 01:11:24 Eat Local Challenge - Oregon
Here's another great website dedicated to the concept of eating locally to benefit farmers and the planet and a wealth of information: Eat Local.net

Why eat locally grown foods?

When you buy direct from local farmers, your dollars stay within your community, and strengthen the local economy. More than 90¢ of every dollar you spend goes to the farmer, thus preserving farming as a livelihood and farmland.(1)

This is important because as mergers in the food industry have increased, the portion of your food dollar paid to farmers has decreased. Vegetable farmers earn only 21¢ of your dollar; the other 79¢ goes to pay for marketing, distribution, and other costs. (2)

Sources:
(1) Like CSAs, farmers' markets provide farmers with close to 100% of the food dollar (minus a fee or small percentage paid to the market for maintenance) and a direct connection between farmer and consumer." In the words of the peach grower and writer David Mas Masumoto, farmers' markets are 'one of the saviors of the family farm. All those barriers created by the conventional marketing system are torn down. The consumer sees it isn't just a commodity — it's a peach, or a carrot, or a cabbage.

Spector, Rebecca. “Fully Integrating Food Systems: Regaining Connections between Farmers and Consumers" Edited by Kimbrell, Andrew. (2002) Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture. Foundation for Deep Ecology. P. 353

(2) In 1967, fruit farmers earned 31% of retail expenditures. In 1997, they earned only 18%. The fall for fresh vegetables is from 32% to 21%. These changes are accounted for by the increasing share of food expenditures spent on processing, marketing, and corporate profits, and most importantly by the concentration of power in food retailing which enables corporate buyers to drive down farm prices. [Elitzak 1997]

Starr, Amory; Card, Adrian; Benepe, Carolyn; Auld, Garry; Lamm, Dennis; Smith, Ken; Wilken, Karen. Barriers and Opportunities to Local Agricultural Purchasing by Restaurants and Institutional Food Buyers. Colorado State University, Department of Sociology. April, 2002.03/23/2010 12:47:24 Diet for a Hot Planet
Anna Lappé's new book, Diet for a Hot Planet, offers a message that will resonate with those of you who are already familiar with the concerns of Locavores: Food production counts for about 33 percent of ALL global warming pollution. And if we want to fix our planet and live healthier lives, we need to start by changing how we eat.

And she would know: Lappé is a best-selling author and the host of MSN's "Practical Guide to Healthier Living" and PBS' "The Endless Feast." She's also just happens to be the daughter of Francis Moore Lappé, whose seminal work Diet for a Small Planet basically invented the American vegetarian movement.

You can find more information about the book at Progressive Book Club02/05/2010 12:45:23 Buy Local - Buy Organic: A Post from the Ojai Valley Vegetarian
Randy Graham of the Ojai Valley Vegetarian tackled the difficult subject of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in an article also published in the Ojai Valley News on Feb 3rd. He comments on a balanced approach while making an argument for eating local organic foods when possible. Here is an excerpt:
"I was doing research on genetically modified organisms (GMO) and found an article in the recent winter edition of California Alumni Magazine titled Dinner by Design. It is an interesting read.

In the article, the author presents arguments on both sides of the GMO debate ultimately siding with the argument for GMOs as he believes GMOs are best at “beating pests to extending shelf life to creating prettier apples.” He concludes his article by stating, “For many traditionalists, genomics will doubtless always be anathema. But for the billions who face famine in the developing world, these tools may be the best weapons of survival.”

I can’t speak to the effort to thwart global hunger but I can speak to the argument for eating non-GMO food and to the effort to eat well, to eat local and to eat fresh in the Ojai Valley. Let’s start with a discussion of genetic modification in general as applied to plants..."

Read the entire article at http://valleyvegetarian.blogspot.com/2010/02/buy-local-buy-organic.html