Happy Solstice – this is a major transition in the rhythm of the seasons and energy of the planet. From Solstice to Solstice each year, all of Nature (including us, of course!) takes in its breath and exhales its breath. At the summer solstice (yesterday) we and the planet completed a 6 month long in-breath of energy, information, fertility, wisdom, etc… and now we begin to exhale. Now is the time too give back all that we have taken in. This is nature’s ultimate gesture of generosity and love, and it can be ours as well.
In our community of families and farmers (of which you are an essential part), summer poses some interesting contradictions for us. At a time when our community of farmers is finally in full and abundant production – showering us with their bounty each week – many in our community of families go away for a well deserved break from very busy lives.
So I would like to introduce a theme and share an article with you – and it may be a bit confronting.
Irit Tamir of Oxfam America is also a long time community member of Farmers To You and is quoted in this article. Yay, Irit – thank you for all your work!
Supermarket Giants Play Role in Mistreatment of Global Workers, Report Says (Baltimore Sun)
So the question is: Which food and farming system do you want to support?
Whenever you buy food from the supermarket you are supporting a large scale mostly destructive food and farming system. Ten years ago you would have been right to accuse me of oversimplifying, but now with the buyout of Whole Foods by Amazon, there are two very different food and farming systems out there. Let us be clear with the facts: the system that is healthy to the land, animals, farmers and workers is the one that sells essentially nothing to the supermarkets. And this is also the food and farming system that produces healthy, clean, trustworthy and nutritious food. The other food system that is comprised of the major food food chains and includes Whole Foods simply cannot do this, despite all the marketing.
So choose the food and farms you wish to support. Buy local at your CSA, your farmers market or Farmers To You. Skip the supermarket whenever possible. Choose for the sake of your health, the environment, the local economy and to support the fair treatment of and wages for the people that produce this food.
I have been looking at this issue for a long time, and over these past few months I am convinced there is no other choice – support this healthy local food movement or it will die. Every time you support your community of farmers, they get stronger, you get healthier, we begin to heal the Earth. Every time you go to the supermarket, local farms struggle, more workers suffer, inequalities increase, farmers and animals and the land and Earth get sicker.
Please choose for the health of this community that is offering us so much health and abundance in this summertime of love.
