Real People Eat Local

Most people visit Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home along the Potomac, to learn about our founding father as a general or the first president, but there's actually a lot to gather there about his farming too. Washington was proud to be a farmer, as we recently noted on our visit. You can find out about his cutting-edge farming practices, see (and pet!) all kinds of heritage-breed animals like this Hog Island sheep, and learn his gardening techniques, all while getting a history lesson and some exercize. For more information, go to: www.mountvernon.org/learn/explore_mv/index.cfm/ss/31/.

John Hyde, one of the founders of the Takoma Park Farmers Market and its recent offshoot, Crossroads Market, died last week from injuries sustained in a fall. He was 64.

 

With their bakery, Takoma Kitchens, Hyde and his wife Louise Swartzwalder were fixtures at and tireless promoters of the Takoma Park Farmers Market since its inception 25 years ago. They were also long-time participants in the Arlington Courthouse Farmers Market and other markets around the area.

 

Hyde's work was instrumental in securing the funding to establish Crossroads Market, as an outreach project bringing healthy local food to an underserved community. He also was one of the driving forces behind the proposed Maryland Food and Hunger Policy Council legislation, currently before Maryland lawmakers.

 

Prior to becoming involved in the local food community, Hyde had been a journalist, covering politics for the Des Moines Register for many years. He co-authored The American Dreamer, a biography of Henry Wallace. Click here to read Hyde's obituary in the Des Moines Register. 

 

by Kristi Bahrenburg Janzen

 

Back in January, journalist Jane Black wrote an article in the Washington Post that really got me thinking. In it, she lauded "foodies" for raising awareness about local food. But she also called on them to take it further and push for specific policy changes. 
 
The national food policy debate often focuses on financial assistance to farmers. But it struck me that the many small-scale, locally oriented farmers whom I meet often list four specific impediments to their business--and they're not at all about financial support. These are not generally the points about local food emphasized by consumers, activists and writers. But thereflections of these small-scale growers amount to a wish-list for change.
 
"Eaters" everywhere, not just "foodies," take note. To ensure we have local food choices, small-scale locally oriented producers need a fair legal regime that allows them to thrive. These steps are not particularly "sexy," and may be legally confusing and historically complex. But don't let your eyes glaze over. Anyone who wants a safe, healthy, nutrient-rich, delicious and interesting food supply must concern him- or herself with them. 
 
1.       Reform the rules governing animal slaughter. Existing laws designed for large-scale industrial agricultural operations have contributed to a dearth of small-scale slaughterhouses nationwide, artificially limiting the supply of locally produced, environmentally friendly meat. The approval of more USDA-inspected mobile slaughterhouses and the expansion of on-farm slaughter allowances (to more breeds, not more animals) for small-scale operations would also help.
 
2.       Develop more programs that allow for the local sale of pasture-based unpasteurized milk (a.k.a. "real" or "raw") , and other products like cheeses made from such milk, as currently legally allowed in some states, such as California (and which include regulated testing of animals and milk supply for pathogens).
 
3.       Ensure fair labeling laws that allow farmers to differentiate their products in common-sense ways, including by stating what is not in the product. (If you want to know how food labeling can turn into a semantic game, study the case of milk that is labeled free of the synthetic hormone rBST.)
 
4.       Prioritize the elimination of unhealthy practices on farms that lead to animal disease and food-safety crises, rather than systems for finger-pointing once problems arise. Also, in tracking systems--at the state or national level, be it the proposed and extremely controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS), or some other iteration of such a system--ensure reasonable, affordable provisions (or exceptions) for small-scale operators with low numbers of animals. It just doesn't make sense to develop rules or fines based on enormous industrial ag operations and then apply those same standards to people with a small flock of chickens or herd of steers.   
 
(To read Black's Jan. 23 article, click here: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012302315.html?sid=ST2009012004270.)

Nicole Lucier, a visual artist who works on social justice issues and lives in University Park, MD, has this to say about why she likes local food:
 
"Since I get a lot of my local food through a community supported agriculture (CSA) share, I like that it's really convenient. I don't have to drive around to 10 stores. It's just two blocks away, and when we didn't have a car, we could still easily pick it up.
 
"Supporting farmers is also really important to me. I grew up in the Midwest in an agricultural community, and my grandparents have a blueberry farm in Ontario, Canada, so I am familiar with some of the concerns of farmers. A lot of the food we ate when I was a kid came from farm stands and neighbors.
 
"I like it mostly because it's so fresh. Everything tastes better when it's fresh. I hadn't bought sweet potatoes in the store for years, for example. But now they're one of my favorites. The ones I get from the CSA are just so much more flavorful. If you roast them, they get sweet all by themselves, and you don't need to put anything on them.
 
"Also, because of the offerings of the CSA, we eat so many different things that we wouldn't otherwise necessarily try." 

Kristi snapped our header photo of pastured Angus cattle following farmer Brain Poffenberger (of Stonecrest Farms in Sharpsburg, Maryland) up the hill for some good hay while researching our featured story, "A Taste of Beef," coming in our spring issue of Edible Chesapeake. The two of us have been working on this article for more than six months, and we're excited to share some of what we've learned about beef production in our area.

Edible Chesapeake is our quarterly print magazine. You can subscribe for home delivery, or you can find a free copy at various local food gathering places across Virginia, DC and Maryland. But get one as soon as they come out, because the free copies go quickly! 

 

Think again! We attend a lot of farmers markets all around the area, and hear from managers of specific issues or challenges they face all the time. But it wasn't until Renee sat in on the Maryland Department of Agriculture's annual Farmers Market Conference this week in Annapolis that we got a real feel for the number of different operational, regulatory and marketing tasks involved in running a successful market. There's a lot for us consumers to learn about the layers of permits, licenses and oversight required for farmers markets--regulations that differ from Maryland to DC to Virginia, and from county to county within our states. We'll be looking at some of these issues in the future, so we can support our market managers in creating more access to a diverse selection of locally produced foods.

 

When your farmers market opens this season, remember to pat your market manager on the back and say, "Thanks!"