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In Wimberley there is a growing fondness for the beauty and sustenance of our local food as so many have discovered our Wimberley Farmers’ Market. Sharing meals with our friends and family and feeding our need for healthy and natural foods brings us closer to the earth and to our local farmers. Buying food at the Farmers’ Market and supporting all their hard work not only has immense environmental benefits for our area, it contributes to the healthy development of our local economy.
There are fewer than a million Americans now claiming farming as their primary occupation, this means farmers are a vanishing breed. When you buy from a grocery store, the farmer gets less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar. However, local farmers who are able to sell direct to the consumers cut out the middleman and stay on the farm, doing the work they love. When you buy direct from the farmer, you are re-establishing a time-honored connection that gives you insight into the seasons, the weather, and the miracle of raising food.
Did you know that most produce grown in the US is picked 4 to 7 days before being placed on supermarket shelves and is shipped an average of 1500 miles to get there? And that is just in the US, we also import food from Mexico, Asia, Canada, and South America. China now is sending us food! The green guru has to ask why is this so, when we have more than enough farms and farmers to produce what we need right here. Well, you can thank Wal-Mart for that, they have started the trend to get even cheaper food out of China, where there are few if any labor laws or food safety requirements.
These and other large-scale food operations and production line food processing are threatening the security of our food system, as demonstrated by outbreaks of diseases such as e-Coli and Mad Cow Disease, the contamination of crops and seed stocks with genetically modified strains and toxic chemicals, and this latest bee scare, in which some US bee farmers are reporting an 80% loss of their bee population. Some experts say the disappearance of bees may be linked to pesticides and herbicides used in non-organic farming practices and some say it may be linked to the use of GMO’s.
With the excessive use of petroleum for fertilizers and transportation, the toxic use of pesticides and the destructive use of antibiotics, hormones and GMO’s; the unsustainable agribusiness food systems are bound to fail in the long run. The green guru asks, are you going to wait until we’re forced by circumstance to abandon our destructive patterns of consumption? The Buy Local movement is quickly taking us beyond environmentally responsible farming that the organic movement delivered and is awakening us to the importance of additional aspects of our food economy such as freshness, community, seasonal variety, and the humane treatment of farm animals.
How can you begin a new pattern of shopping locally? Start now by buying locally grown food whenever possible and eat healthier. The Wimberley Farmers’ Market is held every Wednesday from 3 to 6 pm. You will find Davis Orchard Peaches, Ottmers’ Family Farm vegetables and eggs, 12 Gates goat cheese, our own Montesino Farms certified organic produce from Wimberley (inquire about their CSA program), Red Barn grass-fed, hormone free beef from Dripping Springs, plants and herbs, homemade breads and soaps and much more…. See you there!
Quote of the Month: “I believe that the great Creator has put ores and oil on this earth to give us a breathing spell. As we exhaust them, we must be prepared to fall back on our farms, which is God’s true storehouse and can never be exhausted. We can learn to synthesize material for every human need from things that grow.” — George Washington Carver