Farmers’ Market: Food for Maine’s Future

    A new, politically-correct euphemism, “food insecure” has replaced plain old “hungry” while “economically challenged” has replaced “poor” in describing food policy in the United States. Recent economic events bring those terms, either old version or new, closer to home.  Certain truths become self-evident … we as a nation need to be able to meet caloric and nutritional needs for all our citizens in a way that is not threatened by trade imbalances or political saber-rattling; we need to provide safe, unadulterated consumables at a fair price for both the producer and the purchaser. Furthermore, we as a state need to move in the direction of encouraging, rather than discouraging, farming as a family business to accomplish this goal. Finally, we as consumers need to take into account the entire cost to us as individuals, as a community, as a state, and as a species when we make a purchasing decision.
    The choice of wares offered by big-box stores at the expense of smaller, local venders incorporates choices consumers may not even be aware they are making. The support of “cheap food” in government policies like the recently passed Farm Bill is primarily support of Industrial Agriculture as monocultures of genetically modified grains or CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). If these choices in the marketplace drive small farmers further toward economic collapse, increase the size of our carbon footprint, or encourage an expansion of the use and abuse of pesticides, petroleum-based fertilizers, or top-soil robbing management practices, we as inhabitants of the earth are making choices that threaten our personal well-being.
    The 20th annual Open Farm Day in Maine on July 26 underlined the progressive loss of awareness of the role of farmers in all our lives when it was advertised as a tourist destination. Consumers don’t really understand the “life experiences” of food prior to its appearance as prepackaged allotments in the grocery store. However, organizers of Food for Maine’s Future have taken the time and made the effort to research information made available to consumers. It provides a forum for individuals to share their resources, expound upon their views, and support their theses.
    Activists synopsize both political and cultural events associated with the production, marketing, and consumption of food from Maine in a biannual journal called “Saving Seeds,” available free at their Web site (www.foodformainesfuture.org). Workshops such as The Food School in Unity are held each year and policy updates and action alerts appear on their policy watch LISTSERV. FFMF also offers a food distribution center to facilitate buying and selling local and regional foods at wholesale prices and sponsors an annual Local and Sustainable Foods Conference. The mission statement of the Sedgewick-based organization reads as follows:
    “Food for Maine’s Future seeks to build a just, secure, sustainable, and democratic food system to the benefit of all Maine farmers, communities, and the environment.” You do not need to send money or provide sweat equity to join. You don’t even need to agree with what you read and hear; you only need to wish to be better informed.
    Fresh, locally grown food from caring, responsible producers is available at the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market in the parking lot of the Aroostook Centre Mall every Saturday between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
    Editor’s note: This weekly column is written by members of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market. For more information or to join, contact their secretary/treasurer Steve Miller of Westmanland at 896-5860 or via e-mail at beetree@xpressamerica.net.