Stephanie and I attended a webinar today, from the folks at Buy Local! Buy Fresh!, a local food initiative in Waterloo. Very interesting in general, and we got a lot of tips on how to go about redesigning the local food system here.

Five years from now, I think we should be eating local bread from local grains, milled locally, served with local butter. I’d like to say organic too, but let’s start with local. I think our grand-kids, thirty years from now, should ask us with puzzled expressions, why we chose to eat imported garlic when it grows just fine in our back yard. Or lettuce. Or carrots.

What should we tell them? We didn’t grow it because nobody wanted to pay us a fair price for it? It was too difficult to put it all into bags and bring it to the store? The store didn’t want to sell it because it doesn’t have a barcode?

Both as producers and as consumers, we have a lot of ground to cover between now and the big question. Thankfully, we have options. Every time we stand in front of a market stall, grocery store display, or restaurant menu. Every single time we reach for our wallets, we’re making a decision, a vote.

As growers, we’ll work on getting you some salad greens and other vegetables (and fruit!) year-round. But we’re also working on making it much easier for people to find and purchase local food. We will need your help in doing this – as you can imagine, there is much work to be done. Stay tuned!

cover, garlic, market, rain, rows, salad, Stephanie, water