June 30th, 2009 by Margie

This week has been all about Food, Inc.  If you have not seen this film yet, please put it on your radar.  It is currently playing at Midtown 8 Theater on Monroe Drive and hopefully it will continue for a couple of weeks.  I am seeing it for a second time this week.  It is not that this film gave me new information but it certainly put loads of points together in a very compelling way.  This e-mail really summed it up:

Hi Margie,

Amandine and I saw this last night:

www.foodincmovie.com

If you are not familiar with it, I highly recommend seeing it.  Some of the ideas could have been explored further but the message of the film hit the nail on the head.

Gut wrenching, even if you already knew the ugly truth about our industrial food system going into the movie.  But it did remind us of how happy we are in our decision to be partnered with you to support local farming and local farmers.

Thank you again and keep up the great work!

(the cheeses are excellent by the way.)

Best,
Mike

I love getting encouragement like this from you guys - It keeps me going!  I keep thinking about how we can do more about the problems we are faced with and one important element is awareness.  Now, I am painfully aware of the problems, but I think we can all be more aware of the small solutions…

Tonight I went out to a local Pub with a great menu of local food ingredients, The Porter in Little 5 Points.  It didn’t cost a hundred bucks and I was able to eat amazing sausage made from local meat from Riverview Farms.  The salad was featuring local veggies and goat cheese.  The chef here has made a decision to not only be reasonably priced but give us food we can enjoy, and not fear.  We ate, drank and tipped and still got out for less than $50 for two people!!  It doesn’t always have to cost a load to support local organic food dining out thanks to The Porter.

After dinner I realized I had to get ready for the big farm day and deliveries.  I was still doing laundry for the baskets so I ran home.  Instead of running a dryer twice to get all the fabrics nice and crisp, I hung them out before rushing off for supper.  When I got back, I felt the fabric and everything was dry.  It was that simple!  Using a dryer sometimes they get tangled so I have to run a second cycle and use twice the energy.  This was late afternoon sun that dried our fabric for the baskets.  No power plant fueled this, no money spent, and most important, no adding to my own carbon footprint.

Sometimes it takes a very simple decision to change the world, one little step at a time.  I think we are all trying to do our part.  I will sleep good after drinking Athens, GA beer, eating North GA meat and veggies, and leaving Georgia power out of the process of drying our fabrics.  Maybe next week I will remember to turn OFF my computer every time I am not using it (smiles)!