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Local, organic food is great – if you can afford it

Reading an article in the latest Dairy Herd Management e-mail newsletter, I am disgusted and amazed by the newest film recently released, “enlightening” consumers about corporate food production.

The following is a portion of the article which describes this new anti-agriculture movie: “The new documentary ‘Food, Inc.’ begins with idyllic scenes of American farmland, panning from golden fields of hay to a solitary cowboy rounding up a herd of cattle. Then the camera zooms in on a grocery cart overflowing with packaged food and rolling down the aisles of a gaudily lit supermarket.

“Eerie, horror movie-style music swells in the background. It’s meant to signal the audience that the pastoral fantasy of agrarian America on everything from packages of breakfast sausage to cereal boxes is not what it seems, that great danger lurks behind the cheery images of 1930s-era red barns and white picket fences.”
Basically this film tries to create criminals out of big farmers. If you have more than a yard full of chickens and a barn full of cows, then you are the bad guy and the food you produce for the world is bad.
Where in heaven’s name do these people come from? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! Like the governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm – who turns a deaf ear to everything but casino talk and unions, cutting ag budgets left and right – the creators of “Food, Inc.” must not be bothered by seeing people go hungry.

Just last week I was exiting the grocery store and I saw a mom with four young kids hanging off her grocery cart. She was standing at the pay phone – which was an odd sight, to say the least. Thinking she had no cell phone, no change for the pay phone and needed to make a call, I stopped, turned around and asked if she needed to use my cell phone to call someone.

Her reply made my heart sink. She said she was calling to see how much money she had left on her food assistance card, that it was a toll-free call and she thanked me for my offer. It was toward the end of the month and I was sure her money was running out.
I walked away feeling such a burden for this young mom who was having to rely on government assistance to buy nourishment for those four precious, curly-haired children. Unloading my groceries in my van, I walked back into the store in search of this mother.

Praying the whole way I would find her, I went to the first place a mom with four kids and limited resources would go: The dairy department. Nope, not there. Where to next? The baby section, where she would be buying diapers … nope, not there. I continued to pray while I walked by every aisle in the grocery department.
Cereal – that’s the aisle! Of course, she was buying cereal for her little ones. I walked up to her and gave her all the cash I had in my purse. Her smile, a simple “thank you” and the thought of her children having something to eat that day was enough to bring me to tears as I walked out of the store and drove home.

I don’t tell this story for a pat on the back. I tell this story for the enlightenment of people like the creators of “Food, Inc.” to see that while they fire arrows at the ag industry in hopes of abolishing everything but the small family farm and local farm markets, the cheap food that fills grocery stores across the country keeps single moms and their beautiful children alive.

Are they ready to put their money where their mouth is and buy expensive organically grown food for a family for a year? Are they ready to cultivate a garden and offer their bounty to the community for free? (And by the way, while we all are wowed by the fact that the First Lady has a organic garden on the south lawn of the White House, let me ask just exactly how many hungry moms and children will Michelle Obama’s garden feed, anyway?)

Take the 49-cent can of green beans, the 59-cent can of stewed tomatoes, the 33-cent box of macaroni and cheese and the $1.77 gallon of milk away, and replace it with $1.59 per pound of organic green beans, $1 organic tomatoes and organically made noodles and $3.50 per quart of organic milk – and have at it.

When you go to bed with a full stomach, don’t worry about those hungry kids whose parents can’t afford your locally grown food.
The rest of the farming community that you criticize will continue to grow wholesome food and, because we are who we are, we will barely make a living. But at least the children of America, our greatest resource, will still be fed and we will sleep at night.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.

6/17/2009