The Simple Joys of Fresh & Local
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Smell the fresh fragrance of spring as you wiggle your winter toes among tiny green sprouts in fertile soil. Listen to the popping ears of succulent sweet corn growing knee high by the 4th of July. Feel the amber waves of whole grains swaying in the cooling breeze of late summer. See shiny bright red apples ripening to perfection and take a whiff of fresh apple pie cooling on your kitchen windowsill. Wait a minute! I must be in a fairy tale — or Disney’s 1958 film “America the Beautiful.”
What happened to our fresh, local and safe food? Just this week in “Farm to Table,” I read that a judge dismissed a case of Organic Seed Growers vs. Monsanto. Since the 1990s, Monsanto has been aggressively suing America’s farmers for alleged violating their GMO seed patents. Seed and pollen drift from genetically engineered corn, soybeans, rice and other crops, contaminating neighboring fields and farmers are then liable for patent infringement. Hundreds of farm families have not and cannot survive these lawsuits.
Here’s another snapshot of food reality in Dakota County where I live. The pantry food shelves of Eagan & Lakeville Resource Center served almost 10,000 families in 2011, a challenging 79 percent increase over 2010. Many ongoing customers are families with hungry kids and senior citizens. With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 each day, “60-somethings” needing healthy fresh food will surpass those under age 15 by 2016.
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Read the full article, and others like it at: http://edgemagazine.net/2012/04/the-simple-joys-of-fresh-local/
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