"*please feel the JOY to pass this on!*
Hi to All !!

Upon hearing this, I HAD to share:):

Re: Farmers Fare-Going and Growing!!

I can't, and wouldn't, say anything regarding any of your past negative experiences with the "chosen industry" (FOOD), however, I do NOT think/feel it is appropriate, or fair, to view Farmers Fare as just: "another retail/food business" either!!
So having said that, I would challenge any/all traditional, and historical, "data and opinions" surrounding any forecast, for future "FOOD commerce", accordingly!! It is the foundation and development of "Food Systems", and there is an ever-increasing amount of people-- ( aka- HUGE SHIFT), in wanting/NEEDING to know "WHERE our food comes from"???!!!
What I DO know is that I/we/FF IS making a difference and as "tiny as that seems in your world", it's HUGE in the world I, and many others choose to live in re: "LOCAL sustainability"! All you need to do is open a newspaper, turn on your TV and/or look at all recent "Titles" of non-fiction, on every bookstore shelf, across the USA and beyond!!! In this case, I will refer to England...
Last Thursday, I had the honor and pleasure of spending a couple of hours with a friend and happens to be the President of MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association), Russell Libby. who by anyone's "standards" is a genius in understanding "food systems", and how they are evolving! He shared some unbelievable "events", both by force of nature, or just a need to change!! This only further demonstrates "today's reality": we need to go back to our "LOCAL resources" on every level, with "food systems" being a NEED and no longer a "choice"!!
Still not "feeling it"??? Well, then, read on...:) !!!
Here is the best, and most current example:

We are a world, smaller than 6 degrees of separation, especially where our "human needs/resources" are concerned!!
The example:

This recent act of Mother Nature, a volcano erupting, in Iceland, has practically paralyzed the entire "FOOD SYSTEM" of Great Britain....and WHY?? It was some years ago, when England, as a growing industrialized country, made the decision to increase their population with more people who then "crowded" land that HAD been utilized to grow food (aka- "local food"), and some "experts" with power in the food chain, determined that England would be better off, in more ways than just "economical", if they turned over the land for most ALL of their "natural agricultural resources" (aka- farmland), to another place where they could get the "same resource/food" from land that was available, accessible, and CHEAP: Kenya, Africa!!
They then began importing all of these foods to England, thus utilizing their own massive land areas, to build industrial facilities, which would generate more MONEY, per square foot, per day, by less man-hours!! Brilliant, right???? NOT!!!!!!
Now, many, too many, years later, as Mother Nature does what she does, at random..., a volcano erupts in Iceland...!!!!
WHO CARES???
Well, the British DO!!! Furthermore, this predicament, or more accurately, CRISIS, is solely due to the inability to import/ transport (airplanes) the very FOODS they live and thrive on every day....but canNOT have due to pollution caused by a volcano erupting in a place that very few could even locate on a map!!!!
So, unfortunately, a volcano, in "Never, Never land"- (aka- Iceland), has now experienced an "unexpected natural disaster" which has, literally, shaken-up the entire country's (England) food supply systems......
NO PLANES = NO FOOD!!!
On top of that, is the absolute "shock and reality", that they,(British populous), didn't even KNOW that these foods, they consume every day, ARE NOT "LOCAL", in a BIG way!!!!
That's all I will say for the moment as this speaks for itself!!!!
Thank You for caring enough to read to this last word:)!!
CHANGE is not a "bad thing"!!! :)

I hope somebody cares enough to reply and/or pass this on!! I will be
Thank you!!!"

Teri Thompson-Christie
Farmers Fare

 

(Rockport, ME)