A few weeks ago I recorded a podcast episode with Sarah Adams of Indy Winters Farmer’s Market, which airs this Thursday, and we talked about furthering the cause of changing the food culture. It had me thinking for days.
It got me started writing a post about how you can make changes in what you buy to make an impact no matter where you are starting from. Had me wishing I knew how to write one of those Facebook quizzes that at the end of the quiz would tell you where you should shop based on budget and time.
Then last Sunday, The New York Times Magazine comes out and they dubbed it The Food Issue. Inside is an article by Michael Pollan, an article you can read here, and that sent me further down the rabbit hole. Here is the gist of the article, Obama said he was going to tackle big food. He got elected and started to try to make changes. Changes proved harder than thought. Big Food spends lots of money to maintain the status quo. Farmers find a weakness to exploit in big food. That weakness is where we can all strike.
Now while I recommend you read the article to get the full 411, do people say that anymore, I want to let you in on the best way to make big changes in Big Food. Regardless of if you want to see changes in animal welfare, pesticide use or any of a long list of other concerns you need only do one thing.
Vote with your dollar
Want better animal welfare…buy your food from a farmer you know
Want to tell the big food to change the ways they do business…buy only the food you want manufactures to make
While I can’t write a fancy Facebook quiz I can finish writing the article I started writing after talking to Sarah. To do this large topic justice I am going to make it a 4-part series. You can read the whole thing or you just pick up in the spot most relevant to you. In the coming weeks I will help you figure out ways for you to vote with your dollar even if, like me, you don’t have that many dollars. The more dollars you, we, take away from Big Food the more impact we can have.
It sounds like a slow process, but in the years since Omnivores Dilemma was published, amazing strides have been made to impact big food and build up local food. If we keep this up we can certainly see bigger changes. Hopefully, we can get even more people involved and make the next batch of changes faster.
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