No more Wednesday markets

It is going to be strange tomorrow night - not writing the CSA flyer, not getting all the stuff packed and ready for market (Peter always does the veggies but I do the stuff for kids, cash box, etc.). These are some photos from the second to last market now almost two weeks ago. It was nice the weather stayed so great!

In any case, having a bit more time, I've been trying to get up to speed on the Farm Bill. It is very interesting. When I googled Farm Bill, some of the first sites that came up were international humanitarian relief sites like Oxfam. Basically a major problem with the Farm Bill is that it gives subsidies to big producers of certain commodities like corn and rice. This creates a glut of those crops which causes the price of them to drop and that price collapse undermines the financial viability of local farms across the globe (in addition to creating a lot of other problems).

Realizing that aspect of the Farm Bill problem made me appreciate the CSA -- the CSA and eating local in general is not just about what's good for my family, my community, but for communities across the globe. It's just a bad idea on so many levels to concentrate control of the food supply in a relatively a small number of politically powerful corporations, and the Farm Bill only makes that problem worse. The CSA and eating local is a way to light a candle rather than curse the darkness in terms of how screwed up the food system is.

Speaking of resisting, I've been trying to figure out who, if anyone, to write letters to or whatever to try to improve the Farm Bill. Do you know? Is it too late? From what I have been reading, its not a done deal yet, but its pretty close. Basically, from what I can tell, the good guys gave it a better shot than they ever have this time around and made some progress, but they were pretty much blown out of the water by the very powerful vested interests of the big corporations who get the vast majority of the subsidies. I'm sure that's an oversimplification, but that's the gist of what I've gotten so far. Anyway, email me if you know of stuff to read on this or points at which its worth bringing pressure to bear.