Sustainability, you're doing it wrong

The boyfriend was kind enough to take me to a couple apple orchards Saturday. It's fall, after all, and I have been craving apples.

Turns out, the miles we drove were completely unnecessary. I could've bought the same apples I ended up with at the grocery store.

See, we had a warm February and March, and then a hard frost in April. That killed local tree fruit. There are no local apples, peaches, pears. Heck, even other crops were done earlier than usual at some local farms this year.

One orchard owner told me some orchards have closed, others have resorted to buying from orchards in other states. Some of those orchards are even trying to take advantage of our local folks by charging exorbitantly.

I posted a Facebook status lamenting this fact. Here's what I said: "Turns out, thanks to the effed up weather this year, if you're buying apples in Indiana, they probably aren't FROM Indiana, according to one orchard owner . So sad."

Several people responded, including a farming friend (he raises free-range pigs, turkeys, chickens and ducks). And, he and I had a lovely conversation about how U.S. food policy MUST change because as it is now, only factory farms can thrive and the government only subsidizes corn and soybeans, which can be used for a variety of things that have nothing to do with feeding this country's citizens.

The part of his response to my status which hit home for me was this: "Is it really any wonder that most ground in Indiana is planted to corn and soybeans? Is it really any wonder we have the messed up food supply we have? Its really encouraging though to see that a larger number of people are actually starting to care about food."

No, it is not any wonder. When corn can be used for corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, fuel, and cheap animal feed AND our government sends money hand over fist to these mass producers of soybean and corn (which are really just frankenveggies having been altered to be able to kill insects without pesticide and to be impervious to pesticides), it is no wonder.

And, this weekend, as I drove through rural northeast Indiana and saw the corn and soybean crops (which didn't fare much better this year because of the brutally hot and dry summer), I thought, "what if?"

What if all those acres and acres and acres were used to feed animals naturally and to grow food that could sustain the counties where they're grown. We'd have an affordable, local food supply. We could all eat closer to home, we could reduce our carbon footprint and we would all probably be healthier and happier in the end.

Imagine fields full of green veggies that can go farm to table instead of pseudo-veggies that go from farm to manufacturing plant to table.

[caption id="attachment_475" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Photo courtesy of mack2happy at Free Digital Photos[/caption]