Where does our food come from?

Where does my food come from?  What’s in my food?  How fresh is it? What impact did this have on the world?  These are the questions on the minds of consumers today.  According to Cone Communications, the top 3 considerations when spending are satisfaction (97%), health and nutrition (93%) and buying local specifically was at (89%) because consumers want to know where their food came from, how fresh it is and would prefer to support a local business if possible. 

May’s issue of National Geographic has a fantastic article on food production and the problems we face as the global population continues to grow and food and water become an even bigger issue for all of us.  They estimate that with present practices, global food production will need to double by 2050 to feed the estimated 9 billion who will live on our planet by then.  It points out that 50% of total food waste (in weight) is lost before it can be consumed.  According to National Geographic, in rich countries, most of this waste occurs at home, in restaurants and in the grocery business, a topic I touched on a couple of issues ago.

Three of the five solutions in the article include shifting diets, taking steps to reduce waste and using our resources more efficiently.  The “one hundred mile diet” was a novel idea created by a Vancouver couple which turned in to a national best-selling book and eventually a reality TV show.  The idea is to try and eat as much stuff grown or produced within 100 miles of your home town thus helping to alleviate the pressures on the environment, global food issues and support local businesses. 

You may have already noticed the green signs popping up in Roosters highlighting locally produced products of all types and we are continuing to seek out more and more items grown and produced within this area.  A farmers market will be starting up in June of this year which combined with some of the products we are selling will give you a huge amount of options for food and product locally produced.  Helping you to reduce your environmental footprint, giving everyone confidence in the food we are eating, getting more nutritious and fresher food, helping with the global food problems, creating a stronger community  and supporting local people and businesses.  

Next door to Roosters in the empty space we will have local home businesses set up which aren’t in the farmers market and we will have a regular garage sale in the Quonset all at the same time as the farmers market.  Please contact us to reserve your table.  This is a tremendous opportunity for all.  Remember a dollar spent locally changes hands 7 times before it disappears but a dollar spent outside of your community is gone forever and we did not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we are borrowing it from our children.  These events are on Tuesdays 3-7 throughout the summer but many of the local products we carry in Roosters can be found year round.  See what you can buy, see what you can save, see you at Roosters!!!