September Note From the Founder
Can you imagine walking into a convenience store and finding a bag of freshly-harvested greens more easily than you can find a bag of Cheetos? This is the kind of world I imagine, and the scenario everyone at EarthDance is actively working towards. We want fresh, locally-grown, organic veggies to be an EASY option, rather than a go-out-of-your-way and drive-across-town-on-certain-days-of-the-week option.
It’s going to take some major changes and some amazing leadership to get us there. (As well as a whole lot of meetings, planning, and intention.)
In particular, we think it’s going to take the leadership of young people to move us there.
When our young Junior Farm Crew members were posed the question, “How do we make the changes we want to see in our food system a reality?” several of them said that education is the key, that we should host classes at churches, rec centers, and in schools about these topics. Others said that we need to change the political system. Some said that it takes small changes that begin with each of us individually.
I agree with all of them.
One significant obstacle to making fresh produce at a convenience store the norm is that it’s currently not the most profitable option for retailers, distributors, and food manufacturers to put in front of customers every day. Between the massive marketing and advertising campaigns food companies execute, and the subsidized commodity program that props up corn and soy as two of the biggest ingredients in our food supply, fresh veggies like greens just don’t make the big suits much money. Puffed up colorful plastic packages of artificially-flavored and artificially-colored food-like substances somehow make more money for Wall Street than greens. Go figure.
When we shift our buying habits away from processed, and towards fresh foods, we are not only supporting our own health, we are making it more viable for farmers to make a living on the land and leaning toward a scenario where a bag of freshly-harvested greens can be available at any convenience store.
This fall we are excited to commence another session of our Junior Farm Crew to continue digging in to so many of these big picture issues in a very hands-on and hope-filled way. Thanks to so many contributors in our
GoFundMe campaign, we have been able to
double the length of our program this year: 10 weeks of summer jobs for young people in Ferguson, and now 10 weeks of after-school jobs this fall!
Thank you so much for helping to make this possible; we are eager to reach our fundraising goal this year to ensure that we can continue this youth development and jobs program long into the future!
Rooted in Ferguson,
Molly Rockamann
