A group of about fourteen East Winders, myself included, went to the 3rd annual ONE Congress put on by the Ozarks Neighborly Exchange. I went the second annual congress last year when I was a visitor to East Wind and was impressed by the broader community’s interest in good food and resiliency.
One of the talks at the Congress was about healthy food, which is very important to me. Most of the food consumed in this country is sick food. The industrial food system is excellent at increasing output while ignoring declines in quality. Making good consumer choices in the city can be extremely difficult unless you are willing to do literally hours and hours of research.
The food and water you consume make up your health. I like to know exactly where my food comes from and how it was produced. By growing most of my own food and knowing the people who supply me with food I am able to easily judge if my food is healthy. I drink raw milk from cows I know (and take care of) and clean reverse osmosis filtered water. I, by and large, eat produce from my own garden and only eat meat that comes from animals raised and butchered on my own land. I certainly don’t participate in all the animal husbandry, garden, and food processing tasks required to eat such a wide range of fresh and nutrient dense foods, but I know the who and the how. The degrees of separation from me to the source of my food is usually one and at most four. This is one of the greatest reasons I like living in a rural community like East Wind.
I am really busy working lately, but I wanted to check in and post some things!