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The Family Farm

© Bob Ewing

Last week we began our look at Food Allergies and School Policy with a review of an earlier article. This week we go back to 2003 and a look at The Family farm

If we are going to develop public polices and local infrastructure that provides safe and healthy food for home and school, we need to give serious weight to where it all begins.

Agriculture is the cornerstone of a strong, viable, healthy and sustainable community.

Let's talk food. The farm is where it all begins. The farm is where the food that most of us in North America are still able to eat comes from; it is the source.

It is late November. The last harvest of the season is behind us. Our eyes are cast forward into the dark. The Celebration of Light approaches. We can use this cycle to find out about the role of the family farm.

Now back to the farm where it all begins. Far too many people are unaware of where food actually comes from. They go to the supermarket, the baker, green grocer or butcher and that is it. This is where they get food.

In reality, the food only arrives in these various stores after travelling through a lengthy process that may include thousands of miles and months or years of labour to produce the pork chops or squash that appear on your plate.

Modern agriculture began about 10,000 years ago. It remained relatively unchanged for thousands of years until very recently with the invention of the plow; and, then the mechanized means to pull the plow.

Today we are faced with changes that threatened the family farms that once dotted the rural landscape and provided the local community with all its food needs.

The factory farm is a mega-industrial operation that consumes hundreds if not thousands of acres and mass produces the basics of the food system: chickens, pigs, cows, grain, etc. There is a movement on to restore the family farm and to support a return to small farms. I have written about small farms before.

If you are considering becoming a small scale farmer be sure you do your homework first.

Even if you have no interest in becoming a farmer, it is important to realize the role that farms play within the food system. If the family farm disappears or becomes consumed by the agri-industrial food giants then we not only lose part of our heritage, but an intimate connection to the source of all that we eat.

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