Hey Tractivists,
Join Traction this Saturday, Sept 9th to celebrate our local harvest with a two-part event: a morning conversation about local food plus an evening potluck!
We’ll meet at the Durham Farmers’ Market at 10:30am, talk with Tractivists who know their local food and sustainability issues (your chance to find out about that CSA thing), and do a little shopping for the week. Then we’ll reconvene at 7pm for a community potluck dinner. It will be fun *and delicious* to share what we and our local farmers have grown this summer.
Some Food for Thought:
– The average American meal travels 1500 miles to your table!
–> After I flew to California this spring, I decided Cali was just too far away for my organic veggies. Then I discovered the Durham Farmers’ Market and was hooked. When you come, you’ll find out why!
– Farmers’ markets enable farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer as opposed to only 9 cents by traditional groceries!
– Throughout history, humans have eaten 80,000 plant species — 3,000 of them consistently. Industrial Agriculture has narrowed it to only 8 different crops for 75% of the world’s food!
– Local food means variety, biodiversity and sustainability.
– Wonder why high-fructose corn syrup shows up in almost everything? Uh, maybe it’s the subsidies in the obscure Farm Bill, which dictates the lay of the land (millions of acres of it), the food most Americans eat and therefore our very health! It’s up for debate in 2007.
– Getting a family to quit eating factory-farmed meat will cause a greater reduction in carbon emissions than switching to a hybrid car!
Here in this Fast Food Nation of ours, folks clearly want things to be fast, easy and cheap –- especially food -– and cooking is seen as work. The Slow Food movement is about recovering relationships with food, the land, and community. What’s so powerful is how Slow Food values (buying local, eating in community) can make such an impact on so many important issues: social justice, health care, workers’ rights (Labor Day is around the corner), sustainability, animal cruelty, global warming, family farms, land conservation, and the list goes on.
Put your politics where your mouth is, and join Traction in saving the world, one delicious bite at a time:
Saturday, Sept 9 at 10:30 am
Gather for local food discussion at the Durham Farmers’ Market.
(Optional FREE yoga at 9am)
Saturday, Sept 9 at 7pm
Harvest potluck at Kelly’s apartment
Please bring a home-cooked dish (preferably vegetarian), a plate, and anything else inspiring to share.
Please RSVP for either/both events and for directions to kelly@getTraction.org, and let me know what you’re bringing.
Kindest regards,
Kelly
Tractivist, local food addict and amateur cook