Other ways to become a Fair Foods activist other than “voting with your fork” could be becoming more engaged citizens and taking action to help change current large policies and institutional practices. People can also try to eat seasonally and locally, while also shopping more sustainably and organically. Eating and shopping locally reduces the transportation of goods, which helps support the local economy. Another way that can help is to purchase free-range or grass-fed beef. These practices are more sustainable, and people are not consuming meat pumped with hormones and antibiotics. Eating seasonally and shopping locally not only help the local economy, but the food is also more nutrient-dense, and it helps farmers keep their land. Some other ways to beyond “voting with your fork” are buying clubs, buying local campaigns, and implementing community gardens. Buying a club means buying in bulk from the producer. This saves money and creates a sense of community. Buying local campaigns can help change the food system. It encourages stores to sell more local products, as well as encourages others to buy more local. Community gardens increase access to fresh foods, decrease food budgets for families, creates a sense of community, improve nutrition and physical exercise, preserve resources, and much more.
A buying club is a group of people that buy in bulk from the producer. They can share savings that come from a more beneficial price between all the club members. There are many advantages including, a financial advantage for both the consumer and the producer. Buying clubs can also help create a sense of community amongst the participating members. The book gives the example of the Ann Arbor Wild Salmon Minyan. This is a salmon-catching enterprise that is located in the northern part of Puget Sound. The fishermen were concerned that they couldn’t make a living selling their salmon because of the “$2 wholesale and $20 retail.” These fishermen began to catch the salmon, freeze it, and then ship them to buying clubs for less than what it would cost them to put them in a supermarket. Both fishermen and farmers benefit from buying clubs, as well as, the consumers.
Community kitchens are made accessible to the community. They provide individuals with the opportunity to develop food products that can be sold locally at local farmers’ markets or food stores. Community kitchens play a role in the food system because it helps people in the community shop locally and more sustainable, while also helping improve the local economy. They also help consumers become educated on food safety and nutrition. Community kitchens also help build a sense of community, buy free or low-cost foods, and much more. ACEnet does just that for the people in Athens, Ohio. They provide free or low-cost meals. This is extremely beneficial to this area because it is one of the poorest counties in Ohio. A decent amount of people in this rural area do not have access to quality foods, so ACEnet allows them to buy locally, while also being cost-efficient.
Farm to school helps connect local farmers to education systems. It supplies schools with locally grown foods, helps create and maintain community gardens, and allows farmers and student groups to visit each other. Ohio University takes part in this initiative. Ohio University advertises around campus, dining halls, and other areas where they shop locally and even sell foods that have been produced on the student farm. The products they sell from local farms range from fruits and vegetables to even eggs. I think there is still room for improvement when it comes to enhancing their food purchasing to be more local/community-based, fair, ecologically sound, and/or humane. A lot of people are uneducated about the benefits of shopping locally and I think this is one of the big reasons why people shop at supermarkets for their produce. I believe hosting talks or events that present the benefits of purchasing locally will help the issue. If people know the drawbacks of purchasing produce for Walmart compared to the student farms, I truly believe that people will try and be more sustainable and think more in-depth about what they are putting into their bodies. Something I could do to influence my local district school lunch program is to try and talk to whoever is in charge and show them the benefits of giving locally grown foods to their students. I could talk about how it creates a sense of community as well as how it gives back to the local economy. The most important part would be to address how eating locally provides more nutrient-dense foods while being sustainable. If this was implemented in school lunch programs, students might have a better understanding of why purchasing from local farmers is the way to go.