A State of the Plate Address

Seven days in and ten shout outs to local vendors within a hundred miles. I invite you to follow the web links, check out their web pages and decide for yourself if their products meet your standard definition of healthy and wholesome; something worthy of your plate, your palate and your wallet.

Why is it when finances gets tight, our nutrition is the first expense on the chopping block? Of all industrialized nations, Americans spend the least of their income on food and the most on health care. In 2012, Michigan ranked #5 most obese state in the union. Heart disease is the #1 killer of women. If we increase our spending on one factor, could we reduce our spending on the other?

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 16.7 million children under 18 in the United States live in households where they are unable to consistently access enough nutritious food necessary for a healthy life. Yet even in little Spread Eagle WI I can get fresh vegetables, protein and dairy and I've hardly traveled more than 15 miles to get it. So what is keeping good food from hungry hands? Is it municipalities that chose to support profitable fast-food outlets over fresh markets? Is it school lunch programs getting whacked at the state level? Could state and local food assistance programs be revamped to include and encourage fresh local options? Is it a  mindset that small, sustainable farms are a relic of the past and  genetically modified mono-crops are the amber waves of our future?

Is it the fear that the problem is too big to solve that renders us paralyzed to even try?

Two weeks ago I heard the newscast about 22 school children in India, ages 5-12,  who became fatally ill after eating tainted school lunches. In this region of India, starvation is so rampant, that the school lunch program was, for many children, the only hot meal they would get that day. It broke my heart, it made me angry, it made me feel powerless.

That's how this blog came to be.

Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.- Margaret Meade