Farm Fresh Routine Change

If you follow me on Twitter, you may recall that on Saturday night while I was babysitting I was able to finally watch the documentary Food, Inc. Overall, I really liked the documentary and think that it sheds much needed light on the food industry in America.  After reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and copious articles on factory farming, organics, grass-fed beef, and more, I still came away with a few new things to think about (spoiler alert if you haven't seen the film):

• The best way to minimize the global impact of the food we buy is to buy local, fresh foods from area farmers at farmers markets and other places
• The average chicken farmer goes into +$200,000 in debt meeting corporate standards of major poultry companies yet only earns on average $18,000 a year
• One meat company has an agreement with local law enforcement to only deport a small number of illegal workers at a time so it does not impact the slaughter and production of its product

And that's just a few of the things I learned!

I was inspired by the film to do a bit more produce shopping for this week at my farmers' market as opposed to at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, where I usually shop. I got all of the following items for only $9.65 and have yet to make a huge dent in it 5 days later!!

This would be a huge cucumber, green bell pepper, white onion, 2 summer squashes, 2 ears of corn, and peaches.

I felt really good about minimizing the waste that often comes with produce packaging (for spinach, bags for veggies, etc) and the taste can't be beat! Not to mention, all of these foods are naturally gluten free, 0 pesticides, and are whole and nutritious foods! Especially during the summer, there are so many options for fruits and veggies that this practice might be something I aim to incorporate more fully into my grocery shopping habits! And, I want you, my friends and readers to try to hold me accountable to this :-) After all, if part of summer is being outside in the sun and enjoying the weather, what better activity then shopping at a farmers market and enjoying some of the summer's harvest?!

Enjoy some of my favorite market pictures from this summer!