Getting in touch with the food we eat

Think about it. Your meat could come from livestock anywhere in the United States. Your fruit and vegetables probably arrived via truck or train from a farm hundreds of miles away.

In sharp contrast to the pre-civilization hunters, we do not directly face the animals we eat.

And unlike our agricultural forebears, we rarely grow our own food, at least not personally.

It is as if food appears magically in our box-like grocery stores, and we rarely give a second thought as to how it got there or what that means.

Growing food may be an environmentally safe action, but add in the gasoline and vehicle emissions that result from having to ship it and it is no longer as green as it appears.

The same goes for all food. Instead of getting our food for ourselves, we have other people do it and then ship it to us… it matters not that it must travel a long distance or that in the process the environment is damaged. We are willing to pay more to offset the penalty.

This Thanksgiving, we can try something a little different. Virginia’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Todd P. Haymore, said Thursday that state residents should try to get local foods for Thanksgiving.

He says that local farmers markets can provide locally produced food. Here are a couple of your options around here.

The Farmer’s Market in Old Town Manassas on Saturdays will remain open until the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It is located in parking lot B, next door to the train station.

And the Sunday Dale City Farmer’s Market on Dale Boulevard in the Dale City commuter parking lot is open until Nov. 19.

If those do not help you with the holiday, they can still help with some of your other meals. Get out there while you still can.

And Haymore also pointed out that many grocery stores have food that is grown locally or in Virginia and they often post signs saying so.

If you are unsure, ask someone at the grocery store if they have local food and if so, where to find it.

Until people demand that they will only eat food grown or raised locally, the food industry will continue to be a distant manager of our sustenance needs.

But as more people ask for local food products, more people will make those products. It is supply and demand.

Let’s demand that our food be made locally. Let’s stop outsourcing the production of our food to other states.