Local Food Panel on MLK Day
Julie and I attended a food talk and tasting for MLK Day at the School of Social Work called “Building the Beloved Food Community”. It was really nice to see a variety of local foods being produced so nearby. There was a woman from Calder Dairy, a cheesemaker from Zingerman’s, the head farmer from the Community Farm of Ann Arbor, and the director of the Garden Resource Program Collaborative (a Detriot agricultural program). I learned a very important lesson: local food producers take special care in their products that many large companies ignore—and you can definitely taste the difference. The Calder Dairy and Zingerman’s products were phenomenal! After hearing the special treatment they give to the cows at Calder Dairy, its no wonder the dairy tastes so good. (I'm still stuck on dairy!) They do not use artificial hormones to make their cows produce more and they use glass bottles and deliver to your door. Zingerman’s uses Calder Dairy milk for their cheeses. What a great partnership!
A question was asked, “Have you considered selling your food through the university?” This was a great question, because I know I’d love to have Zingerman’s cream cheese for breakfast in the dorm. There are two reasons why it is not a possibility for these local foods right now:
~Not enough food to meet the gigantic demand of the cafeteria
~Tuition increase!!! (Eek!)
Even organic food would lead to a tuition increase—it’s still just more expensive than processed and preserved food. Although these local foods aren’t necessarily organic, they are still valuable food resources for this area because they're fresh. But here’s a question you can ask yourself if you aren’t sure where to buy your milk: Who would I rather support? A family who has been producing great hormone-free milk for over 50 years or a large corporation that calls their cows “producers” and pumps them full of hormones?