LOCAL CHOICES

On Friday, October 19, we attended a portion of the Merced County Hunger Task Force – Food Summit. The topic and a concern is food insecurity in Merced County in relations to food banks, nutrition, obesity and participation.They reported on local produce for local markets and with farm land decreasing by over 2000 acres a year how it may effect the local small farmers. They discussed subsidized farmers, educating the public on the importance of buying locally grow produce and labeling food as grown locally. The best part was that their lunch meal was locally grown. (I personally believe that all county functions should follow in that example and only have locally grown food for their sponsored lunches and dinners.) Part of the summit was a Farmer’s Panel from Merced Alliance for Responsible Growth, who answered many questions form the attending participants. I find it interesting how interconnected all the programs are how important a roll local farmers have in a community’s health.