Safe, Healthy Food Choices: Resources for Families in the Pioneer Valley

Know your farmers and ask questions! (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)

This past Tuesday, May 29th, Hilltown Families and the Hilltown Non-GMO Workshop Group hosted a community conversation, Safe and Healthy Food Choices: Educating and Empowering Families in an Era of High-Tech Food Production, at the Meekins Library in Williamsburg with three local food advocates.  Herbalist Tony(a) Lemos from Blazing Star Herbal School discussed the rise in childhood allergies since the introduction of GMO foods, local organic farmer Ed Stockman did an  informative presentation on GMO Foods, and Jennifer Hartley concluded with a terrific list of resources to empower families in the making of food choices.

Check out Jennifer’s resource list below, or download it and share with your neighbors, family and friends: Safe, Healthy Food Choices: Resources for Families in the Pioneer Valley (pdf)

Safe, Healthy Food Choices: Resources for Families in the Pioneer Valley (pdf)
Prepared by Jennifer Hartley, MSLIS
(Feel free to reproduce and distribute this handout widely.)

GROWN YOUR OWN

Sourcing non-­GMO seeds.

• Fedco Seeds
• Seed Savers Exchange
• Learn to save seeds. The book Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth is one place to start, which you can request at your public library.
• Start a local seed library; one example in the region is the Hudson Valley Seed Library. There is a guide to creating a local seed library here: www.richmondgrowsseeds.org

Resources for gardeners

• Western Mass. Master Gardener Association provides free advice to novice gardeners
• Kitchen Gardeners International
• Western Mass. Permaculture Guild
• Getting Started in Backyard Food Production (Laughing Dog Farm)
• American Community Garden Association

KNOW YOUR FARMERS

• Questions to ask:
  • Are the seeds that you use non-­‐GMO?
  • What are your growing practices?
  • Do you feed your animals non-­‐GMO feed?
  • Where do you stand on the issue of GMOs?
• Finding local farmers: CISA database (Be aware, however, that not all farmers are included in the CISA database, and some may grow GMOs.)

FOOD PRESERVATION

• National Center for Home Food Preservation
• Recommended titles:
  • The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz
  • Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil,Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation by the Gardeners and Farmers of Terre Vivante
  • Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables by Mike & Nancy Bubel

AT THE GROCERY STORE

• Non-­GMO Shopping Guide
• Look for the Non-­‐GMO Project Seal
• Remain wary; GMO food in the U.S. is unlabeled. Marketing can be misleading. Ongoing corruption of the term “organic,” for example. Words on a package like “natural” are effectively meaningless.