3 Years Ago

3 years ago today my grandfather passed away. I still think of him often. Thinking of his life has caused me to reflect a bit on some current stuff going on in our country.
I just read an article in the paper about a push for more urban areas to allow residents to raise chickens. Several cities had previously banned residents from keeping chickens, but there has been a growing effort to get those bans lifted. Many cities now allow up to 6 chickens to be raised on a residential property, usually with the consent of neighbors. The owners get the obvious benefit of fresh eggs, but the chickens also help to control weeds and bugs, and they fertilize the ground. This is just one of the latest parts of a growing trend of people wanting to raise their food closer to home. Many are returning to growing a vegetable garden in their back (or even front) yard. More are making a conscience effort to seek out locally grown food and locally raised animals for diary and meat. With the ever increasing cost of gas and diesel, transporting food long distances is making less economical sense. Locally grown food also is usually fresher and better tasting. There is also a lesser chance of an outbreak of a deadly disease from locally grown or raised food. Even if there is an outbreak, the number of consumers affected is much, much less than food grown or raised on large factory farm environments.
If you cannot raise or grow the food yourself, at least try to get the know the people who do. These people are certainly not in this business to make a lot of money, they want to see people eating fresh, healthy food. Go out and visit a farmer's market the next chance you get. Maybe you can even find tomatoes there!