Family farm group seeks to expand consumer knowledge with free booklet
Farm Aid's 10 Ways to Ensure Healthy Food for You and Your Family outlines 10 action steps ordinary citizens can take

To get your free copy

To obtain copies of 10 Ways to Ensure Healthy Food for You and Your Family for yourself, current and potential farm customers, or your organization, call 1-800-FARMAID or send your name and mailing address to memberservices@farmaid.org.

You may also view the brochure electronically, after registering, at www.farmaid.org. (Please contact Farm Aid to discuss distribution of bulk copies.)
July 2, 2004: For almost 20 years, Farm Aid www.farmaid.org has helped to raise national awareness about the plight of the family farmer at the hands of industrial agriculture and poor government policy.

Recognizing that those who eat—and buy—food hold the real keys to change, the organization headed up by Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews has gotten more proactive about educating consumers to make informed choices.

Farm Aid’s new booklet 10 Ways to Ensure Healthy Food for You and Your Family outlines 10 action steps ordinary citizens can take to bring the healthiest and most nutritious food possible to their tables, support family farmers and the environment, and create meaningful relationships that strengthen communities. Of course—as even the uninitiated will discover during this quick and accessible read—these things are all connected.

The “10 Ways” include

  • “Know your food (by asking questions and reading labels)
  • Be an active food shopper (by encouraging purveyors to buy local and organic)
  • Ensure that your food dollars support family farmers (by seeking out “local” labels, shopping at a farmers market or joining a CSA
  • Get to know a family farmer
  • Teach children how to grow [and prepare] food
  • Bring food and farm issues to your community (by creating local teaching and learning opportunities)
  • Strengthen local support for farmers (by getting schools and other institutions to “buy in” to the local food concept)
  • Get involved in grassroots efforts
  • Demand democracy in our food systems (by encouraging elected representatives to support a system that produces safe and healthy food, not one that lines the pockets of corporate agriculture)
  • Become a food and farm activist

Action steps and resources follow each of the suggestions offered in this concise, direct and empowering primer.

 
   
  All material © 2007, The Rodale Institute®