“Farm to Table” or “Farm to Fork” is a social movement that’s booming in the U.S.
Emma Diab of thrillist.com wrote that “There’s no centralized criteria by which farm-to-table is defined, but generally, if you know the farm or ranch your product came from, if you know they’re raising their crops or livestock without added hormones or pesticides, and if you are cutting out the middleman by bypassing commercial vendors, you’re eating farm-to-table.”
I recently visited with Nathan Gipple, Senior Director of Solutions for Urban Ag, a 1/2 acre above-ground urban microfarm in Irvine, Orange County, California. Nathan and his team are there to test sustainable farming models. Solutions for Urban Ag, SUFA, regularly evaluates the microfarm for keys to providing people with quality food. Food shortages are more and more common with the decrease in farm land due to government regulations, and farms being bought out in exchange for more acres to build housing developments and suburban communities around. I addressed this in a previous blog titled “Free Your Inner Farmer…Never Goes Out of Style.”
Everyone can be a “farmer” in their backyard, roof, patio. It’s best to start by practicing regenerative agriculture by building back the quality of the soil. This has been on my mind lately – can you tell by the subjects in my recent blogs? Nathan at Solutions Farm teaches that pesticides and chemicals degrade our soil. To have access to healthy food with nutritive value we must build back the quality of the soil in which we plant food for ourselves and the masses.
If you are familiar with me and my posts, you know that I have four GrandAngels aka Granddaughters. I want to do what I can to ensure they, and future generations, have access to plenty of healthy food – I want this for myself and my husband, as well.
Would you like to visit Nathan at Solutions Farm to learn more about solutions that allow agriculture to continue to exist in areas that are predominantly housing and commercial? You can schedule a tour at ngipple@sfua.org You’ll also learn about 100% organic soil-based growing systems featuring their SoxxBoxx system.
Ready for some homework? Research this hashtag: #knowyoursource which is a campaign that focuses on knowing how food gets to your plate.