We wrote this maybe five or so years ago for an Earth Day Lincoln display we did...seems just as appropriate now as then...so here you go. (Without too many apologies for not blogging in forever and a day!)
A letter from Common Good Farm (from about Spring 2006 or 2007 or so...)
We wrote this letter last year for an Earth Day exhibit…& things haven’t changed much. People have been talking more, but it seems like just more scary food news in the news. We remain hopeful, working in our little corner of the universe, that what we’re doing is making a small difference. We’re pretty sure you probably feel the same way.
If you don’t know us, we have a small farm north of Raymond, Nebraska. Darn close to here. We grow certified organic & Biodynamic vegetables & plants & also organic eggs. We have pork & beef too. We’re trying to create a small farm in this wild Nebraska climate that does good. We like it most of the time, but find ourselves sometimes getting sucked into the whole making-enough-money-to-survive thing & not just being these esoteric-headed farmers trying to farm for the common good.
We’re not food police or farming police or recycling police. Just because we grow great food, doesn’t mean we think we know it all. But we have been thinking about local & organic food for quite a while now…
AND the ONE thing we absolutely positively think that you can do for the environment and for humanity – REALLY! – is to eat locally grown clean/organic food. Now remember, the local is where, the organic (or biodynamic or whatever) is how. People think it is either/or. Not so, say we. You can have both…you can maybe have it all.
And we all need to move past local being the chi-chi trendy thing and have it just be what IS. It just is because it needs to be, and you want it to be and there is no singular thing you can do that will have more impact than this. We truly believe it.
AND of course emphasizing this ONE HUGE ACT of eating local & organic doesn’t preclude the enormous importance of all the other good things we need to do – biking & walking as transport, recycling, consuming less…everything, every day that we should all be & do.
This is not shameless self-promotion. This is HOPE for you & for me & all of us.
Grow a garden. Buy from farmers’ market vendors. Participate in a CSA. Buy local organic goods at your grocery AND demand that they carry them. Eat at restaurants that use locally grown goods. Buy good food from small local shops. Pretty simple – grow, buy, eat LOCAL CLEAN FOOD. Of course we think our farm goods are darn good & that we are happy if you buy our food. And we also think if you do this all organically – well, bravo & bravo again. That makes us super happy too.
Food affects everything. Our economy. Our groundwater. Our soils. Our wildlife. Our mental & physical health. Our community dynamic. Our entire society.
So that’s the little take home message from us today. Most of us can create the opportunity to choose to eat better, eat well, eat good food well grown. Every. Single. Day. It IS a matter of personal sovereignty that benefits humanity, community, economy.
If you don’t believe us, here’s one little statistic from Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: it is this (pg 5: ) “ If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. That’s not gallons, but barrels. Small changes in buying habits can make big differences. “
That seems too simple, and yet too huge to ignore.
And if you want to plant a little seed, take one…they’re over there. And go plant it. And when it grows, eat the stuff that comes from it and be happy. (2012 note: We offered seeds at our table for folks to take.)
Most Sincerely,
Ruth Chantry
Evrett Lunquist
common good farm
Raymond NE
A letter from Common Good Farm (from about Spring 2006 or 2007 or so...)
We wrote this letter last year for an Earth Day exhibit…& things haven’t changed much. People have been talking more, but it seems like just more scary food news in the news. We remain hopeful, working in our little corner of the universe, that what we’re doing is making a small difference. We’re pretty sure you probably feel the same way.
If you don’t know us, we have a small farm north of Raymond, Nebraska. Darn close to here. We grow certified organic & Biodynamic vegetables & plants & also organic eggs. We have pork & beef too. We’re trying to create a small farm in this wild Nebraska climate that does good. We like it most of the time, but find ourselves sometimes getting sucked into the whole making-enough-money-to-survive thing & not just being these esoteric-headed farmers trying to farm for the common good.
We’re not food police or farming police or recycling police. Just because we grow great food, doesn’t mean we think we know it all. But we have been thinking about local & organic food for quite a while now…
AND the ONE thing we absolutely positively think that you can do for the environment and for humanity – REALLY! – is to eat locally grown clean/organic food. Now remember, the local is where, the organic (or biodynamic or whatever) is how. People think it is either/or. Not so, say we. You can have both…you can maybe have it all.
And we all need to move past local being the chi-chi trendy thing and have it just be what IS. It just is because it needs to be, and you want it to be and there is no singular thing you can do that will have more impact than this. We truly believe it.
AND of course emphasizing this ONE HUGE ACT of eating local & organic doesn’t preclude the enormous importance of all the other good things we need to do – biking & walking as transport, recycling, consuming less…everything, every day that we should all be & do.
This is not shameless self-promotion. This is HOPE for you & for me & all of us.
Grow a garden. Buy from farmers’ market vendors. Participate in a CSA. Buy local organic goods at your grocery AND demand that they carry them. Eat at restaurants that use locally grown goods. Buy good food from small local shops. Pretty simple – grow, buy, eat LOCAL CLEAN FOOD. Of course we think our farm goods are darn good & that we are happy if you buy our food. And we also think if you do this all organically – well, bravo & bravo again. That makes us super happy too.
Food affects everything. Our economy. Our groundwater. Our soils. Our wildlife. Our mental & physical health. Our community dynamic. Our entire society.
So that’s the little take home message from us today. Most of us can create the opportunity to choose to eat better, eat well, eat good food well grown. Every. Single. Day. It IS a matter of personal sovereignty that benefits humanity, community, economy.
If you don’t believe us, here’s one little statistic from Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: it is this (pg 5: ) “ If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. That’s not gallons, but barrels. Small changes in buying habits can make big differences. “
That seems too simple, and yet too huge to ignore.
And if you want to plant a little seed, take one…they’re over there. And go plant it. And when it grows, eat the stuff that comes from it and be happy. (2012 note: We offered seeds at our table for folks to take.)
Most Sincerely,
Ruth Chantry
Evrett Lunquist
common good farm
Raymond NE
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