RAMC System Notes: Food Inc. and More

Next week the Macoskey Center at SRU is hosting a screening of Food Inc. (http://www.foodincmovie.com/). The new documentary by Robert Kenner will be shown Thursday Nov. 12th at 6:30 in the BSB auditorium. This film traces our food back to some unhealthy sources in the industrial system. It uncovers some of the issues with toxic food that, honestly, we’d probably rather not know about. But in the case of our food, ignorance is not bliss. So join us for this important film and take interest in the quality, source and environmental impact of your food. Stick around afterwards for a panel discussion about local food systems and the damage caused by the industrial food machine. Some of our panelists include Greg Boulos, Western Regional Director for the PASA (www.pasafarming.org/) and Jamie Moore, director of sourcing for Eat N’ Park.

FOOD INC. Thursday Nov 12th at 6:30 in the BSB Auditorium Slippery Rock University

“Food Inc. does for the grocery store what Jaws did for the beach.”
Variety Magazine

On Monday I went up to the Macoskey Center’s gypsy cart. This cart is actually a chicken coop on wheels that we move around the fields of the Center from week to week. With it our chickens get some fresh pasture to scratch, peck, and explore. I have to say we have some pretty happy chickens here at Macoskey. When you walk up to the cart surrounded by its portable, solar panel fed, electric fence the chickens often run up to you to say hello. In exchange for keeping our chickens happy with fresh pasture the chickens keep us a happy with an impressive yield of eggs. A passerby saw our chickens a few weeks ago and asked me if they had “turned off” yet. I looked at him puzzled. I was unfamiliar with the term “turned off”. I learned the gentlemen’s chickens had stopped laying eggs or “turned off” for the season. I explained to him our system of pasturing our chickens. He admitted his chicken yard was bare of any grass or vegetation. We decided that our system is keeping the chickens happy and healthy and may be producing healthier food for us. I invite you to come on by the Center and pick up some of our eggs. You may get a dozen with some brown eggs or some blue eggs but I promise they will taste like you think an egg is supposed to (and much better than the factory farm produced ones you might get at the Eagle). Try this with different foods. Find a local organic farmer who is committed to healthy, tasty food and try their product. Maybe you want to order some ground beef from Ron Gargasz farm in Volant PA (www.rongargasz.com) or some cheeses or milk from the Winter Farmers’ Market here in Slippery Rock. There is an alternative to the industrial food system exposed in Food Inc., and its right here in your backyard. It’s the sustainable farmers that you can go and meet and shake their hand. If you call on them often enough the variety of food they offer will increase. The number of farmers offering food to you will increase and maybe your waist line and exposure to toxins will decrease.