March 21, 2010 Building a local food economy has been a focus of several CUpS interviews, and examples shown through stories of artisans, farmers, and businesses doing just that. It was heartening to read Barry Estabrook‘s review of a recently published book by farmer Ben Hewitt, The Town that Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food. Great examples of local ‘agrepreneurs’ growing food, creating artisanal products, selling what they produce and creating much needed jobs in their community.
“Still, Hewitt comes away feeling that Hardwick’s recent history may be providing a template for a food system that could save all of us. “The fact is that our nation’s food supply has never been more vulnerable. And we, as consumers of food, share that vulnerability, having slowly, inexorably relinquished control over the very thing that’s critical to our survival,” Hewitt writes. What is at risk, he contends, is the entire model of the way we nourish ourselves. Fixing this broken model is a matter of national urgency.”
This is a book I am adding to the top of my list of must-reads!