A Campaign in Retrospect: Part 1

The little blue flyer inviting people to a discussion on the upcoming Let Me Decide initiative showed up at our favorite coffee house one day and I recognized that a piece missing from my graduate school work was the political nature of food.  I decided to attend the meeting and see how I could become involved.  The meeting was dynamic, fun and definitely aligned with my goal of obtaining more exposure to food politics.

The initiative was referred to as I-522, Let Me Decide, and was created with the goal of requiring all genetically engineered (GE) food to be labeled.  It was a first tier labeling initiative and would only require foods containing genetically engineered ingredients, or those which had been genetically modified, to be labeled.  The people leading the charge months before the campaign group ever arrived on the scene was Food & Water Watch and numerous grassroots volunteers, coordinators and other advocacy groups.

"Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping the global commons — our shared resources — under public control.  We envision a world where all people have access to enough affordable, healthy, and wholesome food and clean water to meet their basic needs — a world in which governments are accountable to their citizens and manage essential resources sustainably" (http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/about/).  

Farmers Markets and CSA's

 

Living in the Pacific Northwest has its many advantages and one of those is the wealth of farmers markets and CSA (community supported agriculture) we have in the Seattle area and around the state.  Many farmers markets are seasonal and only occur for a limited amount of months, however, some markets are open year-round.  The same is true for farms offering CSA memberships; some offer them for a limited amount of months during peak season times and a limited winter season and others offer CSA membership year round.

These are in no order of preference, but offer some ideas of where you can find alternative market spaces around Washington state.