SOLE Food

Buying local and sustainable is a trend that is quickly turning into a lifestyle. That's why I love this blog on SOLE food from the Baltimore City paper. Based on Michael Pollan's philosophy outlined in In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto -- the blog puts into action the author's conscious decision to buy food that is Sustainable, Organic, Local, and Ethical.

Michelle Gienow, the author of the posting, takes SOLE food to heart and one step futher. She feeds her family great healthy, local food -- on a food stamp budget. She found herself shopping less and less at the grocery store and instead buying directly from the farmers who actually produce the food, sometimes at the farmers market, sometimes at the farms themselves.

She says, "It's moments of choice like this where we can each make our small ripple in the pond. Too often, we look at giant problems like loss of the rainforest, climate change, or the monolith of our industrial-food system, and feel like we can't do anything to change such dire and intractable things. But we can make a difference each and every time we buy our food, which we all must do one way or another.

"If you care at all that your food dollars are supporting morally or ethically objectionable practices--factory farms, environmental destruction--you can withhold your support from those purchases and vote with your food budget for a better alternative. Whether that is via food stamps or on a fat bankroll, the responsibility of choosing a better food system and a healthy ecosystem rests on us all.

"With each food dollar spent, we are all casting an essential vote. You can't buy a senator, the way the agribusiness lobbyists can, but you can say yes to locally grown tomatoes."

So vote with your grocery money.