Farmers’ Market:
Food Sovereignty III
Small children go through a stage in which any change requires a cautious approach … ”OK. You investigate. I’ll watch … just to make sure nothing awful is going to happen.” Given the opportunity to enjoy a sublime Coq au Vin, they will insist on the blandness of chicken fingers. Only the most daring may submit to the tiniest of smudges of corn-syrup-based dipping sauce from McDonald’s on their nugget, but only if an older sibling tries it first.
Maturity produces a more venturesome palate (though under the cover of darkness in a fancy restaurant, we may hesitantly dip in one tine of the fork to evaluate an unfamiliar dish before diving right in). Most adults have moved beyond breaded, fried, ground chicken. They have exposed their taste buds to chicken enchiladas, chicken curry, and even the aforementioned wine sauce. They have survived to tell the tale.
Evaluative eating is probably a part of our evolutionary development; early Homo sapiens needed to know that the wooly mammoth haunch they dragged home was both tasty and safe to eat. Post-Ice Age, we have replaced the dangerous practice of chasing lions off their kill to provide food for the family table. We wrestle an erstwhile shopping cart into submission passing the meat counter at the grocery store. In making this change, our species has willingly passed on to regulators and inspectors the responsibility for determining that the food brought home in ubiquitous plastic bags is edible, safe, and user friendly.
Faith has its place, but probably not in the kitchen while making dinner and certainly not at the grocery store. Adults need to make informed decisions. We can educate ourselves about foods, additives, farming and processing practices, and we can make up our own minds about what we bring home to feed our families and what we put in our own mouths.
Members of the Presque isle Farmers Market bring products to the Aroostook Centre Mall parking lot every Saturday morning for their customers that are the best that we can manage — fresh, ripe and flavorful. We are happy to pass on information about what varieties you are choosing, how they were grown and harvested, and how best they can be served. You can ask whatever questions you desire to make good selections. These advantages have to be a description of food sovereignty at its best.
This column is written by members of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market. For more information, visit their website at https://sites.google.com/site/presqueislefarmersmarket/home.
