Keeping it Local, Keeping it FRESH: Food Activists Show Us How

Relationships were key in last Wednesday’s locavore event, “Farm to Fork: A Panel Discussion About How We Get The Food We Eat.” Thoughtfully organized and moderated by FRESH‘s Drew Love, the panel featured the farmer (John Lee of Allandale Farms), the chef (JJ Gonson, chef/owner of Cuisine en Locale), the grocer (Jeff Morin, owner of CityFeed and Supply) and the network (Willow Blish, co-leader of the Boston chapter of Slow Food).

All in all, it was a tidy and energetic microcosm of an ethical food system. “Slow food,” Blish explained, “is good, clean, and fair.” Good, meaning that they advocate heirloom vegetables, heritage breeds, and food with a complexity of taste. Clean, meaning that food should be as good for the planet as it is for us. And fair, meaning that food producers should get a fair wage and that we should pay the real cost of food. Blish added that the prevailing system is exactly the opposite: “complex, opaque, and anonymous.”
According to the panelists, Boston’s local food scene is dispersed, but growing. Cambridge-based private chef JJ Gonson described how she was often forced to drive to several different farms when sourcing local ingredients for her clients. “How difficult it was, how expensive,” Gonson said. “And did you know that we don’t have a year-round farmer’s market in Boston? Not only do we not have one, we’re not even close!”
But don’t despair, Bostonians – John Lee and Jeff Morin are excellent resources for local produce. Allandale Farms is organic and offers CSA shares (community supported agriculture subscriptions), and Lee is keen on consumer education, reconnecting people to seasonality, and giving people a taste of unusual vegetables once in a while.

CityFeed’s Jeff Morin is enthusiastic about putting faces to vendor’s names by means of in-store demonstrations and putting bios on their products. “Keeping it local is not just about getting good food or good products. It’s a social message. We have a responsibility to the community even if you don’t come into our stores,” Morin said. In addition, farmers markets are plentiful in the summer and your nearest Whole Foods should have a full-time forager on staff whose job it is to look for locally made products.
This panel was held in connection with the FRESH film premiere at the Brattle Theater this Friday and Saturday. Hot on the trail of Food Inc. and The Future of Food, the film FRESH seeks to introduce us to the “farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system.”
For more information, visit the official FRESH website at www.freshthemovie.com.
–Christine del Castillo

Relationships were key in last Wednesday’s locavore event, “Farm to Fork: A Panel Discussion About How We Get The Food We Eat.” Thoughtfully organized and moderated by FRESH‘s Drew Love, the panel featured the farmer (John Lee of Allandale Farms), the chef (JJ Gonson, chef/owner of Cuisine en Locale), the grocer (Jeff Morin, owner of CityFeed and Supply) and the network (Willow Blish, co-leader of the Boston chapter of Slow Food).
All in all, it was a tidy and energetic microcosm of an ethical food system. “Slow food,” Blish explained, “is good, clean, and fair.” Good, meaning that they advocate heirloom vegetables, heritage breeds, and food with a complexity of taste. Clean, meaning that food should be as good for the planet as it is for us. And fair, meaning that food producers should get a fair wage and that we should pay the real cost of food. Blish added that the prevailing system is exactly the opposite: “complex, opaque, and anonymous.”
According to the panelists, Boston’s local food scene is dispersed, but growing. Cambridge-based private chef JJ Gonson described how she was often forced to drive to several different farms when sourcing local ingredients for her clients. “How difficult it was, how expensive,” Gonson said. “And did you know that we don’t have a year-round farmer’s market in Boston? Not only do we not have one, we’re not even close!”
But don’t despair, Bostonians – John Lee and Jeff Morin are excellent resources for local produce. Allandale Farms is organic and offers CSA shares (community supported agriculture subscriptions), and Lee is keen on consumer education, reconnecting people to seasonality, and giving people a taste of unusual vegetables once in a while.

CityFeed’s Jeff Morin is enthusiastic about putting faces to vendor’s names by means of in-store demonstrations and putting bios on their products. “Keeping it local is not just about getting good food or good products. It’s a social message. We have a responsibility to the community even if you don’t come into our stores,” Morin said. In addition, farmers markets are plentiful in the summer and your nearest Whole Foods should have a full-time forager on staff whose job it is to look for locally made products.
This panel was held in connection with the FRESH film premiere at the Brattle Theater this Friday and Saturday. Hot on the trail of Food Inc. and The Future of Food, the film FRESH seeks to introduce us to the “farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system.”
For more information, visit the official FRESH website at www.freshthemovie.com.
–Christine del Castillo