The New Rules of Food

By Alan Mammoser
What if you knew the story behind everything you ate?
What if you knew the story behind everything you ate, such as where the food came from, who grew it and how? Imagine the landscape from which it came, perhaps a thriving collection of family farms. What if you knew the people that grew the food, knew that they got a fair price for it and that they actively worked to protect the landscape?
How differently would we eat if we got to know our food better?
Basic knowledge of where food comes from and how it is produced is lost on many Americans today and with it a trust in the food supply that sustains us.
With the rise of a highly industrialized society, an industrial farming system has developed along with it. Farms have become ever more mechanized, specialized and distant from most of the population. The federal government has contributed to the trend through legislation, with consecutive farm bills that favor big concentrated commodity growers—sometimes known as “factory farms”—while nearly ignoring local growers with smaller operations, sometimes collectively called “family farmers.”