Wednesday marked the official start of Fall, and as the leaves begin to change and the farmers' tans from summer fade away, the autumn Farmers' Market shines bright. Wisconsin's fall harvests yield some of the most mouth watering produce like crisp apples, sweet corn, broccoli, carrots, wild mushrooms, strawberries, tomatoes and squash, all of which are available every Saturday around the Capitol Square. About 150 vendors, all locally producing what's on the table in front of them, attend each week. This display of delicious food and community effort is the largest producer-only farmers' market in the nation. Go ahead and feel cocky about it. I do.
The annual benefit concert Farm Aid embraces the ""Friends of the Farmers' Market"" idea, ""from farmer, to fair, to fork."" For its 25th anniversary show, headliners and Farm Aid advocates John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Dave Matthews, joined by many other famous names, will perform Oct. 2 at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Their mission is to support family farmers and inspire converts to the Good Food movement by demonstrating the positive economical, environmental and public health benefits of locally-grown food.
Wisconsin is a perfect venue for Farm Aid 25 because we have the ability and strong tradition to foster these essential ideas. Yet Wisconsin also showcases the challenges small farms face in today's industrial and economic climate. The success of the agriculture industry in Wisconsin is important, and it is our duty, for the health of our state and ourselves, to more fully support Wisconsin's family farmers and take advantage of the healthy and sustainable opportunities in our own city.
On the surface, Wisconsin bolsters a strong family farm food system. According to the executive director of Farm Aid, Carolyn Mugar, over 97 percent of Wisconsin's 78,000 farms are family-owned. That percentage is lower in Dane County, where the percentage of farms operated by individuals or families is 85 percent. Yet overall, farming in Wisconsin employs over 350,000 people and is a $60 billion industry.
From an economic standpoint, Wisconsin direly needs to support these resourceful people who work to sustain us with well-grown, unprocessed food. Wisconsin family farmers face the challenge of investing in the land and preserving our agricultural heritage while all over the nation local farmers face the threat of being driven off their land by industrial forces. And in effect, that means their food is being driven off American tables as well. Industrial farms not only defeat family farms, they reverse the entire purpose of living off the land. Instead of working with our environment, industrial farms damage it through water, air and soil pollution.
Last year, UW's Go Big Read chose Michael Pollen's In Defense of Food as an important book for students and faculty. Pollen's motto, one he reiterated when he visited campus last fall, is ""Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."" This idea of going back to eating ""real"" food to reverse the fat-producing, unhealthy Western diet of edible foodlike substances, is one that should not be forgotten. As time goes by and seasons change, we need to heed this advice and look to our regional farmers as gateways to healthier living.
Because if you haven't heard, obesity is bad. Very bad. Of course we all know this, but there are constantly more studies showing the far-reaching effects that obesity has on our health. There seems to be an exhaustive list of obesity-related health problems like high blood pressure, diabetes, types of cancer and stroke. Human bodies are not meant to constantly consume non-food. In Dane County, the adult obesity rate is 23.9 percent. This figure includes college students, too.
If you are currently obese, obese-to-be or of any other weight class, the message is the same: We need to consume real food to fuel our bodies. Real food comes from real people, real people like the farmers at our extensive Farmers' Market. This fall, and from now on, let's start making a more conscious effort to take care of our local economy, family farming in the Wisconsin tradition and ourselves. Thinking about Farm Aid's mission, Mugar reminds us to actively hunt for products from local farms and to demand ""a different kind of agriculture to ensure that family farmers stay on their land."" This will contribute to Madison and Wisconsin's growth of strong, healthy and economically independent communities.
Melissa Grau is a sophomore majoring in journalism. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
