An article by April Mc Gregor found HERE explains what has happened to the grain industry, and how small farmers and bakers are beginning to understand that localization is the answer to health and survival in the days to come. April owns the Farmer’s Daughter in Carborro, NC. Here is a statement from her site:
Farmer’s Daughter seeks to promote the value of sustainable, small-scale agriculture as well as traditional, handmade methods of preserving.
By moving forward with industrialized farming, we have actually taken a huge step backwards towards dependence on multinational food processors and nutritional genocide. It is time to reclaim our lost heritage, promote life, and get healthy. Here is an excerpt from April’s article:
A loaf of bread made of locally grown and stone-ground grains requires a certain kind of infrastructure that disappeared almost completely from our national landscape in the 1880s, with the introduction of the steel-roller mill and the rise hard Midwest-grown wheat. The steel-roller mill could efficiently remove the perishable germ and bran from wheat berries, creating a shelf-stable flour that could easily travel long distances.
Before this development, local mills had been necessary because flour had a shelf life of approximately one week. After, flour could be stored for months. Scalping the bran and the germ from wheat, however, meant stripping away key nutrients and fiber. This technological advance represented a nutritional step backward. READ MORE…
Here is a statement from the Farm and Sparrow in Marshall, North Carolina. This bakery is committed to food localization, and changing the way we eat, one loaf at a time.
Farm and Sparrow is a wood-fired craft bakery located in the hillsides of Marshall, NC that produces rustic breads, pastries, and other specialty products. We aim to respect the integrity of the foods available to us through seasonal menu rotation, hands-on methods of production, and a strong commitment to our local food and cultural economies. LINK TO SITE.
As demand for a healthy and ecologically sound alternative to industrialized farming becomes greater, I believe that more people will start returning to the skills that have been all but lost in the quest for grocery store convenience foods that have long shelf lives artificially induced by stripping them of nutrition and pumping them full of chemicals.
Become part of a growing trend of backyard growers and fight the industrialization of our food by supporting food localization one person, one plant, and one meal at a time. It can be done, and we can do it.
Barb
May 21, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I am in the lucky position of having locally grown organic wheat I can grind and bake fresh.
The difference in the bread, and how much less you eat, when it is calorie and nutrition dense is very noticeable.
When it is not puffed up with additives preservatives and extenders, it is a much more filling food! One slice with real butter and honey gets me through hours of work.
And it clarifies how so many early settlers who had very little variety, managed to truly almost completely, live on bread and a small amount of meat, and a few vegies.
They managed amounts of physical labour that shame us today!
You ARE (the result of)what you eat, indeed.
May 21, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I wrote an article recently on what is being added to breads, it isn,t all that they are doing , but it certainly enough to make you consider supporting a local artisan baker, or learning to make your own, for sure,
http://amicus.rfdamerica.com
Barbaras advice is well worth taking:-)