Eat healthy food by supporting locals | Letters | April 3

I would like to echo Patty Dusbabek’s recent letter (“Help small locals, not agribusiness,” March 27) regarding the importance of supporting our local farmers and home-grown agricultural industry.

Our local farmers are commercial farmers; after all, they are small business owners like many of us.

They are wintering these times of economic uncertainty like the rest of us – but have the added stress that, this year, “wintering” is both a literal and figurative reality.

Most of our local farmers grow organically even if they have not undertaken the paperwork to become certified.

Many provide internships to aspiring young farmers.

Many dedicate countless hours in volunteer efforts on infrastructure and/or educational activities to inspire or sustain farming activities.

All are dedicated to preserving not only our farmlands that provide pastoral views but also working landscapes that provide our community with something we can eat, not just observe.

Most importantly, they all grow delicious food right on this island that does not need to be stored or shipped or otherwise manipulated on its way to our tables.

I understand the day-to-day decisions in the produce aisle about organic vs. conventional.

And later this spring, at the Bainbridge Farmers’ Market, local produce looks enticing but one’s pocketbook may not agree.

I’d like to suggest we each strive for our own balance. first by providing our bodies and our families with the freshest, best-tasting food.

Then, while still supporting our local farmers, we do so while still not depleting our limited financial resources.

Driving to Costco for the $4 plastic tub of organic salad greens grown in California costs you – and all of us – a lot more than the $4 at the checkout stand.

It is called true costs, and I invite you to do the math.

We are fortunate on Bainbridge Island to have many opportunities to be conscious, sustainable and healthy food consumers.

We all eat. We should all eat well.

Christy Carr

Madison Avenue

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