Grassroots Eco-Friendly Foods

This morning we went to the Dupont Circle Farmers Market looking for Bev of Eco-Friendly Foods. We need some beef for two upcoming parties and Eco comes to Dupont every Sunday. It seems the amiable and intense Bev was looking to spread the word: "July 5th is Interdependence Day"--Interdependence is Bev's strategy to save family farms and advance best practices in raising food. He says that Michael Pollan told him, his model is perfect but in this corporate climate it will never succeed. "Too socialist" we quipped in a nod to everything opposing corporate climate tagged as socialist. Bev's response was socialism is exactly what you have in this subsidized farming culture. Defiant, Bev decided to stay in DC in order to remain in 'the belly of the beast' . His business acts as a marketing and distribution service as well as a processing center for local farms. Very simply put, Farmers need to farm and don’t have the time, space or money to keep or run processing plants, distribution services or market themselves. Bev has a state of the art USDA regulated processing plant as well as a completely non-subsidized private model for advancing the cause of the family farm. Bev bundles family farms together, processes their meats and markets and sells their food at farmers markets and wholesale to chefs. For Bev his work is a matter of national security, he says he fears what is happening to the food supply more than Al Qwaeda. He also makes the point that thinking about what we eat should be our first healthcare issue... from Agriculture to Treasury to Energy to the EPA there is no corner of Washington that this issue does not touch. We need to think in terms of food culture and not in terms of food regulation, is how Bev put it.

The last time we saw Michael Pollan he said that Obama intimated to him, 'Show me the Movement' as it pertains to changing our food supply. Pollan says that Obama needs a movement, a political force to point to in order to force congress, as well as his party, to go against corporate interest. Grassroots or Grassfed, Eco-Friendly farms is trying to get something started and if you want to be a part of it start by visiting him next Sunday at Dupont. Ask him what he thinks--he is looking for a posse!

As Bev writes on his website, “Together we can make a sound and sustainable difference in our world. You're not just a customer or a blog reader. You're a part of our story, too. Thanks for being here.”