Is it really worth it to pay a little more for fresh local food? Ann Simon thinks so.
Simon is the economic development planner for the Agriculture Collaborative, a branch of the Mid-Region Council of Governments of New Mexico.
She also helped coordinate the third annual Local Food Festival and Field Day, on Sunday.
“We’re trying to raise the value of agriculture in peoples’ minds,” Simon said. “It’s really hard when you have cheap food elsewhere. But it’s not that much cheaper when you go to the grocery store. Look again at your grocery bill.”
Simon said the festival is meant to support local food producers. There will be vendor booths such as gardeners, meat producers, farmers, baked goods and craftsmen.
She said the group has events year-round that help connect people with their food producers, a relationship she thinks is essential to good health.
“When you buy natural products, there are no pesticides and herbicides, and they are hand-picked. That’s what you’re paying for,” she said. “(Cheap food) may not cost you much now, but it will in the end with hospital costs. We never had obesity issues until big agriculture and processed corn in all our foods.”
There will be a physician at the festival to talk to people and answer questions, Simon said. The festival also helps people bring healthy eating habits back home with them.
“We want to showcase types of food that are grown and processed in our food shed (a 300-mile radius around Albuquerque) and what they taste like,” she said. “People are always really surprised at the different types of foods that grow here. The cool thing is when people go through the booths and the vendors say they can find their food at the La Montanita Co-op, and then they say, ‘What’s the Co-op?’”
Simon said there will be six chefs from local restaurants that will be doing cooking demonstrations with local foods. The Agriculture Collaborative hosts workshops that introduce local chefs to farmers and try to get them working with each other.
The UNM Sustainability Studies Program has also chipped in to show its support for the local food movement, said Department Program Manager Terry Horger.
“In the past they have used our solar trailer for festival’s electricity,” Horger said. “This year they asked us to take our solar trailer; however, it needs new batteries and we’re in the process of negotiating that with Affordable Solar, and I just don’t know if we’ll have it.
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If we don’t get our solar trailer up and running by Friday, then I think this year we won’t be involved, unfortunately.”
The festival will also feature workshops put on by some of the vendors, Simon said. One of the workshops is called Glory Be to Garlic, by Chispas Farms. There will also be a workshop on backyard brewing, to go along with the local beer keg from Il Vicino.
Simon said the local food festival is a great way to energize the local economy without spending money on high transportation costs.
“If you want to see our valley stay green and in production, you will come to the festival,” she said.
