Bethesda Green sponsored a TEDx meet up this past Saturday on “Changing the Way We Eat,” and although the speakers were based in New York, the local viewers took time to introduce themselves and their efforts in local food and to discuss the potential for local food in Montgomery County.
So after Laurie David talked about the importance of family dinner and Carolyn Steele’s TED talk about How Food Shapes our Cities, we heard from Mike Kennedy, a board member of the innovative model Fox Haven Farm, from Kristina Bostick who works with Montgomery Countryside Alliance to make the County’s Agricultural Reserve into a food porducing resource, and Greg Glenn of Rocklands Farm, which is starting out with eggs, beef, and produce.
One of the most interesting speakers was Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group who showed some telling slides of who receives farm subsidies. You’d be amazed at how many of them are in Washington, D.C. and midtown Manhattan.
I wonder what farm subsidies support in Montgomery County and if I can eat it for dinner?
mkr
By the time I left Bethesda Green’s/Full Plate Venture’s TedX event I was inspired! I as ready to buy a pick up truck,plant a garden in it and drive it around to catch the best sun like one of the speakers had done. I also wanted to fill my backyard with compost and seeds like the Brooklyn project. Oh, and also turn my bay window into an indoor tomato farm. And I live in a “garden variety” suburban townhouse no less… The speakers were terrific and many of the ideas are relevant to our lives. As we move forward as a urbanizing/suburban County, we need to constantly look for opportunities to encourage local food production – for health, for community building and even just for the pleasure of picking a ripe strawberry on the way to work.