Action of the Week: June 17, 2024: Connecting with and Nurturing Sources of Healthy, Local Food

“Take the 50% pledge! Spend at least 50% of your food dollars on direct purchases from local farmers and artisans.” ~ The Weston A. Price Foundation

Solari’s Action of the Week focuses on the crucial topic of fresh, healthy, and locally sourced food and its availability. We encourage you to make a conscious effort to expand your local food networks. The excellent resources on the Solari Report website can assist you in this endeavor and provide inspiration.

A good first step is to take stock of who is available to supply your dairy products, meat, and fruits and vegetables locally. Visit your local farmers markets and farm stores, as well as the websites of local farmers. By supporting these individuals and consciously choosing to buy locally and directly, you not only will benefit producers but will begin to identify any potential gaps in the availability of essential provisions. In the process, you also will undoubtedly discover fresher produce, honey, artisan baked goods, fermented products, farm-to-table options, and numerous other delights.

Another helpful step is to establish connections with others in your community and consider the possibility of exchanging home-grown food. Ask your neighbors what they need, and many will do the same in return. For example, if you don’t know what to do with all of your fallen apples, maybe a neighbor will. Networking and planning in this way can help you and your loved ones become more resilient while strengthening your community. Engaging with neighbors, local farmers, and producers is a valuable use of your time, and of course, it is also wonderful to share food and eat together!

Don’t forget to involve children in the process of growing, preserving, and storing food. This can be an exciting educational experience, teaching children about self-sufficiency and the importance of knowing where their food comes from.

In the post-WWII era, power flowed from control of the reserve currency backed by oil. In the emerging multipolar world, and as new technologies revolutionize our energy models, power increasingly flows from ownership of and access to water, soil, and food. By being self-reliant and having the ability to choose where we source our food and water, we become less susceptible to external control. Pushing back against central control of food systems is an important part of the pushback against financial transaction control.

Convinced that access to high-quality fresh food is essential to both personal and geopolitical power, we launched the Solari Food Series in 2016. Two recent blockbuster reports (subscriber-only) are also essential reading. (Executive summaries for Dutch Farmers and Fishermen and Pharma Food available here and here.) We hope you enjoy the outstanding insights that the Food Series and other food-related resources on the Solari site provide about the global food ecosystem and the ways in which food can nurture your health and political and economic freedom.