While I wind down from the Porkshop and gather my thoughts about it, the very busy week and all that has gone on, I though I had better share with you something which is even more important.

Downshifting Path in the UK has begun a “Rooting for Farmers” award on her blog which is vastly important and has relevance to us all. If Farmers disappear, indeed, if sustainable, local agriculture disappears then we are all stuffed. We, as consumers, must play a role in preserving the very things we need to consume. In that case we are, as Carlo Petrini says, “Co-creators” in the food we eat, the vegetables we purchase, the beer we drink. When we choose something off of the supermarket shelf, the Farmers’ Market stall, or pull it out of the ground we are making a profound statement with our actions.

If we are to save our local environment, our local color, economy, spirit or what have you–whether we live in town, a suburb or rural idyll–we must act now to support farmers, agriculture and our future.

Now, I am not talking about the feedlot down the road, or the ConAgra food factory in the fields in the next county or the Smithfield confinement hog facility poisoning air and land. I am talking about real farmers, the ones who can still choose how they operate to some extent. The ones who see what little profit they make and can still think for themselves. I am speaking of the “little” farmers who have not corporatized and are not slaves to the global, agribusiness machine. These farmers are a dying breed, yet they are the future of food and something must be done to keep them from going extinct.

So head out and do what you can in any way, small or large, to help save agriculture and our food. If you have a blog, then what are you waiting for? To help get things rolling I am nominating the following bloggers for the “Rooting for Farmers Award”:

Tana Butler
Hardworking Hippy
and Nika’s Culinaria

Good luck!

Technorati Tags: rooting for farmers, nikas culinaria, hardworking hippy, tana butler, downshifting path, wiggly wigglers, podchef, farming, agriculture, future of food