The Faces Behind My Food

The other day I got to see a sneak peek of the documentary Farmland with several of my bloggy girlfriends. The film that explores the lives and stories of six young farmers in America as a glimpse into the trials and triumphs of the agricultural landscape these days.

Between you and me? I held my breath as I watched it the first time…

“Documentaries” don’t really have the best track record with my circles. Truth be told, most of the farmers I know will tell you they think a lot of them smell a bit like some all-natural fertilizer if you know what I mean 😉

I had heard some good things, so I tried to approach it with some hopeful skepticism… and honestly, I was blown away.

It was warm, heartfelt and captured the farm community I know and love so very well.

Also?

There was no narrator.

The stories were completely in the words of the farmers themselves and put together to form the overall story of the families that make up the heart of our nation’s food system.

I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you are fortunate to have it showing in your area, go– you won’t be sorry.  It is set to release nationwide on May 1st.

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Truth be told, my Farmland experience got me thinking a lot about the faces behind my food. I started picking up the phone and contacting a lot of my farm and food friends and started asking questions–LOTS of questions.

As a regular grocery shopper at Walmart, IGA, Aldi, and occasionally Kroger, I wondered how the meat, eggs and dairy products on my grocery shelves in central Indiana were getting there… and from where?

Since most of my closest girlfriends are farmers, I knew enough to know that it is a common misconception that my grocery store food was arriving from some “factory” farm. But if not that, then how?

As I dug into all the details I would soon learn that our farm-to-grocery system would be far less complicated (and a heck of a lot easier to explain) if it really were made up of a bunch of factories.

But instead, I learned that 96% of farms in the United States are like those in Farmland–family owned.

And, as I learned how the different segments of our food supply work, the facade of a bunch of factories gave away to a system that more resembled of the old folk story Stone Soup with farm families across the nation bringing their contributions to the food supply in a very intricate but methodical way.

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I have walked about from the past few weeks fascinated with how the food in my grocery store is there literally 24 hours a day– whenever I want it — and the role my girlfriends play in getting it there for me to buy, prepare and then share recipes here with you.

So fascinated, that I have decided to share a little about the Faces Behind My Food that I know personally in the next coming weeks along with some yummy recipes 😉

This is the first post in my Faces Behind My Food Series sponsored by Indiana’s Family of Farmers. All opinions and convoluted analogies are completely my own 😉