Each Purchase, One Vote

The main reason that I make an effort to buy responsibly-produced food and products for my family is to do everything I can to ensure my family is (gratefully) healthy. The other reason is to make a difference. Every choice I make at the store is a vote for what I, the consumer, want; and, therefore, what they, the companies, should be selling (sometimes, more important is also, "how" the food is raised/products are made--fair wages, ethical, etc.).

I went to our local butcher shop because I heard they get their pork from a small farm in Wisconsin. I heard wrong. I am so surprised that the owners of this great butcher shop know everything about their meat except the farm on which it was raised. To me, that would be the ultimate piece of information. To know the source. To know the animals are treated humanely. To know what they are fed. That is how you know your meat!

I have a friend who raises cows. Guess where I get my beef? Does anyone know a pig farmer? I also know where my chickens are raised. I buy wild salmon and responsibly farmed tilapia fish (mainly). I get the most amazing eggs from a friend of a friend's free-range chickens! I love buying things straight from the source at the local farmers' market (I had the good fortune of setting the standards for the market and I know the farmers and which ones use pesticides and which ones do not, as it takes much time and money to be certified organic!).

Everyone of us wields a very powerful thing called INFLUENCE. You have the power to make a difference today--choose wisely! Find out where and how your food is grown. Find out if the products you buy are responsibly produced. If you find out something negative about a company or product, then find a company you do like and buy their products instead! Make a DIFFERENCE! Let's create a new "norm"--fair wages, fair labor practices, ethical standards, natural products, and much, much more to make our world a little better each day! Let's make our world the way we want it, a little at a time (each purchase, one vote...for your world)!