Update: Event’s over; live player removed!

Debra Eschmeyer, of the National Farm to School Network, is in town for the Western Regional Assembly sponsored by Ecotrust. Cookingupastory.com interviewed her in a live broadcast at 12:15PM using Ustream.tv, and we embedded it in this post at Our PDX as well.

Before the broadcast, I’d like to get a discussion going about the Food to School concept. Personally, I think many of the worlds ills could be solved if people knew where their food came from and how it actually gets to the table. If we as a society could become more connected to the farms and farmers that grow our food, maybe we would make very different choices regarding our eating habits. And, if we REALLY knew how our food was produced, would we still eat it? Ok, don’t answer that.

These days, marketing executives know your eating habits, and they would rather you not know where your food comes from. This is precisely why I think the education that the Farm to School program provides is so extremely valuable.

So… to dare cross a line and bring up rearing children again on OurPDX, I ask: do you have children, and do they know where their food comes from, or do they think it comes ‘from the grocery store?’

If you could ask a question to Debra Eschmeyer for the broadcast, what would it be? Post your questions here, and they may just get asked!

Related Posts

• July 22, 2008 -- How Infantile! (54)

Full disclosure: I am not a breeder. I watch my good friends hitting that baby-making age and watch with some fascination and trepidation. Babies everywhere! But this was an enlightening experience.

My good friends Kes and Aileen recently had a daughter, who is now eight weeks old. This past weekend, I suddenly understood what parents mean when they bemoan the lack of family-friendly places.

Kes and a group of friends (including my husband) decided to hit the International BrewFest in the North Park Blocks. Surely, the OLCC wouldn’t find an eight-week-old infant in a stroller concerning.

Not a chance. No minors, no kids, no teensy weensy babies. Turned away. So, undaunted, the group decided to hit someplace in the Pearl with outdoor seating and make their own brewfest.

Except, as they rolled the stroller from place to place, they kept getting the same uncomfortable, terse head shake or regretful refusal. The group rolled around for nigh an hour without being able to find a single outdoor eatery that would deign to let them hang out with an infant next to them.

Perhaps I am saddened by this because I personally know that the baby is at the age that she is not going to bug anyone (no running around or squealing or making messes–she’s too young for that), and certainly too young to get slaughtered and go all Spring Break at the brewfest.

Is this just me having sympathy with my good friends and their new daughter, or is this what parents all around this good town are up against? Or is it just the Pearl? And what the heck is the deal with the OLCC, in general? They make me grumpy.

Related Posts

• September 18, 2008 -- Live Broadcast Friday: Farm to School Network (3)
• June 27, 2008 -- All Aboard. (1)