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ROCHESTER FARM CONNECTION (Nurturing the land, our families, our local economy, & one another) Welcome
The Rochester Farm Connection is an online
community that connects consumers directly with sustainable
farmers, in the Rochester NY area. We operate primarily via a set of
email distribution lists, managed by one member. List members send and
share information as it becomes
available. Farm information is also added to this web site, below
under the heading "Farmers".
RFC maintains one list of consumers (300, and growing) and one list of farmers (30, and growing). Farmers send newsletters, information about their operations, and other items of interest, that are then forwarded to the consumer list. Consumers ask questions that are then forwarded to the farmer list. Items of general interest are forwarded to both lists. The volume of emails is usually from 2-4 per week. To join either list, send a request to Elizabeth McInerney at farmxchg@rochester.rr.com. In addition to sharing information about individual farms, we have also shared information about cooking classes, informative web sites and articles regarding local/sustainable food, restaurants that support local farms, locations and hours for farm markets, and farm related events. We encourage all list members to share what they know. For example, every spring we ask list members to share their favorite local sources of organic or low spray fruits. The resulting information is compiled and then sent to everyone. If you have something of interest, please send it our way! Educational Material No one argues for local/sustainable farming better than Michael Pollan. Here is an excerpt from his most recent book "The Omnivores Dilemma": http://www.mojones.com/news/feature/2006/05/no_bar_code.html
A short Time Magazine article. "The
Grass-Fed Revolution: Below is a clever and informative video (a 7 minute cartoon) which highlights the importance of supporting your local small family farm. It is a spoof on the movie "The Matrix": www.themeatrix.com Another clever cartoon (15 minutes), this one from the Sierra Club, expands upon the same issues (click on "watch the movie"): http://www.truecostoffood.org Here is an article that appeared in the D&C on April 19th 2005, featuring the Rochester Farm Connection: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050419/LIVING/504190308 RFC was started in the fall of 2003 when 8 consumers in Rochester came together to buy direct from one farm. A photo album of that farm was passed around the internet, and membership soon took off. Here is the photo album that started it all. (Be sure to click on "slideshow" to see the text that goes along with each image.) Farm Tour FarmersThe farms we support are small family operations that wish to sell directly to the consumer. They are either certified organic, or self identified as natural/sustainable. In addition, the meat/egg/dairy operations we list raise their animals either exclusively, or primarily, on pasture. Any grain fed to animals is either certified organic, or transitional (grown to organic standards in soil that is not ready to be certified), or GMO-free. All animals are also free of hormones. Meat animals are free of antibiotics. Dairy cattle can be given antibiotics to treat mastitis, but are not milked until the antibiotics have cleared their systems. Contact InformationElizabeth McInerney: farmxchg@rochester.rr.com
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