You Can Lead a Horse To...

As I came across the Broadway Bridge at lunchtime on Sunday, heading to the City Market on NW 21st for some pasta and wine before heading back to Seattle, I stopped for the light at Lovejoy and 9th. I couldn’t have been happier, a heritage chicken, Piedmontese beef cheeks, hazelnut-finished pork, Tokyo Rose apples, and a great assortment of other fruits and vegetables. As I waited for the light to turn green, a stylishly dressed young woman, no more that 25 to 27 years of age, crossed in front of me carrying a Subway sandwich in clear plastic bag. The sight immediately brought me back to earth, and reminded me that the odds were stacked against ‘real’ food and the small farmers that produced it. That image and that thought nagged me all the way home. When I revived my sleeping computer, the article, Family Heirlooms, from this week’s New York Times Magazine was on the screen, - I read it the night before I drove down to Portland - and it reminded me why this fight is worth fighting. Today, I received a link to the short video Cud about a pasture-raised beef farmer in Georgia by Joe York, and it too reminded me why this fight is worth fighting.