What is GOOD, CLEAN, and FAIR food?

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf

“Laughter is brightest in the place where food is.” – Irish Proverb

“When we eat together, when we set out to do so deliberately, life is better, no matter what your circumstances.” – Thomas Keller

“I’ll have what she’s having.” – from “When Harry Met Sally”

We cultivate happy, healthy beings through not just good, but great food. If it is served outside under a blue sky, with loved ones gathered around, even better. Eating food should be a joyous experience that satisfies and nourishes both soul and cells.

“The good of people’s bodies and the good of the planet are more or less perfectly aligned.” – Gidon Eshel, Geophysicist, The Bard Center for Environmental Policy

“Eating with the fullest pleasure – pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance – is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living in a mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.” -  Wendell Berry

“Why eat foods grown with poison?” – central Illinois organic farmer, Henry Brockman

Our food supply should come from soil, air, and water that is clean and uncontaminated, and from animals that lead well-tended, contented lives. What is good for the planet, its flora and fauna, is also good for our individual human biology.

“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The health and wealth of a nation are inextricably tied to the health and wealth of its farmers.”

“I want my farmer to be paid well, for the same reason I want my airline pilot to be.”

There is human dignity in fair and just commerce. Healthy, nutritious food is ultimately our nation’s most valuable resource, and the farmers and laborers who produce it deserve an economic respect commensurate with their value to a healthy society.

“By being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process. In effect, we are co-producers.“- Carlo Petrini