Nutrition Quarterly Summer 2022

The term “farm-to-table” often brings to mind images of cows and chickens roaming in open fields or of hard- working farmers in overalls carting around wooden crates of fresh vegetables. Those images are all well and good, but farm-to-table is a phrase that can mean different things to different people. At its heart, farm-to-table means that the food you eat at your table came directly from a specific farm. This could mean directly from a farm to your home, or it could mean directly from a farm to a restaurant or grocery store, emphasizing a relationship between a farm and a restaurant owner or grocer. Farm-to-table can also refer more loosely to farmers’ markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), and other venues where people can buy food directly from growers. The main idea behind farm-to-table is simply this: knowing where your food comes from and how it is grown is important, and helps us as consumers have more control over what we put into our bodies, as well as more control over our local economies. More recently, the farm-to-table movement has become a political one; it can be linked to the local food movement and the organic movement due to the increasing public backlash against GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in our food supply. It has also been influenced by the public’s rising concern over food safety, food freshness, food seasonality, and small-farm economics. All three of these movements have aligned to help consumers regain control over the market quite literally. Continued on next page. What is Farm-to-Table? By Laura Fitzgerald for Simple Again Nutrition Quarterly · Series 3 – Volume 3 10 Featured Articles