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6 stoujjvffle suntribune saturday aug 4 2007 suntnbune 6290 main st stouffviieonl4alg7 wwwyorkregjoncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology john futhey director advertising york region printing distribution general manager barry black bob dean director circulation systems lynn pashko letters to the editor you can help local farmers every time you shop re drought imports scaring farmers july 5 according to this article and one in the toronto star july 1 imported produce is driving our farmers to extinction the only times local produce sells are when there is a pestilence somewhere else consider strawberry festival time there used to be a time when california shipped in strawberries only outside of our own growing season such has not been the case for several years many large chain supermarkets prefer a continuous yearround supply from big producers elsewhere to a brief supply from local farmers constrained by the short canadian growing season that is why in some supermarkets you see only foreigngrown berries even in the peak of our own berry season that is why so many farmers sell their farms in the georgetown area where 30 years ago there were many strawberry growers now there is only one remaining one of the farms which is now closed had hundreds of quarts of strawberries left rotting in the fields last year because a chain supermarket stopped accepting them it has long been known produce yields its best nutrients when it ripens in the fields if it is harvested and shipped before that it loses a lot of of these nutrients even when it is allowed to ripen before being eaten therefore it is much healthier to eat produce picked when fully ripe just hours before being purchased we want our farmers to keep their farms for their sake and for our own health this is possible only if local produce is being bought by us the consumers so if we want our local farms to stay open and continue to yield for us their nutrient- rich produce year after year we should keep our eyes open for local produce every time we shop if we do not see local produce we should ask for it and encourage others to do the same diana poon mission team st james presbyterian church nice to see good samaritans it is nice to see goodhearted people are still out there in the community recently i took a walk to do some errands and upon my exit from a store it was pour ing rain a lady and her daughter offered me a ride back to work and saved me from having another shower for the day to both of them and all other good samaritans i thank you for putting a sense of community back in the town meagan lewis aurora summer good time to reconnect with food every summer if im lucky i get to spend some time with my family at our cabin on an island off the west coast its a place we go to recharge our batteries and reconnect with each other and the natural world part of that reconnection is with food although many of us quickly scarf down whatevers convenient as we rush about our daily lives eating is one of the most intimate experiences we can have the food we eat is broken down by our bodies at a molecular level and absorbed into our cells it becomes part of us we quite literally are what we eat thats why it disturbs me to see the kind of food many people con sume on a daily basis i admit im guilty of lesshealthy choices myself sometimes i try to be vigilant about food but i travel a fair bit and it can be hard to find the time to slow down and eat right people think that being on a tv shew is glamorous but after a long day of filming my dinner might well consist of a veggie dog from the street vendor outside my hotel before turning in for the night when i get to the family cabin food stops being a mere necessity to provide energy for another hour of shooting it becomes something to celebrate summertime provides us with a bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables and our oceans can still serve up a veritable feast of shellfish and other seafood as the coastal first nations say ing goes when the tide is out the table is set most canadians in fact the vast majority of us now live in urban centres where we are often completely removed from the sources of our food much of what we buy is pre packaged frozen chopped-and- fbrmed or otherwise processed before we even pick it up from the nearest warehouse club store yet theres something truly spe cial about digging up your own clams and mussels for dinner or catching a fish for breakfast david suzuki or picking your own fruits and veg etables not only is the food fresh the experience makes it taste better and feel more satisfying for the past 27 years part of my familys summer ritual has been to go cherry picking because i wanted my children to celebrate foods sea sonality we stuff ourselves silly with juicy red fruits and bring back pallets of cherries to share with friends its actually pretty hard work but thats part of the fun and the satis faction you cant buy that experi ence from a bigbox store in fact it drives me nuts to go into a supermarket in the summer and see it loaded with imported fruits and vegetables when local gardens and farms are overflowing with food farmers markets are where i pre fer to get my produce in the sum mer when local farmers and some industrious city gardeners make their harvests available directly to the rest of us there are plenty of reasons to support farmers markets and local food besides the experience eating locally grown food helps reduce the pollution caused through transportation apples from new zealand for example are a pet peeve of mine many local farms often also have organic certification which is less intensive and more sustainable in the long term and organic pro duce is grown without using chemi cal pesticides some proponents of organic food also say its better for you although the research is inconclu sive one recently completed 10year study to be published in the journal of agricultural and food chemistry found that levels of certain cancer- fighting antioxidant chemicals were almost twice as high in organic tomatoes as they were in conven tionally grown tomatoes researchers surmise the avail ability of nitrogen in the soil is the reason for the difference but other studies on wheat and carrots have found little nutritional differences between conventional and organic crops regardless of your reasons for eating locally summer is a great time to slow down and reconnect with food few things are as fundamental to our personal health and well- being and few things have a bigger impact on the health of the planet either take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address thesuntribuncrcservcs the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the 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