On the Road with Fair Food - Miami, FL

The Fair Food event at the popular Books & Books in Miami on February 6 attracted one of the largest and most vocal audiences since the beginning of the tour. It included young people involved in a wide variety of projects, such as Once Upon a Carrot, which provides nutrition education for children and their families, devoted Slow Food Miami activists, university professors, media representatives, nonprofit leaders, and a number of farmers enticed by the critical nature of the fair food topic to leave their farms and speak their minds about the importance of promoting the local food system.

Oran speaking at Books & Books

Joanne Bander, a member of the Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders Group, hosted a dinner at her home for key activists before the event to discuss creating a Food Policy Council in Miami to organize the disparate voices into one coherent voice for positive change. Joanne and Renée Frigo Graeff, President of Slow Food Miami, brought over 30 passionate leaders together over a dinner created from fresh, local ingredients to discuss moving forward with this idea.

(L to R) Oran with Slow Food Miami Leaders: Sean Reichert, Director of Education; Michele Benesch, Farm to Table Director; Oran; Renée Frigo Graeff, President; Ivette Charlton, Director of Development; Wendy Levitz, Director of Gardens.

With the high energy carried over from this initial conversation, a very interesting discussion followed Oran’s presentation, focusing on the challenge that cheap imported food presents to the farmers and community, not only in South Florida but nationwide. Teena Borek was particularly vocal about the challenge she faces on her farm, a third-generation family farm using sustainable practices in Homestead. She asked, “ How can local growers stay in business, survive and thrive, if our prices are undercut dramatically by cheap food coming in from outside the country using cheap labor and unsustainable practices?”

Oran was interested in continuing his conversation with Teena and followed up on her invitation to visit her farm the next day.

Oran and Teena in front of Teena’s Pride CSA table

Teena explained her approach to serving the local community through nutrient-rich, flavorful produce distributed through Teena's Pride CSA, which offers not only a very generous weekly share of vegetables but also  a monthly Open House and Farmers’ Market, where members enjoy cooking demonstrations, farm tours, and raw food tasting tables

Oran and Teena in the fields

Teena explained that she couldn’t even harvest her tomatoes this year because due to a flood of imported ones from South and Central America, the cost of labor to harvest would be greater than the price of the tomatoes at market. So a large source of her income disappeared as did the exceptional tomatoes.

What do you think about this dilemma? What solutions would you offer to this challenge to our local food movement?