by Michael Mascha & Donna Navarro

Digest this one: the food we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than over the previous 10,000 years. Never in human history have so few farmers and producers fed so many people.

How? Technological advances have led to efficiencies in agriculture and in raising livestock. Progress in food production methods has led to lower prices and improved access to food globally.

What? The consequence of industrial agriculture and "factory" farming production is more and more food calories. You and I are eating more and more inexpensive, highly processed food calories at home and in fast food restaurants.

Processed food takes simple commodities like corn and soy beans and transforms them through highly advanced technologies into a variety of processed food products. Products that are rapidly proliferating. If you read any food label and don’t recognize the ingredients, it is processed food.

The food we eat today has changed, and it has significantly changed us.

Over-consumption has led to an obesity crisis of epidemic proportions. Obesity and other diseases related to modern eating habits are beginning to reduce life expectancy.

Hungry for a solution? Fortunately there is growing interest in healthier food. The organic food movement has done a great deal to educate people about healthy eating and the value of organic farming practices. For decades people have questioned the practice of long supply chains and the industrialization of food production, and favored a more distributed, local approach to buying food. Farmers markets are one of the best venues for making locally grown food available to a large number of people.

The number of farmers markets in the US went from 1,755 in 1994 to 4,385 in 2006, and has probably doubled since then. This growth is due in part to increased interest in healthier foods, a greater desire to preserve local types of cultivars or livestock, and a heightened understanding among the general public of the importance of maintaining small, sustainable farms on the fringe of urban environments. We in the Rio Grande Valley are fortunate... look around you and notice that this is exactly the type of environment we live in.

Many of you have visited or lived in large cities and are already familiar with markets where people can buy locally grown, raised or produced food. Farmers markets usually offer a weekly market day, which is a normal part of life in town squares throughout the world. The market acts as a focal point for the social life of the community.

Please join us if you are hungry for change.