Page 12 - The Peorian, Vol 3 Issue 2
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Hugh Higgins is the newest
of the bunch, having opened
Hearth just a few months ago. He
said he doesn’t like to claim his
restaurant is farm-to-table yet,
“but we are getting there. I can’t
wait for this spring and summer
and the wonderful bounty they
will bring. I am hoping it will
be such I can bring my costs
down. Right now we are biting
the bullet of some of these costs
because I believe in the concept
of using local farms first and
serving the best quality of food.”
More people want to learn to
cook using organic food, as well,
said Bill Turney, owner and chief
instructor at From The Field
cooking school in Morton. He
uses the freshest foods he can get
when teaching classes because
that’s not only his preference,
it is increasingly becoming the
choice of his students. He fills his
four-part healthy cooking classes
regularly.
“Part of what I teach is how
to shop for foods at the grocery.
I tell my students that if they
can’t understand something on
the label that’s going into the
food, put it back. I try to get
them to adopt a healthy attitude
about healthy food and we are
seeing more people coming
around. Farm-to-table is the big
buzzword but really, it should
just be that way anyway. But
because of TV dinners and fast
foods and because we have
become a very mobile society,
we’ve lost generations that really
don’t know how to cook,” he
said.
Turney said he is pleased the
concept is catching on. “I really
don’t think it’s a fad and I’ll tell
you why: The young people are
starting to make the connection
between organic and healthy
foods. That GMO (genetically
modified organisms) stuff is
real creepy stuff and people are
figuring it out,” he said.
The farm-to-table issue
is getting more notice in
Washington, D.C., as well.
The recently approved Farm
Bill provides more resources
for organic agriculture and
supporting the use of local foods.
The bill triples to $1.2 billion the
amount of funding earmarked
for the Farmers Market and Local
Food Promotion Program that
support local and regional food
enterprises. It also allows food
stamps to be used at farmers
markets and Community
Supported Agriculture programs
and provides the technology
equipment that allows farmers
markets and other outlets to
accept food stamps.
U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East
Moline,, and a member of the
House Agriculture Committee,
said recently in a talk to area
farmers that those provisions in
the farm bill “open the home-
grown foods to whole new
markets. I think we’re going to
see a whole new niche in farming
and it will go a long way in
getting new people involved in
agriculture.”
Those provisions and others
that provide for healthy foods
and healthy eating, she added,
made some of the compromises
in the Farm Bill more palatable.
