Growers and Grocers

I’ll have to admit that I was a bit startled when the email from new Well Fed Network owner Cate O’Malley arrived in my inbox. I had been cruising along as the editor of FitFare and hadn’t really thought about taking on any more work. The other writing I do for Toronto online food magazine Gremolata, as well as my own personal writing albatross - an historical novel now in its fourth draft - took up a great deal of my writing time. But the offer to head Growers and Grocers was a temptation I just couldn’t resist.

Before I go any further, I feel compelled to thank outgoing editor Derrick Schneider for his months of hard work and dedication. Almost single-handedly, he kept Growers and Grocers alive and thriving. His decision to take a break to concentrate on other writing (not to mention getting some much-deserved R&R) is a sad one for those of us who know and love his daily posts, but he will continue to post monthly updates on the US Farm Bill, and hopefully we’ll be able to lure him back occasionally when the food blogging bug bites him again.

So all of you regular G&G readers are probably wondering who the heck I am, and no doubt are concerned about exactly what I plan to do with this blog. The answer, in a nutshell, is nothing and everything.

First, let me share my qualifications. I have a background in both culinary arts and writing. I have been the editor of another Well Fed blog, FitFare, since its inception in March of this year. Much of what we cover at FitFare has to do with healthy eating, and a lot of our subject matter overlaps or at least parallels what we cover here at Growers and Grocers.

My interest in the topic of food production and food ethics began about six years ago when I went vegetarian and promptly developed a milk allergy (as well as variety of other allergies, not to mention multiple chemical sensitivity). My allergist was no help and I started researching food production techniques in an effort to figure out if it was the milk I was allergic to, or all the stuff added to it. As I worked my way through hundreds of books on everything from raw-food vegan diets to food additives, I realized that there was a lot more to the food we eat than I had previously imagined.

As an editor and a writer with the opportunity to discuss those topics, my personal mandate is to share as much information as possible. In preparing to take over Growers and Grocers, I was saddened to discover that so many people really didn’t know anything about where their food comes from before it is plucked from the supermarket shelf and deposited into their cart. So my plan is to introduce longer, more research-based posts to bring Well Fed readers up to speed. We’ll still be covering the same topics that were addressed under Derrick’s watch, but we’ll be looking at them a bit more in-depth, with an eye to helping the uninformed learn more about the issues.

Two columns of note that I am very excited about – G&G writer Betty Carlson will pick up where Derrick left off and will spend her week gathering food-related news stories for her Sunday News column. Be sure to log in each Sunday to catch up on the latest developments in food production from around the world as Betty compiles all the news that’s fit to eat.

On Fridays, we’ll also be running a column I’ve dubbed “Favorite Food Fridays”, where G&G writers will take turns talking about their favorite foods and food producers. Watch for features on local dairies, chocolatiers, coffee companies, CSAs, farmer’s markets and more.

I hope that you will stick with us and continue to visit us regularly to watch our progress as we collectively learn more about exactly where our food comes from, and how everything from politics to the weather affects the food we eat.

Sheryl Kirby
Editor