One of my favorite memories from last fall semester is from one Sunday night, after our house meeting at Weybridge House, when I accompanied my friend Marissa to a farm just down the road to milk a cow. Marissa, two other friends, and I each took a turn sitting on the milking stool in a small red barn and milking Luna, a sweet brown Jersey cow. We milked into a metal pail and, after pouring the first milk into a bucket for Luna’s calf, poured the rest into large glass jars. Marissa stuck some of these jars into the refrigerator in the barn, and we all helped carry the remaining jars back to the car to take home with us to Weybridge. Back at the house, the milk went into the fridge and house members drank it as raw milk or used it to cook. Although I only visited Luna once or twice during the semester, Marissa went twice a week every week and always returned with raw milk for the house. I loved knowing exactly where the all milk in the refrigerator had come from (some from Kimball Brook, and the rest from Luna), and being able to connect it with the experience of trying to milk (getting the technique can be a real challenge for someone who doesn’t have experience milking a cow!).

This is the first thing that came to mind when I read the Community Voices post about Bob St. Peter, a farmer from Maine working on food sovereignty and market issues from the farmer’s perspective. His take on the government crack-down on raw milk operations was especially interesting to me, since despite the fact that no one drinking the raw milk in Weybridge ever faced health problems because of it, the question of food safety still pops into my mind and I have a hard time deciding how I feel about the product. In this sense, I understand how food sovereignty becomes a highly personal issue. For me, part of what makes the local food movement seem so important is the idea that we can feed ourselves, and in doing so rediscover trust within the food system. As a consumer, I was hesitant to drink the raw milk because the lack of government support for that kind of product made me question whether I could trust its safety. However, when I think about the issue more, I’m not sure it makes sense that I had a hard time trusting the raw milk from Luna, where I was able to see the cleanliness and health of the cow and the cleanliness and cleaning process of all the equipment, while I in general I don’t question the quality of milk that I buy at the grocery store. I understand there are many reasons why this is the case and that regulation by the FDA is in place so that consumers can go to the store without worrying about food safety issues, but my own experiences have also demonstrated to me the value in the cause that Bob St. Peter is fighting for.

In general, I found the piece on Bob St. Peter extremely interesting because after working on a vegetable farm last summer, I realized how much I loved the act of farming and working with the land. The fifth days this summer have made me question a lot about what farming entails, especially in relation to the marketing and economic sides of the work. I love how the article frames the food system issues in terms of being able to feed ourselves, because for me, eating the food that I had helped grow in the fields was one of the most rewarding parts of my work. I hope that I’ll be able to do the same kind of rewarding work again, both logistically and economically, and Bob St. Peter’s approach to changing the food system -from the producers perspective- seemed new and highly relevant to me because of this.