Elect Chris Booth to U.S. Senate

Some of our foods today come from half way around the world, and some are grown at factory farms in shocking conditions. The more local food we have the better. An apple a day keeps the doctor away is a common expression, and apples are grown locally in many U.S. states, and particularly in New Hampshire. Recently there have been a large number of farmers markets opening up and they are an excellent opportunity to obtain food directly from local farms.

An interesting solution to the loss of local farms is contracting with power companies to install wind turbines - for about $3,000 - $5,000 each, per year, as a supplemental income that actually can exceed the farm income by a factor of 5 or 10 to 1. Zoning needs to protect farmland though, to prevent it from being used for other purposes. Buckminster Fuller looked out over the fertile lands of Santa Clara valley and said that it should be saved for farmland, and the homes should be built only in the hills, but his advice was not heeded, and as a result we lost some of the best farmland in the country.

Some of our foods are genetically modified, and those need to be identified so that we can make a choice between eating GM foods or non-GM foods. Europe is much more sensitive to GM foods than the United States, where labeling is prohibited. This prohibition needs to be lifted, and GM foods need to be identified. Consumers need to know what the source of their food is so that they can make an informed choice. The companies that have developed GM crops have lobbied to prevent labeling solely to prevent consumers from making that choice.