HARBOR SPRINGS — Food choices impact personal health, community health and the overall health of the planet.

Farming For Our Future, a nonprofit organization in Harbor Springs, provides education about how food choices affect health. Its mission is also to foster community awareness of how and where food is grown.

“Farming For Our Future got started as a result of a vision that started at Pond Hill Farm,” said executive director Toril Fisher. “Jim Spencer, who has since passed away, started the framework of a nonprofit on his farm. He never lived to see that dream become a reality. His son Jimmy, who has taken over the operations of the farm, saw the benefit and chose to see it through to a reality.”  

Fisher said the Spencer family saw the value add in continuing field-trip programs for children while also enhancing the vision of farm-based education to include educating folks on the benefits of eating locally and healthily.

“It is not at all surprising that most Americans think that chickens come plastic-wrapped without bones, that milk pours from gallon jugs or that fresh fruit can be picked year-round. After all, less than two percent of the country lives on farms today,” she said.

Although Congress passed a law in 2002 to inform consumers where the food they buy comes from, Fisher said five years later, shoppers still struggle to determine the origin of meat, poultry, fruit, vegetables and frozen or canned food in most of America's grocery stores.

“We often hear the term ‘think local.’ We, at Farming For Our Future, would like to adopt the term ‘just think,” Fisher said. “Think about what is in your food, think about where your food comes from, think about the impact of your choices and purchases, think about the future of your food and think about the future of your food sources.”

Fisher said the benefits of eating locally grown foods include optimum freshness, nutrition and taste; eliminating the cost of fuel for transportation; keeping money in the community; and encouraging the use of local farmland for farming, thus keeping development in check while preserving open space.

“This is a critical time in our history in which many people are suffering from rising food prices, unpredictable fuel prices, rising health care crisis and constant outbreaks of food related illnesses, coupled with the threat of global climate change,” Fisher said. “It’s time to put the ‘think’ into the ‘think local.’ We all need to join forces as a community and become aware of how something as easy as knowing where your food comes from truly impacts the health of Northern Michigan and your own personal health.”

Fisher said every purchase is a vote and every action is a step toward change.

“Farming For Our Future wants to be the organization that views this crisis as an opportunity to change our habits,” she said. “Giving our community members the knowledge of how to grow their own food even if it’s just one tomato plant, is a step toward that change. Through our programs we are planting the seeds of change and harvesting hope for Northern Michigan.”

To volunteer, make a donation or learn about Farming for our Future programs, e-mail Toril Fisher at torilfarming@gmail.com.