I’m sure you’ve received many comments about Joe Bianculli’s remarks and hopefully Chris Reedy at Blue Ridge Food Ventures has had an opportunity to respond about clean hands versus gloves with UliMana hand rolling techniques [“Asheville’s Food Pioneers,” Oct. 22, Xpress].
I am all for organic and non-GMO, but I’m a bigger advocate for local and wild foods. I spend time at local tailgate markets and realize how important having even 10 to 20 extra people buy from our local farmers each week can make the difference of whether these small farms stay in business or not.
Ask these farmers the difference in price in organic feed and nonorganic. It’s more than double. Your eggs would be $6 to $7 a dozen, and beef would cost at least double on a small-scale, local farm.
Local farms that practice free range and no antibiotics supersede any organic food trucked from California.
One visit to Hickory Nut Gap Farm shows any consumer how farming is done with true integrity. Yes, I’d love to see Hickory Nut Gap achieve organic status, but grass-fed, free-range animals as nature intended beat cows and chickens locked in a small structure with organic feed any day!
If you think organic megafarms are doing large free-range areas, think again. And, yes, I eat UliMana hand-rolled chocolates.
Jeannie Dunn
Fairview
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