Belly Up Buy Fresh, Buy Local fundraiser will get you to eat fresh, eat local

The profit-driven industrial agriculture system has failed us before, presenting us with salmonella in papaya and melon-delivered listeria. How did it come to this, that ostensibly clean fruit sold in supermarkets can lay the eater low? As serial complainer Holden Caulfield said, “Goddamn money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.” Clearly, it’s time to go back to the old ways of consuming fresh produce: from a farm within biking distance. REAP Food Group’s Buy Fresh Buy Local fundraiser is determined to bring both awareness of the pitfalls “big ag” delivers and an opportunity to chow down on the amazing bounty of Wisconsin produce by staging a series of dinners prepared with local ingredients Oct. 18-20. Cool local restos involved include Graze, Greenbush Bar, Harvest, L’Etoile, Liliana’s, Mermaid Cafe, Sardine, Umami, and dozens more. Madisonians can support efforts to build a more sustainable, locally rooted food situation by participating. More than a benefit and an awareness-raising effort, the event should deliver awesome eats. “Many of our participating restaurants consider Local Harvest their favorite event because they have the opportunity to be creative with their menu,” says program coordinator Maria Davis.

FATSOMETER: 4. We’re talking greens, here, and even if you eat a lot of them, that roughage rocks well on the food-to-fat ratio.