3/8 Meeting with Peter Hoffman/Lilly Day

On Saturday, March 8th, Micki and I went to the Farmer’s Market to meet up with Peter Hoffman, one of the people we are working with for our sustainability project. While giving us a private tour of the market, Peter explained to us his general process in getting food for his resaturants (specifically Savoy). He showed us how he picks his vegetables and who some of the important people are who work with him every week. Peter introduced us to many of the farmers he sees everyday, and in turn they eached spoke to us about their relationship with sustainability, and what they are doing to help. Through meeting many of the farmers working at the market, Micki and I learned how difficult it is to do things locally, and how challenging it is to accomplish things the “simple way” (which i found slightly ironic.) While Peter was shopping around (this time only for his own family’s dinner), Micki and I got the chance to interview him on his connection with sutainabilty, and creating food in a healthful way for our environment. One of the things he explained to us (which perhaps stood out as the most memerable thing he said to us- for me), was the the name “organic” can be twisted. This had never occured to me before he explained what he meant. He said that cows can be tortured, and kept in cramped, un-healthful conditions, but fed “organic grass,” and “organic corn,” then the lable will read “organic meat” when packaged, when what you are really getting is tortured meat. He pointed out to us how a lot of the time, lables leave out things, making their produce seem as though it has better quality than it does in reality. We continued to talk and tour the market with Peter for the durration of about an hour, continuously learning more about his role in making our world more sustainable.