On Saturday, that event was the Naked Food Fair.
The fair was a market where people brought locally grown organic food for sampling and purchase. More than 20 businesses came together, both local and from out of state, to present their product and give talks on the importance of treating the body right.
Jeff Masters, founder and director of Thunder Mountain Wellness, an organization focused on alternative healing, said the body was the lens of experience.
It is important to know what is going into your body because poor food and exercise decisions could fog that lens and cloud one’s experience of the world, he said. Putting healthy, organic food into the body allows people to purify themselves and to be more present.
“Life is precious and you want be able to get as much out of every moment as possible and if the food that you’re putting in your body is actually muddying that lens and taking away from the vibrancy and the beauty of what you’re experiencing, you want to change that,” Masters said.
Chiraya Fox, founder and director of the Pure Life Expo and Convention, said eating organic food is important for the health of our bodies and the health of the environment.
She said the chemicals put on non-organic food not only get into the body, but also affect the ecology of animal life and infiltrate our environment.
Everything in the environment is interconnected, she said. When food is grown with chemicals, those chemicals go not only into our bodies but also the soil. From the soil, it pollutes the water and then evaporates to pollute the air.
Bob Grzywacz, owner of Valley Seed, an Albuquerque farm focusing on heirloom seeds, said the term “organic” is a designation with actual regulation. He said that organic foods are foods grown without chemicals such as pesticides and chemicals.
“Why would you want to eat something that’s full of things you can’t pronounce, was mass-produced in a factory, and had to travel hundreds of miles to get to you?” Grzywacz said.
It’s better to eat something that’s not chemically fed or produced, he said. He recalled an experience where he bought tomatoes at a store because they were perfectly shaped and shaded, but those tomatoes lacked the flavor that he had become accustomed to.
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“Once you’re hooked on organic food, I think you’re hooked for life,” Grzywacz said
Alicia Webb, resident stage manager for Duke City Repertory Theater, said there’s intersectionality between local and organic.
She pointed out that not all local foods are organic and not all organic foods are local.
“Organic food is great. If you see a tomato, you know you’re getting a tomato and nothing else. I love that. I don’t know what the organic standards are, but if I see the organic label, I get that. It’s important to buy local, too. Local farmers know the food they grow and you can taste the love,” Webb said.
Kevin Haaf is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
