You know in so many ways the Dutch are ready to ‘think outside of the box’. They are very progressive with things like drugs, euthanasia, same sex marriages, environmental issues, you name it. For some reason when it comes to food the only thing they are interested in is if it’s certified organic. Their idea of local is going to the supermarket and buying a bag of potatoes that has ‘Holland’ stamped on it.

We have a neighborhood organic farmers market where we buy a lot of our food. They have meats, cheeses, fruits and veggies. Holland is a small country, and in one sense that makes them ‘local’, but as far as I’m aware none of the farmers at this market are from anywhere near Amsterdam. In addition, AFAIK, none of them give tours or offer any interesting stories about how their food is produced in a natural way. I rarely see ‘real’ farmers running the stands. All of the stands buy and sell from other farms, so you never know for sure where your food comes from. As far as I can see it’s all organic in a certified way, but there is no heart and sole.

The only farmer I know who is a real farmer, someone who I have met him as well as his wife, children, chickens and cows I posted about here:

http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/?p=229

I almost never eat any eggs except his, and his cheese is really nice and I buy kilos of it every time I see him (he lives pretty far away). AFAIK, his cows are only fed grass and his chickens only get plants, bugs, household scraps and spoiled cheese from his cows. He likes old breed animals too, and I’ve seen a number of interesting chickens and cows at his farm.

Most people that live in the neighborhood of this farmer turn their nose up at him. They think he’s a freak, and his cheese tastes funny. They just can’t see a good thing when it’s right in front of them.

This farmer is a friend of mine, a regular reader of this blog and we exchange emails from time to time. He’s having a very hard time financially, and his farm may not survive.

This is the only farmer I know of that makes true organic, handmade, natural food! He told me about one friend of his who has an organic farm, but it’s not really underway yet and I’m not sure it will really ever get started.

This is one of the main reasons I have my own garden, there is just no other way here! Mostly there are too many regulations, and the existing farmers have too much political control.

I remember reading something about raising chickens from Hedgewizard who lives in the UK. Just from what he was able to share, it seems that European policies on raising your own can be rather tight. What have you found in your experience to be the best way to obtain good healthy food?