Walking Fish at Farm Aid

This post comes to us from fisherman Chris McCaffity from the Walking Fish CSF in North Carolina. 

I was blessed with a chance to help represent Walking Fish at Farm Aid this year. 

The Walking Fish demo area 

The day started with a press event featuring Farm Aid founders Willie Nelson and Neil Young. Several small scale farmers explained how some corporations and politicians are controlling them and our food supply. Their stories mirrored much of what commercial fishermen experience. The best chance of survival for independent food producers is simply for consumers to purchase our products. Voting with our money can have more impact than voting for most politicians.

Pre-concert press conference

We were scheduled first at the skills tent immediately following the press event. The gates had just opened to the public so our audience was small to start with but grew through the presentation as a steady stream of people joined us. A chef from Hatteras demonstrated how to clean some seafood as I talked about how consumers across the state could access local seafood through Walking Fish.

Part of Walking Fish's seafood demo

After visiting educational booths with topics ranging from biodiesel to locally sourced food for schools we got to enjoy some music in a sea of spectators.

The crowds enjoy the music at Farm Aid

             

My daughter met Lilly May from the rock band White Stripes. Lilly told us about how one of her friends fished commercially as she graciously posed for a picture.

Making friends! 

                                   

It was inspiring to see so many people supporting independent food producers. Our collective purchasing power is the key to preserving our freedom to access healthy food from family farmers and fishermen.

You can learn more about Walking Fish at: www.walking-fish.org

Please contact Chris if you are interested in learning about how we can sustainably manage our fisheries to limit waste and produce more seafood. Ask me about how you can place special orders for the snapper/grouper and other offshore seafood I harvest. freefish7@hotmail.com