MANSFIELD - About 150 people showed up at Straughn Hall Thursday to hear about the Mansfield Growers Market. The panel discussion was the featured event of the Frederick Douglass Institute, or FDI, at Mansfield University.
"The summer reading for incoming freshman was Barbara Kingsolver's 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,' which promotes the consumption of locally grown foods, so we decided to 'grow our own' event," FDI Director Lynn Pifer said.
The market was formed when a group of parishioners at St. James Episcopal Church started a book club in 2009. They soon were inspired by the book, said panelist Paul Wendel, who co-founded the market and also teaches physics at the university.
The panel also included university faculty members James Guignard and Andrea Harris; Jackie Schlitzer from Night and Day Coffee Cafe; Kim Seeley of Milky Way Farms, Troy; and Todd Webster of Hillstone Farms.
The market operates every Friday from May to Oct. 1 on the church grounds at 30 E. Wellsboro St. It features local vendors, educational booths, activities and entertainment.
University president Dr. Maravene Loeschke said she and her husband started visiting the market every Friday that they are in town after she read Kingsolver's book, to see if they could create a meal made with only locally produced food.
"We went and bought a steak, lettuce, tomato, honey, bread, potatoes, onion and made a meal from locally grown food. I had no idea lettuce could taste like that. I don't even like tomatoes and I ate two of them," she said.
Kingsolver's book, released in 2007, focuses on the life change made by the author to consume only locally produced food over the course of a year.
Panelist Kim Seeley, of Milky Way Farms in Troy, said he learned the hard way that sustainable agriculture was the best for his farm, after the industrialized methods he was using in the 1980s nearly caused the death of his oldest son.
"After nearly poisoning my son, who was only 7, I ventured into some other literature," the Penn State graduate said, mentioning books by Bob Rodale, who he called a "pioneer" of sustainable agriculture.
"One thing no one told me was the milk we produced changed, and we kept losing customers because of the non-traditional way we were feeding our cows," he said.
After moving back toward grass feeding, Seeley said he began to see his business pick up and for the last 10 years he has supplied milk and meat to Pennsylvania College of Technology students in Williamsport.
That spurred some students to express an interest in getting more healthy foods served at Manser Dining Hall, though some were concerned about the increased costs to students that such a change could create.
Seeley suggested students and the nation in general should get over the "cheap food mentality" and added that the quality of the food they would be getting would more than compensate them with the increased nutritional value.
"We found the students at Penn College were willing to pay a little more for a burger, because you can't compare a cheap piece of meat to something that packs more nutritive value per pound," he said. "Students need brain food, and this food will make you smarter."
Another panelist, Jackie Schlitzer, who works at Nite and Day Coffee Cafe, helped get a market going within the coffee shop for local farmers' products. Since then, demand for the fresh food is growing, she said.
"We found ways to reach out to different farmers in the area. We now use local eggs and milk from Milky Way Farms. We also use 100 percent local honey from Gobbler's Knob Farm, Galeton, sell Milky Way cheese from the shop, produce when it's in season," she said.
Loeschke challenged the students to give the grower's market food a try and take to advantage of a coupon on the back of the evening's program for an Angus burger at the market this afternoon.
For more information on the Mansfield Growers Market, check online at www.mansfieldgrowersmarket.wordpress.com.
