Locator App Highlights Animal Welfare
Also , a visit to Maxwell Street Market
In This Issue
• Farmers Market Week Day 2 Regional Schedule
• Crate Free USA App Helps You Find Humanely Produced Food
• Food With Latino Flair at Maxwell Street Market
Farmers Market Week Day 2 Schedule
Monday, August 2
Edgewater Farmers Market, 5917 N. Broadway, Chicago, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Hinsdale Farmers Market, 30 E. Chicago Ave., Hinsdale, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Crate Free USA App Helps You Find Humane Food
Most local food fans and Good Food advocates are omnivores who prioritize humane treatment of livestock. Crate Free USA (formerly Crate Free Illinois) has played a leading role in pressing for animal welfare, raising public consciousness about practices such as confining gestation crates and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
Yesterday, Crate Free USA launched an improved version of its app — The Illinois Guide to Factory-Free Meat, Dairy & Eggs — to help consumers access humanely raised animal products with confidence. The following is the nonprofit organization’s press release
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Crate Free USA announced today that it is relaunching its one-of-a-kind mobile app — "The Illinois Guide to Factory-Free Meat, Dairy & Eggs.” Newly updated and with the addition of more farmers markets, restaurants and retailers that source locally, the free app is available for both Apple and Android users.
With the goals of giving consumers more local options to purchase meat, dairy and eggs and promoting independent family farmers and ranchers who answer to higher animal welfare and environmental standards, users can easily search for nearby farms, markets and restaurants by typing in their zip code.
Users are able to see all the local farms in their vicinity on an easy-to-read map. The app now includes over 350 farmers, markets, and restaurants from around Illinois (and a few beyond) complete with types of products sold, contact information, and social media handles.
"From the start, the purpose of the app has been to provide consumers with alternatives to buying off-the-shelf animal products found in retail grocery chains," said Jess Chipkin, Crate Free USA President and founder. "Unfortunately, the vast majority of meat, eggs and dairy products sold in retail stores still comes from animals raised in intensive-confinement systems that use inhumane practices and fail to provide for the animals' most basic behavioral needs.
“However, we are now seeing more meat eaters consuming a little less meat, as well as paying more attention to where their food comes from and how the animals are treated. We see the app as a useful resource for consumers striving to be more conscientious omnivores."
In addition to connecting farmers and consumers, the Crate Free USA app also serves as a reminder of the growing threat of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in Illinois, and the importance of promoting practices that benefit not only the animals, but the environment and the future of traditional family farmers.
About Crate Free USA
Crate Free USA is an Illinois-based, 501(c)3 animal welfare organization. Formed in 2015, Crate Free USA's mission is to educate consumers about the treatment of farmed animals in Concentrated Feeding Operations (CAFOs); work to eliminate extreme confinement practices in the food supply chain; and advocate for legislative change to ban gestation crates, battery cages and veal crates. Learn more at CrateFreeUSA.org and follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Food With Latino Flair at Maxwell Street Market
For much of the 20th century, Maxwell Street Market on Chicago’s South Side was a commercial and social hub, especially for immigrants from Europe and Black migrants from the Jim Crow South. Throngs crowded the streets and bought all sorts of goods from street peddlers.
Though that era is long past, and the market’s former site was overtaken years ago by the University of Illinois at Chicago, the name has been preserved at a nearby location by the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE); market manager Nikki Butler contributed an article that Local Food Forum published June 17.
(DCASE also manages the city’s public farmers markets, as highlighted in an article published July 29.)
We dropped by the market on Sunday. Most of the vendors are of the flea market variety (not our thing), so I was drawn to the food vendors. There is a strongly Latino flavor, with tacos, tamales and Cuban sandwiches among the prepared foods. While Chicago farm The Urban Canopy has a stand and provides a local food connection, others focus on culturally relevant ingredients, many of them tropical — such as papaya and yucca — and therefore not grown in our region.
Here’s a photo sampler (photos by Bob Benenson):
