To The Editor
It is sad to go down our very nice main street, and see so many empty storefronts, the latest commendable little business to fall by the wayside being Coffee Creek Café.
I think there is a way to rejuvenate our downtown core, and alleviate the glut of homes for sale in town and the Creston Valley as a whole. But we all have to work towards this end. Several years ago, there was a survey carried out as to the future of Creston, and the results of the survey were that Creston was the ideal place for seniors to retire in. We seem to have forgotten about this conclusion.
How do we entice people to settle in the valley? We promote our food. We support our Creston Valley Food Action Coalition and we buy everything our farmers’ market has to offer. There are more and more reasons to question the quality and purity of the foods we buy from factory producing institutions. Chicken is the most popular meat product, and research has determined that it is one of our most toxic foods, containing poisons even such as arsenic. I saw a documentary showing how chicken nuggets are made, and I tell you I will never eat another chicken nugget.
I have a friend in Alberta who has a large feedlot; his veterinary room is stacked with cases of antibiotics. And then when the cattle get to the slaughterhouse and the carcass goes through the centrifugal machine to extract every scrap, including eyeballs and brains to make our hamburger and sausage, that is another story. I have seen Mexican workers in the produce fields wearing space suits to protect them from the sprays applied to the lettuce and tomatoes that we buy from our grocery stores.
We have here, in the Creston Valley, pure beef, pork, lamb, chicken, cheese and all kinds of vegetables, fruit and grains, and honey and wine, and once we determine to unconditionally buy local, these producers can increase their production. Then the chamber of commerce, the town, and the real estate companies have to come on board to promote the fact that the Creston Valley has local pure food, and is a one of a kind place to live in and retire in. Once the people start coming in, businesses will follow, the hospital will become viable, we’ll need more seniors homes, we’ll need a larger dairy and meat processing plants, facilities to process fruit, the sawmills will flourish, and who knows — we may even have to expand our rec centre.
Creston