OXFORD — We hear a lot about locally grown and produced food at farmer’s markets these days, and for good reason.

Seasonal produce is picked fresh by the hands of those who grew it, baked goods are made just before the market without preservatives or fillers, and the butter and cheese come from the cows and goats you see in surrounding farms. But when it comes to local beef, pork, lamb, and chicken, the gulf between locally-raised meat and industrially-raised meat is unfathomable.

When you buy local, you are supporting a local farms where animals are well-treated, stress-free, free-ranging, free of the antibiotics (that factory- and feed-lot raised animals require to stay barely healthy), healthier for you, and brought to you by the people who raised them. Imagine standing around the grill this weekend, surrounded by friends and family, knowing the burgers, chops, and sausage – maybe even the buns, cheese, lettuce, mustard, and salsa – all came from people you know!

As we celebrate our country’s independence from subjugation to a monarch, let’s do so by wedding ourselves through interdependence to those in our region who grow, raise, and produce our food. Nothing could be more liberating. All meat at the Oxford Farmers’ Market is processed and sold under NYS Ag & Market’s guidelines and can be found every Saturday on Lafayette Park in Oxford, 9 a.m. to noon through to the end of September, and then through the Winter Market starting in November.