The Food and Health Forum is bringing national visionaries to Exeter in 2012

Kathy Gallant opened Blue Moon Market & Café in Exeter in 1995, offering a variety of organic and nutritional food products. In October 2010, she transformed the store into a restaurant called Blue Moon Evolution. By then, Gallant had seen the movie “Food Inc.” and learned that large corporations had furtively bought out a number of organic food lines. She decided it was time to establish a business model that focused specifically on traceable food sources from around the Seacoast.

“We decided to dissolve our market filled with cans and jars of things from all over the world and focus on our local food economy,” Gallant said.

The restaurant now gets its ingredients from 54 local farms and businesses, including meat, cheese, produce, honey, bread, beverages and more. The positive response she’s gotten from customers has inspired Gallant to launch an educational local food initiative in 2012.

Toward that end, she recently joined forces with Tracey Miller, a local communication specialist, health coach, cooking instructor and freelance writer. The two started the Food and Health Forum, which will launch its “Food for Thought” dinner seminar series this month, beginning with a visit from Stonyfield Farm CEO Gary Hirshberg on Monday, Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m., at Blue Moon Evolution.

“We have been so well-received by our community. It has enabled me to have enough energy and desire to bring it to the next level, and that’s what I see this Food and Health Forum being,” Gallant said.

The local food movement has already gained significant traction in the area. Groups like Seacoast Eat Local, Slow Food Seacoast and the Seacoast Growers Association have helped enlighten residents to the abundance of local farms, restaurants and markets offering fresh, sustainable food. The challenge is to expand awareness among the many shoppers who still subscribe to the “standard American diet.”

“Basically, people go to a supermarket and they have no idea where the food that they’re buying comes from,” Miller said. “It’s basically this monolithic supermarket, so they get the food, they bring it home and they don’t have to think about what they’re eating or how it affects them.”

Miller also founded the grassroots group Citizens for Community Wellness, which helped establish a community garden at Exeter High School. She’s been working with food service directors in Exeter to bring healthy, local ingredients to the school cafeteria. A goal of the Food and Health Forum, she said, is to bring together a range of stakeholders, including farmers, merchants, consumers, teachers, doctors and others.

“Our goal is to really kind of merge the masses and really bring together everyone who’s involved in this,” Miller said. The forum is intended to generate conversation among “the peripheries of many different sectors, whether it’s the health sector or the education sector or grocery stores—everyone who has a stake in this.”

Hirshberg, author of “Stirring it Up: How to Make Money and Save the World,” has spoken around the country on topics like climate change, sustainability, organic agriculture and green business practices. In 2011, President Obama appointed him to the Advisory Committee for Trade and Policy Negotiations. He’s also co-chair of AGree, an international food and agriculture policy effort.

Hirschberg’s presentation in Exeter will be titled “Inventing a Win-Win-Win-Win-Win Future,” focused on the nutritional, environmental and social costs associated with cheap, mass-produced and genetically modified foods.

Sponsored by Veris Wealth Partners, the “Food for Thought” series has scheduled other monthly speakers through the spring. Maine farmer Jim Gerritsen will be at Blue Moon on Monday, Feb. 13. Gerritsen is spearheading a lawsuit against corporate agriculture giant Monsanto on behalf of 270,000 farmers, gardeners and consumers suing to keep some food crops free of genetic modification.

Pete Johnson, owner of Pete’s Greens, will offer a presentation on Monday, March 19. Johnson runs a four-season organic vegetable farm in Vermont.

Fellow Vermont farmer Ben Hewitt will round out the series with a presentation on Monday, May 21. Hewitt is author of the books “The Town that Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food” and “Making Supper Safe: One Man’s Quest to Learn the Truth about Food Safety.”

Each installment of the speaker series costs $70 and includes a three-course meal with a glass of wine. Miller said being able to taste fresh, local food while listening to the speakers is a vital component of the forum. In addition to the speaker series, they intend to hold cooking demonstrations and food samplings.

“You can tell people what to eat, but if they don’t know how to prepare it or they don’t have an appreciation for the quality of the food, then they’re just going to fall back on what’s easy,” Miller said.

Blue Moon Evolution is at 8 Clifford St. in Exeter. For more information, call 603-380-1080 or visit www.foodandhealthforum.com.