[Market-farming] NYTimes.com: Food That Travels Well
Heirloom Grower
heirloomgrower at gmail.com
Wed Aug 8 12:12:11 EDT 2007
Several months ago, I visited the produce section of the grocery and found
only wilted, and blemished produce bordering on ruined. Had the stuff I saw
been coming from MY garden, I would have discarded it as unfit for human
consumption, and felt bad about feeding it to my chickens. I came home in a
snit and asked on one of my gardening groups "What happened to the good
produce? Why is it that our stores have only second- or third-rate stuff any
more, even at the height of the season?" A girl from Australia replied that
our good stuff was being shipped there. Their good stuff was being shipped
to somewhere in Asia, I forget where. The result was an exorbitant price
that she said she couldn't afford. It looks as though the reality of global
transport of food is substandard food for everyone involved, and ultimate
prices for it.
It's interesting to note that no matter what the point one chooses to prove,
there is always a statistical way to justify it. Just depends on how
convoluted the reasoning employed to do so. Folks with common sense can
usually discern truth. For example, home growers are often privileged to
enjoy many delicacies at the height of freshness that purchasers spend big
bucks to sample in a much compromised condition. Whatever the article says,
eating fresh while vitamins and all the other good stuff is intact beats the
socks off the other stuff.
Elise
On 8/8/07, Bill Shoemaker <wshoemak at inil.com> wrote:
>
> While it was thought provoking, it's worth noting that the authors of the
> research were from New Zealand, a country which depends heavily on
> long-distance exporting. The author of the op-ed was diplomatic to the
> study, perhaps to a fault. It certainly didn't take into account any of the
> other reasons for buying locally- grown product. In my opinion, more
> compelling reasons are qualitative. Both culinary and nutritional value of
> well--travelled foods are so compromised that buying local is a real health
> and quality of life issue. In my 25 years of working with the produce
> industry, I've never seen a time when the market offers so much which has so
> little value. Consumers beware!
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