Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Aliza" <realfood@wonderfulfarm.com>]

But there are some businesses that are picking up the slack.  Azure Standard 
delivers all over the west.  There prices are competative with my local 
organic coop and the warehouse type store that stocks lots of organic 
produce (local and national origin) and comercial foods.  For a $400 minimum 
they will make a drop with no shipping.  Groups of folks get together and 
have the food dropped at a central location.  Azure Standard is/was an 
organic  beef and wheat farm in northeastern Oregon so it is possible to get 
all the commodaties like recycled toilet paper and organic
q-tips as well as raw milk and cheese, some produce like boxes of avocados, 
grain/flour as well as frozen meat and comercial brands like Annies or 
cascadian farms items like frozen berries or cereal etc.  You can also get 
farm supplies from fencing equiptment to organic thorvin kelp and redmonds 
salt.

If you are in the western united states and have difficulty getting some of 
these types of items it is worth a shot.  I only use them for redmonds 
salt/conditioner, kelp meal and my canning jars as I am lucky to live in an 
area where organic local foods are the norm.

And yes the real difference that will make the difference is when we produce 
much of what we eat ourselves - The 30-50 families that get milk and yogurt 
from me are 30-50 families that arent buying dairy at the grocery store.  I 
also supply cultures at cost for my customers so they can make their own 
cheeses and yogurt.  I like to trade for produce that I dont grow as well as 
services.  My chiropractor is a milk trade for her adopted baby.

Aliza
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 8:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Additional pressure on food availability


> That's one shocker I hadn't anticipated. Grow your own and teach your
> neighbors. Of course that won't work for toilet paper and the like.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 12/10/2007 at 10:53 PM Liz wrote:
>
> > There has been a lot of talk about food price increases, but one
> > thing I haven't seen much publicity about is the decreasing
> > availability in many rural areas. I talk to small grocery store and
> > convenience store owners on a daily basis, and I'm hearing frequent
> > stories that their previous suppliers will no longer deliver to them.
> > Their orders aren't large enough, they're being told, to justify the
> > cost of running a truck out to them. Even the ones in settled areas,
> > on major highways, often can't get deliveries, not because the trucks
> > don't go anywhere near them, but because it costs the supplier more
> > to make multiple small deliveries than to make a few large ones.
> >
> > As a result, some small stores are just not carrying certain things
> > any more. Some store owners are shopping at Costco and Sam's Club in
> > order to keep their shelves stocked, which usually results in higher
> > retail prices than if they were buying from grocery vendors. In many
> > places, these stores serve an elderly and/or poor population, people
> > who can't just hop in their car and drive however far it takes to get
> > to a big supermarket (in some mountainous areas, that can be 50 or 60
> > miles). If they can't get something they need from the store down the
> > road, they often have no choice but to go without.
> >
> > These small stores are the canary in the coal mine, I think, for
> > coming similar shortages in other areas. It's not only that food will
> > cost more to grow and transport, but that wholesalers and
> > distributors are going to reduce deliveries to areas where they
> > aren't making their desired profit. That's troubling not only for
> > outlying stores in rural counties like mine, but also for small
> > family-owned stores in urban neighborhoods.
> >
> > Liz in SW VA
> > http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
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