Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - on-topic...was Re: [Market-farming] Off-topic: the American way?

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Liz Pike" <liz AT laughingbrookfarm.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: on-topic...was Re: [Market-farming] Off-topic: the American way?
  • Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 15:34:48 -0500

To make this on-topic....(I agree with you Tom on the prescription thing,
but that's for another list...)

Before Thanksgiving I was in one of those dollar stores looking for stocking
stuffers. They had different varieties of canned food for cheap, like 3/$1.
One was strawberries. I'd just priced strawberries at the grocery store
(needed canned for a certain recipe) and they were $2.99, from Oregon--which
put me off...I wanted at least east coast berries, but I digress.

How could one store have them for $3, and the other for 33c?? Further
inspection revealed the cheap can came from South Africa. Now I know if I
grow strawberries, I can grow them for that price, for the pitiful amount
that was in that can, for my own family to eat (not customers). But how
could that can go through the growing process, provide any sort of wage for
the farmer (let alone a living wage), go through the canning process, cross
the Atlantic, and wind up in my locale for a mere 33c?? And this was only
the tip of the iceberg. This particular company had other canned products
from all over the world. I wanted to shake the women filling their
baskets--"You don't know what's in there!! Food wasn't meant to earn
frequent flyer miles!!" But these women would not pay $2.99 for something
they could get for 33c. I decided I didn't need or want strawberries at
Thanksgiving.

It was depressing. But it made me more determined to grow & preach the "eat
local" ethic. We gotta shake things up!!!


Liz Pike
Laughingbrook Farm
Westfield NC
http://www.marketfarming.com
http://www.laughingbrookfarm.com/






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page