[blackaddr]

regional food production

well regional food production is getting into mainstream media

[Bandidoz]

Get buying from your local Farmer's Market!

[Permanently_Baffled]

I have been buying from local farmers markets , I was suprised by the price and quality, both very good. There are also quite a few to choose from , I thought they would be difficult to find! In fact I have 3 within walking/cycling distance !!

To be fair to the large supermarkets, they do tend to have a regional supply base for fresh vegetables, since transportation makes a large part of the cost. They do however transport produce long distance if there are availabilty disparities between regions, this is to maintain choice , rather than a necessity.

PB

[Zardoz]

More people are catching on to what's coming:

"I think it's becoming more and more obvious that if there's no longer a cheap source of oil, then a lot of things need to change in this country..."

"A lot of things" will definitely be changing...

[dooberheim]

I was at our local farmers market last Saturday, and was talking to one of the vendors. He was saying that if gasoline was $6 or $7/gallon, that he would have a hard time continuing to farm and sell as he does (he comes in from about 40 miles out of town). He is afraid that since he already is at a disadvantage having to sell for higher prices due to small scale, that even fewer people will buy from him if fuel is a lot more expensive and he has to raise his prices even more relative to large scale producers.

Wouldn't it be tragic if expensive energy kills small farmers first?

DK

[shakespear1]

Health reasons may be another reason to buy locally as you may have more control of where the food is coming from.

Read the following disturbing results regarding genetically modified food.

Modified Soya

[JoeCoal]

We need more places like this.

[SoothSayer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JoeCoal', 'W')e need more places like this.

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SoothSayer', 'W')hat's a "dog choice"?

Surely not a portion for your pet?

If so, the US deserves all it gets!

[pea-jay]

Two farms have gone the next step to totally remove petroleum based inputs to their farming operations, from growing all the way to distribution.

NY State
http://www.jgpress.com/inbusiness/archi ... 00628.html

CA
http://www.culturechange.org/issue14/pe ... pdate.html

But PSTARR is also right. Those stuck in suburbs are still screwed. And nobody in the SW deserts will be able to be sustained by pedal powered produce.

[jdumars]

For selfish reasons, I hope people DON'T catch on to the farmer's market en masse. It's the only food my wife and I eat -- no lie. This last Winter we were nearly starving because the markets were depleted by upper class a$$holes who wanted to try the "quaint" and "rustic" food. They would just indiscriminately buy ALL of the kale or lettuce (price wasn't an issue), then take it home and either waste it or smother it in some horrible condiment. To these people food is dirt cheap. And, these local sources cannot scale. We're going to be screwed if everyone tries to "buy local" as things stand right now.

Yet another reason the doometrom is pegging 8 out of 10.

[dukey]

why do people 'pick' on food that isn't grown locally ?

I mean, when was the last time you flipped something over and it DIDN'T say made in china ?

Enough said really

[dooberheim]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', ' ')(the Arcata business closed several years ago. I never saw them at the farmers' market)

The stuff is still better for the environment and the health of the farmer worker and consumer though, and I would choose it any time over the infected, poisonous food system that we call 'apple pie' here in merka

[jdumars]

anything added to plants can be a problem... chemicals have obvious risks. Manure has its own special risks. And, "organic" fertilizers/fungicides/miticides are in my opinion the WORST of the bunch. Products like Auxi-Gro are laced with excitotoxic unbound amino acids. My wife and I have 2 or 3 places we can get food from that don't use ANY sprays, etc. It's not about some theoretical aversion to these substances... it's about time-proven neurological and physiological responses that made me sick for years on end. Food is one of the top reasons my DOOMETRON stays pegged above 7 (out of 10). People are killing themselves with virtually every meal.

[Vexed]

I don't know.

I don't buy locally much, but I am definitely looking into it.

This recent article claims that most of what we get out of the ground these days is radically different than what we got out of the ground even 50 years ago.

It argues that fertilizers and modern farming practices have leeched the earth's soils of vast amount of nutrients in a very short period of time.

Fruits, vegetables not as nutritious as 50 years ago
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he declines ranged from 6 percent for protein, 15 percent for iron, 20 percent for vitamin C, and 38 percent for riboflavin.