Re: 100 Pounds of Food/Year From a 12 Square Foot Plot?

On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:46:03 -0500, Charlie wrote:

>On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:40:50 -0700, Billy <wildbilly@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>>You need to find Community Sup****ted Agriculture (CSA) in your area. 
>>Organic is insufficient, if it isn't local (100 miles: definition 
>>varies). Throwing a load of organic produce in the back of a truck to 
>>get contaminated by the previous load, and let it bounce for two days 
>>while getting to market, isn't going to improve it. The problem isn't 
>>just industrial food production but also industrial food distribution. 
>>This is where places like "Whole Foods" break down. They ****p from 
>>central warehouses, which means that they have to buy in huge lots, 
>>which gives them economy of scale, and also guarantees that the produce
>>will be the same from store to store. None of the above guarantees 
>>freshness. Fresh food is more nutritious and it tastes better. This is 
>>the basis for "locavores" (people who eat locally grown food). At a CSA,

>>the food will be fresh and you can look the grower in the eye and ask 
>>how it was grown. Not only does the food taste better but you are 
>>sup****ting a source of better food for the whole community. 
>
>To find one near you, amongst other things.....
>
>http://www.localharvest.org/

We are blessed with FOUR farmers' markets in Santa Monica,
Wed, Sat and Sun.  They are very strict about locally grown produce
only, and have gone more toward organic in recent years.

Problem is, areas like Santa Monica that have educated, relatively
affluent  consumers (all except moi!) have access to plenty of fresh
produce, whereas the very areas that desperately NEED fresh produce do
not have farmers' markets, and until very recently did not even have a
major supermarket chain.  The people had to buy at convenience storees
that have high  prices and low-quality, unhealthful  processed foods.

I have racked my brain for years trying to figure out what it
would take to get residents of poor and minority areas to get
their act together and bring in farmers' markets.   Obviously the lack
of security is a factor, as is the lack of consumer education. It's
easy to argue that these factors can be overcome, but it's not so
easy to put oneself in the place of people that have been down
so long, they don't know how to organize.  Tragically, what inhibits
investment, inter alia, is that black and brown are at each other's
throats in the deadly gang wars that have paralyzed these areas,
killing innocent babies and children just standing on the street or
coming home from school.

Persephone