[lbo-talk] skepticism on food miles

joanna 123hop at comcast.net
Mon Aug 6 23:05:55 PDT 2007


"....choices beyond what the season offers...."???

1. It's interesting. I can go to Safeway, any day of the year, and I am able to buy any fruit/vegetable I want.

2. Or, I can go to the local farmer's market and get what's in season.

While Safeway appears to offer more choice, there is also a lot of choice at the farmer's market. It's just a different kind of choice. At the farmer's market, I can't get pears in July, but I can get about a dozen different varieties of peaches, plums, tomatoes, eggplant, etc. Not just variety of species, but variety of quality -- different farmers have different practices, different stock, which yields different tastes and aromas. It's also a real shopping experience in the sense that there are appreciable differences that change every year. The same farmer doesn't get the best crop each year.

When I started shopping at the farmer's market, I felt constrained. Then I started to appreciate and enjoy the ever shifting cornucopia of in-season produce. There's always something to look forward to and always something to enjoy the peak of. Experiencing the taste of fruit coming into and going out of season is a sensual pleasure I get to enjoy 365 days a year. The price of that is no melon in November, but I don't mind the tradeoff. I like experiencing time in this way. It's very interesing.

Joanna



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