more than improving the carbon footprint. In the community I live in 5 families are members of a local CSA (community supported agriculture) consortium. Members subscribe (pay in advance) for a growing season to a get a share of the produce from Farmer Frank's farm. The total membership in this CSA is now about 300. Each week we get a bag full of locally grown fruits and vegetables and a newsletter which has some recipes to help us deal with the more exotic offerings.
[WS:] That is all nice and I salute those 300 souls for their commitment, but how on earth do you expect to sell this model to an average Joe Schmoe, such is myself. I would definitely buy environmentally sustainable produce, but I do not want to bend backwards to be able to do so. That is to say, I do not want to be a member of a club that requires an upfront payment, I do not want large quantities, commitments etc. I just want to go to a local grocery store an buy the organic stuff that I need at a moment without paying the inflated Whole Foods prices.
It is possible to do that in EU - whereas in this dog-forsaken snake pit, you either have to belong to a fucking club or pay through the nose to a gang of middlemen and retailers. This is not just about food stuff, but almost everything else, health care, housing, or transportation. 'Muricans are being spoon fed the most expensive and inefficient arrangements sold to them as "the" solution, whereas solutions used in many other countries are simply ignored.
Wojtek