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Generally speaking, chain stores, because of their corporate structure, are not going to carry locally produced and grown items. The whole idea of chain stores is to make cookie-cutter produced items everywhere, because it's cheaper.

If you look at what happened with the history of Organic labeling, you might reconsider the idea of creating a labeling system... When the USDA started to regulate Organic standards it simultaneously weakened what Organic meant and ensured that small farmers wouldn't be able to afford to be certified, no matter that they were more organic than the "organic" produce you can now buy at KMART.

posted 5 years, 1 month ago
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The tomatoes you are buying from Mexico are not supporting a poor farmer. They are supporting a huge corporation that undercuts and destroys local agriculture.

posted 5 years, 1 month ago
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This is IMPORTANT. I feel like a lot of people are brushing it off by saying that the folks shopping at farmers markets aren't spending money on big screen tv's and Hermes bags... but that ignores the difference between middle class and working class. The only reasons that I can afford to eat locally are because I am young and have no dependents, share a house with 5 other people, work at a food co-op and recieve a discount and free 'distressed' produce and have enough free time to grow lots of food.

If I had a kid, or a sick spouse or any number of other factors that MOST people have, I wouldn't be able to hack it in the local food part of my life.

TIME is also an issue in working people's lives - I certainly find myself eating a lot more (NOT organic, NOT Local) Pizza now that I'm working AND in school full time. It's easy to make a salad out of the greens in my garden, but sometimes I'm hungrier than that and have a paper to write.

Someone said that people could spend less time in front of a tv and more time in thier garden.... Probably said by someone with an office job. My father and some of my housemates do very physical work ALL DAY. They don't necessarily want to come home and do more.

The thing that I love about Food Politics is that it ties in so well to everything else, because everyone Eats. So, why aren't we willing to pay people a living wage for a days work? Why aren't we willing to pay farmers a living wage? Why do we allow huge agricorps to sell enough (organic) Tomatoes and lettuce for $2 when we know that if a farmer were to sell it for that, he would go broke????

posted 5 years, 1 month ago
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