Buy Fresh, Buy Local Week

MarketStEl · July 10, 2006

I don't know how many of you have been paying attention to the ads on the Inquirer's op-ed page this past week, or whether any of you took note of the fact that the Farm Aid 2006 benefit concert will be held in Camden this year.

The two items are related. Farm Aid is taking place in this region because the area around Philadelphia is home to some of the country's most productive farmland and some of its best farmers, and both New Jersey and (especially) Pennsylvania are leaders in the effort to promote local farmers and locally produced foodstuffs.

The ads are a run-up to one of those efforts, " Buy Fresh, Buy Local Week," which begins July 15. The ads are an effort to reduce food abuse--after all, if you traveled 2,500 miles from home just to eat dinner, you'd be tired, limp and out a lot of money for gas, too.

It looks as if this movement may be attaining critical mass. Over in General Food Topics, last week's foodblogger, phlawless, chronicled her efforts to follow the "100-Mile Diet"--in which one eats only foodstuffs grown or produced within 100 miles of one's residence. In her case, she would have to make an exception for seafood, as Durham, N.C., is just far enough inland to be more than 100 miles from the coast, but she could still rely on Carolina fisheries for her fare.

And in Food Media and News, there is a rather enlightening discussion of the open letter Michael Pollan ("The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals") wrote in response to Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey's complaints about the way WFM was portrayed in Pollan's book. The discussion hinges in large part on local sourcing as a key component of what the organic food movement was once all about but is no longer.

So perhaps this is a good time to ask: Do you have any plans to celebrate "Buy Fresh, Buy Local Week"? Would you change your shopping habits for the event? Or do you already celebrate it every time you shop? (I'm just beginning to work more local produce into my diet, Jersey tomatoes aside; even though it goes against my penchant for penny-pinching, I've started buying more of my produce from the Fair Food Farmstand and Kauffman's, though not a majority of it yet. I must say that yes, it is much fresher, and tastier too.)

rlibkind · July 10, 2006

I'm just beginning to work more local produce into my diet, Jersey tomatoes aside; even though it goes against my penchant for penny-pinching, I've started buying more of my produce from the Fair Food Farmstand and Kauffman's, though not a majority of it yet. I must say that yes, it is much fresher, and tastier too.
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Actually, Sandy, you can be frugal and still support local growers. Just go for the items supplied by the Iovine's contract grower. A lot of the late summer produce will come from other South Jersey commercial farms, i.e., eggplants, peppers, squashes, etc.

handmc · July 11, 2006

I was driving home from VA and stopped by my favorite farm stand on rt 10 in Oxford. All organic, all wonderful. Corn, tomatoes, raspberries bigger than your thumbnail.

MarketStEl · July 11, 2006

Actually, Sandy, you can be frugal and still support local growers. Just go for the items supplied by the Iovine's contract grower. A lot of the late summer produce will come from other South Jersey commercial farms, i.e., eggplants, peppers, squashes, etc.
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How can I tell when the produce I buy at Iovine's comes from the local growers? Is it reliably identified as Jersey, or locally grown?

Vadouvan · July 11, 2006

I hate to be the one to rain on the parade but there are so many angles of hypocricy in the buy fresh buy local movement. First off while they proclaim the fact that the products they bring to market are so much better than "commercial mass market agriculture", they also gouge the marketplace and consumers by artificially making the products more expensive by attaching a value index to it because it is supposedly "better".

It is the same deception that car manufacturers engage in by selling "hybrid" cars.

They claim they are greener and better for the environment but they charge more money even though it doesnt really cost more, it's cynical, it's deceptive and it's disgusting.

Local does not equal fresh or better, Local isnt even defined by the FDA or anyone else for that matter. What's important is properly cultivated, properly stored and transported produce.

Blue Moon Acres, perhaps the best grower of salad greens is in bucks county PA.

The products are defined by name on the menus of Per Se/French Laundry......"Blue Moon Acres Mezza Arugula". It's fantastic stuff but I cannot imagine what stretch of the imagination it takes to consider something grown in PA to be fresh-local in California or New York.

Its frustrating and just getting annoying, even Iovines moves produce in and out of refrigeration daily which is actually the worst thing you can do to it.

I also wonder why they sell all this exotic mushrooms which are all wet but not clean.

The only reason mushrooms are wet and not clean is because the absorb water, weigh more and are therefore sold for nearly double the actual weight.

Even trucks from various produce suppliers are seen at the white dog dropping off "not local" produce.

Sorry about the rant but I am just tired of the BS.

matthewj · July 11, 2006

Wow! I thought I ranted.. I know that sometimes it get frustrating about the fresh and Local. but the frustrations should be directed to the retailer and the chef for touting the local card when they know it is purchased somewhere else.

I believe in supporting the local community, especially the RTM, but I think that a discerning eye needs to be placed on all the products. Like I would buy from whole foods first when it comes to mushrooms because I know that they have good buying power, and they can get the exotic mushrooms not from kennett square. and they do not look tired like the ones at ovine.

But I would get cheeses from Downtown cheeses, before whole foods or, strike me down Dibrunos, because Jack know how to handle the product better.

So I believe that it comes down to this. I think if we collectively put pressure on the retailer to supply better product, even if it is not local, and search and seek out new sources of farmers and growers, and entice them to come down to the farmers market, in the square, make it worth their while. Make them come back to PA, instead of going to New York Cities green market.

example, Del val college, none such farms Buckingham. By the way Blue moon is not even 3 miles from where I grew up in Buckingham. great stuff, been buying from them for years. not just the restuarant stuff either. There are a slew of farmers in Bucks county.

Also product knowledge. So I tell you what we can do. We can start a thread about a product of the week.

marinade · July 11, 2006

It's frustrating to be fresh from the farmer's side as well.

I got to know Paul and Ember Crivellaro of Country Time Farm by way of a dinner I'm involved with that’s part of the "Buy Fresh, Buy Local Week"events next week. I had seen their stuff at Fair Food Farmstand at RTM. I called them and put in an order for two shoulders, two tenderloins, and 4 racks of baby backs. I wanted to try a range of their meat before the event so I can say I know what it taste like (I’m just funny about things like that.) I didn’t asked to be comped and I didn’t ask the restaurant to order and pay for it (again, I’m funny about things like that). Their pricing is less than some of the similar items I’ve seen at Whole Foods.

They deliver on Thursdays in the city so I told them I’d meet them outside of Rx and they cell phoned me when they were about a half-hour away. They make their deliveries themselves from a white pick-up truck with the meats in coolers (with ice). I spent about 45 minutes talking to them. Paul has a more than a thing or two to say about the “movement”. He’s a bit tired about the double standards. For example, he’s considered not “organic” enough for some pc restaurants, he’s docked by some of the buyers because of his fat content, and some of the more wholesome grocers won’t carry their meat as well.

Let me tell you about their fat content or can I say fat balance. This is some of the most succulent meat I’ve played with in years. The racks and one of the shoulders went into my smoker. When I pulled the shoulder’ it broke apart nicely into juicy, silky fibers. It had great bark, and held the flavor of smoke and the identity of the meat nicely. That’s all I ask from’ cue. At some of the Barbecue contests I’ve judged, some of the crap that they plop down in front of you tastes like smoked shredded wheat. It’s so tough and dry that they should be stuffing mattresses with it. I could rave on.

What dark, evil, insanity launched the “Pork: The Other White Meat” campaign? Who ever thought of the idea of breeding out the fat out and flavor to make pork politically correct is on the top of my list for walking reasons for birth control. If I wanted to eat white meat, I’d chase after feathers. Those foul bastards have people thinking that pork should taste like chicken.

Paul and Ember Crivellaro sell from the Phoenixville Farmer’s Market most Saturdays if you would like to meet them. Get there early, they do sell out.

Edited July 11, 2006 by marinade (log)

Vadouvan · July 11, 2006

he’s docked by some of the buyers because of his fat content, and some of the more wholesome grocers won’t carry their meat as well.

First off, anyone complaining about the fat content of Pork is just a Dumas.

That's french for a word you cant use on e gullet.

Insert a B after the M and add an extra S at the end.

Yeah Dude, Country Time rocks, i got a suckling pig from them through Vetri and it was freaking amazing.

Edited July 11, 2006 by Vadouvan (log)

MarketStEl · July 11, 2006

It's frustrating to be fresh from the farmer's side as well.
I got to know Paul and Ember Crivellaro of Country Time Farm by way of a dinner I'm involved with that’s part of the "Buy Fresh, Buy Local Week"events next week. I had seen their stuff at Fair Food Farmstand at RTM. I called them and put in an order for two shoulders, two tenderloins, and 4 racks of baby backs. I wanted to try a range of their meat before the event so I can say I know what it taste like (I’m just funny about things like that.) I didn’t asked to be comped and I didn’t ask the restaurant to order and pay for it (again, I’m funny about things like that). Their pricing is less than some of the similar items I’ve seen at Whole Foods.
They deliver on Thursdays in the city so I told them I’d meet them outside of Rx and they cell phoned me when they were about a half-hour away. They make their deliveries themselves from a white pick-up truck with the meats in coolers (with ice). I spent about 45 minutes talking to them. Paul has a more than a thing or two to say about the “movement”. He’s a bit tired about the double standards. For example, he’s considered not “organic” enough for some pc restaurants, he’s docked by some of the buyers because of his fat content, and some of the more wholesome grocers won’t carry their meat as well.

Oh, boy, more internal contradictions! Right on the heels of reading a lengthy political essay exposing the internal contradictions of one of our two major parties. I can't talk about that here, but the two do share that connection.

Frankly, the only thing a "buy fresh, buy local" movement should be about is promoting local growers, farmers and producers. I can ding the Commonwealth's PA Preferred program for having standards so loose that an outfit like SYSCO Foodservice of Central Pennsylvania can be included, but I really can't ding it for including a large processor like Hatfield Quality Meats as long as that company gets most of the pork, beef and turkey it packs and processes from Pennsylvania sources. (It doesn't? Well, that opens up another can of worms.)

If you're concerned about the fat content of the food you eat or sell, then join a campaign to promote "healthier" eating. If you're concerned about the damage conventional farming does to the soil and ecosystems, then by all means buy or sell only organic. But don't confuse these with promoting local agriculture.

Let me tell you about their fat content or can I say fat balance. This is some of the most succulent meat I’ve played with in years. The racks and one of the shoulders went into my smoker. When I pulled the shoulder’ it broke apart nicely into juicy, silky fibers. It had great bark, and held the flavor of smoke and the identity of the meat nicely. That’s all I ask from’ cue. At some of the Barbecue contests I’ve judged, some of the crap that they plop down in front of you tastes like smoked shredded wheat. It’s so tough and dry that they should be stuffing mattresses with it. I could rave on.
What dark, evil, insanity launched the “Pork: The Other White Meat” campaign? Who ever thought of the idea of breeding out the fat out and flavor to make pork politically correct is on the top of my list for walking reasons for birth control. If I wanted to eat white meat, I’d chase after feathers. Those foul bastards have people thinking that pork should taste like chicken.
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The answer to your first question is: the National Pork Board, when it began to notice that consumers were shunning pork because it was perceived as being too high in fat--and if you follow those USDA dietary guidelines, it was. As it would be too much effort to go mano a mano with Big Nutrition and its allies in the diet industry to educate consumers to what makes pork pork and why the fat is both necessary and perhaps not something to worry about overmuch once it's cooked, they decided to take the route that those Vietnam War generals did and "destroy the pig in order to save it."

This concern over fat is why boneless, skinless chicken breasts have attained Godzilla-like proportions and cost as much as $6 a pound for the industrial-grade variety while stores give away the thighs and leg quarters. And it's why, as you accurately put it, today's pork Tastes Like Chicken.

But don't blame political correctness for this. I guarantee you, Big Nutrition is a bipartisan organization.

marinade · July 11, 2006

The answer to your first question is: the National Pork Board, when it began to notice that consumers were shunning pork because it was perceived as being too high in fat--and if you follow those USDA dietary guidelines, it was. As it would be too much effort to go mano a mano with Big Nutrition and its allies in the diet industry to educate consumers to what makes pork pork and why the fat is both necessary and perhaps not something to worry about overmuch once it's cooked, they decided to take the route that those Vietnam War generals did and "destroy the pig in order to save it."

Sandy you're right on the hog about the National Pork Board.

I was interviewed last week by Dolores Kostelni who does an AM Radio show called "The Happy Cook", out of Lexington, VA (near the Blue Ridge Mts.) The issue of present day pork breeding came up and I went off on the breeding policies on her show. Turns out she sat on the National Pork Board for eight years and left for the same reason. What's gratifying is that she mentioned that some of the local farmers in her area were turning their breeds around to the old style. They're not connected to any "movement".

There are people who won’t eat pork for religious or for health reasons. And there are people who prefer not to eat any meat at all. Fine, I can understand and respect that. But I’d like to figure a way of keeping the nutritional “fundamentalists” off my plate.

rlibkind · July 12, 2006

Local does not equal fresh or better, Local isnt even defined by the FDA or anyone else for that matter. What's important is properly cultivated, properly stored and transported produce. . . . Sorry about the rant but I am just tired of the BS.
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Your rant is well taken. And the idea of "local" is, shall we say, elastic. (Does West Virginia count as local? It does at Whole Foods.)

The key is whether or not the product is tasty and represents good value. A lot of "local" is, and a lot is not. If you are buying produce, for heaven's sake look at it, smell it, taste it. Regarding Iovine's, some of the produce they get from their contract farmer is excellent, some is not worth buying. When it's good, it's an absolute bargain and almost always less expensive than conventional supermarket produce. Make a judgement based on the quality, not the reputed provenance.

I don't buy a lot of produce at Fair Food, for example, because most of the time I don't think it represents good value, though there are always exceptions. But I regularly buy the Country Time pork there, and the angus chopped beef. I'll pay the small premiums because they are superior products. I'll also pay premium prices for some of Earl Livengood's and Benuel Kaufman's offerings; again, that's based on the quality of the individual items vs. what's available elsewhere.

You're absolutely right about transport and storage handling. But all things being equal, local in-season produce beats non-local. I'll take Benuel Kaufman's blackberries over Guatemalan anytime.

urbanfabric · July 12, 2006

I hate to be the one to rain on the parade but there are so many angles of hypocricy in the buy fresh buy local movement. First off while they proclaim the fact that the products they bring to market are so much better than "commercial mass market agriculture", they also gouge the marketplace and consumers by artificially making the products more expensive by attaching a value index to it because it is supposedly "better".
Local does not equal fresh or better, Local isnt even defined by the FDA or anyone else for that matter. What's important is properly cultivated, properly stored and transported produce.
Blue Moon Acres, perhaps the best grower of salad greens is in bucks county PA.
The products are defined by name on the menus of Per Se/French Laundry......"Blue Moon Acres Mezza Arugula". It's fantastic stuff but I cannot imagine what stretch of the imagination it takes to consider something grown in PA to be fresh-local in California or New York.
Sorry about the rant but I am just tired of the BS.
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I agree that the "buy local" movement is often muddled with a "buy organic" movement or a "buy from small farmers" movement or a "buy expensive/better" movement... Okay, now I'm just making stuff up. (And, now that Walmart has jumped on the "organic" truck, it's all making it even more confusing.)

One reason that I like to buy local because it looks at a bigger picture. I'm paying for the product (and whatever profit is built in) and minimal shipping costs. I'm not paying for jet fuel to bring my baby organic micro whatever greens from California or diesel fuel to bring some similarly coddled product from North Dakota, and therefore, in theory, will not have to pay the future cost of this country using too much fuel today.

What does this have to do with food? I don't know, mabye it doesn't. But I'm an urban planner, not a chef.

MarketStEl · July 12, 2006

One reason that I like to buy local because it looks at a bigger picture. I'm paying for the product (and whatever profit is built in) and minimal shipping costs. I'm not paying for jet fuel to bring my baby organic micro whatever greens from California or diesel fuel to bring some similarly coddled product from North Dakota, and therefore, in theory, will not have to pay the future cost of this country using too much fuel today.
What does this have to do with food? I don't know, mabye it doesn't. But I'm an urban planner, not a chef.
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Oh, there's no doubt that the "buy local movement" is part of something bigger--and in that "something bigger" is a sort of revulsion towards industrialism and its byproducts that has been with us ever since the advent of the steam engine and the spinning jenny. Words like "Luddite" and "sabotage" come to us from this reaction to industrialization, and the various efforts to promote small local producers, organic farming, and "slow food" are all the spiritual, if not tactical, heirs to Ned Ludd's counterindustrialization drive.

Of course, that same industrialization produced the modern city as we now know it. If you consider yourself a New Urbanist, you too are participating in a revulsion against a different form of industrialization, namely, the reshaping of the American city in the image of the automobile.

Farmer's markets at one level attempt to re-establish the connection between the city dweller and the people who produce the food that some city-dwellers had come to think just magically appears on supermarket shelves. To the extent that all these various movements get us to pause and think, if only for a moment, about just what it is we've been doing as individuals and a society to the places we live and the food we eat, then they are doing us all a big favor.

But I think it's highly unlikely that we will ever go back completely to that simpler, more honest (ha!) time that these various movements seek to recover. Once something reaches a certain size, it becomes hard to dismantle totally.

Vadouvan · July 12, 2006

One reason that I like to buy local because it looks at a bigger picture. I'm paying for the product (and whatever profit is built in) and minimal shipping costs. I'm not paying for jet fuel to bring my baby organic micro whatever greens from California or diesel fuel to bring some similarly coddled product from North Dakota, and therefore, in theory, will not have to pay the future cost of this country using too much fuel today.
What does this have to do with food? I don't know, mabye it doesn't. But I'm an urban planner, not a chef.

As a disclaimer, before i type my response, please understand this isnt a personal attack. Sometimes folks take statements too seriously on the internet. I dont want it to adopt the tone of one of those idiotic chowhound flame wars.

1. Virtually *all* baby greens are grown in greenhouses which means they are all available locally.

By local I mean Pennsylvania. In fact 3 of the best 4 in the country are in PA with the 4th in Ohio.

2. The argument of reducing transportation costs doesnt quite match the reality of food transportation.

99.99% of all produce that you arent buying directly from where it was grown will pass through a truck, train, boat or airplane at some point no matter if its local, organic or whatever.

I applaud your standing on reducing fossil fuel dependency but besides the fact that it isnt true regarding food, virtually everything else you own was shipped by commercial transport at some point, even your car if you have one probably comes on a boat and truck at some point.

A lot of meaningless buzzwords and phrases are also being used like "sustainable agriculture" and "fair food", really what is unfair food ?

When Mrs Rodriguez and all her other migrant farm worker buddies pick all you potatoes and butternut squashes all winter and then all of a sudden come spring, only "local" produce is good, how is she supposed to feed her goddamn kids ?

Is there any such thing as unsustainable agriculture ?

If anything, the huge agro business companies are completely sustainable and people just dont even have a clue where what the eat come from.

I know this person who only swears by a particular brand of Japanese miso but the company in japan that makes the miso buys the soybeans from ADM who grows it in the Midwest of USA and Brazil.

Edited July 12, 2006 by Vadouvan (log)

urbanfabric · July 12, 2006

Oh, there's no doubt that the "buy local movement" is part of something bigger--and in that "something bigger" is a sort of revulsion towards industrialism and its byproducts that has been with us ever since the advent of the steam engine and the spinning jenny. Words like "Luddite" and "sabotage" come to us from this reaction to industrialization, and the various efforts to promote small local producers, organic farming, and "slow food" are all the spiritual, if not tactical, heirs to Ned Ludd's counterindustrialization drive.
Of course, that same industrialization produced the modern city as we now know it. If you consider yourself a New Urbanist, you too are participating in a revulsion against a different form of industrialization, namely, the reshaping of the American city in the image of the automobile.
Farmer's markets at one level attempt to re-establish the connection between the city dweller and the people who produce the food that some city-dwellers had come to think just magically appears on supermarket shelves. To the extent that all these various movements get us to pause and think, if only for a moment, about just what it is we've been doing as individuals and a society to the places we live and the food we eat, then they are doing us all a big favor.
But I think it's highly unlikely that we will ever go back completely to that simpler, more honest (ha!) time that these various movements seek to recover. Once something reaches a certain size, it becomes hard to dismantle totally.
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I don't think that I view buying local as anti-industrialism... I think that the density (and buying power) of the urban center is critical to the urban-rural relationship. My worry is that we aren't paying the full cost of our purchasing and land use practices and will be burdened with them in the future. I do take some issue with some suburban development because it is often a practice of short-sighted land use and transportation planning.

You don't have to be a "new urbanist" to think that people should lessen their dependency on cars... there are a lot more ideals that come with that label.

If anything maybe the "buy local" campaign is anti-globalization... just because we can get things cheaper from [fill in developing nation here], is that the really the best choice? Things are cheaper at Walmart, at the expense of the companies it's putting out of business and the children of the employees without health insurance. So, what's the point of a community having access to cheaper goods when it may just mean that its residents are pushed further into poverty?

In some ways I think the "buy organic" movement was anti-industrialism... but now some of those organic companies are enormous!

urbanfabric · July 12, 2006

As a disclaimer, before i type my response, please understand this isnt a personal attack. Sometimes folks take statements too seriously on the internet. I dont want it to adopt the tone of one of those idiotic chowhound flame wars.
1. Virtually *all* baby greens are grown in greenhouses which means they are all available locally.
By local I mean Pennsylvania. In fact 3 of the best 4 in the country are in PA with the 4th in Ohio.
2. The argument of reducing transportation costs doesnt quite match the reality of food transportation.
99.99% of all produce that you arent buying directly from where it was grown will pass through a truck, train, boat or airplane at some point no matter if its local, organic or whatever.
I applaud your standing on reducing fossil fuel dependency but besides the fact that it isnt true regarding food, virtually everything else you own was shipped by commercial transport at some point, even your car if you have one probably comes on a boat and truck at some point.
A lot of meaningless buzzwords and phrases are also being used like "sustainable agriculture" and "fair food", really what is unfair food ?
When Mrs Rodriguez and all her other migrant farm worker buddies pick all you potatoes and butternut squashes all winter and then all of a sudden come spring, only "local" produce is good, how is she supposed to feed her goddamn kids ?
Is there any such thing as unsustainable agriculture ?
If anything, the huge agro business companies are completely sustainable and people just dont even have a clue where what the eat come from.
I know this person who only swears by a particular brand of Japanese miso but the company in japan that makes the miso buys the soybeans from ADM who grows it in the Midwest of USA and Brazil.
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Of course it's not a personal attack... it's the internet, you can't even reach me from where you're sitting!

I entirely realize that my efforts aren't very noble at all, because why pick food... right? I could decide that I'm only buying local furniture from local trees and local furniture makers and not from Ikea... but I really don't buy that much furniture. And, you're right about the car, but I don't own one of those.

You're right, people don't have a clue where their food comes from.... or where anything comes from. And, that's what scares me.

I think it's important that we are able to keep farming a viable profession... otherwise, what's to stop them from selling it to someone who thinks that paving it over isn't a big deal. I think that if a "buy local" campaign makes local farmers competitive with large companies, then it is a good thing. Does it make their produce necessarily "better", no. Does it solve the world's problems, no.

Buckethead · July 18, 2006

2. The argument of reducing transportation costs doesnt quite match the reality of food transportation.
99.99% of all produce that you arent buying directly from where it was grown will pass through a truck, train, boat or airplane at some point no matter if its local, organic or whatever.

huh? The point is to buy what you can directly from the producer. Failing that, buy it from as close as you can. Buying something that travels on a truck from 100 miles away is much better than buying something that comes on a plane from 7000 miles away, or on a boat from China.

I applaud your standing on reducing fossil fuel dependency but besides the fact that it isnt true regarding food,

Again, huh? I don't understand what you're trying to say.

virtually everything else you own was shipped by commercial transport at some point, even your car if you have one probably comes on a boat and truck at some point.

I have only owned a few cars in my life, but I eat food every day. The vast majority of gasoline used in this country is used for transportation, and a good chunk of that is used to transport food, since it's the one thing human beings need the most of (by volume) to survive. Anything you can do to cut down on that consumption helps, and buying local (or as local as possible) helps.

Is there any such thing as unsustainable agriculture ?
If anything, the huge agro business companies are completely sustainable and people just dont even have a clue where what the eat come from.
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How do you figure that huge agribusiness is sustainable? It runs on humongous quantities of petroleum, and puts out enough pollution to create a 5,000 square-mile area in the Gulf of Mexico where no life can exist because of fertilizer runoff.

Vadouvan · July 19, 2006

huh? The point is to buy what you can directly from the producer. Failing that, buy it from as close as you can. Buying something that travels on a truck from 100 miles away is much better than buying something that comes on a plane from 7000 miles away, or on a boat from China.

Which is why oregon Morels and truffles are far superior to the ones that come from France and Italy, why use that crap that comes all the way from europe.

From now on, no more crappy Salsify, white asparagus and endive from Belgium, only local..... :biggrin:

I have only owned a few cars in my life, but I eat food every day. The vast majority of gasoline used in this country is used for transportation, and a good chunk of that is used to transport food, since it's the one thing human beings need the most of (by volume) to survive. Anything you can do to cut down on that consumption helps, and buying local (or as local as possible) helps.

Actually most vegetables go by rail which means Diesel Fuel and most meat and fish goes by truck and refrigerated container transport. All this delusional social choices to "save the environment" just dont jive with reality but if it makes people feel better, so be it.

Edited July 19, 2006 by Vadouvan (log)

Buckethead · July 19, 2006

Which is why oregon Morels and truffles are far superior to the ones that come from France and Italy, why use that crap that comes all the way from europe.
From now on, no more crappy Salsify, white asparagus and endive from Belgium, only local.....

Obviously there are quite a few specialty items that are going to come from parts of the country or the world that produce a superior product, like wine or truffles. But there is no reason why apples can't be grown locally instead of shipped in from Argentina, except for the fact that it saves people a few pennies at the checkout. Unfortunately, that's all most people care about. The sad thing is that a lot of people these days have never really tasted a fresh apple that was bred for taste instead of shippability and shelf life.

Actually most vegetables go by rail which means Diesel Fuel and most meat and fish goes by truck and refrigerated container transport. All this delusional social choices to "save the environment" just dont jive with reality but if it makes people feel better, so be it.
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Well, when I buy apples or tomatoes at the Headhouse square farmer's market, they have never seen the inside of an 18-wheeler or a rail car. I can tell by talking to the purveyor exactly how far they have traveled, and how. Unless both he and I are delusional, I guess, or if the market actually exists outside of our reality.

MarketStEl · July 19, 2006

A co-worker in Human Resources (one floor down from my office) lives in South Jersey and has a vegetable garden in her back yard. It's just begun to produce, and just about every day for the past week now, we've had cute little (and nice, misshapen, medium-large) tomatoes, enormous zucchini, mini-cukes and peppers, both jalapeños and those long narrow Italian frying peppers, in a box in the copier room with a sign above it reading "Help Yourself." And trust me, I have.

As these fruits (yes, tomatoes are actually fruit) and veggies have traveled at most 20 miles to get here, they're in excellent shape and they taste great. (The tomatoes could use just a smidge more ripening, but I imagine that this will correct itself as the season progresses.) The tomatoes I get in the off-season from Florida are usually hard as rocks and bland as all get-out. The cukes may be all pretty, coated with wax, but often as not, they develop soft spots after only a day or two in the fridge. The lettuce develops brown spots faster. And so on.

Yes, the ability to ship wonderful produce halfway across the world is a net plus. I'm not so sure that the same applies to the ability to breed produce to survive a cross-country train ride and still look nice but taste like nothing when it reaches its destination. Never mind the fuel savings, which are real but probably an insignificant part of the total cost of the food; it's the taste savings that matter more.

bigboss · July 19, 2006

All issues of marketing, cause or morality aside, there are certain inherent values to buying local produce when it comes to the QUALITY of the fruits and vegetables you buy. First, the time between harvest and purchase is or at least should be shorter. For fruits this means that they can be picked closer to optimal ripeness and phenolic maturity instead of being picked green and artificially ripened. For vegetables this means that they should taste "fresher" from less moisture loss and chemical changes that occur once they are picked. Similarly, the logistics of large-scale farming and transportation of produce demands that the fruits and vegetables be hardy enough to withstand the stresses thereof and appear uniform and unblemished for the customer. Varieties of produce have been selected to accomodate these needs, such as the red delicious apple, the yellow peach, iceberg lettuce, etc., to the exclusion of more flavorful varieties that are less predictable. The smaller-scale local farmer has the option to grow and market "heirloom" or just better varieties of produce, and deliver them to the customer ripe and ready to eat. Let me reiterate that I buy for QUALITY, and that even within the category of "local" there exists a wide variation from amazing to just better than supermarket. Some of the stuff at Iovine's is indeed as good as that from Livengood's or the Fair Food Farmstand. Halteman's produced the best cherries this year and Livengood's had the best strawberries. Peaches from Ben Kaufman's are fantastic, but the Jersey yellow peaches at Iovine's suck. Experience has told me that "local" predisposes a fruit or vegetable to being better than otherwise. However, truly exceptional produce is not exclusively an issue of geography so much as effort on the part of the farmer who takes care of it. I give my money to the ones whose produce demonstrate this.

matthewj · July 20, 2006

I think we should be concerned with traceability rather locality of the fruits vegetables, meats so on, that we buy. It would be nice to share the same weather as the farmer that grows the vegetables but it does not always happen that way. So maybe one should concern themselves with the trasportation, weather and growing status of the product. Do they use chemicals, or natural fertilizers. Some do and some do not. I know a plenty even local farmers that will or will not subscribe to this. So folks research is key and call the farmer and ask, I am sure they would be more than happy to help.

mrbigjas · July 20, 2006

i stick with what tastes good that i can get my hands on in my daily life, and don't worry too much about the price (to a reasonable extent). in a lot of cases that does mean the local stuff. for instance: in my life i've eaten bushels of asian pears from asia, purchased at various prices at various places. and none of them come near the stuff that the folks from north star sells. at this time of year, the pink-flesh peaches from kauffman's taste better than anything else out there that i can get my hands on. and if there are better greens than livengood's sells, i have yet to find them--despite the fact that a lot of livengood's prices are laughably high.

in other cases... well, let's just say that i like having farmers around and all, but come ON. i'm not paying like $3.50 a pound for plum tomatoes at the height of tomato season in summer, even if they were brought to my door and presented on a satin pillow by that insanely cute pile of kittens from cuteoverload.com the other day.

but really i have to admit that, after reading this thread, which rehashes the same arguments that we've all gone over many times, what i'm more interested in is the implications of this statement, and how iovine's would respond:

I also wonder why they sell all this exotic mushrooms which are all wet but not clean.
The only reason mushrooms are wet and not clean is because the absorb water, weigh more and are therefore sold for nearly double the actual weight.

MarketStEl · July 21, 2006

A postscript to something that has had me scratching my head ever since I found out about it, and a mystery solved, sort of:

I was over at the Reading Terminal Market at midday today, and as I was scoping out the produce, I walked past the area by the Fair Food Farmstand, where two demonstration kitchens had been set up for something called the "PA Preferred Best Chef Pennsylvania Competition."

(If you watch "Good Day" on FOX-29, you may have seen Nick Smith ( :wub: ) touting it this morning.)

This is a cook-off pairing chefs from the state's best restaurants in "Iron Chef"-style contests, with the winners advancing to regional titles and ultimately a statewide matchup. The chefs--I got to see David Ansill square off against Mike Petriccio (sp?) of Cafe Mosaic in Upper Gwynedd--get "blind bins" of identical ingredients, all as local as possible, and must use all the ingredients in their bins in preparing their dishes, along with whatever else they feel like using from a common pantry area.

The contest I saw had the chefs working with center cut pork chops and applewood smoked bacon (both from Hatfield), cremini mushrooms (Kennett Square, natch), Stilton cheese (from the UK) and a broad flat pasta whose name I forget (DeCecco).

All the ingredients and the contents of the pantry were furnished by tournament co-sponsor SYSCO Foodservice of Central Pennsylvania.

The announcer explained that SYSCO sources as many local products as possible for the restaurants and institutional food service operations it supplies in central and south-central Pennsylvania.

I asked the SYSCO corporate chef present at the competition what this meant. What it means is that when it comes to raw ingredients--pork, chicken, beef, fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices, and so on--they turn to Pennsylvania suppliers first (e.g., their pork comes from Hatfield or Leidy's).

Given that, I'm willing to cut the company some slack on being "out of place" in a program that is designed to promote local agriculture. The analogy would be not with a local grower or local processor that produces foodstuffs, but with a retailer or wholesaler who promotes local products. I will grant that they could probably be more local than they are--for instance, if they were not part of a national company, they might be able to purchase canned tomato products and condiments from local producers rather than having to rely on the corporate house brands. But it's better than nothing, and from an institutional standpoint, it's probably better than we might expect.

And as all of the major potato chip producers in the state, including Utz, the fourth-biggest-selling brand in the country, are on the PA Preferred list, I can't get too worked up about a local SYSCO affiliate joining in, I guess.

I still draw the line at the H.J. Heinz Co., however. :wink:

mrbigjas · August 13, 2006

Blue Moon Acres, perhaps the best grower of salad greens is in bucks county PA.
The products are defined by name on the menus of Per Se/French Laundry......"Blue Moon Acres Mezza Arugula". It's fantastic stuff but I cannot imagine what stretch of the imagination it takes to consider something grown in PA to be fresh-local in California or New York.

bumping this one up in case any of you are interested in the blue moon acres stuff: their microgreens are available at sue's produce. i don't think they're carrying any regular size salad greens from them, but if you want a fancy garnish of red amaranth, or cilantro shoots, or itsy bitsy arugula leafies, a whole box will run you five bucks--enough to garnish 25 dinners, probably.

Edited August 13, 2006 by mrbigjas (log)

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