Design

Part of the fun of visiting local farmer's markets is the sense of community. Buying a bunch of turnips or a loaf of bread from a wood-fired oven or home-grown native plants means a direct connection from producer to consumer. It's a pleasant feeling. I grow quite a few of our own vegetables, to be sure, but to buy eggs from the farmer who talks about her hens that have been foraging on clover is a lovely thing. Some folks think it's a bit rarified (even elitist) to buy relatively well-priced veggies and other products, when many people don't have access to fresh vegetables of any sort in 'urban deserts.' Well, that's true. But, given the opportunity, isn't it a good thing to support local small farmers and producers of bread, cheese, and other goods? It's an exceptional experience to be able to buy farm-raised trout from the local producer or SC scallops directly from someone who has connections from the coast near Georgetown, SC or black drum fro...

Our food system in the U.S. is complex. It's burdened with subsidies for production of foods that are perfectly good in their 'whole' state (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc.) but are increasingly difficult to justify in their refined and remixed versions, in the plethora of processed foods available in the average American supermarket. Lots of folks have been trying to redirect this; the last Farm Bill authorization saw a big push to refocus encouragement of industrial agricultural production to at least some support to more locally-focused agriculture. I went to a meeting of a local chapter of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association this afternoon. It was impressive because of the number of folks who showed up (at least 75 of them): local growers, local eaters, people interested in fresh food, people interested in delicious food, people interested in encouraging kids to eat nutritious food instead of junk, and folks interested in good, fresh food, period. We met in a loca...