Comments on: Industrial Disease

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:31:38 +0000

Kretschmann’s is great, but they aren’t the only CSA players in Pittsburgh. Harvest Valley Farms is another option. We’ve used both and have been happy either way. Using Harvest Valley at the moment. URL is what you might expect.

By: zp

zp — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:29:05 +0000

I really liked the e.coli note; no outrage, no outrageous promises. I was a little more surprised by the recent, um, “labor” note . . .

By: Christina

Christina — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:01:05 +0000

I get the Kretschmann’s farm share too. I was amused by their newsletter that said, in effect, that there’s no way to guarantee that food is pathogen-free, but that if their produce did make us sick or kill us, it would be much easier to identify the culprit.

So _very_ reassuring, but I give them full points for treating their customers like adults.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:44:17 +0000

My local farmer’s coop is about 1/2 to 1/3 the price of all the stores in the area. Ditto with everyone elso on no year-round spinach of course. The monetary problem with the mega-distribution model is the price of gas (which will hopefully double in the next few years). The food out of my garden is even cheaper! And the tomato sauce made from those tomatoes is excellent.

By: psu

psu — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 12:51:25 +0000

This piece n the NYT makes some good points about this subject

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/magazine/15wwln_lede.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

By: green la girl

green la girl — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 06:20:43 +0000

I’m glad I live in Santa Monica — Our farmer’s market spinach’s verified ecoli free

By: psu_13

psu_13 — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 22:20:54 +0000

I think it’s true that on a small scale local foods may not be more costly in terms of pure money (as opposed to the time it takes to find them).

But I don’t see how you can avoid the economies of scale argument when you push this out nation wide. How do you get local organic produce to (say) rural northern PA in a cost effective way?

I obviously have no gripe with local food, and have been doing my bit for it for a long time. My stronger gripe is with people who apply regular business practices to “organics” with the idea of selling people on something that is impossible: large scale production of local organic food.

By: zp

zp — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 20:13:49 +0000

ps. And as for time and gas, as Laura mentioned, farm box delivery is a real boon!!!

By: zp

zp — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 20:11:28 +0000

Lindy (blog named Toast) and I have posted often on the local (to Pittsburgh) organic CSA farm box, aka Kretschmann’s. She seems to have gotten it for a few years; this is our first year, though. Anyway, pound for pound I think it’s cheaper than Giant Eagle. Or WF.

The limitations to it are real – as you say, there simply is no local year round spinach. And sometimes the food doesn’t look so pretty. And the Kretschmann’s actually felt they needed to explain why to some of their customers this year (they have a newsletter) . . . The newsletter also had some very measured, very thoughtful things to say about e.coli and distribution practices . . .

I just started shopping more regularly at the WF here (I avoided it for a few years but . . .) and I was surprised. Even compared to other WFs I shopped at a few years ago in other towns, the Pittsburgh store carries, if possible, even less local produce than I anticipated.

They are supporting the library though!

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 14:47:27 +0000

Nat and I were looking to make a similar cannelloni last week, but couldn’t find the dratted noodles and had to settle for stuffed shells instead. Spinach, though, we just bought frozen, and made the cannelloni filling we would’ve made in any case.

Really, what’s called for is a return to preservation — oh, no, wait.

Honestly, I don’t think that it is more expensive to buy locally produced items. It’s more limited, yes, but I can buy an absolutely absurd quantity of vegetables for $10 at my local farmer’s market.

The idea that organic or local or whathaveyou food costs more in money is, I think, misleading. It does tend to cost more in time (and possibly gas money); it’s not all in one convenient megamart, and it’s not all pre-cleaned and prepped for you, and you have to be willing to learn to do that kind of thing.

But I think that people repeating the idea of local food costing more, etc. etc. drives away people who’d otherwise be willing to give it a shot. It’s like that ridiculous idea that we only use 10% of our brains; once the notion is planted, you can’t get rid of it, and it’s a damaging notion.