local fair trade

Food and morals are even apparent when people are struggling to survive. As the percentage of income spent on survival reduces, morals food become more desirable. Hence the success of fair trade and local food. Fair trade has obvious morals that we the rich dont want to exploit the poor farmer. I see local food the same way, we farmers market supports are willing to pay the farmer a premium for a variety of different reasons. One being we dont agree with the power that giant retailers have over suppliers. These specifications often mean whether events causing minor superficial damage renders an entire crop worthless and of course causes a lot of waste. Vegetables and fruit must comform to certian sizes and shapes. Natural varity is bred out and we end up with perfect looking uniform produce of questionable quality. The same fair deal moral converted into premium by fair trade can be applied to local food. Small relatively powerless producers can sell at a premium because there food provides a better deal to the farmer. Local food has succeeded in making the small family farm more viable. The conflict between local and fair food arises because local food aims at reducing the distance food travels. International food supplies immediately are seen as products to avoid but the situation is complicated when you start to look at effiecieny, common sense and unwillingness to give up on modern conviences. Because i live in a cold climate should i never eat tropical fruit? oh its all too hard, i am confused and willl just give up. The problem of trying to create tranparency in the complexity of international trade. Actually i am lost, what was i trying to say, eat morally.
I think the pricing of local moral food is still trying to find a balance, difficult as the elasticities of demand vary widely between different consumers and products. I will pay double for good meat but not mushrooms, why dunno? dont like to feel ripped off and shitake market mushrooms arent worth twice the supermarket ones to me but the bacon is probably because of the awareness of have of what it takes and causes to grow a pig so cheaply.

local washing

Wholefoods in union square is right next to the green market, many business have moved into the area since the success of this pioneering successful farmers market transforming a once undesirable area into a bustling attraction. Wholefoods buy local campaign goes against the fundamental reasons for local food and turns local food into a value added product for the same food system organic food set out to chance. Why would anyone buy a product from wholefoods when the same product of similar price and quality is available from the green market. Convenience is the only argument but that is a weak one, seeing as thought the two retailers are right next to each other. The real convenience of the supermarket is the extensive range that consumers desire, but I wonder whether we really desire this range or have just been tricked by marketing. Are people now realizing the deception of are we reverting back to the olden days. Saving time was the prominent factor in changing the way we shop and eat, now people are beginning to demand less convenience and more morally acceptable food. Eggs, meat and the single use plastic bags have all created some change in the food system, the breach of trust from delivering the ever cheaper prices to the consumer has breed the consumer who seeks transparent food, they want to know where and how it was grown. The choice is creating even more range, now you can buy local, organic or conventional or some mix of the terms. The desire for change does not work in a commercial model so step up the farmers markets and community supported agriculture. Until the better supermarkets like wholefoods actually start informing us rather than confusing us we can not believe in USDA certification or that it is the green way to shop.

this is a local store for locals

Local food has swept through the western worlds food systems creating a movement away from large scale production and sale. Myself and many others are willing to pay a premium and inconvenience of shopping at farmers markets. Why? It is far more pleasant to shop outdoors even in the middle of winter often directly with the producer. The middlemen are shut out and food integrity is highlighted with vendors often becoming educators. Dialogue and interactions is encouraged, people are proud of what they sell and buy. Many varieties unsuited to large scale production are rediscovered, the people can feel more in control of their food supply. Local meat producers slam the regulating authorities, mocking their definitions of free range and grass fed. The whole experience turns shopping from a chore to an educating adventure, learning more about seasonal eating, interesting interactions, free tastings, a cup of hot cider and a sense of responsible consumerism.

There is definitely a perceived sense of environmentalism through the logic of reducing food mile = less carbon footprint but that is debatable due to economies of scale achieved by mass monoculture, and transportation systems. The reality is a tiny fraction of emission related to production are from transportation and one could make a far greater GHG difference by eating less red meat. The beauty of local small scale meat produces is they are more expensive so discourage demand........

Saving on you food bill

We waste huge amounts of food.

“In the United States, for instance, as much as 30 percent of food, worth some US$48.3 billion, is thrown away.”
Most of this waste is easily and entirely avoidable,
“£9bn of avoidable food waste was disposed of in England and Wales each year. It is mostly food that could have been consumed if it had been better stored or managed, or had not been left uneaten on a plate.”

The 12-step program for reforming the wastaholic (no finding god here)

1 - Admit there is a problem with reckless wasting
“On average, households waste 14 percent of their food purchases. Fifteen percent of that includes products still within their expiration date but never opened. Jones estimates an average family of four currently tosses out $590 per year, just in meat, fruits, vegetables and grain products.”

2- Increase your consciousness of the food waste you produce. For me this involved saving my food scraps for compost. Removing the out of sight out and mind mentality brought about by conventional disposal methods, down the sink or out in the trash.

3 – Commit to the extra effort and discipline required.

4 – Organization of your fridge. A good chef keeps an obsessively organized fridge and is pedantic about rotating stock, because one of their main responsibilities is to minimize waste.

5 – Keep a strong awareness of your inventory, this enables you to avoid duplicate purchases and use produce before it spoils.

6 – Plan menus around the ingredients that need using, yesterdays leftovers become the basis of today’s meal along with the carrots that are starting to go limp. The internet is a great resource for ideas of what to do with the sad looking celery.

7 - Control portions, cooking and serving smaller portions reduces the potentials for leftovers and waste. We generally over eat and won’t become malnourished if we don’t cook quite enough once in a while.

8- Buy less more frequently. You will be eating fresher food and shopping more precisely when you purchase for only a few meals at a time.

9 – Get inventive. Some of my most well received meals was created from leftover this and that. See bottom of the fridge salad…….

10 – Use your freezer wisely. Certain meals and foods freeze well. Most ripe fruit, certain vegetable for certain uses, a juicer is great too.

11- Habit, create your own shopping and cooking techniques that make it is easy to recycle, reduce and reuse food waste.

12 –Fun, enjoy the time you spend saving yourself money and helping reduce the worlds wasteful ways

If we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off the road.

Bottom of the fridge salad

This was a fusion of left over flavours, Middle Eastern met Mexican and Asian. As usual the plan changed many times, they were going out for dinner then not, so I grabbed things and ended up with.
Marinated eggplant – roast cubes with a little oil, s and p, toast spices cumin, coriander, fennel, anise, clove, etc and grind. Coat cooked eggplant and cover with plenty of oil, some lemon juice, garlic ginger etc anything you like…….
Pico de gallo – a simple salsa of chopped tomatoes, jalapenos, onion, lime, cilantro…..
Chicken –chicken poached in sake and mirin with lemongrass
Rice -

A little chopping and combining, some reheating and one problem they wanted me to make more.

The fruits of the streets of Manhattan

A little explanation, most people notice a terrible waste and do nothing about it. It didnt sit right with me, I couldnt just let it go, it wasnt right. So many people are struggling and would seriously benefit from this waste. Half a dozen bags of frozen food took my eye on broadway, mainly because of the gaint bag contianing hundreds of haagen daz icecreams. After a double take, I decided to enter the store to ask why they had throw out so much product. Before I picked someone to ask, I noticed the broken freezer. There it was empty with a paper note stating dont open broken door. Back outside and the hardest part opening rubbish bags on a busy street. All still frozen even most of the icecream and all i have is a mini fridge with ice box. So I carried a few meals home and put one in the microwave. I hate ready meal microwave food, it doesnt deserve the title food a better description would be highly processed edible substance. As my substance heated I sent out a alert to the free section of craigslist and to the freegan mailing list. By this time my substance was themonuclear, it burnt my mouth reducing my ability to taste any hint of flavor it did contian. I gathered my tools, string, sisscors, stapler, camera and bag and set out to reduce the cities waste. Once you have opened a trash bag and eaten from it, any aprehension is gone. Dessert time, mmm almond haagen daz made all the better when other began to turn up and pilage the bounty of broadway and broome st. My craigslist ad had helped a struggling artist who biked over from brooklyn and was stoked on the score. Even some vegans took meals to give to friends and as soon as others are rummaging through trash it is much easier for more to join. I left with a full bag to try and make more take notice of the failures of the market. My grand plan - hang food from trees. Was asked by one passer by what i was up to, as i explained she and I both realised i was just another crazy person and she hurried away. I watched much interest in my instalations but didnt see anyone follw the intructions, simply eat me, dont waste me, still frozen and safe @9pm 2/26. On a few i tried to explain the story of the store freezer breaking. I am left thinking about the trust required to eat from my street fruit tree and decide I would feel safer eating from the trash bags rather than a out of place looking product placed or hanging from a tree. Maybe I need to look at setting up a better system for getting the word out in these situations. Soup kitchens, homeless shelters etc could find people happy to eat this food but my goal is to reduce waste and inspire thought... hmm time to think some more

sprouted

I have babies in my window sill. The snow peas, well i think they are actually sugar snaps have just emerged. Seems a bit ridiculous as there is half a foot of snow outside the window. My urban gardening has begun, the food scraps I took to be turned into compost are now feeding my peas.
The urban cycle