Slow Food Nation

Thoughts as I am finishing Carlo Petrini's Slow Food Nation:


Regarding CSA's
"City-dwellers want fresh, seasonal products at a good (fair) price and want to be able to know the person who grows them; the farmers need to have a guarentee of a fair price, not to be at the mercy of fluctations in the market and want the fruits of their production to be appreciated with "gastronomic" sensibility and not confused, diluted, or eliminated by the distribution and market systems. Price is agreed, city dwellers pay in advance for the whole year's produce and in exchange the farmers agree to deliver fruit, vegetables, meats, and cheese to the homes every week. It is the ideal solution, it is "co-production". The problem is, relocation of production needs to occur where there is the consumption. Food is a network of co-production, where knowledge must be shared and methods are sustainable" Carlo Petrini, SFN

This was discussing Community Supported Agriculture's (CSA's) as a solution to increasing sustainability, thus increasing "clean" food, and sharing food that is "good" ( good to the palate and good to the mind") to consumers.
I agree with so much of this book, yet feel like ... "So what now?" ... what else can we do since I tried joining a CSA and all of them had waiting lists? So I go to a Farmer's Market that is about a mile from where I live- What do I do when I buy fruit from the Farmer's Market and bring it home to find it is rotten ? What do I do at the Farmer's Market when the only fruit available right now is apples because that is what is in season? Sure, consumers should eat more seasonably, but USDA and Dietary Guidelines suggest 3-5 servings of fruits daily, they suggest variety- I am supposed to eat 3 apples a day until the next seasonal fruit is available?


Anyone else have thoughts?

If this subject interests you, aside from buying Slow Food Nation, there is a new television stationg "Planet Green" and Bill Nye (the science guy) has a new series called "Stuff Happens" - the premier episode was about breakfast-

It was eye-opening and very easy to understand ( it was in "lay-terms" ) for the U.S population to become aware of how bad our food products can be for ourself and the environment and what small changes we can make to help. http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/stuff-happens/show-info-stuff-happen.html

Also, Oprah had a show ( It popped on while I read this book last week!) about the importance of not stressing animals we use to produce food- cage-free, cage regulation sizes. Lisa Ling had gone out to exlore the matter.. http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081008_tows_animals