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Quandary, young masters: do you really know where your food comes from? As I found myself at the most unholy of holies: the St. Jacob's Farmer's Market in quest of beeswax because I apparently make cosmetics now (day creams are a lot like dishes), I passed a stall full of lovely farm folk braying like mules and shellin' out the deals, specifically a quart of raspberries for a price my poor ass would consider a deal. I thought: wow, Ontario grown raspberries in September on the cheap, hellz yeah!
I was excited, elated, pushin' louts out of the way, eying every quart to see which had the biggest, most voluptuous, least moldy berries in the room. Unfortunately for me, I looked up only to find the beams surrounding the structural integrity of the stall stocked with boxes sans produce. That is, waxy empty produce crates that once held things like strawberries, raspberries, grapes (wait, what?) all from places other than Ontario. At least, that's what them there boxes dun told me. Damn. I mean, I still bought the berries, because as I've mentioned I'm not a political eater, I'd eat a dolphin if I got the chance. In fact, I someday plan on eating a dolphin. I don't anthropomorphize animals. I eat them.
So I wondered, where did these berries come from? In my old cynic age, I didn't even bother to ask, because even if they had said Ontario, I would still have been skeptical, because the last thing a woman in a bonnet needs to worry about is if someone's gonna be angry about being able to buy something cheap and home grown. I don't think Mennonites are too political; they're back to the landers, yes, but their priority is survival, not anti-captilast, consumer fruit ethics ensuring the environment is saved and migrant workers are getting paid for their good work. They're no comfy chairs to sit and sip espresso with around. The poor people at the market are probably buyers and sellers, taking produce from suppliers and selling them to you, the nostalgic shopper who thinks the market somehow connects you to a more authentic genuine form of reality, a sentimentality of the Bourgeoisie, who even 200 years ago were trying to find their authentic selves, thanks Henry David Thoreau. And you know what, merchants gladly play the game so they can get hacks to continually buy their 'better' stuff. Now, not all parts of the market are like this, but I'm willing to argue that when it comes to produce, there certainly is a huge discrepancy there. You can usually find out what is 'locally' grown by the price, which is even more proof that the suppliers don't care about the environment, but the size of their wallets. The food doesn't come from afar, and a lot isn't organic. In fact, it'd technically be cheaper to buy closer to home. The paradox, however, is that it's not. In fact, when you buy you are supporting the luxury of being able to say you support a cause that elevates you to some social level above those who shop at the grocery store because food's less expensive. And the merchants know they can do that to you, because you enter into some universal, unquestioned agreement. Maybe you can barter, but maybe not. Are you really supporting the farmers? Truth-be-told, they'd probably grow things and sell them elsewhere; they wouldn't go poor, and they wouldn't starve and die. So let's all be a little leery, shall we? Or not, I don't care. Everyone who's anyone knows how much I dislike the market specifically because of all the social-cultural-class-whatever pandemics it reinforces. I make a note of complaining to it at least once a year. There is no point in going unless you want something on the cheap (rare), or just tasty, or unfindable elsewhere (terrible word choice); other than that, it's all a bunch of, wait for it, beeswax.
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2 comments:
While I certainly agree with parts of your view of the 'local eating pandemic' (your words), I'll take exception to the economics you've distributed here. The idea that eating locally should mean 'eating cheaper' is simply wrong. Our expenditure dedicated towards food in Canadian households is among the lowest in the developed world. We've simply become accustomed to spending a small amount of income on the bare necessities. Big screen TVs and unlimited texting plans, oh yeah, we'll shell out big time for those. Over the past 50 years the percentage of our household income spent on food has fallen from nearly 20% to less then 10%. This is a direct result of, exactly what you hit upon in this post, we aren't paying the 'REAL' (read environmental) cost of transportation or production. The huge amount of carbon emissions, not to mention soil degradation, chemical runoff and migrant salaries, don't factor into our eating habits. Large scale farming is the real pandemic. So while eating locally should have many benefits, fresh food, reduced pesticide use, lowered water waste, reduction in carbon emissions and perhaps most importantly a connection with your local small farmer, a lower price tag simply isn't one of them. Local farmers are paying higher wages to workers, buying fertilizer in lower bulk quantities, not receiving the same tax breaks or subsidies that american corporate farmers receive and simply don't produce that size of crop that their large scale competitors do. This adds up, and the costs are passed on to us, the 'aware' consumer. We all should get used to setting aside a larger portion of our incomes for the fuel that drives us, and really what makes life more worthwhile then food. While this obviously has huge impacts for the those of us living on the fringe of poverty, that debate is a question of social society and not locally grown produce economics. And also, Ontario raspberry seasons been over for a few weeks now, buy some squash, make some soup, we live in Canada.
This is . . . the smartest comment this blog has ever received. You trolling bastard. I give you the slightest of nods.
PS., when do you wanna go grab that Ethiopian coffee?
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