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Unclear on the Concept
What am I missing here (emphases mine)?
An Online Farmers Market
By Claire Cain Miller
The local food movement has been all about buying seasonal food from nearby farmers. Now, thanks to the Web, it is expanding to include far-away farmers too.
A new start-up, Foodzie, is an online farmers market where small, artisan food producers and growers can sell their products. Foodies in Florida, say, can order raw, handcrafted pepperjack cheese from Traver, Calif., or organic, fair-trade coffee truffles from Boulder, Colo.
“You get a similar experience to a farmers market, when you get the opportunity to meet farmers, but it is much more scalable and you get a better selection,” said Rob LaFave, a Foodzie co-founder. “Ninety-seven percent of the country does not have this kind of access to artisan foodmakers.”
An Online Farmers Market
By Claire Cain Miller
The local food movement has been all about buying seasonal food from nearby farmers. Now, thanks to the Web, it is expanding to include far-away farmers too.
A new start-up, Foodzie, is an online farmers market where small, artisan food producers and growers can sell their products. Foodies in Florida, say, can order raw, handcrafted pepperjack cheese from Traver, Calif., or organic, fair-trade coffee truffles from Boulder, Colo.
“You get a similar experience to a farmers market, when you get the opportunity to meet farmers, but it is much more scalable and you get a better selection,” said Rob LaFave, a Foodzie co-founder. “Ninety-seven percent of the country does not have this kind of access to artisan foodmakers.”
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Due to the procedures of the large business concerns, many times these small producers are struggling to sell even the small amount that they make. And many times the quality is actually higher. This sort of movement recognises that, along with the idea of a "fair wage". So of course some of the prices will be higher, too, even when "local" means right nearby and thus without much of the transportation overhead.
While I'm not a fanatic, I do have some sympathies in that direction. When I was living in CA, for example, I found that thousands (if not millions) of tons of food was destroyed each year. Because it was bad? No. Because no-one wanted to buy it? Not exactly. The large food-buying concerns would reject a truck of peaches (for example) because they were a little too small, or they had surface blemishes. The growers were then *forbidden* by the terms of their contracts with Safeway, Lucky, Albertsons, or the like, to do _anything_ with them. They weren't permitted to sell them at a streetcorner farmers' market. They weren't permitted to donate them to food pantries. They were in danger of losing the buyers for the rest of their merchandise if anyone is caught eating those peaches.
And, as the paragraph says, it provides wider access to certain foods, which is what defeats the "local" aspect in the first place.
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Economic law determines that when supply exceeds demand, prices plunge. To prevent this from happening, Israel's farmers, like farmers everywhere, either destroy their surplus produce or sell it to neighboring countries for pennies. In a cruel irony, reports show that Israel's poorest families are those least likely to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, instead subsisting on unhealthful white flour- and sugar-based diets.
For years, Yad Eliezer begged Israel?s agricultural cooperatives to donate their excess produce to needy families who could not afford to buy it. The answer was always the same: "How can we be certain that this produce will not end up on the open market and destabilize our prices? How can we be sure it will be properly delivered to the poor, and not end up rotting and spoiled?" Finally, with great persistence, Yad Eliezer was given the opportunity to prove it could deliver on all the promises. And so began a unique partnership that has grown to become cherished by Yad Eliezer and the farmers of Israel. Today, Yad Eliezer's fleet of refrigerated trucks traverses the roads day and night, picking up and delivering wholesome and nutritious produce. Every year, nearly $1 million worth of produce ― melons, tomatoes, avocados, peppers, oranges, potatoes, onions and more ― are collected by Yad Eliezer and distributed directly to the poor. We are particularly proud of this program, because it costs so little and is a testament to the innate goodness of so many generous people throughout the country. (http://www.yadeliezer.org/site/whatwedo/Surplus_Produce/index.php)
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For a while this worked well, until someone thought that it would be much more efficient and less time-consuming if they just shot the potatoes instead. (C)
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