It’s not easy eating Ethicurean. Two new outdoor food markets are opening in New York — competitors to Greenmarkets, the venerable farmers markets where all the top chefs shop. The brainchildren of Nina Planck, the soon-to-be author and self-described “leading American expert on farmers’ markets and local food,” the markets will include vendors selling homemade foodstuffs from ingredients grown anywhere on the East Coast. Including, the New York Times reports dubiously, from Costco avocados if they want.
The article does a good job of explaining the chaos surrounding the Alternative Agriculture movement, or Alt-Ag for short. You can’t blame consumers for being confused:
“For a long time it seemed very simple,” said Rena Mikulski, a school administrator in Brooklyn, who was shopping for greens at the Union Square Greenmarket last Wednesday. “Organic was good. Farmers’ markets were good. Everything else was not good. Now I don’t know how to choose anything. Is it local? Is it sustainable? Is it organic? Which is better? I don’t know.”
I think the operative word here is “better.” Forget “best.” Here are the guidelines I’ve adopted to simplify the choice a bit:
- If not locally produced, then organic (ideally both)
- If not organic, then family farm
- If not family farm, then local business
- If not a local business, then terroir — foods famous for the region they are grown in.
I found this list first on the website of the Locavores, the creators of this month’s Eat Local Challenge, which explains the choices in more detail. Life Begins at 30, a great Bay Area food blog, elaborates on the thinking in a more personal way and adds the coda, “If all else fails, at least don’t eat at McDonald’s.”
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