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Cultivating community in Ohio: Local Roots crops get sweeter in winter
Three months have passed since my last update on Local Roots Market in Wooster, Ohio. Back then, were on the cusp of opening at last. What's happened in the meantime? A lot. Following the close of the Downtown Farmers
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Words on the street food
A sampler of dispatches from the street-food universe. What this got to do with Ethicureanism? Well, unlike most fast food, good street food is made from fresh, real ingredients by independent sole proprietors. And it fascinates us because it's like the "farming in the middle" conundrum: how can talented
Open season: Local Roots Markets opens in Wooster, Ohio
Nine months doesn't really seem like a very long time: over the span of a lifetime, just a mere hiccup on a long journey. But when you're in the midst of those nine months (ask any expectant mother), you find yourself amazed at how much goes on in that time frame — and how it can seem to pass so slowly,
Small-town grocery stores feed a need bigger than stomachs
In the small Nebraska town I now call home, a small grocery store anchors one end of Main Street. Once a farm-implement dealership, it has nine aisles, a dairy cooler, and a fresh meat counter. It employs nine full-time
Meet your greens, part 3: Taking the stand against the veggilantes
This is the third in a series about the USDA hearings on an industry proposal for a food-safety marketing agreement for leafy green vegetables. My first post describes what marketing agreements are and do; my second
Meet your greens: National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement hearings, Week 1
This is the first in a short series on the National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement hearings held September 22-24 in Monterey, CA. I packed a suit for three days of USDA hearings over an industry-proposed
Mapping Markets and Organic Demand
Today is “Direct Markets” day for the USDA’s new “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative, with the big event being the opening of a farmers market near the White House. In
Michael Pollan denounces Whole Foods boycott
Money quote: "Mackey is wrong on health care, but Whole Foods is often right about food, and their support for the farmers matters more to me than the political views of their founder. I haven’t examined the political views of all the retailers who feed me, but I can imagine having a lot of eating
NPR utters the phrase “big milk”
Consolidation station: NPR's John Burnett shines a spotlight on agribusiness consolidation, the control of the food system by an ever-smaller group of mega-companies. Independent farmers and ranchers are pushing the Obama Administration to take a good, long look at the factors that brought us to where
Twenty-five years of food expenditure trends
One of the interesting data tidbits in the recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is annual American food expenditures. Using data from the USDA and the consumer price index (to correct for inflation), the GAO calculated per
Feds to hold workshops on ‘competition issues’ in agriculture
We're not the only skeptics. The same day that Ethicurean Marc gave his skeptical analysis of a General Accounting Office report finding no harm from the growing (ha-ha) power of a very few agribiz companies, the U.S. Departments of
Concentration in the food industry not a concern, says new GAO report
In recent years, farmers have received an ever-decreasing share of the retail dollar, even during recent spikes in food prices. Some have argued that concentration in the food industry — the increase in the economic
Slow but steady growth: Building the Local Roots market in Ohio
This summer has been a cool one so far here in northeastern Ohio. The sweltering heat and humidity has so far failed to materialize, and while I personally am not complaining about being less uncomfortable, I do sometimes worry about the gardens. The mild days and cool nights are keeping tomatoes from
New USDA report shows direct-to-consumer food sales way up
A flea on the elephant's back: The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service has released a new report on sales from direct-to-consumer food marketing (things like farmers markets and CSAs), using data from the last Census of Agriculture. The good news: sales were up 104.7% from 1997 to 2007, compared with
You want demand? We got demand!
So much for that elitism crap: According to a new report released by the USDA, the demand for organically produced food in the U.S. continues to outpace supply. Organic food sales have increased more than five-fold since the late 1990s, while organic production has slightly more than doubled in that
