The hard sell..... NOT!

Just a comment about my work for the past 3 or 4 seasons of selling produce to people of the local communities:  I am not a salesman.  This is not my job.

I look at it this way, I help the farmers get good whole food to the community.  I want the farmers to have a good life, a decent income, and help they can rely on.  I think of farmers, and I am not referring to Industrial agriculture, but mixed use small farms who serve locally, as noble people.  In farming, there aren't allot of guarantees, so I try to be one part of their occupations that is dependable.  After all, they provide sustenance for the community.

I help the people of the community get good whole food.  I try to help people increase the quality of their lives by starting with the most essential part of it.  I appreciate people who want to eat good, tasty, healthy food enough to think about it and come to a local farmer's market.  I enjoy sharing whatever information I have, or just a humane exchange in the morning.

I am here to help, the farmers, the community.  This is what I can do for my community.  This is another way to serve myself while serving others.  I prefer shopping at a farmers market to a big corporate owned grocery store.  So this helps to make my world more like the world I want to live in.  Selfish, yes, you bet, but that doesn't exclude it from benefiting others too.

Local food
   Immediate, local, Responsibility
   Support of local people and the local economy (independence, security)
   Fresh, seasonal, culturally significant and unique
   energy responsible/reasonable
    shopping an enjoyable community experience

Corporate/industrial food
     Absentee owners, Corporate greed
     LOTS of packaging
     energy irresponsible/insane
     out of season, culturally homogenized, designed for shipping
     shopping a chore
   
I think it is an easy choice but we each make our own decisions.  Every penny spent in a big grocery goes to some corporation that has a primary mandate to make money.  Know the name of the person who grows your food and your probably doing pretty good.

Bon Appetite!