On Demand
Making green in green markets?
Friday, July 18, 2008
Benjamin Shute, Co-Owner of Hearty Roots, a farm in upstate New York, talks about whether local farmers are rolling in the dough.
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Comments
I'm sure they're rolling in the dough, the prices have skyrocketed over the past few years and i've resorted to go back to the corner market who may not be organic but sure is a lot cheaper AND they pay exorbitantly high rents in this city. I don't understand how these farmers can rationalize some of the prices they charge without the high rents or overhead that the corner stores have!! They've spiritualize "organic" as the food of the gods and charge a fortune. My favorite was the $50/lb portobello mushrooms I saw this week. Who are they kidding?
when u but local u know where ur tomatoes came from.
just say no to china's poison laced product...
I love the greenmarket in Jackson Heights but there were so few vendors there.
A CSA in Westfield, NJ recently has come under fire for illegal food distribution. Does anyone know how to combat this problem?
ha! like i said in my last post - the national priorities project points out that the war in iraq costs the usa $341 million a day.
so if we want to support organic farmers we could switch 1 day of war effort and put $341 million dollars into a program for organic farming.
so the question is simple: do you or do you not support the *idea* - whether feasible or not - of supporting organic farming to the tune of $341 million dollars, or do you support 1 more day of war effort?
and if not, why not?
say, this is fun, isn't it?
Local farm food is great. You just cant beat the taste and freshness. But the idea that local farms are going to take over the food market is just an unrealistic fantasy. There was a time when local farms did feed America. But most of those farms have been plowed over to make room for housing and retail space. To try to buy back this land is not even remotely possible due to the extremely high price of land. Plus there’s the “not in my backyard” crowd that would never let these potential new farms ever come to life.
What about the horses who no longer have the hay? Are they getting skinny?
whistle while you work
hitler is a twerp
he's as barmy as his army
whistle while you work.
and i am not the paul on the 'phone right now.
Any possibilities of pick up spots being brought to Rockland County or Westchester County any time in the future?
i retract that last verse.
i got carried away - i made a mistake. but as long as i can learn from my mistakes, i think i will be okay.
just for the record: i vote for the *idea* of switching $341 million dollars to support organic farming and thus reducing the war effort by one day.
and, frankly, i would love it to happen.
BTJM - but that's just me.
I grew up within a CSA community upstate near Albany, and it was a great experience, especially as a child. Every week we drove to the drop off site and with other volunteers sorted the produce and prepared it for all the members to pick up their shares. We had yearly potlucks at the farm and a chance to help on the farm several days a year. A great way to appreciate where your food comes from.
Who What Where and When can we find out about Caren's Yonkers CSA?
I thought this might be someone from a Germantown CSA, just up the road from Hearty Roots. I checked the website to find he's in Tivoli. I'll be headed up that way to in a couple of hours to tend my own garden, which gives one a whole new respect for farmers. Hats off to Benjamin and all the farmers who work so hard to provide wonderful crops for us all.
My first experience in community supported agriculture was in 1990 when I lived in Oswego, NY. That year the farmer produced a bumper broccoli crop. One week my share included a CRATE of broccoli.
Since returning to NY in 2002, we've belonged to a CSA in Brooklyn. It helps us to eat healthy at a fair price, supports a farmer, and most importantly keeps us in touch with the rural life we loved.
Paul,
I agree that more money should be spent on organic farming. But it should be spent on making it more efficient to compete with commercial farming. Profit margins for commercial farms are incredibly thin. Like it or not, the reality is that most of your food comes from commercial farming. So if you make organic farming as efficient as existing commercial farming practices, there’s no argument. But if its organic or commercial, a 1000 acre farm is still a HAZMAT situation to the local eco system.
I guess it's possible to be cynical about anything. I think the farmers markets are great. You're supporting local businesses. You're eating food that much fresher and therefore more nutritious and much tastier than anything you can purchase in a supermarket. Eat less but eat better.
Jean Michel and others, find a local CSA at
www.justfood.org
or
www.localharvest.org
$300, $250? per week? did i hear that right? couldn't have done because if so - say $500 a week.
you know, my calculator won't let me type in 341,000,000. weird. it's a desk one from xerox, so it's pretty standard.
hang on while i do the tricky math.
how about doing a show about the fact there are no csa's in the lower east side that accept food stamps. there are still low income people here. also few of the green market vendors accept food stamps.
Jon p
move to a city, you'd help the world by doing so. sell you 1 1/2 acre to a farm
okay:
$500 per week = $26,000 per year per person.
so 10 people per year = $260,000 = 26K * 10
so 100 people per year = $2.6 million = 260K * 10
now dividing $341 million/$2.6 million =
131.
---
so, do you or do you not support the *idea* of supplying organic produce to 100 people in new york city for 131 years, instead of 1 more day of war effort?
oops, that would be silly ... nobody has lived to 131 years yet.
okay let's say it's a 20 year program.
131 divided by 20 = 6.55.
---
so that's (6.55 x 20) x 100 people per year.
so that's 6.55 x 100 x 20 people per year.
i.e. (6.55 x 100) x 20 people per year
so that's 65.5 thousand x 20 years.
--
so for 1 day of war effort i calculate we can deliver organic produce to 65,000 people (say poor people for the sake of argument) for 20 years - in NYC.
jeepers, is that right? how can that be?
so for 2 days of war effort:
we can deliver organic produce to 65,000 poor people for 20 years in NYC *and* set up a $341 million dollar program for organic farming nationally.
and, therefore, we would have to spend 2 days less on the war.
what? :)
do you support the *idea* of this - whether feasible or not - and if not, why not.
bring on those numbers!
and too long. and too late. darn.
this would be a fun project. going through the New York Times and picking off the numbers.
wish i had time to do it ...
depends which market and which farmer you buy from - we have some great organic farmers in NY and some money-grubbers. I don't know how the non money grubbers afford it but I am grateful to them for bringing me fresh nutritious food - why bother eating any other kind?
Sorry hjs,
I work in Hewitt but live in Hackensack where there isn’t event an acre to spare. Ironically, I couldn’t afford to own an acre in Hewitt, Hackensack or the city and neither could a local farmer unless they already owned it or inherited it…
Jon P
don't be sorry. glad you're not adding to the sprawl
Jon p
ps
but 45 minute commute, one way, hope u take mass transit!
hjs,
45 min in the morning, an hour on the way home... NJtransit is going the opposite direction both in the morning and evening. Even if I could take the bus, I’d have to walk about 5 miles, up a mountain (no joke) after the bus ride just to get to work. I don’t blame mass transit. There are just not enough people going in the direction I am. I’d move closer to work. But even with gas at the price it is, it’s still cheaper to commute the way I do. But if it makes you feel any better, my VW with 195,000 miles on it still gets an average of 32+ MPG…
it does :)
so does 10,358.3/sq mi at Hackensack
This thread is closed.
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