wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Joe Corrao from Brooklyn August 15, 2008 - 10:56AM

  You go Alice...

  
  
• [2] Andrea Sandvig from NYC August 15, 2008 - 10:58AM

  I am all for not using bottled water. However, Ms. Waters, like Ruth Reichl comes off as an incredible food snob. Eatingly seasonally and locally is just not practical for the majority of Americans. (Also I don't believe that Ms Reichl eats no lemons in winter in NYC)And despite her claim that we could all grow some of our food she has to know this is nonsense. I live in NYC and have decent light but I could not grow any food on my windowsills.

  
  
• [3] anonyme from midtown manhattan August 15, 2008 - 11:38AM

  You are right, Andrea Sandvig - it isn't convenient. But that's it, it is we who have to change the way we see the world which will stop sustaining us if we don't; already has in some respects, (demineralized soil means less nutritional food, as do petrochemicals) due to our arrogance. Things can happen in degrees - we can TRY to avoid lemons in winter AND we can preserve summer lemons to use in winter. It's not that hard, it's about priorities. I switched to buying my food straight from the farmer (through a buying club) and in 15 months completely reversed my bone loss, which was very close to osteoporosis. I chose good food over poisonous fosamax (that also costs a fortune and requires a dependency I can do without.) So I use time i would have used otherwise cooking, with music on and interest in what I am doing, I make my lunch, etc. I bring my table scraps to the farmer's market (LESEC has a place to bring them; they compost them) and add them to the food chain, a small thing I can do. I have a ficus tree in my apt - so why not an herb garden, etc.? There's an exhibit at PS 1 (MoMA in Queens) called PF1 - about farming in the city.

  
  
• [4] tractor guy from Hackensack, NJ August 15, 2008 - 12:25PM

  anonyme in midtown manhatten,

  I agree we all have to make sacrifices. And I think organic farming is a very good idea. But the reality is organic farming has a very long way to go before it can compete with existing commercial farming. Why is this important? Because the overwhelming majority of Americans cant afford $4+ tomatoes. Even more so for those on food stamps. Its easy to say farmers should just go completely green. That being said, a family farm out in the mid west is not a couple of hundred acres, it’s a couple of thousand acres. That farmer has to get every bit of his crop from that thousand acre farm to the market (commodity market that he does not get to set the selling price) just to make ends meet. Loosing 20 to 30 % of your crop to nature is not even an option.

  Spend time on one of these farms or even just in the community of where these farms are located and I guarantee you’ll see things quite different. Even with this corn boom a lot of them are just making up for years of lost profits.

  The idea of small family farms are long gone. Most small farms have been bought up to build on and buying new land to make a new farm on is a loosing deal due to the crazy land prices on the East coast.

  
  
• [5] tractor guy from Hackensack, NJ August 15, 2008 - 12:25PM

  If you really want people to eat better and greener, it’s not going to happen by supporting a small local farm. You have to think large and industrial. That’s the way the system works and it’s impossible to reverse course now. But with lots of money and research that has yet to be done, you can clean the system up and in the end deliver a better product.

  
  
• [6] special monkey from east village August 15, 2008 - 09:39PM

  i love organic heirloom tomatoes (especially the burgundy ones -what are they called?), yum - ever had bread salad - got to try it. but they are too damn expensive! i think they were quite a lot cheaper last year, maybe it's not peak season yet? or the crops were not as good? the real reason i'm here commenting is about the earlier show on AM. what's going on? something has to be done about it. any ideas on what we can do to remove it? seriously.