"It is of course expensive, but what is worse, it tastes bad. That is, it tastes like real meat, gamy and lean, rather than like the processed, marbled, frozen, supermarket stuff I had grown up on. I'm sure it is a better quality, and that buying it sustains the local community and strikes a blow against agrabusiness, but I just don't like it. And since I hate vegetables, becoming a vegetarian is not an option."

You know you are part of the machine when real food doesn't satisfy you, and only industrial grease will do.

I suppose that Stanley Fish will never know the fantastic taste of vegetarian food - going vegetarian was the best thing I ever did for my tastebuds. A world of real flavour awaits.

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The recent coverage of local food in the NYT (& friends) has been driving my blood pressure up recently, as well.

Even the purportedly "pro" articles have done little to eradicate the myth that eating locally is only for the elite, trend-chasing airhead.

I've been making a conscious effort to eat at least 80% locally since June. I earn around 25 grand a year, before taxes. I don't own a car, so I purchase most of my local food at the natural food store I work at, & trade my volunteer time at a nearby farm for a few items.

The NYT, either through simple ignorance of the vast majority of this country that exists between the coasts, or willful maliciousness, is doing a serious disservice to people who otherwise might be curious about this relatively easy (& delicious) movement to take more control of our food supply & build our communities.

Most of the people participating in the recent resurgence of the simple, ancient idea of food grown by (relative) neighbors for neighbors are less than wealthy, far from disconnected & not even remotely foolish. We're ordinary people who simply happen to give a shit about what we & our families eat, & the effects those choices have on our planetary & community health.

For a sliver of the real story of the local food movement in action, go here, or one of any number of other places on the Intrawebs.

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"... but what is worse, it tastes bad. That is, it tastes like real meat, gamy and lean, rather than like the processed, marbled, frozen, supermarket stuff I had grown up on."

It is amazing to me how many people are so fixed in their opinion that their taste preferences are absolutely rigid for all time. There are extreme cases of people who just will not even sample something if it is not already their habit to eat that particular food.

The fact is that unfamiliar food does taste strange to us but even when we don't particularly like a food at first it is quite common for its appeal to grow with repeated sampling. About two weeks of regularly eating almost any healthy food is enough to teach us to enjoy it.

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The Times is an irrelevant dinosaur. Who cares what they print?

Giving them credibility is the quickest way to losing all of your own. They represent BIG business and centralized power. That's what they have against local food.

Please pick more challenging targets for criticism.

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don't like the idea of having to walk through a cold, crowded farm market to pick up their food on a rainy Saturday morning when they could shop "at their convenience" at the local WalMart Supercenter and be warm and dry, and their produce and meats are perfectly packaged, bug free and they can eschew the social custom of interacting with the merchants in the wonderful old tradition.

I myself love this. There is a local farm market behind my house, every Saturday morning from 7:00 AM until afternoon. I buy most of my food there - fruits, vegetables, honey, cheese, bread and other baked goods, all from local farmers and businesses. Sometimes there is a lady there selling homemade goat milk and olive oil soap, which is a treat I never pass up. The Amish sell bread and pies. Some of the farmers even put up signs telling the buyer exactly what time it was that morning when their vegetables were brought in from the field.

The stuff is cheaper, and you just don't know what the word "fresh" means until you bite into a peach that came from an orchard only a few miles away. And it's great to do business not with big corporations but with local farms and small businesses.

Why in the world can't we keep some nice,simple traditions such as this one, especially when by doing so, we help support our local economy and we eat much better for less money? It's a no-brainer.

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It's about time everyone realize there is a big machine out there that has a vast interest in poor health of every kind. Dis-ease is largely a cultured product and the health of the environment is inseparable from human health.

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Why is this crap in the New York Times, the paper of record and holy cow of "liberalism"? Simple. The same reason the Atlantic Monthly would print nonsense by David Brooks, the same reason the NY Times supported the Iraq war, and yes, despite all the talk of the "death of comedy", the same reason there was such a flap over the New Yorker Obama cover.

Because these outlets are not as "liberal" and "progressive" as the right, and the true believers who read them, would like to think. The NY Times, New Yorker, the Atlantic, New Republic, Washington Post etc. are all corporate media. Sure, they may be to the left of the Wall Street Journal, or the Washington Times, but in the end, they are really pretty centrist and don't stray TOO far from the corporate party line.

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I read that column by Stanley fish and all I could do was roll my eyes and want to send a letter to NYT begging him to stop acting like somebody's crotchety old grandfather - he's the author version of John McCain! I mean, seriously, is it really that hard to do all of those stupid little things? Are you really that lazy and selfish and stupid? More importantly, if this is really how you feel about your life, maybe it is time to simply retire...

And, really, on what planet does processed packaged meat taste better than local organic meat?! Are you smoking crack?? God save us all from this man!

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Maybe once us poor "red" states turn green them "blue" states will follow. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!

Will you "blue" states trying going GREEN for a FUCKING SCOOBY snack ?!?!? C'mon !!

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What a shame the only lesson Dubner (and, by extension, his kids) learned from his homemade sherbet experience is that it's easier and better to buy it from the store. My five-year-old son and I have just spent the whole summer vacation making and growing all sorts of things that would have been "easier" to buy: paper, playhouses, papier mache, sunflowers, strawberries, peanuts, even wheat. Was the playhouse always perfect or the strawberries slug-free? No. But my son enjoyed the experiences thoroughly and learned a valuable lesson: that the things you can buy are always made by someone somewhere, and that, with a little practice, he can always do it himself. How empowering is that for a kindergartner?

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This is a solid article. It kinda seemed alternet had gone over the edge lately with crap articles, but this is eminently reasonable and readable. Thanks for publishing it.

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Just look at who is on their board of directors and that solves that problem of knowing "why".

Health is the very thing under attack in this country as we speak.... that is why 40% of Americans are on systemic drugs. Chemical/food processing companies, Banks, drug companies and oil/energy companies all have the same people working for them or as directors. Healthy population means no gouging income in any of those categories. So much of our GDP is now based on illness, prisons, insurance, debt (financial services/banking), war, energy etc.

Check out a few of them and see what I mean.....

http://www.nytco.com/company/board_of_directors/index.html

Here is a short list...

Raul E. Cesan - currently works for an investment company, but previously worked for 24 years for a drug company.

Dawn G. Lepore - Ms. Lepore has served as president, chief executive officer and chairman of drugstore.com since October 2004.

Robert E. Denham- he served as chief executive officer of Salomon Brothers from 1992 to 1997, subsequent to joining the firm as General Counsel in 1991.

Mr. Denham is also a member of the board of directors of Chevron, (see? they go back and forth between corps and boards) Fomento Economico Mexicano SA de CV, Alcatel-Lucent S.A. and Wesco Financial Corporation.

Ellen R. Marram- (your going to love this one, LOL) From 1999 until 2000, Ms. Marram was president and chief executive officer of efdex Inc. (the Electronic Food & Drink Exchange), an Internet-based commodities exchange for the food and beverage industry.

Ms. Marram, who left the Tropicana Beverage Group in 1998 after it was sold by The Seagram Company Ltd., had served as its president and chief executive officer from 1997 to 1998. She joined the company in 1993 as group president. Previously, she served as president and chief executive officer of the Nabisco Biscuit Company, the largest operating unit of Nabisco, Inc. Prior to joining Standard Brands Incorporated in 1977, which later merged with Nabisco, she worked with Johnson & Johnson and Lever Brothers.

Ms. Marram also serves on the board of directors of the Ford Motor Company, Eli Lilly and Company (G.H.W. Bush was a director of this drug company) and Cadbury Schweppes plc.

NOW, YOUR GOING TO LOVE THIS ONE.....

William E. Kennard - Mr. Kennard joined The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, in May 2001 as a managing director in the global telecommunications and media group. Before joining The Carlyle Group, Mr. Kennard served as Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from November 1997 to January 2001. (we know what they have been doing for the past 20 years)

Mr. Kennard served as the FCC's general counsel from December 1993 to November 1997.

(my comments) The carlyle group (military industrial complex) was run by Bush Sr here in the US, owned by the Bin Laden family and Saudi Royalty.

These are just a few of them that I found; most subject to conflict of interest in this subject, but your welcome to view the others who are associated with law firms, power companys and other telecom companies.

Given this board, how in the world did you expect them to do anything different than they did in reporting on the lead up to the war in Iraq with Judith miller and other nefarious treatments of serious subjects in journalism.

Not a single real journalist on this board, nary a one. While some have worked in the publishing business, they haven't come up from the ranks as journalists. Almost all are corporatists.

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I work and live in remote Alaska, primarily with Alaskan Native Tribes. Most of what I do involves food contamination issues (our legacy from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill), and promoting healthy food habits. I do a lot of education on the health of commercially produced foods vs. locally harvested and grown foods. There's a lot of social and psycological conditioning involved with food choices. Many people who experienced the Great Depression or who grew up very poor, will equate natural foods (such as deer meat) as something poor people eat. The response is, "we don't need to eat that anymore". Now the tide is turning again mostly due to astronomically high prices for shipping in commercially produced foods to the rural communities. While cultural history provides the will to hunt, fish and gather, modern problems inhibit them with difficulties of finding the resource and increased competition for that resource from commercial and charter (tourism) industries, which results in more $ spent on fuel and equipment and greater risk involved due to having to go farther,longer and potentially be exposed to bad weather. Another interesting fact that affects food choices can be illustrated by the the effects of ciggarette smoking. Smoking will "deaden" your taste buds, making things taste bland. Salt then becomes a favored companion. Processed chemicals in commerically prepared food will also do the same thing - and the manufactuers are sure to place lots of sugars, fats and chemicals such as monosodium glutatmate (which is proven to be addictive) in their products to keep you hooked on them. These products also have the dangerous side effects of contributing to HDAD and other "behavorial" problems we have with our kids. It took about 6 months after I quit a 15 year pack a day habit for my taste buds to come back. At the same time I quit eating processed foods and drinking soda pop. Wow, I had forgotten what a real (homegrown) strawberry tasted like! I am currently encouraged by a gardening trend in my village. I always am sure to give my extra's away to the Elder's, often preparing the food for them so its ready to go right to the table. Its amazing how many people have forgotten how to cook! Zuchinni? What the hell do I do with that??!! And when I have urban guests who are not familiar with the joys of wild meat and homegrown veggies and serve them such, they are usually flabbergasted at how good it is and tell me that I live (and eat) like a Queen.

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A grossly overpopulated, grossly polluted cesspool, devoid of any natural enviornment, and peopled with educated fools with the answers to EVERYTHING.

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The NYT was printing Michael Pollan columns when no one outside of hardcore foodie circles had ever heard the word, "locavore," let alone other dailies. The Food section at the Times has been supportive of the local and organics movements, overall, for years. Even the Business section has written positively - or at least neutrally - on food activism.

Very few US news outlets will even touch on the economics of agriculture and the competing interests between organic and local consumers versus big business, and you want to slam the only one that regularly covers the subject, in any depth?

The writers being talked about here are just journalists and contrarians looking for something to stomp their feet and get attention with. And they got it. Tomorrow they'll find something else to be distracted by, and the Food section - the one that's read by people who take the time to make educated food choices - will still be doing what it's been doing for decades.

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John Tierney is a cranky, specious, ill-informed but self-righteous blowhard, but thanks anyway to the guy who posted the NYT Board members info. What "liberal media"?

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Read "the four season harvest", written by a guy who cheaply harvests lettuce all winter in Maine without any fossil fuel heat.

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Or any other newspaper? Why would anyone in their right mind do this, willingly, and actualy pay for this printed trash unless something was needed to start a fire or to use it as a cheaper alternative to toilet paper, I'll never know.

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It helps to understand that even a prius-driving locavore isnt necessarily "green". The more money you spend on a car, the more fossil fuels are consumed during the building of that car. So no matter what new car you buy, you arent very green if you're spending any money on a new car. And that makes prius owners nothing more than self-righteous moron hypocrites.

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I really get a chuckle about the "elitist" arugula. It's laughably easy to grow, and hardy enough to overwinter in most areas. If you let it get dry, it gets strong and bitter, that's the only trick to growing it.

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