I have made one thing abundantly clear through this book; to
cook and eat clean food, you have to change some of your basic shopping habits.
If you think that you can source clean food by shopping exclusively at your
major supermarkets you are mistaken. The whole mission of supermarkets is to
provide convenience. But in consolidating sources, a supermarket must
compromise. Only the major distributors and cartels have adequate inroads for
getting their products on supermarket shelves. It is comparable to getting all
of your news from one TV channel. There are powerful machines and mountains of
money at work here! In fact, many large chain supermarkets are beholden to
massive suppliers. To depend upon reliable deliveries of commodities on a
24/7/365 basis, many strange marriages must be established.
Here is one bizarre example. In the Northeast there are a
handful of market bases for providers of perishable food items. These
perishables are then distributed to markets, stores and other establishments.
The products have traditionally come from both regional and non regional
sources. Californian, Mexican and Southeastern produce that used to be trucked
in during the off-season to keep a steady flow to market is now shipped year
round. So now the smaller Northeastern farms are competing with huge
plantations and corporate farms from friendly climates.
How did this happen? Read on. The market needs a year round
commitment and of course, North East growers can't do that. For local family
farmers, access to their own regional market is almost impossible. So if you
lived the Albany area, for instance, which is surrounded by farmland, the only
way to get local produce was to travel to the farms themselves. National chain
supermarkets don't carry a representative amount of local produce anymore
because they are contracted to buy from the powerful corporate suppliers in
exchange for guaranteed year round supply. This has systematically put the
medium sized vegetable farm out of business in the Northeast. This damage will
never be undone.
And a major reason why all of this happened is because our own
eating habits changed. As we demanded tomatoes in February, the corporate
distributors managed to provide them (though I would hardly venture to call
those things tomatoes.) This gives disproportionate power to the corporate food
providers and squeezed out the local food in the local markets.
Public opinion is clear. The majority of us will pay a little
more to buy food from our own area when given a choice. You have the choice.
You just need to understand it and act on it.
The sources listed below are guidelines. These are suppliers
that I use myself. Use the internet and your own local farmers markets to
create your own list of reliable food sources. Local is better. Visit you
area's health food stores, co-ops, specialty stores, butchers, fish markets and
ethnic markets. Establish your connection by introducing yourself and shopping
regularly. Build trust.
Eat well. Have fun.
