I Don't Get It

Anyone know the answer to the following quiz?

Apples (organic. .69/ea) bought at an 'alternative grocery store' (for lack of a better term) in mid-September, in Northern California originated from:

a/ Washington State
b/ California
c/ the Southern freakin' Hemisphere
d/ New York

If you guessed C - you're a winner! And I'm the loser for having bought them and not realizing it until we were home and eating them.

This really, really irked me. Is there anyone out there that can explain the economics of this? How is shipping apples from New Zealand, in September (where apples are not even in season there!!!!!!) to California economically viable?! HOW? There are so many things that defy logic, here. How is it less expensive to ship and store them vs. sourcing them locally? They are in season here for goodness sake - apples are falling off all the trees in my urban neighborhood.

How do they justify the environmental cost?
How do they justify the loss in flavor during that long voyage across the whole Atlantic Ocean?

I feel compelled to write to aforementioned store, but they are notoriously secretive and private and sneaky? so I doubt I would get a response. Maybe if Michael Pollan or Alice Waters wrote to them, then they'd listen. Hmph.

Farm Bill a Bust

Despite a large grass-root effort to overhaul the Farm Bill in support of smaller farms, it seems like that is just not going to happen. Listening to a panel, led by Michael Pollan, this spring regarding this year’s Farm Bill, I was (slightly) optimistic that a democrat-led congress could actually make some positive changes. It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that big-Ag prevailed in the end.

This gives me even more incentive to continue to do what we can on a local level to support small farms! Speaking for myself, I make this effort for many reasons, and one of them is definitely political. Money talks, and our purchasing power is nothing to sneeze at.

Here’s a great opinion article by Daniel Weintraub at the Sacramento Bee.