In article >,
enigma > wrote:

> Emma Thackery > wrote in
> :
>
> > Note that the key word there is "repeatedly". And, while I
> > was thinking mainly of substances used during shipping to
> > retard ripening and the like, I would also posit that the
> > consumer will have a far easier time finding out how
> > locally grown foods are raised.
>
> why do you think that?

The closer something is, the easier it is acquire information about it
or even visit the source. One need not travel far and it is more likely
that local media, libraries, extension services, gardener's clubs, food
co-ops, blogs, or other sources may have information about it. Seems
pretty simple and logical to me.

> i suspect you *might* have better luck finding out how
> locally raised produce is treated if you were buying it from a
> farmer's market or direct from the farm, but not if it's being
> sold at the local grocery.

I made no distinction in my previous post (the one to which you are
responding) but I certainly agree. My experience is that, except for
Whole Foods type groceries, most really don't even care how the food is
produced and shipped or even tastes as long as it looks nice and is
profitable.

Another thing I've noticed more in recent years is how rapidly produce
degrades once it leaves those rigid environmental controls and how
utterly tasteless it may be despite how pretty it looks. This has been
obvious for many years with tomatoes but now lots of other produce falls
into the same pretty-but-tasteless category. When a fruit or vegetable
has been artificially kept from ripening for weeks or even months,
seemingly held in "stasis", it's a race to get it on the table before it
rots.

<snip important warning about produce stands>

> and while i'm ranting, don't buy Horizon organic milk
> products. while they produce 70% of the 'organic' milk in the
> US, they are a feedlot only operation that flouts the laws
> that specificly require 'organic' milk producers to pasture
> thier cows. they have several thousand (around 10,000) head in
> a desert. no pasture, no outside access. complain to your
> congress critters about properly enforcing USDA organic rules
> & boycott Horizon/Cornucopia/Dean Foods. it is completely
> unfair to the small farmers who play by the rules to allow Big
> Agribusiness to flout the laws.

Whole Foods still carries Horizon. And I wholeheartedly agree. We
really need to work on these increasing food problems. Consumer
interests have been trampled in recent years by excessive (and
unnecessary) industrialization of food production.

Emma