new research debunks trad views on nutrition

[Perris]

That's a blessing for people who have it available and affordable.

I looked into the both "local" boxes and the "misfits" boxes and the price came up to about 3-5 times what I'd pay in the grocery store with no guarantee that there would be enough of any given item to make a meal for a family of 4 in a single box.

I don't think there's much luck involved. What community supported agriculture programs need to function are a small field of OK land - a couple of acres can support scores of families, and careful sustainable cultivation will make the land better - and enough families in the area (= "available") that will pay for and eat what is harvested when it is harvested - seasonal produce, of very assorted sizes and shapes and with holes and nibbles and whatever other damage it sustained in the ground or during harvesting (="misfits"). Oh, and people who will volunteer in the field when the growers put out the call for some extra hands for an afternoon or two. Or take surplus produce 10 miles into Swansea to give it to a cafe that caters to the homeless. Or attend meetings to reflect on what went well and what didn't, and decide on what to grow next year. It's about local focus.

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't think there's much luck involved. What community supported agriculture programs need to function are a small field of OK land - a couple of acres can support scores of families, and careful sustainable cultivation will make the land better - and enough families in the area (= "available") that will pay for and eat what is harvested when it is harvested - seasonal produce, of very assorted sizes and shapes and with holes and nibbles and whatever other damage it sustained in the ground or during harvesting (="misfits"). Oh, and people who will volunteer in the field when the growers put out the call for some extra hands for an afternoon or two. Or take surplus produce 10 miles into Swansea to give it to a cafe that caters to the homeless. Or attend meetings to reflect on what went well and what didn't, and decide on what to grow next year. It's about local focus.

That's a lot of conditionals and expenditure of gas money and time for people who just need to put dinner on the table after a day at work.

It works for my childless friend who lives in a high-cost area, but isn't a wise investment of either money or time for me.

 

[3KillerBs]

PS -- I wouldn't mind working with a CSA to provide eggs -- even expanding my flock to provide enough eggs in return for the value in produce since my land is so poor for gardening, but the local ones all went down during the COVID crisis.

 

[Perris]

PS -- I wouldn't mind working with a CSA to provide eggs -- even expanding my flock to provide enough eggs in return for the value in produce since my land is so poor for gardening, but the local ones all went down during the COVID crisis.

That's how I sell my surplus eggs - I put a carton of eggs into the boxes of my regular customers on the pick up day and time, and have a waiting list of customers amongst the other CSA members for any more eggs when I have them.

I don't understand how they 'went down' during the covid crisis - ours was able to function as normal, and we weren't impacted by supply chain issues for veg at least. And our growers' incomes were unaffected.

That's a lot of conditionals and expenditure of gas money and time for people who just need to put dinner on the table after a day at work.

It works for my childless friend who lives in a high-cost area, but isn't a wise investment of either money or time for me.

Quite a lot of the people in our CSA are families with young children, and jobs.

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't understand how they 'went down' during the covid crisis - ours was able to function as normal, and we weren't impacted by supply chain issues for veg at least. And our growers' incomes were unaffected.

With so many people out of work people couldn't afford to pay the premium prices for the CSA boxes.

As I noted earlier, they cost considerably more than the vegetables at the grocery store.

 

[Perris]

Many fruits, greens and vegetables you buy at the store are washed with a chlorine rinse as well, even organic produce.

so, bringing the subject back on track, would you want to buy any that had been cleaned by spraying with carefully selected microbes instead?

 

[Geena]

a couple of acres can support scores of families

I take it you don't do much gardening
We have gardens totaling around 10,000 sq ft and that doesn't even include the fruit trees or berry bushes. No way in heck a couple of acres would feed scores of families.

 

[Geena]

so, bringing the subject back on track, would you want to buy any that had been cleaned by spraying with carefully selected microbes instead?

Maybe, depends on what they were. I don't even mind the chlorine rinse too much, it's better than getting salmonella, e-coli or campylobacter. I've had the campy, not fun at all!

 

[3KillerBs]

so, bringing the subject back on track, would you want to buy any that had been cleaned by spraying with carefully selected microbes instead?

Actually, I'd prefer that irradiation was more widely used -- because when done properly it's perfectly safe and results in dramatically less food waste due to premature spoilage (I work in a grocery store and you'd be shocked to see what we throw out because it arrives in the store already on it's last legs).

But I assume that anything I buy from any source is contaminated and will require washing so it really wouldn't make any difference to me -- though if it resulted in less spoilage that would be a plus.

Likewise the food from my own garden -- since I *do* use chicken manure and I know that there's wildlife around.

 

[Perris]

I take it you don't do much gardening
We have gardens totaling around 10,000 sq ft and that doesn't even include the fruit trees or berry bushes. No way in heck a couple of acres would feed scores of families.

You take it wrong. Your experience is not a reliable guide to the whole world. It's intensive rather than extensive cultivation, horticulture rather than agriculture.
Edited to add, we were talking about weekly veg. You seem to have jumped to whole food supply, which is a different thing entirely.