Foxy Lettuce Uses Their Heads?
Hehehehehhhe. Oh that’s a good one. Get it HEADS. Whooooo….
Anyway…learned another little tidbit, besides how to rock a zucchini’s world, on my adventure up North. First a little background info for those of you living in year round veggie paradise. Farmers cannot provide year round constant produce in NY. Therefore, they can’t get contracts with the local grocery stores, most of which are chains even in small towns. All those contracts go to huge companies, like FOXY, that drive stuff across the country from CA. This pretty much blocks local farmers from selling in stores literally at the edge of their own property. Farmers’ markets have always been a part of life during the growing season, but most farmers can’t make ends meet without larger guaranteed buyers. So many farmers have been closing shop. But, surprisingly, with the rising fuel costs comes an opportunity for some little guys. Apparently it cost Foxy about $9000 in fuel…yes fuel alone…to truck a load of lettuce from CA to NY. That’s a lotta lettuce! They decided to actually start using local farmers to grow for them a little closer to the stores they are supplying. The farmer whose onions we were harassing is one who has managed to actually stay in business. How? By growing for Foxy lettuce. Now…there are still more miles on the food than necessary. His lettuce gets chilled and boxed right on his farm and then is sent to PA for Foxy packaging and then redistributed throughout the tri-state. More miles than it needs…but a lot fewer than coming from CA. It is definately a major carbon savings…even if it is just for the season.
And…very importantly…it allows another small farmer to keep his land & livelihood. A perfect solution? No…but it seems like a decent one in an imperfect market where people expect food of all seasons all year regardless of where they live. (Not being a Judgy McJudgerson here….I buy avocados all year round….not sure I’ll ever be able to kick that one.) What do you think? Is this a viable way for farmers to stay in business or is it still the problem of a few mega farms running the show even if they are not actually farming the land? Also…if it was costs Foxy $9000 in fuel to get a load here…which they must still do during the winter months…and lettuce still only costs $2-4 dollars a head….how much could a farmer actually be making?
About winter produce…some farmers’ markets are open all year round (a bit too far for me), but there is one Amish vendor in Reading Terminal who sells fresh produce in the growing seasons and then preserved foods (pickles, stewed tomatoes, jams, etc) in the winter season. It was a good reminder on how people before oil lived.
But Foxy’s solution is also good. Now if they had bus only or truck only highways, fuel costs for transporting much of the food might go down (no idling in jams, etc)