The lazy locavore
Tuesday July 22, 2008
I know, I know, it's fatally easy to laugh at rich people who want to be locavores, but don't have time to garden or to go to the farmer's market, and who therefore hire people to do it for them....
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Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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So a wealthy man wants to pay someone else to till his own soil and grow for him? Isn't that as old as the hills? Where does the term "gentleman farmer" come from?
Eh? Why would anyone, especially one who trumpets the 'old-fashioned' ways, laugh at someone who is behaving how people used to behave in the days before international food distribution systems developed?
Did the local banker or blacksmith of 1850 grow his own garden?
Well, the local banker in 1850 did not pay someone to come to his urban house and put a garden in his yard for him, then come back to tend it every week and even harvest the vegetables for him. I think it's the person coming to your house to do everything for you that's getting laughed at. (and I sure hope the gardeners are biking over or using public transportation, or the carbon savings of local food may get all eaten up.)
Where do I find me some of these rich people?
"Isn't that as old as the hills?"
Yeah, it was called 'serfdom', but if you market it right, I'll bet it pays better. All of a sudden a masters degree in gardening doesn't look so unjustifiable to me.
Local food is about where food is produced in relation to where consumers lives, not who carries the market basket. If grocery stores carry local food one need not even drive to a farm or a outdoor market.
Are people making who does the grocery shopping and where into some kind of purity test? Weird.
Well, the local banker in 1850 did not pay someone to come to his urban house and put a garden in his yard for him, then come back to tend it every week and even harvest the vegetables for him.
Posted by: MJS | July 22, 2008 10:16 AM
Not really all that different than hiring someone to do lawn care, is it? And gardens are more useful than lawns.
Well, the local banker in 1850 did not pay someone to come to his urban house and put a garden in his yard for him, then come back to tend it every week and even harvest the vegetables for him.
Posted by: MJS | July 22, 2008 10:16 AM
No, the local banker in 1850 would have had a live in staff of more than 2 and they would have taken care of it.
I live in an apartment and can't garden, not even on the porch (only a couple of hours of early morning sunlight and neighbors that would probably rob me blind - I'm on the ground floor) I do belong to a group that gathers local produce and artisan products (breads, cheeses, etc) and delivers them to my front door.
Some people are buying shares of farms and "reaping" the benefits of fresh produce. Some "cowpool" and/or "pigpool" for a share of the animal when it's slaughtered.
I don't think any of this is really new. I grew up in a small town in a rural area and my dad would "cowpool" and my great-uncle would deliver produce from the family farm. That was back in the 70s.
As for the lazy locavores...really, how is this different from hiring a gardener to prune your hedges, mow your lawn and weed your flower beds?
PP
This is a win-win for all. It puts gardeners to work. Once the backyard garden is established and the homeowner sees what's involved in organic gardening, he can carry on where the gardener leaves off, so to speak. What a great way to learn and spread the word about organic gardening. And there's the good food.
The really 'green' thing to do is to forget the meat and stick with local vegetarian fare, but if you have to eat beef, this is a better way to do it.
Viva locavores.
I'm with Who Knew: I want to find me some of these rich people!
I think it's a brilliant business plan -- a way to get into farming without most of the up-front capital costs. This is an idea worth pondering.
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