Abstinence makes the stomach grow fonder

I have been thinking about food as of late. I think it's kind of rubbed off on my room mates as well because I see we now have "free run Omega-3" eggs in the fridge. Supposedly this is better than normal caged chickens but "free run" doesn't sound a whole lot better. "Free run" means that the chickens are in a barn, in a controlled environment, being fed a controlled diet. In the case of the Omega-3 birds, this diet is usually in the form of flax (I have tasted "fishy" eggs before though). There is no regulatory body over the use of the phrase "free run" unless the farm is also certified organic. Free range chickens are free to roam in the outdoors, and they are the pricey ones because they use up the most real estate. (citing: http://www.humanefood.ca/pdf%20links/cage-free-eggs-new-logo-v4.pdf)

Enough about eggs. The other food I was thinking about was fruits and vegetables. I will agree with Barbara Kingsolver in her book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" when she states "The main barrier between ourselves and a local-food culture is not price, but attitude." She describes the North American consumer as impatient. We want strawberries in January, etc. "Waiting for the quality experience seems to be the constitutional article that has slipped from American food custom" Waiting for each vegetable to come to season is analogous to Christmas morn. When attitudes can be changed from a consumerist "want" to a manageable "wait", only then can a local-food movement become sustainable.

Another challenge to the local-food movement is that the sheer volume of food required to feed large populations is just too great for the local supply. I envision many small backyard plots used for vegetable growing. The backyard farms could either be farmed by the owner of the property or rented out to "urban farmers" who would harvest the vegetables and sell them at local farmers markets. May I suggest a tax-free incentive both to the farmers and the land-owners?

There are many more challenges to essentially undo the mistakes we have made in food production, but hopefully attitudes can change.