James, My daughter buys most of her fresh produce right off the street stands in her NYC neighborhood. She's found it's better quality than in the local supermarkets. My cousin in Philadelphia is just a few blocks from the huge assortment of produce booths and other food venders at the Reading Terminal Market. My inlaws live a mere quarter mile from the central market in Hoi An, Vietnam. As is the case however with cities in Japan, Vietnam and most elsewhere in the world, Philadelphia and NYC are compactly built enough to create the critical mass of population necessary to sustain such small street enterprises. Here in Ithaca, NY, sprawl reigns. Worse yet, rural sprawl has become environmentally chic and is rapidly replacing suburban sprawl as the major source of increased fossil fuels consumption and environmental degradation. As a result ideas such as small-scale green grocers and street carts are even less feasible here than they were forty or fifty years ago. George Frantz
--- On Thu, 2/25/10, Benjamin Bristoll <[email protected]> wrote: From: Benjamin Bristoll <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Bringing food to people To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, February 25, 2010, 8:38 AM About 10 years ago, I was visiting my girlfriend who had moved down near Durham, NC. She volunteered regularly with the Durham Food Co-op, and one day I went with her. What they would do is fill up the back of a pickup truck with fresh local produce and drive it around slowly through the poorer neighborhoods every Saturday morning, selling it at cost to the people along the way. And I was impressed that there were tons of people out there, lining the streets, waiting for the produce truck to come by. It was a service to both the local farmers and the local residents, because it was all-volunteer with practically no overhead. I'll never forget how many people I met doing that, who I never would have met otherwise. It was like an Ithaca Farmers Market booth on wheels. Sadly, the Durham Food Co-op closed down last year. I admired how they were deliberately frugal in everything they did, because their stated mission was to serve their working-class community. It was earthy and refreshingly NOT upscale. I would think someone could do the same thing, drive a truck full of produce through Ithaca neighborhoods. Outlying areas might benefit more from the food being brought to them, but on the other hand, this idea probably works better in dense neighborhoods. -Ben James Hogg wrote: > Hello, > > When I lived in Japan there were small fruit/vegetable trucks that parked in > residential areas. Residents would come to the truck to buy fresh produce and > talk with one another. Even though these are less common today, I have > thought about this concept and wondering when someone would try it in the > States. Or should I be the one. > > I just ran across this article about a converted school bus that fits the > ticket. > > http://www.tonic.com/article/mark-lilly-farm-to-family-school-bus-change-how-america-eats/ > > > Here is a Japanese produce truck. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please > visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > Questions about the list? ask [email protected] > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
