That was a question a few days ago is there a socioeconomic aspect to veganism. Just saying there can also be one for those interested in sourcing vegetables and meat and dairy products for that matter truly outside of the big industrial system. In my recent experiences, New England (MA, NH, VT, ME, and upstate NY) has a lot going on (found it in WI too). The down side is that the 100% grass fed beef or truly free range chicken from these small herds is very expensive relatively. The upside is that the farmers in general are totally open and forthcoming about all the aspects of what they are doing.
Our farm is special, it is a perpetual farmland trust and the farmer is an employee of the trust and gets a fair wage and benefits. The members get a share delivered every week but can pick your own in large quantities at little or no cost. We assume all the risk of the non-interventionist philosophy of the farming, which at times can be extreme, such as members called out to hand pick the bugs off of the plants. This results in frequent losses of entire crops of certain items, one year the pigs got out and ate all the Brussels sprouts. Unfortunately the loss of an entire years crop of tomatoes (normally huge) has caused some rethinking. Some accuse this approach as being dilettantism, so what we can all do our own thing.
That sounds like a sweet deal and its great if you can keep those people interested and involved. The choice that you have would only be available to a very small lucky minority. In all those places you still have the winter problem (imported food) from access to farmland.
Often you see municipal garden lots (within the city) for rent so you can grow your own veggies if you don't have the property. I think more people would pick off a bug, or cut around a blemish, or eat an imperfect fruit/veggie if they had to grow it themselves.
I also think for many, it comes down to an economic choice before the checkout.
That is the point isn't it, a lot of the talk simply involves a serious economic commitment?
Wouldn't it follow that if the animal had had a free and happy life in the wild (for example) whoever consumed it would take on it's positive energy? I can imagine that is also believed by some.
Thus the meat will once again become a luxury item.
Personally, I wouldn't like that.
The problem is that most people have economic constraints and cannot (or will not?) make that commitment. Fresh veggies are rarely the lowest cost option, but if they were, then it would become an obvious choice.
Plums take me back to the happy days of my fruit picking youth, and I think you were around when fairy dust was sprinkled to comic effect in another thread!
So you have cheered me up. However, I was thinking along less cultured lines:
YouTube
I don't prefer something that is (relatively) cheap to eat to become expensive.
Lots of 'food deserts' in the US too, where fresh veggies are effectively not an option at all, regardless of price.
If the Grub Kitchen was in the north west rather than the south west I'd definitely give it a go. For me, getting down there in this tiny country is next to impossible. They'd probably do quite well opening one here, or Machynlleth, that would probably be better, lots of trendy hippy types
And so it goes, we have a place in FL and there mostly shite rules, but even there you can struggle to find things.
I don't think we are understanding each other, it only becomes expensive if you care about the difference. The industrial supermarket chuck steak at $2.49/lb is not going away.
Something is possible but of course cannot be business.
Last year the major of Longobardi, a small town in South Italy, launched a campaign where every family with at least 30 square meters of usable garden would be given two hens to look after and fed with the family produced composte waist. In return each family will see their waste tax reduced (a pair of hens consumes about 300Kg of vegetable food waist a year), get about 400 eggs a year and some manure for their orchard or garden. Saving the tax money one can afford other things too and it is eco-friendly. It seems to work.
Meno rifiuti organici con le galline pattumiera comunali - Corriere.it
"Two family hens eat around 300 kilos of food waste a year. In addition, being also laying eggs, they produce 400 eggs a year for the family needs and, moreover, a fair amount of pollen, an excellent fertilizer for vegetable gardens." Don't you love google translator?
All I'm saying is, I wouldn't want to see a day that meat becomes luxury item again.
A rhetorical question is, why did the industry make it cheaper via engineering if people don't crave meat? Answer is, people do crave meat. After all, it's supply and demand.
I wonder whether philosophically veganism is seen as an evolution. Someone on a vegan forum said all animals should be allowed to "live long and prosper" It was in humour, but he meant it seriously. It's almost as if the idea is from another world, veganism certainly wants to change this one, and there appears to be a connection with science fiction
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