I recently had the good fortune of ending up behind the scenes of a local farm’s processing facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Not being from the area, I had no preconceived notion of what…
Are food delivery services worthwhile?
Positives:
Greater margin for farmers (this system effectively makes the farmer both the processor and the distributor of their own goods, allowing them to receive a greater percentage of the profits from their sale)
Creating value added products is more feasible (already have the space to produce and the market to sell)
Gets more people involved in the local foods movement (even if this system isn’t perfect, anything that gets more people involved in the movement is positive, it is a good base which can be built upon as the movement progresses)
Simplifies navigating the labels of the local foods movement(therefore making it more approachable)
Negatives:
The environmental cost of delivering all the shares (Skarsgard aims to provide everything you need for your household down to the cut flowers, but are members really taking less trips to the grocery store? Is it better to have a refrigerated truck with low gas mileage drive a couple hundred mile loop than to have each individual drive to the grocery store?)
Usage of this regional (& virtual) system could preclude the development of real grassroots relationships that would create a truly local food system (if you can’t turn to an online source to deliver the things you need from a relatively large area [Skarsgard defines local by watershed, Albuquerque falls into the Rio Grande watershed, meaning that localities all the way down into Mexico are still considered local] then you are forced to seek these things out within your own community
