Seasonality

Aug 13, 2010 by Dark Martha

For the last 50 years or so, America has veered sharply away from her agrarian roots in favor of convenience. Generations of wisdom lost, because our supermarkets offer us boundless plenty, regardless of season. We enjoy culinary delights from every corner of the globe every month of the year. It was not always thus, and it is highly likely that it will not be for too much longer. It is not my intention to sermonize about Peak Oil. I’m offering you a way to combat it.

The event I originally wrote this for, the Eco Go-Go, featured a fashion show highlighting locally-owned businesses, selling eco-friendly goods and services. Now a bit about fashion – more specifically, about the phenomena of the fashion season: Way back, when Louis XIV was trying to figure out a way to help his country’s struggling economy, he put a couple of fairly ingenious things in motion: first, his mercantilist administration significantly slowed the importing all textiles and textile supplies from other countries, to bolster the then-stagnant French textile businesses. Then the brilliant marketing ploy – they encouraged these floundering fashion houses to market their goods based on the season in which they were intended to be worn. This concept evolved into the two major fashion seasons – Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer. This allowed for clothiers to offer the newly-fashion-conscious public new stuff to buy twice a year, effectively doubling their profits and cementing the industry for centuries to come.

I am sure that many of you are in tune enough with fashion do’s and don’ts to be confident in how you dress year round. Maybe you take great pride in being fashion-forward. I managed a few retail clothing establishments in my day, I can tell you that there are plenty of people who are brand-loyal and put great importance on who makes the clothes they wear. I am starting to see a trend of people who are as devoted to the source of their nourishment. I challenge you to be as discerning with your food. Maybe you are an avid label-reader at the supermarket, so I think you should also be as curious about where the food is coming from and when that food is in season. Fact is, locally produced food, enjoyed in season, is of far greater quality than the alternative.

Our country’s current food production paradigm is based on the assumption that transporting food from a handful of fertile places to the rest of the planet will continue to be very cheap. If our consumption follows its current trajectory – kiss those cheap Chilean sweet peppers and grapes goodbye. Perhaps the current economic downturn, coupled with the need to seriously back off of our fossil fuel usage and the gaining popularity of the local foods movement will help us find a better balance. Washington is working to help small-scale, startup urban farmers – to combat “food deserts.” Every day new articles appear about people turning abandoned lots into verdant food-producing oases. Could this trend be part of the solution for the rampant joblessness in our country?? True, farming is not for everyone. I have been selling produce from my own modest urban farm at Findlay Market for a little over a month now. Each market day, my sales improve. Sometimes a person will comment on how my wares are a little “expensive.” I remind them the food that I’ve grown did not have to be trucked across the continent, nor has it been sprayed with chemicals to hasten ripening or irradiated to retard spoilage. They still buy my tomatoes.

Cheers -

Dark Martha

www.consciousurbanliving.com

White Fox Farm