There's a new upper-middle-class trend in healthy eating, and it doesn't involve mega-corporation factory farms and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) including vegetables that produce their own insecticides that later are detected in the bloodstreams of people, including unborn babies. It involves obtaining much of your food from farmers who are known to you, who use humane animal husbandry methods, and who reject the idea of growing GMOs. Many use partially- or completely-organic production methods on their farms, resulting in foods that are more nutritious and simply taste far better than their industrially-grown counterparts.
The internet and other information-age tools allow us to be more directly connected with these types of farmers. In an early-2011 post, I summarized one type of delivery method for this type of food - our local farmer's markets, which attract our community's food producers to centralized locations.
But a new, more sophisticated and efficient method is also developing: direct delivery from farm to consumer. This type of thing becomes cost-effective when multiple consumers participate. I have heard of some outfits already providing these kinds of services inside the Loop, and I've also heard anecdotal reports of some neighborhoods in the Friendswood area collaborating for direct deliveries from local farmers as well.
Of course, anything new is bound to upset people in unexpected ways, as this amusing article illustrates. Well-known local-food advocate Joel Salatin describes a situation in which one of his upper-middle-class neighborhood delivery events was protested by a "tyrant" neighbor who invoked subdivision deed restrictions in an attempt to get him to cease and desist his order fulfillments. Soliciting not allowed! Commercial sales activities not allowed!
Fortunately, homeowners associations usually cannot prohibit the delivery of goods already purchased by individual consumers. Where would we be if FEDEX and UPS were not allowed to drop boxes off at our doorsteps? My entire household would promptly grind to a functional halt. And a local farmer dropping off a box of products ordered and paid for over the phone or internet is absolutely no different.
Check out the article. If you're at all interested in good food and supporting innovative local businesses, it's a wonderful read.
Do you know of one that delivers anywhere in League City? I've looked for one off and on for the last two years, but all of the one's I've found would require at least an hour drive, usually in the middle of the day.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on this. A while back, I began running down some leads, but then got complacent after starting to buy much of our stuff from the Clear Lake Shores Farmer's Market. I've heard rumors from folks living over toward Friendswood, and I'll do a follow-up post if I get something specific.
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