I know the “foodies” and “locavores” in Durham will hate to be put into the same category as Wal Mart, but facts are facts. The local-food movement is being blamed, partly, for ending the oldest family farm in the United States. It was started in 1632 and 11 generations of the same family have worked the land. The Associated Press tries hard to blame large industrial farming, but it couldn’t help but add the effect the local-food movement has had:
Competition from large farms has become much more intense, whether in the Midwest — where it tends to be for land — or in New England, where it’s likely to be for markets.
“That’s put a lot of pressure on family-size operations,” he said.
Too, the local food movement has had an impact, with consumers growing their own vegetables.
`People are getting more interested in canning, they’re getting more interested in freezing food,” said Juli Brussell, agricultural resources program leader for the University of New Hampshire’s cooperative extension.
Large-scale farming has been around for decades, and people have canned and “put away” for a couple of centuries. But it’s only since the local-food movement has grown so dramatically that the farm has hit real skids.
I’m not saying this is a bad thing, necessarily. There’s an ebb and flow to economic and business trends that means some industries die and others take their place. This natural and inevitable process is something that liberals don’t quite understand or accept.
For decades they’ve complained about Wal-Mart hurting smaller businesses in America’s downtowns, but it is now a movement made up largely of liberals that is killing businesses, in this case, the family farm. How will they react now, I wonder? Will they march with signs against locavores or will they finally realize that this kind of thing is unavoidable?
