MsJudi wrote: 
it's becos we're socialists (either that or we have a cooler climate that you). 

Milkfloat:

 MrsHobieJoe wrote: 
I didn't even know anyone did that anymore.

 oldviolin wrote: 
LOL once they're steamed in the corn pot, you'd never know they were... ok, I'm totally lying. As a kid, I wouldn't even touch the cobs that had worms in them. I think my logic was that I'd get worm stuff on me and die.

 MsJudi wrote: 

We still get our milk in glass bottles delivered to the doorstep.....

 MsJudi wrote: 
Don't eat them little worms...unless you need the protien...

The book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver describes in detail how to live on local food. A very enjoyable read.

 oldviolin wrote: 
This is what my mother did every year, too. But we were in PA where we had almost unfettered access to fresh fruits and veggies and milk and steak straight outta the field. I remember the weekly trips to the dairy down the road where we bought our milk in glass bottles that we returned every week. And this wasn't back in the 1800s either.   We're talking late 60s, early 70s.

edit: (Oh lordy, and that little trip down memory lane reminds me of going INTO the corn field with Dad and picking cobs straight off the stalks into a large paper grocery sack. We'd take them home and sit outside and shuck- a job I loathed as a 6 year old. But corn on the cob would be the only thing we'd need for dinner that night. And now my tummy is growling.)

 JrzyTmata wrote: 
magic wand?

 ptooey wrote: 
That's where the old folks had it right. They canned, swapped, shared, and stored.

 JrzyTmata wrote: 

I think that they are really trying to reduce food miles- ie not having your fruit flown in from Australia at certain times of the year.  Trying to eat as local as you can and concentrate on eating seasonal food rather than strawberries in December.

JrzyTmata wrote:


I do like the buy local concept, and we try to hit the farmers market when we can and we do grow a lot of our own veggies, but that won't help us much in February.

 ptooey wrote: 
I'll trade you for corn and tomatoes!!
wait. we can't do that. it's not local.

oldviolin wrote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy

 oldviolin wrote: 
they lived on farms or there was a lot more farmland around them. not so anymore in a lot of places. so now what?

 ptooey wrote: 
All of them?

oldviolin wrote:
Died in their mid-40s.

JrzyTmata wrote: And a person can only eat so much beef. 

So, what did the folks do before food was shipped in from far and often foreign places?

 JrzyTmata wrote: 
It's a valid question. We would buy locally, but there isn't much immediately local except seafood (of which we partake OFTEN) and rice- unless I'm missing some fab local marketplace hiding out somewhere that I've never heard of. But even after 26 years of diligent searching, I haven't found one.

I do agree, though, that fast food and the food production industry in general is out of control and needs all of us to Just Say No in order to force them to produce quality food. I'm not a food snob, I'll eat most any cuisine in a restaurant, but I require the ingredients to be fresh and of high quality- otherwise, I'll stay at home and cook. Fast food is almost universally repulsive and chain restaurants like Red Lobster will just never get my business as long as they continue to rely on corporate pre-packaged salt bombs to inform their food.

Wait. Maybe I am a food snob. 

 ptooey wrote: 
I don't want you to starve!!!