missing ingredients 5075

do you have a balcony or roof access? you'd be amazed at the amount of produce you can grow on a standard apartment balcony. otherwise, there are halogen lights for indoor growing... which tends to get you visited by the Feds, but if you show them it's only tomatoes & lettuce, they'll leave you alone ;) CSAs are of a few basic types. one owns or leases land outside a city & grows crops on subscription, sometimes with the subscribers doing some of the labor. some are a coop of farmers that just sell excess to city people, sort of like a weekly farmer's market. some are neighborhood gardens in vacant lots, supported by the city or not.

it *is* a legal requirement in the US that produce (& meat) be labelled with country of origin. big agribusinesses have successfully lobbied to have the law left unenforced however. it's a pretty safe bet that if whatever isn't in season locally, it's from some third world country that doesn't have to follow the laws regarding pesticides. yes, some farmers do buy from wholesale greengrocer markets, the same ones the chain stores buy from. they have to have income on the off season too, and, well, some 'farmers' have gone so far into the tourism aspect that they don't actually farm anymore.

heh. if it was grown, a farmer somewhere grew it, so they aren't technically lying. big agribusiness is getting the teeth taken out of the organic labelling laws now because it's too difficult for them to comply with...

not the same Brian Christiansen whose father shot my raccoons, are you? lee

-- Question with boldness even the existence of god; because if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. - Thomas Jefferson