Why Market Liberalizers Are Dumb

"Given the reality of what consumers can and can't do, market liberalizers' enduring fantasy—that the collective power of tens of millions of conscientious shoppers will force suppliers to correct their bad practices—has been replaced by a grimmer understanding: Until we can make the market see all the costs of unsustainable farming, and until we learn how to temper its obsessive focus on ever greater efficiencies, market-driven sustainability will fail."
From this: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/02/spoiled-organic-and-local-so-2008

It's not that I think most people are dumb. Wait. I do think most people are dumb. But that's because I'm a privileged and cynical upper middle class snobby smartypants who doesn't always realize the perspective her liberal college education gave her or that not everyone else shares it.

Cereality

This rant I wrote was published on The Ethicurean, an extremely excellent blog posting all manner of dialogue on food and food politics.

Recently a new “restaurant” opened up where I live. This eating establishment, called Cereality, is a franchise with five other locations. It calls itself a “Cereal Bar and Café” and its menu primarily features different kinds of cold cereal that you can mix and match along with a variety of toppings. The cold cereal is your typical General Mills or Kellogg’s fare, and the toppings include candy, nuts, and dried fruit. For $3.99, a customer can order a mix of two cereals plus two toppings and his or her choice of milk in a nifty container. (They also have oatmeal and smoothies.)

Guilt and Rage

Uhm, hi blog. I know it's been awhile...you're probably feeling pretty hurt and neglected that I haven't written anything in a really long time. I don't know what I can say to make it better. But, see, I've really been working on myself lately, and I know maybe you don't want to hear about it. The thing is, blog, I learned recently that I'm an Aries Moon, which means I get really excited about projects that I soon abandon. I know you may not understand this, but it's who I am, blog, and I need to start accepting that and....do you see something over there? It must be a tumbleweed, but it's sort of moving. It could just be a web crawler, in which case, nobody's home and we don't need any more university degrees. But if it's actually a live literate human, hey, welcome, I've got things to share, air to clear, hatchets to bury, metaphors to mix and bridges to sell you. And you are one lucky scout, yes you are, because this is a clandestine little meeting right here. To be honest, this was meant to be a private little talk between me and my blog, but nobody really wants to get into that putting their shit out on the table and owning up to their wrongs crap and all that.

Avian Flu vs Bicyclist-Ticketing Cops

I know you’re all shocked.

My loyal readership, probably dwindled down to a desperate few, wondering if Farmer Tracy would ever again throw out a morsel.

Actually, at this point, I’m probably writing into the abyss. Tossing my scattered paranoia driven thoughts onto one of a bazillion blogs out there in the fertile field of the internet. Like a tiny seedling in a 10,000 acre cornfield my writings are, only to be savored by a precious few. With butter and salt. Or grilled. Grilled corn is really good, especially marinated in curry sauce. I have a good recipe if anyone wants.

Making Hay

Yeah, yeah, I never update this blog. I could give you all the same old excuses, or make hay to use the subject line of this posting. Suffice it to say that I've come up with many grand ideas of all the things I would get done and all the soul searching and expanding of horizions I would do while on the farm. Ideas that have been sown like seeds and have sprouted into cute little seedlings with so much potential to be plants and provide vegetables and fruits for people. But like the little seedlings, some ideas don't always germinate, some ideas make it into seedlings but never get transplanted, some get transplanted and die out in the field, and only a precious few of these seeds actually become the food we eat. Or the ideas we, uhm, put into action.