DISQUS

Chris Ziegler · 1 year ago

check this -- urban farming in usa -- ny times -- it's here too --

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/dining/07urba...

Joe Weinstein · 1 year ago

'Back to the Land' has an important topic, but sadly the article is just another well-intentioned example of filler 'journalism of the quaint'.

Indeed, the article is blithely oblivious to or erroneous on basic fact. For one thing, Oaxaca state is NOT 2000 miles from Mexico City, nor even 500 miles airline.

And just because people 'elsewhere' are 'still' growing their own food (gee-whiz) does not entitle journalists to imply by omission that people who are doing it right here in California (urban, not to mention rural too) don't exist or don't count or aren't interesting enough, or have nothing to teach us.

In particular, why no mention of Long Beach Organic?! - or aren't they quaint enough or yuppie enough or New-York-Times enough or third-world enough to merit mention, let alone interviews?

So - (big discovery?) - subsistence farming is not 'the' answer to feeding the world's population? Can there be any answer at all - let alone a single big 'the' answer - so long as population is allowed to grow indefinitely?

According to the quoted Malkin, some people are actually skeptical about 'free' trade or industialized farming. Imagine! The sound reasons for the skepticism, go far deeper than a single NYTimes filler piece. For some accessible but solid reading of them, see for instance the first section of Michael Pollan's 'The Omnivore's Dilemma'.