Could Vermont feed itself?

[jpak]

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070611/NEWS01/706110313/1009/NEWS05

Yet another dietary mantra is gaining traction across Vermont -- "eat local" -- as more and more people are expanding their vegetable gardens, buying directly from farmers, and trying to relearn food preservation techniques that most Vermonters have long since forgotten.

All of which raises obvious questions:

-- Could Vermont really feed itself?

-- In a state where the ground is frozen four months a year, how realistic is it to try to "eat local" once the summer growing season is over?

-- What about all those staples -- wheat and other grains, for example -- that are barely grown in Vermont at all?

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[zanne]

1. Well, the icehouse could make a comeback....

There's plenty of that in Vermont, and it's free.

[rox63]

3. It's not like people would have to give up electricty

They'd still have fridges and freezers, right?

[rox63]

2. People did it in the days before supermarkets and highways

How do you think people in the 18th and 19th centuries survived? You freeze, can, and preserve fruits and veggies. You you freeze or smoke meats and fish. Vermont has a lot of dairy farms for it's size. so dairy products are always available locally.

[Xithras]

8. There were a lot less people.

Not to mention a lot more farmland.

[glowing]

4. I ask my grandma a lot of little advices.. she survived childhood

during the depression. They had to survive themselves... most veggies and fruits were preserved, canned, and pickled, and stored in the cellar... she still cans sometimes

[Red Zelda]

5. Could Vermont dress itself?

[Renew Deal]

6. Why would anyone attack the "eat local" mantra?

This sounds like Big-Agra propaganda. Vermonters and the rest of us should eat local. Imported foods are full of preservatives. Imported foods have high transportation costs that drive up prices. Eating locally is good for your diet. And we should all SUPPORT LOCAL FARMERS.

[Dogmudgeon]

11. Big Agra doesn't care

As soon as "Eat Locally" becomes a big deal, they will change their practices and adapt to the changes. And co-opt them.

In some cases, local isn't better. The big question is how far is "far" -- and how near is "local". Nearly all of the produce I eat in the spring and summer comes within a ten-mile radius; in the winter, I get my salad from California like most people.

Local food production should certainly be part of the economic and ecological foundation of an area. The big need is for an entire ecology of responsive trade throughout the world. It will assure the maximum and the best food production. Monoculture of any kind, in business or agriculture, is too brittle to sustain.

And not only has exotic science improved, which has unfortunately given us GMOs, but the more fundamental work has improved, giving us much better "hothouse" produce. Organic greenhouse tropical food might be a very big business in a few years. Yet there is still no wide organic hothouse produce market. We have to demand these things by buying them.

And keep your fingers crossed that we can have better large-scale agriculture AND get rid of GMOs.

Both Big Agra and the smallholder will be involved in any change, I'm sure. What we need is for US to be the ones in control of the process.

Now that is the Big Task!

--p!

[MADem]

7. Well, "eat local" could just as easily mean "eat regional"

You get your VT milk all year round, and your VT cheese and your VT ice cream, after all. You trade these things for things that you need with states that have a longer growing season and would find the whole production efforts of "cooler" products an expensive proposition. One hand washes the other.

Hey, you're only a day's train ride away from the south...if we had a decent train system, that is...

[kestrel91316]

9. Oops, you are so right. I forgot that there are no ways to preserve fresh foods.

:eyes:

For those who wish to eat local and have retained the ability to think outside the box, like our ancestors did:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/
http://foodsafety.psu.edu/preserve.html
http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/foodpres.htm
http://www.foodsafetysite.com/consumers/resources/preservation/preservation
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/consumers/index.cfm?articleID=59&parent=1
http://home.howstuffworks.com/food-preservation.htm
http://foodsafety.psu.edu/canningguide.html
http://ucfoodsafety.ucdavis.edu/Consumer_Advice/Home_Food_Preservation.htm

I note now many of these excellent sources are public university websites and I think about how evil big government is supposed to be, and just shake my head.

Where to get canning supplies:
http://www.homecanning.com/usa/ALProducts.asp

A word to the wise. Home canning is serious science. FOLLOW DIRECTIONS.

[Benhurst]

10. Not to worry. In a few years, Vermont,

thanks to global warming, will be able to even grow its own bananas, mangoes and pineapples. :silly: