Food Fight: Co-op versus Farmers Market

I finally did it. I made it back to the Newark Farmer's Market.

I keep going back to Acme, Safeway, etc. whatever's on the way home from work. Monday, though, I don't know what got into me, but... I've recently been having this notion hammered into me. Faith without works is dead. Talk is cheap. Say whatever you want, it's actions that make up who you are and what you stand for. Go support your locally owned produce market, if you believe in it so much.

And I do.

And I do it because... well, essentially, local is better. Corporations are too big, have too much influence, and their main priority is to produce sustainable legal income. Some corporations do care about the environment, but when you look at the structure: their PRIORITY is to make money. Period. I don't trust something that operates that way. Aside from that, I think "love thy neighbor" sums it up. I am loving the people in my community by supporting what I think is a well-run local business. I am putting my money in their hands instead of in the hands of corporations. I just like it bettah that way.

It's not really a farmer's market, per se. When I think "Farmer's Market," I think about a spot where you can buy foods from the farmers what grew 'em. That's not the case with this place, but I like it for what it is.

It's inside of an old department store. (I remember when it was still Best. I remember that there was a phone shaped as a football that was entrancing enough to write about in my journal later.) I suppose it's renovated, but when you go in it still has that "rough around the edges" feeling. Which is a feeling I kinda like. It makes things feel like, "yeah, we're a store, and we're real people running a real store, WHAT. Were you expecting something nicer than a concrete floor? Go to Wal-Mart for all I care."

I still have a tough time buying food around here. I got spoiled in Takoma Park. Best place I ever lived for eating. And dancing. And aikido. (Remind me why I left, again??) Their farmers markets, you knew you were buying local. Their co-op was the bomb for prices. Comparatively, I'm less than thrilled here.

I do shop the co-op for bulk foods. They have organic brown rice (need to buy organic for brown rice because the hulls really cling to any pesticides). They have nature burger, and they finally got that refried bean mix. Glorious. But when I'm at the co-op, looking at the produce... aside from a few tags in PA, MD, and DE, a lot of the stuff is still coming in from California.

I can't figure what the difference is between shopping at the co-op and shopping at the farmer's market. Both are small local groceries, which is what I want, to stop voting for the existence of corporations with my money. Both get their produce from just about as far away, which is to say, probably some local but not all. The Farmers Market has a HUGE selection, though, and they have cheese made in New York, and you can get out of the store without damaging your wallet.

Shrug. If I wanted to be super-good, I'd get on a CSA. To be honest, CSA's scare me. I've never done it before. I do like stepping out of my comfort zone, but I don't do it all the time. There are times to try new things and take new steps. Anyway, I'm afraid of a few things. I'm afraid that I'll end up investing a lot of money (don't have a ton of extra cash lying around) in too much food (buying for 1 person = many things go bad before you can eat them) that I don't know how to cook (I've tried the whole "buy this and figure out how to make it" method, it ends up getting ignored and rotting in the fridge).

I think it's in the future, it's just a not-now kind of step. Meh.