dagblog - Comments for "America's Artificial Heartland"

Haven't read the article yet,

Peter Schwartz — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 20:59:50 +0000

In reply to America's Artificial Heartland

Haven't read the article yet, but there must be some serious truth to the WF claims. Their produce is 100 times better than what you find in Safeway or Giant. So is their meat. How else could they produce these kinds of differences if they weren't doing something different...and better (from a food standpoint)?

I'd read that Hamilton label

Michael Wolraich — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 17:53:00 +0000

In reply to I read and followed the

I'd read that Hamilton label loosely. Basically, Hamilton wanted to develop American industry and finance, while Jefferson idealized agrarian society. These views reflected their geography--New York vs Virginia. England was of course far more industrialized than the U.S. at that time, and all Hamilton's ideas came from London.

I read and followed the

trkingmomoe — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 16:43:25 +0000

In reply to America's Artificial Heartland

I read and followed the author's line of reasoning. If any of you watched this spring on PBS the costume drama about Harry Selfridge and his store in England, that shopping as a entertainment and a chance to be part of a illusion for a few hours was introduced to London by him. Up to that point Brits just shopped because they needed something. He learned his trade at Marshall Fields in Chicago and exported it to England. I always knew this came from our culture but I never thought it was from Hamilton's vision of a money based economy. I have only been to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods once and that has been in the last year. I am getting ready to make my 4th batch of jam this summer. This time it is mango. I was given a bag of mangos from a friend's tree. I think I live from a different cloud or on a different planet. I am still bartering. Enjoyed the read.

I wish I'd come up with

Donal — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 23:34:20 +0000

In reply to America's Artificial Heartland

I wish I'd come up with something like this for my architectural orals. Lou Kahn's Served vs Servant space was a dominant meme when I arrived at college, and this turns the entire nation, indeed the world into served (Jeffersonian) and servant (Hamiltonian). The last few years were more about image, semiotics and postmodernism, all of which can be addressed as a manifestation of creating soothing, human-scale buildings that are supported by a background infrastructure.

Sometimes I imagine how

EmmaZahn — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 23:10:27 +0000

In reply to Well, one of our "local"

Sometimes I imagine how different my life would have been if my parents had not left farming for the security of a regular paycheck. It was not a sudden switch. They did both for my first decade. Fresh milk, butter and eggs every day were nice; butchering and eating animals you knew personally, not so much. Tending and harvesting the garden was not so bad; but the same for field crops was misery as was canning surpluses in July-August in Georgia without air conditioning. All that was just for family consumption. They never farmed for a cash crop because my father could make more working for a defense contractor. After my grandfather died, the farming stopped too except for a small vegetable garden every summer.

Not exactly Jefferson's yeoman farmers but only one-generation away, my parents were close enough to it that they could survive on their own if they had to. I think that gave them a sense of autonomy and independence I can only imagine. But they had good reasons for giving it up. They lived through the boll weevil pestilence and the dust bowl. Both remember being hungry at times but it really haunted my mother. They knew first hand how hard and lonely and uncertain farming can sometimes be. When they got a better offer they took it. It worked out for them. Their children are not faring nearly as well. :/ We are far too dependent on, not really strangers, but forces we do not often see or hear much about. That is one reason I liked the article. It pulled back the curtain.

Almost forget, I did find

EmmaZahn — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 22:11:28 +0000

In reply to I looked but did not find a

Almost forget, I did find this semi-related link:

ConAgra buys into private label's success | Marketplace.org

...consumers in this economy want brand-name quality at affordable prices and that's what you usually get with private label store brands like Safeway's O, Whole Food's 365 and Ralphs' Private Selection. And Lempert says those private labels cost less, not because they skimp on quality, but because they don't market or use fancy packaging. So it makes sense for ConAgra to buy into that market.

"Now they're going to have it from both sides," says Lempert. "From the branded side and from the store brand and especially if you look at different generations, baby boomers are more brand oriented and millennials are less brand-oriented."

And it ties back nicely to the original post. Brand names mass produced but privately labeled may be the ultimate marketing illusion.

Whatever. The Rao piece on

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 22:06:08 +0000

In reply to Guess I was kind of harsh but

Whatever. The Rao piece on Gervais is very nice.

Well, one of our "local"

Verified Atheist — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 22:02:14 +0000

In reply to I looked but did not find a

Well, one of our "local" farms is Polyface Farm, about which Michael Pollen wrote a fair bit in his The Omnivore's Dilemma book. In most cases, however, around here at least it seems one usually has to choose between local and organic. Getting both is rare.

I looked but did not find a

EmmaZahn — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 21:56:19 +0000

In reply to Well, assuming that Whole

I looked but did not find a link to a local feature that started out as a story about a writer's road trip with a chef in search 'pastured' chicken and beef to feature in his new restaurant. The lovely organic farm they visited turned out to be too expensive for the anticipated price range of the restaurant but it did lead the writer from a cute farm website to a local private-label chicken processor whose chickens are raised in houses by independent contractors (the old-fashioned way) but are fed differently. Each brand of chicken has its own blend of feed to satisfy FDA labeling requirements.

No doubt Whole Foods is very careful about who their 'small farm town' suppliers are. Their own brand is too dependent on them to outright lie about but they may not be quite how you picture a small farm town. I grew up in a county with two major enterprises -a cotton mill and chicken farmers. Of the two, the Dickensian mill was the more picturesque, smelled better too.

Guess I was kind of harsh but

EmmaZahn — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 21:25:58 +0000

In reply to Everything you wrote is

Guess I was kind of harsh but I expected better from you -- and what you wrote was not really relevant to the article. Made me wonder whether or not you work for Whole Foods or are one of their suppliers, possibly own stock?