An article in today’s Jacksonville Business Journal reports on the growing popularity of farmers markets. Many residents of Jacksonville, Florida, like people elsewhere, are showing greater interest in locally grown food and in reducing their driving.
As they flock to the area’s farmers markets in search of fresh local produce, however, a new problem is [...]

Farms that achieve stability and success through the community supported agriculture (CSA) model were among the inspirations for hivethrive. Joe and I have written about CSA farms a number of times here, so it was with interest that we read a prominent article in today’s New York Times entitled Cutting Out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy [...]

Today’s New York Times examines the continuing draw of food festivals in California, where many of the favorite local foods being celebrated are increasingly threatened. Patterson, longtime home of an apricot festival and self-proclaimed “apricot capital of the world,” is growing fewer apricots these days due to low-cost imports of dried apricots from Turkey. Gilroy, [...]

Here at hivethrive, we often write about efforts that are planting the seeds of community and creating prosperity in the process. A piece today by a blogger who writes about local food drew my attention to an entrepreneur who has built a business around heirloom seeds, music, and community.

Technorati Tags: food, local food

Products that are identified chiefly as green, organic, or locally produced have sometimes risked falling into what one might call the LOHAS Trap. To the extent that LOHAS, an acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, is regarded as a relatively affluent, well-educated market segment, products that are aimed at that segment are likely to [...]

The massive flooding in the Midwest is of such a scale that it can be difficult to imagine how to respond. There are now reports that the flooding will likely have a devastating impact on the Gulf of Mexico as well. As the flood waters travel down the Mississippi River, they carry nitrates from [...]

The Environmental News Network (ENN) reported yesterday on a study that found consumers are willing to pay more for locally produced foods. The same day, Air America Radio’s Thom Hartmann argued on his program that consumer choice is inadequate to achieve a transformation of our economy to responsible forms of production.
Can these contentions be reconciled?

Technorati [...]