Friday, July 03, 2009

Locavore Versus "Industrial"

Walter Jeffries at Sugar Mountain Farm has a post on his hot dogs, which I'm sure are very good, mostly. But because he has to rely on others, there's some problems in achieving a consistent product. Industry has trained us consumers to expect the same thing every time and every place; a McDonalds french fry tastes the same from coast to coast. McDonalds can demand its suppliers meet its standards. But a locavore food producer doesn't have the cash flow or the size of operation to compete on uniformity. (I'm reminded of a memoir from Ontario county, NY where the writer remembered that every farm had a different recipe for its bacon and ham.) The same is true for restaurants. My wife and I like the Tortilla Factory in Herndon, but some days their chips and their machaca are better than others.

There's always a tradeoff.

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