Originally Posted by
ChipSeal
Yeah, It would've been a bad thing -fer sure- to allow farmers with the bad luck of having a farm further away from competing for your business! Sure do love them fair trade practices.
While I'm wondering if I want to move so I can continue to enjoy seafood, perhaps we should revive the big cattle drives of yesteryear! No more of that wasteful driving doggies to the slaughter-house in the back of a smelly old truck- make 'em walk! (If a steer walking down a highway is centered in the lane, is he a vehicular hamburger on the hoof? Do you think he will be subjected to close passes by inconvenienced motorists?)
I'm gonna miss cranberry's, blue, red and blackberries. I wonder if they grow hops around here? I guess pancakes are out for me cause I won't eat 'em without genuine maple syrup. (How big do you suppose the local north east maple syrup market is?) I'm glad they grow wheat and corn nearby so I can still enjoy my Capt Crunch! 
I'm gonna miss chocolate... 
No wonder this idea isn't catching on.
Cap'n Crunch is local food for me, as it's made in Battle Creek, MI. And this local idea isn't new at all. It worked very well for our industrial society until about 60 years ago, right after WWII. That's when "advances" in agriculture and the availability of cheap petrochemicals made large scale agriculture possible, and the family farms were put out of business. All those old county roads in Texas--known as "Farm Market Road"--point out how important the locally grown food was in Texas and all over the world until a short time ago.
Now the idea of marketing food more locally is catching on again. For example, Burlington, VT grows about ten per cent of its food within the city limits, and much more within the surrounding rural area. You make the point that regional specialization--Wisconsin cheese, Vermont maple syrup, Michigan berries--will always be part of the food economy. But many more of the staples should be grown closer to home for reasons that wahoonc explained very well.