A few thoughts: food as resistance

Hey folks--

Time passes quickly. Just finished my first few interviews and will post them once they are transcribed (the painstaking process of oral histories...)

In the meantime, I have been thinking a lot about my twisting path to an interest in food and farming. I was raised fairly apart from agriculture, living in town with parents that have wholeheartedly embraced the rewards of academic life and upper middle class living. Although I have always felt connected to land and other people (mostly thanks to my parents, who worked hard to instill in me a sense of love and respect for all people and things), that was much more a feeling than a reality when I was younger.

Once I started college, I took a lot of environmental science and studies classes that focused my interest in the other-than-human world. With this expansion in perspective came a change in priorities. I began to recognize the constraints and expectations of my life, and desire a more radical interaction with my world. I took time to slow my life and its heedless rush towards graduation and a 'good life.' I wanted to learn outside of school, separate from those sources of authority and that way of life.

I began to learn from the people and communities that determine their realities for themselves, using their hands to create art and meaning in their everyday lives. Which leads me to the idea of: growing food as resistance. Resistance against a society that has worked for a million reasons to control and compartmentalize one of the most beautiful things a person can do: feed themselves and others via direct interaction with the natural cycles, seasons, and processes of our living world. Resistance against a modern, fast-paced way of life that holds no place for an identity defined and enlightened by manual labor, communal living, and alternative economies based on skill and craft trade.

So I became interested in farming as a way of life that seems contrary to what I find unappealing or harmful in modern life. My romantic, idealistic view of farmer as community barn-raiser and good ol' human has clarified in my time at Flying Cloud. I recognize the hard work and many talents expended every day; the stresses of finances, business plans, and, yes, commerce. However, I still believe that the life I am living here is a better and more just way to live in a world that has gone too far in another direction, down a path of meaningless, impersonal consumerism and disconnect from other people and other beings.

So although I am conducting interviews on community economies, more than that, I am living in one and finding it agreeable.

Below are my interview questions, for those interested in the actual process. These are directed towards eaters from the farm, folks directly involved in regional commerce. I'll try to post thoughts and impressions from my first interview tomorrow. Also (hopefully) coming are pictures of the farm that a friend took.


Partners in Local Food--Consumers

1. Characterizing your community:
1. Mapping project: We would like you to lay out, from your perspective, the special features of your community and surrounding area. Please fill in some of the following (There can be overlap among the different categories):

1. Your own home and some of the places in your area that you go to most often in the course of a regular week.
2. The places, businesses, and activities that help to define your community
3. Businesses, farms, stores, and restaurants that are part of the local food economy.

Just to be clear could you: (a) underline category 1 (your home, etc. ) in red, (b) highlight category 2 (special features) in yellow; and (c) highlight the local food economy in blue.

(End of mapping exercise—although informants are free to refer to map or even add to it in the remaining questions)

2. In addition to what you have placed on the map, can you list other features that make your community special?
3. Do you consider any of features that you have put on the map or just mentioned as typical of other North Carolina communities?
4. Of the features that you just mentioned, which if any make your community different from other communities in North Carolina?
5. How do you think that the features you have identified affect the local economy?

2. Connections to local food:

1. In terms of your own shopping, how often do you…? (use attached checklist#1):
2. How would you define “local” food?
3. Are there any foods, flowers, or other locally grown products that you buy, or try to buy, specially when in season?
1. If yes, what vegetables?
2. What kinds of fruit?
3. What kind of meat?
4. What other products?
4. How does the quality of locally grown items differ from other items? Can you give some examples?
5. Have you recently tried new or unfamiliar fruits, vegetables, cuts of meat or other products?
1. If yes, which ones
2. Was it locally grown? And if so, did that affect your decision to buy the food?
6. In your perception, and experience, do locally grown foods or flowers tend to be cheaper or more expensive than their non-local alternatives?

3. Connections to grocery stores and food retailers:
1. From which of the following places have you gotten groceries? (Checklist #2)
2. Have you ever made a request for a special food or preparation from a store or other provider? If so what did you request? From what kind of store? How did the store respond?
3. Have you ever approached a store for support for a community organization or event? What was the occasion? From what kind of store? How did the store respond?
4. Have you contacted a store in order to sell a product or to promote a business venture? If yes, what was the product? From what kind of store? What was the response?
5. Are you part of a local food cooperative?
6. Do you have a favorite store or source for groceries? Which one? Why is it your favorite?
7. If you could change one thing about the way your local grocery store operates (the one that you use most often), what would it be?
8. If you could change one thing about the store’s relation to the community, what would it be? (e.g. its location, school partnerships, selection of food)

Checklist #1: Local Food Practices: How often do you…?

	Not at all	Every once in a while	Sometimes	Often	Almost always
buy North Carolina-grown produce at a grocery store?	1	2	3	4	5
buy something at a farmers market?	1	2	3	4	5
buy products such as jams, salsas or other ready-made goods that are identified as NC-made?	1	2	3	4	5
buy something at a farm stand?	1	2	3	4	5
buy something direct from a farm?	1	2	3	4	5
raise something to eat in your own garden?	1	2	3	4	5
receive a gift of produce that family or friends have raised?	1	2	3	4	5
buy a product that bears a label from a farm that you have heard of?	1	2	3	4	5
buy a product directly from a farmer that you have met?	1	2	3	4	5
raise food or prepare dishes to give as gifts to others?	1	2	3	4	5

Check list #2: Within the past year, how often did you get food at the following places…?

	Not at all	Occasionally, but little used	Sometimes	Often	Most common
A chain grocery store	1	2	3	4	5
A gas station or convenience store	1	2	3	4	5
A large retailer such as Target or Wal-Mart	1	2	3	4	5
A cooperatively owned grocery store	1	2	3	4	5
An independent grocery store	1	2	3	4	5
An organic, ethnic, or gourmet grocery	1	2	3	4	5
A non-profit organization such as a community food pantry	1	2	3	4	5
(other____________)	1	2	3	4	5

Check list #3: Self-Reported Demographic Information (complete at end of interview)

Age:_________________

Gender:______________

Race or ethnicity:_________________

Hometown:______________________

Years of residence in community:____

Approximate annual household income:

0-$24,999 25,000 -49,999 50,000-74,999 75,000-99,999 100,000-124,999 >125,000

Educational background:

Elementary High School Graduate Some College Undergrad Degree Grad Degree