A taste of "pure" speculation?

Today we're focused on asking some questions rather than suggesting answers. The more we look at our current "food system," the more troublesome it becomes to decide if we're even asking  the correct questions. For example, if "the market" wanted to be supplied by more, smaller, more regional meet processors, how would that happen? The agriculture sector has been moving to fewer, larger operations for quite some time. According to the 2011 report Local and Regional Foods in Minnesota:

This appears to have occurred just as the growth in local foods was beginning  to emerge. Minnesota is currently served by about a dozen food hubs, more than eighty community supported agriculture [CSA] farms, something like 200 farmers markets, and more than fifty food coops. How is this aggregation of food sources supplied? When the local meat shelves are bare, who do we hold accountable? The governor? The legislature? The Department of Agriculture? The Health Department? The Department of Trade and Economic Development? Does the food buck have anyplace to stop in our system of government, or is it all based on private decisions that yield the greatest profit for...?

have you ever wondered what yak tastes like?

Photo by J. Harrington

I seem to recall an old saying to the effect that any road will do if you don't care where you end up. That  seems to be the case in Minnesota. As stated on its Food Policy Council page:

As you may know, the Minnesota Food Charter Network has become inactive without staff. A Transition Team, composed of former Action Team members, was charged with recommending future directions for statewide collaborative work. This blog post outlines these recommendations and directions for future work. 

I wonder how anyone thinks we could end up with a sustainable society and an equitable culture without better ways to ensure access to food, shelter, water and a healthy environment. If you have suggestions (other than looking for John Galt), please feel free to share in the comments.

[UPDATE: Op-ed: A Fairer, More Resilient Food System is Possible]

Meat

August Kleinzahler

How much meat moves
Into the city each night
The decks of its bridges tremble
In the liquefaction of sodium light
And the moon a chemical orange

Semitrailers strain their axles
Shivering as they take the long curve
Over warehouses and lofts
The wilderness of streets below
The mesh of it
With Joe on the front stoop smoking
And Louise on the phone with her mother

Out of the haze of industrial meadows
They arrive, numberless
Hauling tons of dead lamb
Bone and flesh and offal
Miles to the ports and channels
Of the city's shimmering membrane
A giant breathing cell
Exhaling its waste
From the stacks by the river
And feeding through the night

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