Politicizing the Farmers' Market

By Peter Wilson

I don't understand those "No Farms, No Food" bumper stickers you see around places like Cambridge and Berkeley. Isn't it obvious? Why not "No toy factories, no toys"? "No Apple, No iPods"? "No Chickens, No Eggs"? (Or is it the other way around?) Is there a nefarious anti-farm lobby I don't know about? It turns out that No Farms, No Food is a trademarked slogan of the American Farmland Trust, a DC-based lobbying group, and what they really mean is, No Local Farms, No Local Food. The local food, or locavore, movement has brought together a number of trendy causes: the preservation of open space, saving suburban farms from those tacky subdivisions with their CO2-spewing SUVs; saving the planet from global warming caused by shipping food long distances; saving the family farm from giant conglomerates; saving our children from obesity through organic and healthy food campaigns like Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative. One visible symbol uniting these global concerns (not unlike the polar bear for global warmists) is the farmers'.... (Read Full Article)