Posted on 09/15/2014 11:03:32 AM PDT by not2be4gotten.com
One thing that is really cool about Europe and has been ruined in the US, is the ability to buy food from the common people on the street. Many are the actual farmers them selves. And we have many wonderful conversations with these remarkable people. I remember going out to Southern California as a pre-teen and experiencing all the different little grocery stands that were there in the late 60's. When I returned there in 2010, there where NO independent produce/fruit stands. It took me a while to figure out why this happened, I was stumped for a long time. What happened is that over the years, the big grocery chains figured out how to get rid of their competition through politics. Under the guise of "public safety" and "public health" they set up lobby groups to require food retailers to have running water, sewage connections, refrigeration requirements, weighing device standards and so on and so forth. They made it impossible to set up a fruit stand under the threat of fines and even jail time. In other words, the big grocery stores got the government to hire all of these bureaucrats, to eliminate their competition with YOUR MONEY! And it is just sickening. It is called "crony capitalism". The common folk in America have no clue this has happened to them. Those who require safety/security over freedom deserve neither.
We go a an amazingly cool market in Gwinnett: Assi. It is an international market with an unbelievable range of goods. The food court is amazing too.
Unfortunately, it is a bit of a haul, or we’d shop there all the time.
This was my favorite.
What happens is that a few bad apples, end up making people sick and then government tries to prevent people getting sick. Unfortunately, government tends to rely on regulation more than product audits. The end result is that businesses are closed due to the increased regulatory burden.
Eventually, automation helps to reduce the regulatory burden, but industry suffers in the mean time. Same thing happens in the medical field. Every regulation is because someone somewhere screwed up, but the totality of regulation becomes a very costly endeavor that itself impinges on quality of care.
Go back in late January or February and tell us how wonderful it is.
And yes, I know they have the Habitrails for humans and such. But still.
You obviously have not been to rural Texas. ;-)
Unless they cracked down on them, Houston had plenty of people selling food out of ice chests, especially homemade tamales.
I notice you didn't praise the rundown outhouses that sell for $800,000. Decrepit houses that would be condemned in my town. Christianity practically outlawed. Large white families heavily discouraged. Rapidly being taken over by Asian culture and Asian money. A real paradise for an American kid..
you must not be from New Jersey or upstate New York (or I imagine from some other U.S. locales) where roadside local farm-to-market stands are many.
Where I live, 30 minutes from Silicon Valley, there are quite a few independent fruit and vegetable stands and they grow one or two particular things, getting the rest from other local farms.
Same in Watsonville, Castroville, Salinas, all over California in fact.
You can do the same in ....I was going to list states but, everywhere I’ve been there are farmers markets.
If the collective has the power to redistribute private property, the weak, the lazy, and the crooked will take it from you.
adding to my previous post
you have also not been to Manhattan in New York City, where Union Square has a daily farmers market & sidewalk fresh produce stands are numerous in residential neighborhoods and there are as many local small stores selling ONLY (primarily) fruits and vegetables as there are supermarkets & quite a number of them selling items or varieties of items NOT in most supermarkets
nor have you seen in New Jersey and in California (two areas I know of) how many more supermarkets have specifically “local” produce in their produce sections
in one supermarket in California I found a number of “vintage” tomatoes among more than seven varieties of tomatoes alone, and more than one locally grown varietiea of corn, lettuce and others
I think your knowledge of the subject is too limited.
I live in Bakersfield. If you want the kind of trucks he is talking about they are all along the roadside outside the city on the way to any of the smaller towns surrounding us. They pull up a truck put up an umbrella and sell stuff. It’s illegal but because they are Mexicans noone does anything about it. You can see the same people on the same corner every day.
Then there are the regulated farmers markets all over town. Their fruits and veggies here always look like crap so I quit stopping at them. It’s like they take their leftovers to the farmers markets.
Oh man. You would go crazy over the corn from LJB Farms in Gilroy this year.
So sweet and crunchy.
Additionally, it’s very difficult to sell crap here as we live next to strawberries, corn, peppers, lettuce, artichokes, brocol6, cauliflower.
I stop at roadside places all the time and grab stuff. They are picture perfect til the end of season and then you get what you get, til growers from other regions ship their stuff In.
But, your desert is drier than our desert.
Only thing I like about Bakersfield is Harris Ranch.
But, you guys also grow potatoes and almonds like crazy there.
And a friend who has one of the largest farms owns water and mineral rights, so they are still watering and growing.
I’d much rather buy it from farmers who grow their own, than some filthy corporation that probably injects all kinds of pesticides and preservatives into their “food”.
Do they have a better variety than the Buford Hwy Market?
I can get just about any type of fruit/veggie from that place.
Real food too? Isn’t it wonderful. Not chemicalized toxic crap.
On certain weekends during certain times of the year, there are produce markets in Houston. I know there is one off of Washington AVE, another one on Wirt Rd. I have not been to the old Farmers Market over in the Heights in years and I am not sure if it is still there. It was open 7 days a week with vegetables straight from the farm. If you feel like taking a drive up to Hempstead there used to be a great outdoor market up there. I’ll bet it is still there and this is making me want to go and find out. :)
The stuff you can buy from the Mexicans along the road is nice stuff. It’s the farmers markets that have the crap. We have a friend that owns a restaurant out in Lamont which is 98% Mexican. Every time we go out there I stop at one of the roadside trucks and load up.
“Buy my crap. Same stuff, better price...”
The common refrain when two Mexicans are competing for the same customer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.