I think someothr countries like in europe see thier crops as part of their cultural heritage, protect and support them.
Safron in spain. Grapes and wine in Italy.
Asperagus, hopps in Germany.
I don’t know the list but thier are country associations with certain products.
They have huge organized festivals supporting these things. And they segway or encourage tourism based on these as well.
Seems all we have is greed or the bottom dollar for some huge company.
At a local store I thought the .99$ lb asperagus was a deal. I stopped buying it when I saw the product of mexico label.
Well, as a nation we’ve become addicted to cheap imported food, with not much thought as to the where it’s from or how it’s grown. maybe this is changing.
My nearest food share farm is over 75 miles away.We have a sort of roving farmers market, in different places in the city on different days. It makes sense to try and grow something, at least seasonally. I have the occasional farmer aka neighborhood gardener selling stuff on a corner near here, but I much rather like growing it myself.
Green beans are a hit. Cherry tomatoes, squash, okra, Japanese eggplant, basil, thyme, bell pepper, cukes. Failure at big tomatoes. Oh, and zucchini. Who can kill zucchini. I’d blink and it would mutate to the size of a baseball bat.