The politics of stuff grown in dirt....
Vegetables grown in soil, fruit plucked off trees, berries harvested off bushes and from bogs - it all starts from a seed and continues there until it lands up somone's dinner plate. The produce industry runs the spectrum of truth & honesty and lies & fibs. It runs in your blood - just ask any produce buyer who's worked their way up from a grocery bagger.
It is one of the last frontiers of the food industry - one where the true buyers and sellers can still act like cowboys. Make deals. Trust that a handshake is enough. This is slowly changing as the grocery department mentality elbows their way into the produce arena. Some think that you should be able to sell a cornucupia of fruits and veggies the same way you sell toilet paper and canned beans.
I stumbled into the fruit and veggie bin in the mid 80s with a trip to the Ontario Food Terminal fascinated me with the jostling, the wheeling and the dealing and the cash deals that were being made. Something more was happening than what I was witnessing on the surface.
Travelling the globe, I am drawn to learn more about how people get their food, what they eat, how they prepare it and how it is sold. This foraging continues to intrigue me some 20 years later. Currently I write for Grocery Bag and several other blogs. I am a member of the Internatinal Association of Culinary Professionals, the CPRS and I sit on the Board of Directors of Earthsave Canada. And I'm active in the fresh produce field representing several different groups. You can reach me by sending an email to chriswhywho @ gmail.com.
