To Every Thing There Is a Season

So the Obamas plant an organic garden at the White House and now I read that the conventional farming lobbyists are freaking out. They think everyone's going to want to eat fresh, local, organic food exclusively and they're saying this isn't realistic. Well, gang, I have news for you: I liked fresh and local before it was cool—I just did a fun piece about the local farmers' market—and I nevertheless understand that commercial farming isn't going to go away, and I have no particular desire that it should. I just like fresh and local when I can get it, OK?

Some of the quotes from the Slate article linked to above under "freaking out" are revealing. One representative of Chilean growers was worried that we'd deprive ourselves:

The main problem, he says, is that local food is seasonal. For example, avocadoes grow in California during the summer months. Same with grapes. "What happens if you want some grapes during the month of December?" says Equihua. "What are you going to do? Not eat grapes?"

The implicit suggestion here is that grapes must be eaten everywhere, in every month, or you die. It's literally impossible to not eat grapes year-round and still sustain life. I exaggerate, of course, but the obvious underlying assumption really is that people must have whatever want whenever they want it. I'm not sure about this. Infants want whatever they want whenever they want it, certainly. That's one of their abiding characteristics. Adults bow gracefully to necessity, and learn it's not all that bad. It's kind of nice, for instance, to go through life in harmony with the seasons. I've got a lovely book called Potager: Fresh Garden Cooking in the French Style, and its premise is that you can cook with local, seasonal stuff year-round and still find life worth living. ("Potager" is French for vegetable garden.) In the summer you have tomatoes, in the winter carrots and potatoes. Doesn't that seem just plain right, somehow? I think it does.

Yes, there are people who go off the deep end and become fanatics. But most of the people who have "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" stickers on their cars (and they do have cars) are just saying that it's preferable, OK? When possible. Sheesh. Business people sure are panicky types, I'll say that.