What the heck is going on? Since when did producing safer food in more plentiful supply at highly efficient plants located strategically close to raw materials and/or markets at lower costs become bad? I am trying to understand the “produce and buy it locally” movement and why it is so good for us and should be supported as the food production system of the future. Yes, I support farmer’s markets, but I realize that all those fruits and vegetables not to mention the locally raised and slaughtered (ask to go see these local abattoirs some time) meat and poultry are usually at substantially higher prices than available at your “local” supermarket or even natural foods store. Are they any safer than that mass-produced variety? In a word, no.
What don’t consumers like about buying meat and poultry from the large plants that dot our U.S. landscape? I guess that size matters but in this case, big is not good. Small local production is the “feel good” dopamine of the human mind and that may be the underlying motivation of the “locavore” movement.