Seasonal Divides

Another beautiful day in the north country,but very few people seem interested in exploiting the potential bounty available here.  We are still offering celery, but the trade has moved on.  Wholesalers and retailers would rather pay the cost of trucking celery from California than clear inventories from local growers.  As salesmen, we usually lament the "bean counters" who seem to be in charge of buying decisions for chain stores, but in this case, I think the buyers are being intransigent.  Their feeling is the time has come to switch and it is easier to do that than continue the local deal.  This attitude is almost impossible to overcome.  The excuses range from concerns about quality to the trouble it causes to run local and California product together to sheer stupidity.  As the climate continues to warm, there will be more opportunities for local produce to hang on into the early winter.  With a slight change in consumer behavior to accomodate a more seasonal diet, we could easily cut down the extravagant transportation of  summertime veggies such as squash and cucumbers and substitute more nutritious fare such as kale and winter squash.  This may be a utopian vision, but necessity may the trump card as we approach an uncertain future.