...The Local Food Movement Benefits Farms, Food Production, Environment The Local Food Movement, 2010 Pallavi Gogoi is a writer for BusinessWeek Online. She frequently writes on retailing. Just as small family-run, sustainable farms were losing their ability to compete in the food marketplace, the local food movement stepped in with a growing consumer demand for locally grown, organic, fresh produce. In addition to supermarket giants following the trend toward locally grown food and devoting shelf space to such items, local foods are also finding their way into schools, office cafeterias, and even prisons. Although the trend toward organic foods has not waned, consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact caused when organic foods must travel to find their way to the local grocery store shelf. For this and other reasons, consumers are opting instead for locally grown counterparts, choosing to eat what is available in each season in their areas rather than purchasing food that must be shipped from other regions. Drive through the rolling foothills of the Appalachian range in southwestern Virginia and you'll come across Abingdon, one of the oldest towns west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. If it happens to be a Saturday morning, you might think there's a party going on—every week between 7 a.m. and noon, more than 1,000 people gather in the parking lot on Main Street, next to the police station. This is Abingdon's farmers' market. "For folks here, this is part of the Saturday...
Words: 6965 - Pages: 28
...Microcultures in Canada A Comparative Approach Introduction Every society contains both a mainstream culture and many different subcultures. The mainstream culture is how one is identified as. However, microcultures consist of how we identify ourselves within the global mainstream culture. There are multitudes of ways to participate in a microculture. It could be along ethnic, religious lines, or even lifestyle. All these factors come into play with regards to the different aspects of microcultures. This paper will delve into all three types of microcultures; it will look at Vietnamese, Jewish, and Vegan cultures and compare them to mainstream Canadian culture. The subsequent comparative analysis aims at finding differences in an attempt to better understand and communicate more effectively, by clarifying the common misunderstandings that arise when communicating with different microcultures, whether in business or everyday life. Vietnamese Background/History/Evolution Representing one of the largest non-European sub-cultures in Canada, the Vietnamese community ranks 5th in terms of size and comprises just over 150,000 individuals. Concentrated in metropolitan areas, close to 60% of the population resides in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver or Calgary (Statistics Canada see Appendix B). Despite currently being a sizable group, this sub-culture was virtually non-existent prior to the Vietnamese war that took place between 1964 and 1975. It wasn't until the conflict arose...
Words: 7095 - Pages: 29
