Developing Food Growing and Selling Trends

Present day food growing and retailing trends are resulting in some fascinating, untraditional farming and distribution systems

Developing food growing and selling trends are resulting in some fascinating, untraditional farming and distribution activities. These movements are making food more available and more affordable.

GROWING
Eat the City: The Art of Urban Farming reintroduces farming into the city is a truly unique way. The ‘truck farm bed’ feature photo is a creative example of this idea. Urban farming, other types of local farming and local farmers markets have created a new class of eaters, locavores.

Food Farming and Selling Trends
Deciding between organic or locally grown food. Photo Credit: Flickr Corey Templeton
They believe that eating locally grown food is the best way to go for several reasons. This food tastes the bests. Food can be freshest when eaten. There is a huge savings in transportion and distribution costs. It has even been said that locally grown food can be just as beneficial as organic food. In a variety of situations, each has advantages.

SELLING
A novel idea in a weekend only, makeshift outlet supermarket in the Netherlands has caught on like wild fire. Nearly ‘expired’ packaged foods are sold at a huge discount. One often sees this on certain perishable items in US supermarkets. But in the case of this ‘past its prime’ concept, the entire store is filled with these items.

Food Growing and Selling
Willem Jan Stamm, the owner of Outlet Stam in Schagen,The Netherlands. Photo credit: Christopher F. Schuetze

A recently discovered facebook page shines a light on a new way of selling and distributing food. It is reminiscent of the food co-op. It is called WholeShare. According to their facebook page, “Wholeshare is a website that helps you get access to good quality, affordable local food by organizing group purchases. www.wholeshare.com”.

food growing and selling
Wholeshare, the facebook page
Another fascinating concept is something called, Pay It Forward. It is practiced by a restaurant called Karma Kitchen. The staff are volunteers. The customers pay whatever they want. In other words, they pay the bill for the next group of people who come to eat. They ‘Pay It Forward’.

food growing and distribution
Karma Kitchen practices, ‘Pay It Forward’. Photo credit: www.goprojectfilms.com

CONCLUSION
Due to personal choice, as a political statement about food waste, or out of necessity, some people have taken to off the beaten path to obtain food. These include food foraging, dumpster diving, food banks, food kitchens and food stamps and bread lines. However one acquires one’s food, it is important to be conscious of the the choices we can make. Some people in this country do go hungry. The options discussed here are intended to help everyone find resources to have enough to eat.

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