Some Good News on the Food Front

Wal-Mart plans on buying and selling more local produce: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/business/15walmart.html?_r=1&src=busln

As I wrote when I got back from Ireland, one of the things that amazed me in Ireland was that fruit was available everywhere. Every 24 hour convenience store, airport concession, snack bar etc. had fruit.

And, not only was the fruit there, it was delicious. The apples were crisp and tart, the bananas perfectly ripe, and packages of strawberries were plump and sweet.

When I got back to the states, I made a conscience effort to seek out fruit and buy it from places you normally don't find it.

First, it was hard to find. In one airport, I was only able to find a few, very old, bananas. If I found an apple (usually a red delicious) it was inevitably mealy tasting.

I came to the conclusion that it had to do with distances. In Europe, food is shipped from near-by, and quickly sold while its still fresh.

Here in the states, food is shipped over long distances and usually stored for long periods of time under less then optimal conditions.

So hopefully, more local produce will mean better tasting produce at Wal-Mart which will lead to more people eating fruits and vegetables.