All of you who know me know I’m a sucker for feel good stories that involve farmers, community and food. Straight out of Vermont in today’s New York Times is a doozie and I just have to share.
The story is about several different purveyors of food products – vegetable farmers, cheese makers, restauranteur – who have banded together in a loose sort of cooperation to bolster each other’s economic success and it’s working. You’ve got the cheesemakers who expanded their cheese cave to allow others to age their cheeses and farmers who include livestock farmers’ products in their CSA shares.
It’s a win-win all around because everyone gets more business, increasing recognition of their product and improving the community’s economic viability. It’s not communism or socialism because it was all self-initiated. I’m sure some people (not readers of this blog!) will read the New York Times article and sniff at the Vermont Hippies since it could be classified as communal in nature. But I like to think of it is neighborly in nature, and plain ole smart. So let’s hear it for the DIYers who didn’t need the government or the ideologues to tell them how to leverage their resources to improve everyone’s success, not just their own.
Love and Hugs
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