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local food systems--whose responsibility?



I agree with Bill that more needs to be done to encourage local eating.
However, I disagree with Bill's emphasis on blaming farmers for lack of
local markets.  I think that consumers need to be the movers and shakers
here--farmers have enough to worry about, folks!  While farmers can create
local markets to some extent, it will surely take more than what they can
do in order to create sustainable local-oriented food systems.  Instead of
preaching at farmers not to market outside their local area, how about
pushing policy makers to create urban growth boundries outside of which
agriculture can flourish?  I think that there are many things we can do to
encourage people to eat locally, and hope that we'll be focusing more on
consumer responsibility rather than pusing farmers to take on more than
they are willing or able.