On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 07:22:23 -0700, Ashley Moran  
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:


> Having said that, apparently organic box schemes are really taking off  
> in the UK.  Since one started up round here a month or two ago, they  
> have already had to split the round.  Not as much is available in the  
> way of organic meat.  I can get it delivered from the same company but  
> their meat boxes still include non-organic pork.  (Most organic pork  
> here is imported from Denmark, I don't know if there's much of an  
> organic pork industry in the UK.)
Organic pastured pork is a little hard to find here too, but recently
I have found two small family farms in Colorado selling organic pastured
pork.  Each delivers to our area, one to a small store, one to an organic
dairy, so it is convenient for me.

I volunteer with a CSA (vegetables) (I think that's the same as a box  
scheme
in the U.K.) in our area, and we are selling out our shares every season.
With all the recalls, both meat and vegetable, and the refusal on the part  
of
the USDA to label GMOs or irradiated food, there is more and more interest
in buying our food direct from the farmers, people we can talk to.

Certainly in the U.S., the small farmers and ranchers are looking for a way
to make a decent living from all their work, and the direct sales/box  
schemes/
CSA route is the best, so year to year we see more of them, fed by
more and more demand for better quality food.  If you hunt around in the  
U.K.,
you will probably find some below-the-radar sources for most of what you  
want.

My husband and I started on a 100-mile diet in November, for one year.
This goes very well with a Paleo diet, since grains and beans are just the
things that are hardest to find.  Not that they aren't grown within a  
hundred
miles of our home, but they disappear into the commodity food chain,  
returning
the farmers a pittance for their work.  (100-mile diet: eat only food  
raised within
100 miles of your home; or you can change the radius of the circle, or  
choose your
state such as Colorado; the idea is to reduce the transportation miles of  
your
food, support your local farmers, and reacquaint yourself with your local
community, land and the seasons.)

	Lynnet