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Re: Foodsheds (again) (fwd)



From: WLockeretz@Infonet.Tufts.Edu
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 95 10:36:15 EDT
Subject: Foodsheds (again)

The characteristic of a watershed (American usage) that makes it precisely 
definable and useful is that not only does a particular body of water always 
receive its water from a particular area, but also the reverse: that the 
water running off from a particular place always follows the same course 
(i.e., the line of steepest descent) and always ends up in the same body of 
water.  Is that supposed to apply to a "foodshed" too?  That is, must a given 
farmer always sell everything through a single channel, to be consumed in a 
single place?   If a farmer produces both wheat and vegetables, and sells the 
vegetables in a local farmers' market, must the wheat be sold there too?  A 
stream of water doesn't split and go to two places.  Unless we want to impose 
the same restriction on where farmers sell, maybe we need a "wheatshed," a 
"vegetableshed," and so on (maybe even a "Not-otherwise-Classified-shed."  
And if the farmer also raises cows, would they be sold in the cowshed?

William Lockeretz