WASHINGTON POST • May 11, 2020
For decades, advocates from chefs to doctors have tried to get Americans to change the way they eat. In a matter of weeks, a virus appears to have done what they could not. Since mid-March small farms have seen a spike in subscriptions to community-supported agriculture operations, or CSAs, which deliver prepaid weekly bundles of seasonal produce. Buyers stocked up on seeds and plants for their lockdown “victory gardens.” Sourdough starters became “America’s rising pet,” and the nation awakened to the fact that you can grow scallions using leftover roots in a jar on the windowsill. Perhaps all we needed was a pandemic to shake us from our dependence on mass-produced, processed, factory-farm-driven diets. Not so fast. ~ Jane Black and Brent Cunningham