Economics, Food, Local Food

New Book Explains Why Big Cities Back Hometown Food

As a local food enthusiast, I often wonder: why is it that places most removed in their landscape from farms, most outward-turning in their economy, most cosmopolitan in their culture, most multicultural in their backgrounds, most futuristic in their outlook — North American cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Chicago, Toronto, New York and Boston — are the very…

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Food Policy, Politics

A Raging Bull in a Tea Party Shop: What Foodies Can Learn from a City Election in Toronto that Foretold U.S. Mid-term Elections

I wrote most of this as an assessment of Toronto’s election during the day of October 25, before the polls were closed and any votes counted in Toronto’s city elections. I didn’t know who won, but I already knew what lost — Toronto’s longstanding consensus around the “radical middle” of city responsibilities for social belonging and environmental leadership. As it…

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