Locally grown veggies for a school

Recently in Japan, members of the PTA of a certain school found out that the school cafeteria was using fruits and vegetables shipped in from far away, sometimes even from overseas. These parents called on school officials to use locally grown produce. There are plenty of small farms in the area, they pointed out. Why can't we buy from them?

And that's exactly what they did.

Buying locally was more expensive, but apparently the extra cost was not an insurmountable problem.

Students say they like the idea of eating food grown locally, and the family farms that supply the produce say the arrangement makes them feel like they're growing food for their own community.

(I saw this story recently on a Japanese-language news broadcast on San Francisco's KTSF [Channel 26]. I don't remember the name of the town, but the story itself left an impression on me.)

—Mellow Monk

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