Supermarket vs Farmer's Market

Supermarkets are a conundrum.  I've always thought so.  Thousands and thousands of products available. In one huge room.  Raw stuff, cooked stuff, frozen stuff, stuff in cans, bags and boxes.  Aisle after aisle, shelf after shelf.  You can go in for a half gallon of milk and end up spending an hour there. They seem so convenient - always open, have everything you need, etc.  Why go in search of food?

The early chapters of Marion Nestle's What to Eat provides a great, in-depth description of the American supermarket and the role it plays in our Big Food system.   The average consumer walks around the store, actually believing that he or she is making independent decisions about what to buy.  When, actually, the store's layout is carefully designed based on product and consumer research to maximize your spending.  The aromas, sights, lighting, and background music are all selected to work in concert to make you forget about the outside world. This will lead to you spending more.

I'm sure you have heard (or noticed by now) that supermarkets strategically place the most highly profitable items to entice you to buy them.  In my local store, I have to walk through the bakery section and past the ice cream/frozen desserts and boxed cake treats to get to the milk and eggs. And then there's all that candy, soda and gum right at the checkout line.  Impulse central. But did you know that the food manufacturers pay the market for their shelf space?  That's why the biggest brands are mid-shelf, eye level.  Prime real estate.  Items that appeal to kids are purposely placed at kiddie eye level.  Don't believe me?  Just look in the cereal aisle.

Everything in the supermarket is clean and shiny.  Look in the produce section.  Waxy, colorful, mist-sprayed fruits and veggies gleaming under fluorescent light.  Heck - for a little more money, some of it is even already peeled and cut up for you. All beautiful and colorful. 

But since I've been doing my reading of late, an eerie feeling comes over me in the supermarket.  One that says "Where the Hell does all this food actually come from?"  Sure, there are hints - brand names, stickers on the fruit that say 'product of  _____', websites on the packages, corporate addresses you can write to, emails, etc.  But just because a carton of eggs has a mailing address on it for a distribution center in Landover, MD, is that where they came from??  Your guess is as good as mine.  Oh, and this really irks me.  I live in NJ, which in the summer months is arguably the tomato capital of the United States.  So when I go to my local supermarket in July, why are the "vine-ripened" tomatoes sporting little stickers that say "product of Mexico"?

The farmer's market is so different.  What they lack in variety, they definitely make up for in quality. If you've ever eaten a Mexican supermarket tomato, and then a local farmer's market tomato, you know exactly what I mean.  There's no mystery around the farmer's market.  Most of the food is raised or grown right there, or at least the person selling it is willing and able to tell you exactly where it came from.  Farmer's markets are usually small, friendly, and carry a minimum of processed products (maybe some jams, cheeses, crackers, treats made from honey or maple).

There's a large farmer's market in my town.  It's a PA Dutch market (we all call it the Amish Market).  Several Amish farmers pack up what they produce on their Lancaster, PA, farms and come to town.  It's only open three days a week, but the quality of everything they sell is far better than anything you can get at the supermarket. The market is like a large commune of several farmers, and it includes a butcher, poultry, dairy, produce, bakery/dry goods, pickles/jams, and a snack bar with house-made pretzels and ice cream.   If you talk with the employees they can tell you where almost any item came from-with the exception of a scant few packaged products they sell like crackers or candy.  The animals are all raised in species-appropriate environments.  Last Christmas I bought this beautiful fresh ham from the butcher there.  It was so good.

I'm trying from now on to buy as much of my food as possible at farmer's markets and avoid the supermarket.  Sure, the farmer's market is not pretty and pristine, and there may be bugs and dirt and imperfect-looking fruits and veggies.  But I like having that veil of mystery lifted.  I mean, wouldn't you rather buy Swiss chard that was this a few hours ago, instead of being loaded onto a truck a few days ago?  Just sayin'.