The Pros and Cons of Year-Round Produce Availability
Seasonality and locality are important
These days, we can go to the supermarket and pick out strawberries in December and cauliflower in July. I find this amazing, bizarre, and horrifying at the same time. I mean, it’s stunning, but can we really expect strawberries to be as delicious in December as they were in April? Many of us enjoy the large variety of produce at the supermarket and the ability to have the vegetables we want, whenever we want them.
However, I think that this constant availability comes at a price, the most important of which, is causing us to become more disengaged with our food than ever before.
Why is produce always available now?
The answer lies in better transportation methods and a huge increase in importation over the last few decades. In the US, we can import produce from cooler places like Canada, or warmer places like Peru to widen the seasonal window of many of the fruits and vegetables we love eating.
This is possible thanks to refrigerated and inert-condition shipping. Because of these technological advances, we can import grapefruits from South Africa and have them in the US, in our own kitchen, within weeks.
