macro versus micro business

My friend Maria asked about why we have so much fresh, local produce whereas the US has so many resources and space and mainly does not have these things...though there are the farmer's markets and that slow food movement is creeping into high-end, gourmet foodies' thoughts and haunts...it is not a widespread thing and in fact organic, local food is sometimes considered as elitist!

I think there are a couple of contributing factors: the micro businesses that fuel Italy's economy and our particular location in Piemonte.

Time has sort of stood still it seems where all the agri -businesses are still quite small and generally family owned. This is true too for restaurants and retail. Note that there ARE big businesses here. The french it seems have learned how to do big business successfully in Italy - they have the big grocery stores: LeClerk, Carrefourre(sp?), and perhaps EsseLunga as well. Further from where we are there is Ikea and the equivalents of Home Depot and Best Buy. But, in Neive lower there is a shoe store, several butchers, several bakeries ( some it seems just storefront someone else's products?), and in Neive upper there are two small markets as well ( kinda of not so good but anyway...). This for a town of 3000!. Then also there is the weekly market - very much like the markets we have - but well not so pricey: The market is: four or five fruit/vege, a fish, a cheese, a meat, four or five clothing, a candy, a hardware, a fabric. The people who use the market are not just the hipster, foodies but the regular residents young and old. In the town 5 km away there is a slightly larger market very similar to Neive's each Thursday. In larger Alba ( 30K people), there is a market twice weekly - and quite a bit larger. It seems to me this is just the way of life that has gone on for very very long time and never changed. Italy kind of skipped the 50-60-70 bigger is better thing. There is some downside too....like the food is *very* provincial here - yeah you eat locally and pretty much only locally- i made some "unsual" pasta sauces that were simply different than the 4 that are here on every menu...( one with basil and lemon, another with sausage and onions only - so you get the idea).

Our particular location too has some influence since 1. it is an agricultural area known for producing fruits and vegetables - not a big city, 2. it is the world center and origin of the slow-food movement ( eat fresh and local is a main mission) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Food and http://www.slowfood.it/ Oh of course the location's climate and soil are the reason it is an agricultural area - but one has to include that very basic thing...

Wine too is small, family businesses. It is surprising, if you have visited wineries in california or even some of them in Oregon, to see how small and unostentatious ( I made up that word ) the wineries are here.

Well that's my babble on this topic!

chow for now-

JT