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CanisLupusArctos · 06-09-2008, 10:23 AM

I walked right into a 99 restaurant yesterday with a big group of friends and we were seated immediately. We've always had to wait, in the past. There were empty tables around us.

While it's a given that the economy is affecting the restaurant business, one more factor is the weather. It's been a long winter and we finally had a hot weekend. Who in their right mind would want to go into a restaurant? After a few more hot days, people would probably say "OK that's enough," and retreat to places that have AC. But yesterday I saw people outside, enjoying the feeling of sweating by standing still in the shade instead of from snow shoveling.

One of the people manning an information booth told me yesterday they had seen a surge in foreign tourists, especially from the UK, because the weak dollar makes it cheap for them once they get here. However, according to BBC and London Times online, they're having the same difficulty with rising gas prices, high food prices, falling home values, and their airlines are also in the same situation as ours.

There may be hope for any restaurant serving local food. The rise in food prices is due to a worldwide shortage resulting from the following:

1) Mass production and large-scale commercial farming is almost entirely dependent on oil for machinery, processing, packaging as well as oil-derived fertilizers and pesticides. And then there's the cost of trucking the food from there to here.

2) More food crops are being turned into biofuels.

3) For the last few decades (and especially in the last few years) we've been turning farms into subdivisions. It's been happening in many other nations, also.

Since the mass-production and mass-distribution model of food is now showing how vulnerable it is to the price of oil, the locally-grown produce that raised your grandparents (and many of our parents) is making a comeback. The small scale family farms that were able to survive the last few years are now the more sustainable business model because they don't use as much oil-derived modernization as a large-scale farm has to. More things are done by the hands of people whose labor used to be more expensive than oil but not anymore. The final products don't have to ride the truck very far (if at all) to reach you.

This is good news for local producers. Moulton Farm said they were very busy. I would imagine the area's other farms are the same way. Recently I was down in the Boston area and found that Richardson's Dairies had the cheapest milk prices anywhere (even better than Market Basket.) Their own cows are on-site. Makes me wonder what the local dairies around here are charging for on-site milk purchases, but I keep forgetting to check. Does anyone know?

06-09-2008, 10:23 AM	#17
CanisLupusArctos Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Center Harbor Posts: 1,049 Thanks: 15 Thanked 472 Times in 107 Posts	I walked right into a 99 restaurant yesterday with a big group of friends and we were seated immediately. We've always had to wait, in the past. There were empty tables around us. While it's a given that the economy is affecting the restaurant business, one more factor is the weather. It's been a long winter and we finally had a hot weekend. Who in their right mind would want to go into a restaurant? After a few more hot days, people would probably say "OK that's enough," and retreat to places that have AC. But yesterday I saw people outside, enjoying the feeling of sweating by standing still in the shade instead of from snow shoveling. One of the people manning an information booth told me yesterday they had seen a surge in foreign tourists, especially from the UK, because the weak dollar makes it cheap for them once they get here. However, according to BBC and London Times online, they're having the same difficulty with rising gas prices, high food prices, falling home values, and their airlines are also in the same situation as ours. There may be hope for any restaurant serving local food. The rise in food prices is due to a worldwide shortage resulting from the following: 1) Mass production and large-scale commercial farming is almost entirely dependent on oil for machinery, processing, packaging as well as oil-derived fertilizers and pesticides. And then there's the cost of trucking the food from there to here. 2) More food crops are being turned into biofuels. 3) For the last few decades (and especially in the last few years) we've been turning farms into subdivisions. It's been happening in many other nations, also. Since the mass-production and mass-distribution model of food is now showing how vulnerable it is to the price of oil, the locally-grown produce that raised your grandparents (and many of our parents) is making a comeback. The small scale family farms that were able to survive the last few years are now the more sustainable business model because they don't use as much oil-derived modernization as a large-scale farm has to. More things are done by the hands of people whose labor used to be more expensive than oil but not anymore. The final products don't have to ride the truck very far (if at all) to reach you. This is good news for local producers. Moulton Farm said they were very busy. I would imagine the area's other farms are the same way. Recently I was down in the Boston area and found that Richardson's Dairies had the cheapest milk prices anywhere (even better than Market Basket.) Their own cows are on-site. Makes me wonder what the local dairies around here are charging for on-site milk purchases, but I keep forgetting to check. Does anyone know?