Recession Diet: Comfort Food

If you’ve noticed more people packing on the pounds as of late, it isn’t your imagination. As the number of unemployed workers has grown over the past year, so has the average American’s waistline, a phenomenon nutritionists are calling “recession obesity.”

Of course this news should hardly come as a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention at the grocery store checkout line. Sales of junk foods like doughnuts and chips have skyrocketed, while fewer cost-conscious customers are buying organic fruits and veggies at the same rate they were in years past.

For an even better indicator of where our waistlines are heading, the best place to look may end up being the grocery store shelves.

What We’re Consuming
Craft Beers
Although overall beer sales have fallen 1.6 percent this year, business for craft brewers—the kind who make fewer than 60 barrels of beer a year—has actually increased, with sales growing by 6 percent…

Recipe for Recession-Proof Tomato Farming

While the Recession has a lot of businesses trending down, organic farmers like Patrick Horan say their debt-driven business is riding a contrarian wave. Horan’s farm, Waldingfield, specializes in heirloom tomatoes, which he uses to produce a special heirloom sauce. His Connecticut farm has been in the family since the 18th century and is now one of the largest certified organic operations in Connecticut. Horan talks to RW about weathering the downturn and America’s shifting attitudes towards organic food.

RW: How has the Recession affected you?

PH: As a farmer, I’m used to dealing with constraints. A lot of the farming business is debt-driven. If you’re in the northeast where you have a smaller growing season, you have to plan carefully. So far, I haven’t seen a downturn in my business, but that is partly because of something called CSA (community supported agriculture). In this system, people buy a share and get a box of vegetables every week. It’s a shared risk, and the system offers protection to the grower.