| Once a bustling mill town, Carrboro, North Carolina, is today a haven for local food. Adjacent to a major research university and mile after mile of rolling farmland, Carrboro is a place where, over the last thirty years, a group of citizens armed with progressive values has created a thriving market community for locally produced food. Area farmers' markets, cooperative groceries, home and community gardens, urban chickens, and locally-focused restaurants play a vital role in the community as a whole--both to its identity and its social, political, and economic activities. This project illuminates some of the complex ties that developed between urban and rural, liberal and conservative, rich and poor (and middle class), young and old, cynical and idealistic, modern and traditional to facilitate the local food segment of Carrboro's broader economy. It also investigates local definitions of place, group, taste, and tradition. |
