Influx

A couple of weeks back, New York Magazine had a good story about Amy Hepworth, a New York state farmer with a cult following in the city.

The magazine has a nice analysis on the reasons for her rise to fame.

“Just a few years ago, only a celebrity chef could have stirred up so
much epicurean excitement. Back then, the food chain extended only as
far back as the restaurant kitchens we viewed—sometimes literally, at,
say, the Mercer Kitchen or Café Gray—as staging grounds. But we’ve come
to realize that dinner originates in the planting row, not on the prep
line. We’re increasingly conscious of how our food is produced, and
where—and who—it comes from. So New Yorkers are now beginning to
fetishize farmers the way we once did chefs. Some of us make ritual
trips to buy our wares at the Greenmarket, nod with recognition when
our favorites are name-checked on menus, and turn out to hear them
speak when they make meet-the-farmer appearances in town.

The
meet-the-farmer mania is characterized by a desire for personal
connection. “In the past, people would call me and ask, ‘Where can I
pick apples? Where can I pick pumpkins?’ ” says Coop produce buyer
Allen Zimmerman. “The thought of a farm being ‘our’ farm is new.” Our
farm. Meet your farmer. I went to hear Hepworth speak at the Coop
because I really had come to consider her my farmer: It was like a
brand preference; I’d buy anything she grew, from a purple cauliflower
to a doughnut peach. I liked the idea that I was buying from an actual
person, from an Amy. “Farming for the most part is a man’s world,” says Zimmerman. At the Coop, “Amy is a legend. People meet her and they swoon.”

The piece is a pretty interesting read for those keen to understand why the dynamics of food and food marketing are being transformed in front of our eyes.

Posted by Ed Cotton