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No one food is perfect for everyone. And no one way to get food is perfect for everyone, either.
Last week, I wrote about plans for a possible uptown farmers market. It's early in the process: The location is tentative, the type of market is under discussion, the issue of paying for it isn't even close to a solution.
Yes, it's early, but it's not too early to know about the discussion and start thinking about what - if anything - is right for our city.
In the comments section online, some people wondered what's wrong with the markets we already have.
Not a thing, say proponents of the uptown market. As county commissioner Dan Murrey said, "We're not looking to replace anything that's working. We're looking to create something that's not there."
The Matthews Community Farmers Market, the Davidson Farmers Market, the markets that have sprung up in Ballantyne and Waxhaw and Mint Hill - they're all working.
But what's not there may be variety and better access. That's the thing about food: One size never fits all.
It fits my lifestyle to get up early on a Saturday and drive to a market, usually the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market. But if you can't get up early, or you're not free on a Saturday, or you live in Coulwood or Lake Norman or Belmont, that trip may not be so easy.
What works for me may not work for you. But you still have a need for fresh, local food.
When I was in New Orleans for a conference a last month, I had a chance to think about how markets have to fit their shoppers, not the other way around.
On a Saturday morning, a small group of us went out with Daphne Derven, the director of the New Orleans Food & Farm Network.
People in New Orleans learned a scary lesson on the importance of access to food after Hurricane Katrina. When the city flooded, supermarkets closed. Some still haven't reopened. It was so bad after the storm, Derven says, people literally drew maps of where there was fresh food and posted them in neighborhoods.
There are still 65,000 abandoned, vacant or blighted properties in the city, says Derven. But slowly, as part of the recovery, the network has helped to start 100 community gardens on some of that land.
The network doesn't own any land itself, but it matches people who want to grow food with land, training and volunteers, usually kids from city youth programs.
In turn, the gardens provide fresh food that is sold right there in the neighborhoods where it's grown.
As part of the tour, Derven took us to an unusual project: the year-old Hollygrove Grower's Market and Training Farm, a little green building across from the busy Lincoln Park athletic fields.
Hollygrove acts sort of like a CSA, the farm subscription program. But instead of buying a share in the harvest of one farm, the market stocks fruits, vegetables, pasture-raised meats and local dairy products from farms within a 200-mile radius. You can go in and buy what you want, or you can pay $25 for a box that you fill with a share of what they have.
Farmers coming to the city to sell at other markets can drop off some of what they've grown, and there are a couple of farm plots on the grounds, worked by volunteers.
I go to markets in every city I visit, but I haven't seen anything quite like Hollygrove.
The market spends about $5,000 a week to buy food from local producers, but it doesn't get subsidies. It was built with private donations.
What kind of farmers market does uptown Charlotte need? Who knows? But there are a lot of possibilities. And if it's early in the process, it's too early to decide we don't need one.
