It is difficult for people to grasp what they are losing when they can’t see what they are losing. It is difficult for people to grasp what has been lost if they have never known it. At Applebee’s or Pizza Hut or any of the vast chain food conglomerates in America, you will not find the very busy owner of the restaurant coming out of the kitchen to sit and read to Iver, the son of a customer. Scott Carrino, my friend, is a very busy man. He runs a farm, a retreat center, teaches Tai Chi, does innumerable good works and runs the wildly popular Round House Cafe, a wonderful place that has transformed my charming little upstate town.

I stopped at the Round House with Maria to get a sandwich and I saw Scott over in the corner with Iver, reading a picture book to him. This is what buying local means, this is what will be lost, this is what children eating in corporate restaurants will never know or experience. Scott gets up way before dawn and is making breakfast and lunch for hours in a hot kitchen. He has a lot of things to do, but he is not too busy to come out of his kitchen to read to a young customer.

Buying local is no longer a quaint local Chamber Of Commerce slogan, it is becoming an ideology, a choice, a statement about life. In my lifetime I have witness corporations destroy newspapers, TV broadcasting, publishing, movie-making and, in a Wal-Mart world, closing in on pharmacies, grocery stories and small restaurants. Scott and Iver are – quite unconsciously – a poster for the meaning of individuality, community and connection, prized American traits being swallowed up in the Corporate Nation. Scott and Lisa Carrino buy food from local farmers, they give meals away to the poor and the needy, their food is fresh and healthy and inexpensive. And in the Round House, a small child can make a connection with a loving man and a restaurant will mean much more in memory and meaning than a quick and fatty hamburger and fries dropped off by an underpaid and bored kid who would rather be anywhere but there.