| Food distributors are functional middle-men that | | | | 19th century. The immigration explosion in the late |
| are based around the fundamental laws of supply | | | | 19th century brought cultures and ingredients |
| and demand. The United States has evolved to | | | | from around the world into our kitchens. New |
| the point where distributors are highly relied upon | | | | demands were coming of age. The advent of |
| by restaurants, grocery stores, institutions, and | | | | refrigeration now allowed produce from around |
| shoppers. Prior to the advent of food distributors | | | | the country and its ports to reach anyone in the |
| (or "purveyors" to those in the food industry), | | | | United States. Another culinary explosion |
| food and goods were brought directly to the | | | | happened after World War Two, when hundreds |
| market from their place of origin. It was not but | | | | of thousands of troops were returning home |
| several generations ago that this was the | | | | bringing some new-found food interests with |
| common practice. Some communities across the | | | | them. The economic boom was on and |
| United States still do this. The community market | | | | restaurants were gaining popularity. One of the |
| was an undesignated meeting place for the entire | | | | final evolutions came with the Food Network and |
| community. Farmers, fishermen, families, | | | | the idea of celebrity chefs. There was a time |
| shopkeepers, chefs, restauranteurs, butchers, | | | | when only the top chefs around the world were |
| bakers, cheesemakers, and other artisans | | | | given the honor of having a cookbook; now, a |
| gathered to purchase, trade, and barter for goods | | | | pretty face and a good publicist can get you |
| and services. | | | | published. |
| Markets in the United States have not died and | | | | Now that a demand had been established, |
| still exist today, despite the majority of the | | | | businessmen came to supply it. With a fleet of |
| population embracing the grocery store concept. | | | | trucks, trains, ships, and catalogs, they sought out |
| Even to this day, many thousands of people | | | | restaurants, bakeries, institutions, and grocery |
| weekly converge on small towns to buy locally | | | | stores with guarantees that the old fashioned |
| grown corn, fresh baked Amish cookies, table | | | | markets could not match: consistency, quality, and |
| after table of apples from the local orchards, | | | | variety. A customer can now buy bananas at a |
| rows of produce, live chickens, ducks, geese, | | | | grocery store in the middle of winter in North |
| rabbits, turkeys, goats, cows, fudge and an | | | | Dakota. Sushi-grade tuna, indigenous only to |
| endless supply of farm tools, household goods, | | | | oceans, can be cut into sashimi in restaurants in |
| and trinkets. Other markets still have the "Old | | | | Chicago's business district. Kobe beef from Japan |
| World" atmosphere such as in Hay Market in | | | | could now be guaranteed in any of San |
| Boston (Friday/Saturday across from the North | | | | Francisco's top restaurants. We now literally have |
| End) and New York City's China Town. | | | | world cuisine preserved and packaged for us at |
| As great as open air markets are, they are | | | | our fingertips in any town. So there is little doubt |
| limited. Do not expect to buy freshly caught | | | | that while some decry the decline of the |
| soft-shell crabs in Iowa. Likewise, the maple syrup | | | | traditional markets and the older way of doing |
| you're buying in Phoenix won't come from a | | | | things, large distribution networks have refined the |
| cactus down the road. It's been estimated that | | | | production, distribution, and costs of foods to such |
| markets began to decline around the end of the | | | | a high degree, that they're not going anywhere. |