For years Sarah Kotok dreamed of starting a small grocery store like the one her grandfather once owned in New Jersey. Kotok's Market in Oberlin opened this year, selling everything from organic produce to alternative cleaning products. But Kotok says economic sustainability in the local food industry is tough, even for grocers. Just a few minutes old, this kid is destined to become a nanny - goat, that is. And I think that selling those things to the cities where no one's going is where the real economic sustainability is going to come.
Reality is the hardest sell of all.
Last year, OSAP's efforts failed to create a local farm market in a blighted Hispanic neighborhood in Lorain. While everyone admits the system of new markets being created in Lorain County isn't perfect, most think the concept has a future. And next year the OSAP farm will move to a new 25-acre home, where it will supervise the agricultural portion of a project to create all kinds of new Midwestern models for sustainable living. Inc. All rights reserved.