Six months have passed since we first reported on the possibility of Wal-Mart moving into the Napanoch Valley Mall, a deal that may have been in the works for a lot longer than half a year. Much discussion has taken place since then, spawning public hearings, petitions and lots of hand wringing, but little else in the way of resolution. Today we seem no closer to anything real, with facts hard to come by and rumors the only thing new. Some say, off the record, that a contract has been signed. Others have heard that ground will be broken in six months, provided no organized opposition to the project forms. Employees at nearby Wal-Mart stores report that applications to transfer to the future "Ellenville" store are no longer available, as they were just a few months ago. Most revealing perhaps is Wal-Mart's announcement last week that they are drastically scaling back their national expansion plans. For the first time, the world's largest corporation acknowledged its current struggle with poor sales and rising costs, and that their plans for growth may be overly ambitious and impractical. Over one quarter of all new stores planned for 2007 have been cancelled, with the most speculative and marginal the first to go. Is one of those cut the Napanoch Valley Mall store? Nobody, of course, is talking.

In those same six months - less, in fact - another idea for our area has had a much different journey. Conceived, discussed, organized and carried out in short order, the new Ellenville Farmers' Market went from a dream to a phenomenal first day success, all in the space of a few months. The hard work of everyone involved created what will certainly become an area institution, and should inspire us all to believe that real change is possible and within our grasp. Except for the few who grumbled about the lack of vegetables (this is, after all, early June), almost everyone was thrilled with the diversity of vendors and the quality of the products.

Apart from the obvious benefits of bringing people to the downtown in an open air, public setting, a local farmers' market makes plain our connection to each other and to our surroundings, in a way no big box store can. Food should be a local resource, a public wealth that is not a slave to the global economy. True, strawberries are available year round at corporate megastores; cryopacked, irradiated and shipped from unaccountable food factories located halfway around the world. We can eat this forbidden fruit in the dead of winter if we want to, no matter how unnatural it feels, oblivious to its true cost. Nevertheless, it makes us uneasy, insecure, like a rule has somehow been violated. So there is nothing like seeing tables piled high with the first fruits of the season -our season - grown just a few miles away by people we know, to show that we have all we really need right here at home.

COMMENTS about this article (30)