what I ate last: smooth green split pea soup (tastes of home)

Call me slow, but I only just noticed that Amazon has started a new section (currently beta-testing) selling food. It's utterly amazing. Not just dried/smoked/bottled things, but fresh meat, fish and vegetables. And what's more peculiar is that the price of their fresh vegetables, such as onions, tomatoes, pototoes or peppers, are actually cheaper than Piggly Wiggly. Admittedly, this is without the shipping charge, but nevertheless, I'm astounded. I'm not sure whether its wonderful or terrible that I could have vegetables delivered by UPS in 1-2 business days. What's even weirder is that half the stuff is from mainstream brands - Dole lettuce, Green Giant, Birds Eye. Does anyone really buy frozen Bird's Eye peas from Amazon rather than their local grocery store? (unless you live in the middle of Alaska, sure...)



Certainly, given my starved-of-produce state here, fresh meat and fish by mail is something I'm definitely going to be trying out - pictures of legs of lamb, whole lemon sole and yellowfin tuna have me salivating. Although I can't afford the organic stuff, I can't get ANY lamb or fish here at all, so anything is welcome. But what is going on with our crazy methods of food production whereby this is possible, yet for me to buy locally raised lamb, beef or chicken is impossible? Why do I have to get good fresh food flown in to me when I live in the middle of the countryside surrounded by fields? and why don't more people ask these questions?