"Many of us have become accustomed to being able to purchase popular produce like strawberries and asparagus during times of the year when they are out of season for our region. That convenience has a significant impact on the environment when that strawberry has to be shipped via air or roadway from California to Ohio. According to the Washington non-profit group, Worldwatch, food sold in American supermarkets travels on average about 1,500 miles from the farm to the consumer. This represents a 25% increase from 1980.
That's a lot of fuel consumption and pollution creation all to satisfy our penchant for out of season and out of region foods. The challenge for supporters of the local food movement is to discover tasty and interesting diets that can be grown within a 100-300 mile radius of communities."
Diana Walker, Locavores Love Home Grown Food, http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/105-03272008-1509941.html, March 2008
The local foods movement is on the rise. Think globally, eat locally -- for the nutritional value of the food, for the environment, for variety, and for the taste (pleasure) of it. If you've ever eaten a home grown tomato, you know what I mean.
Here are some interesting references for those that want to know more:
I recently read two very different books that address local food and I would happily recommend them both: Michael Pollan's The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
ReplyDeletePollan's book looks at the different options of where our food can come from and the larger impact those choices have on the world. Reading in this book is a lesson in how very strange our modern agricultural practices have become.
Kingsolver's book is about her families personal adventure in "a year of eating locally", where they try to eat only food that has come from their farm or the immediate surrounds.
I completely agree on the Omnivore's Dilemma -- I was stunned by much of what I learned and it has absolutely changed the way I eat.
ReplyDeleteI've not read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle -- but just ordered a copy. Thanks for the referral.