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When Katherine Gray takes her kids to the grocery store, they can pick out as many apples and pears as their hearts desire. But bananas? Pineapples? Mangoes? Sorry kids, if they weren’t grown within 100 miles of Gray’s house in Portland, Ore., chances are they won’t make it into the grocery cart.
For years, the idea of eating only food grown locally and in season was reserved for upscale chefs like Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., or serious hippies living off the grid, while the rest of us didn’t think twice about gulping down blueberries from Chile or avocadoes from Mexico.
Recently, however, a small but devoted number of Americans have started to think a lot more about the origin of the food going into their grocery cart. Worried about the environmental impact of shipping food hundreds of miles, plus the dwindling fate of local farmers – and obsessed with the idea of eating really good food – these extreme eaters try to only buy food that is grown within a 100-mile radius of their own home.
“When we first started talking about it, at the beginning, people thought we were a little bit off our rockers, and now it’s become part of this mainstream discussion,” says Jennifer Maiser, one of a group of San Francisco “locavores” who pioneered an effort to eat locally a few years ago.
Around the same time, a couple in Vancouver, British Columbia, became alarmed after hearing about a study by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, which showed that the average distance a piece of produce travels from U.S. farms to households in the upper Midwest is 1,500 miles.
They made the decision to spend a year trying to live only on food grown within 100 miles of their Canada home.
An engaging book about their effort, “Plenty,” spawned a devoted international following, and now co-author Alisa Smith says activities related to eating locally, such as speaking engagements, are pretty much a full-time job. The fact that eating locally has touched such a nerve still surprises her.
“When we first started writing it, it was a personal experiment for us,” she says. “But we started to hear from people in England, France, Australia, and it just took off from there.”
The movement has grown popular enough to spawn serious research into how much eating locally could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with at least one researcher arguing that, other benefits aside, it may not be the environmental savior some are hoping for.
Gray, who is 34 and runs her own business in addition to raising two small children, doesn’t consider herself a gourmet chef, but she does like to eat healthy. About two years ago, she started reading more about industrialized food production, and it got her thinking about what her family could do to make a difference. Then she came across the book “Plenty” and found her solution.
“I like a plan,” she says.
Soon, the family was eating a lot more eggs and potatoes and trying vegetables they had never heard of, including one that looked like a white carrot and tasted, inexplicably, like an oyster. They became regulars at the farmers market and the natural food store, and Gray purchased some new cookbooks. Now she says about 80 percent of the fresh food they eat is grown locally.
“I didn’t feel like we’d be able to do it, and then I realized how, when you start looking, there are a lot of resources out there,” she says.
Nevertheless, she says she remains an anomaly even in liberal-minded Portland: “I still am the freaky one here.”
The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows would not seem like an obvious candidate for the eating local movement. Growing up, she didn’t eat many vegetables and those that were on the table were “always cooked within an inch of their lives.”
“I grew up in an African-American household,” she says. “Celery root was not part of our tradition.”
Her husband also did not come to the idea naturally: a native of the Bahamas, he considered vegetables to be more of a plate decoration than an actual part of the meal.
But Baskerville-Burrows, 41, had always liked to cook, and she started shopping at farmers markets beginning around 1999. A few years later, she started reading books including “Fast Food Nation,” which includes segments about the farm practices that go into mass-produced food. It prompted a closer look at how she could find healthier and tastier food.
“I started really looking at my diet,’” says Baskerville-Burrows, who is an Episcopal priest.
These days, Baskerville-Burrows says she buys about 85 percent of her food from producers in the Syracuse, N.Y., area, where she lives. She also grows tomatoes, herbs and other vegetables at home, and this year she worked with church members to plant a garden on church grounds that they hope will eventually supply a local food pantry with fresh produce.
Among locavore proponents, one popular pastime is the “eat local challenge,” in which participants try, usually for one month, to eat only food that comes from within their community. The rest of the year, many locavores are more realistic about the limits of their devotion.
Maiser drinks coffee and has a soft spot for Greek yogurt and Italian pasta. Gray’s family eats salsa and pesto and pasta, even though she suspects that some of the ingredients have traveled remarkably long distances. Even Smith has allowed things such as rice and olive oil into her home since ending the year of eating locally chronicled in “Plenty.”
But that doesn’t mean that a locavore’s kitchen looks anything like most Americans’. In order to eat locally through the winter without getting scurvy or facing a family revolt, locavores are forced to take on domestic efforts that most families haven’t tackled for generations. Gray’s extra freezer is stuffed with frozen summer foods plus half a cow she purchased from a local rancher, and she has aspirations to learn more about canning.
Baskerville-Burrows has a root cellar to keep food fresh through the winter. She freezes fresh produce and has been canning strawberries and tomatoes since 2006. Like a lot of people trying to learn long-forgotten food preservation skills, she admits she has approached it with a bit of trepidation.
“I can’t think of anything that’s gone horribly awry. I’ll tell you, though, when I opened up my first jar of tomato sauce, I went to the computer and looked up botulism,” she says.
Smith, the “Plenty” author, recalls frantic calls to her mother and grandmother as she tried to figure out how to do things like make jam.
One piece of advice she has to offer: Get started early in the day, because it takes longer than you might think.
The same could be said for eating locally in general, since doing so often involves spending more time tracking down food and finding ways to cook things you might normally buy ready-made, like bread. Not surprisingly, in most communities it’s hard to find processed food that is made exclusively from local ingredients.
Also, expect to see a spike in your food bill.
“I am keenly aware that my grocery budget – it gives me heart attacks – and so I know that there are a lot of people that can’t do that,” Gray says.Baskerville-Burrows believes the extra cost is worth the tradeoffs, and she also feels she is paying a fair price for foods that keep local farmers in business.
“I’d rather spend my money putting good stuff in my body than worrying about what’s on it,” she says.
Locavores also report other, perhaps unexpected, benefits to eating food produced near their homes. Maiser said it gives you a better understanding not just of where food comes from, but when it is freshest.
“I would say the normal American who goes to Safeway or something like that doesn’t really have a good idea of when asparagus is in season,” she says.
Some find themselves making healthier eating choices because eating locally tends to mean eating more fruits and vegetables, rather than processed foods. Others, like Gray, aren’t sure they’ve made their diet any healthier, but they like the other benefits.
For example, once you’ve eaten food that was just picked from the farm, many say it’s hard to go back to the refrigerated, shipped variety. Baskerville-Burrows hated tomatoes until she had some fresh ones from a produce market in Berkeley, Calif., and realized what they really taste like.
Still, people who are trying to eat locally concede that it is easier if you live in an area, like San Francisco, where a wide variety of food is grown nearby and there are like-minded people. Also, the added time and money can make it harder for people who are juggling family and work responsibilities.
“As a single person in San Francisco, I feel like I can’t say to someone with a family, this is something that is worth it to do or that you should do,” Maiser says. “I definitely know many (families) who are doing it, but I would say it’s definitely more something that single people are doing.”
There are plenty of good reasons to eat locally grown food, says Christopher Weber, assistant research professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. But, he argues in a recent research paper, the most commonly cited reason — reducing the environmental impact of transporting food hundreds of miles — may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Weber and co-author H. Scott Matthews concluded that transportation only accounts for 11 percent of the environmentally destructive greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing food. He says families could more drastically, and perhaps more easily, reduce their carbon footprint by cutting back on or eliminating the red meat and dairy in their diets. That’s because those foods take an inordinate amount of resources to produce compared with fruits, vegetables, eggs, chicken and fish.
But once you start parsing food choices more closely, it gets more complicated. For example, you could reduce your carbon footprint and still eat red meat by choosing grass-fed beef from a local rancher, because it takes a lot more energy to produce grain for conventionally raised cattle. On the other hand, eating fish is generally the better environmental choice for protein, but not if it’s not being flown in from some exotic locale.
Also, eating locally by actually growing your own food is a better environmental choice than buying food, for a variety of reasons. But, he says, just buying organic food from anywhere in the country does not do much to help reduce the threat of global warming, although some would argue there are other environmental benefits.
Finally, for a person like Weber, who describes himself as “somewhere between vegetarian and vegan,” eating locally could have a big proportional impact since he has already cut back on meat and dairy consumption.
Weber worries that he’s been misinterpreted.
“We’re not trying to say that eating local is bad,” he says. “Eating local is definitely good, and there’s a lot of good reasons to do it.”
It just may not save the planet.
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{"commentId":1928476,"authorDomain":"alolson"}
Have you adopted the locavore lifestyle?
Could you successfully complete the "eat local challenge," in which you eat only food that comes from within your community for a month?
{"commentId":1928476,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"alolson"}
- 4 votes
#1 - Mon Jun 9, 2008 7:55 PM EDT{"commentId":1932510,"authorDomain":"PamelaDrew"}
In addition to having an environmental effect, buying local has an economic effect. Every dollar you spend supports a policy that has downstream effects. Paying small and local family farms over agribusiness, uses your dollars to grow sustainable farming that supports food sovereignty.
Local Harvest has a database of small growers, ranchers, bee keepers etc that will connect you by zip code to sources in your area.
They also have tools for starting community based programs, so register if you grow and search for farmers near you if you eat!! Every dollar is a vote, spend wisely!
In NYC the Greenmarket programs and many of the conventional markets make it easy to do if you just become aware of the fact you have choices and opt for local.
{"commentId":1932510,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"PamelaDrew"}
- 6 votes
{"commentId":1934705,"authorDomain":"pgordon-1"}
Could I? Would I? Wish I could!! I moved from Connecticut to South Georgia in 1981 with the intention of doing just that. Actually my intention was to grow most of my own food. I had given buying/eating local a good try. As a UCONN student I helped start a food coop as well as a community gardening project for low income families. I grew most of my own vegetables and ate seasonally. We bought eggs, milk, and other dairy products from local farms and the university. I thought it would be a snap to do this in the south. Was I ever wrong!! Light years behind. I'm still struggling to find a good variety of local produce. The $$ is in soybeans, cotton, peanuts, and [used to be] tobacco. But there is a wave of community based agriculture growing in Athens, GA, and I'm hopeful. That's my next life project - I'm a school teacher - to get this farm community growing, buying, and eating locally in South Georgia, the land of plenty! The one food group we can find locally (and do) is protein - fish, birds, deer, cows, hogs. We need to diversify!
{"commentId":1934705,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"pgordon-1"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1936871,"authorDomain":"PamelaDrew"}
Good for you; one by one, day by day and acre by acre, we'll get back to feeding ourselves and be healthier in body, spirit, environments and economies. Good job!
{"commentId":1936871,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"PamelaDrew"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1930883,"authorDomain":"tiffanykingstonmorrison"}
We started making an honest go at being locavores this year. The food tasts 100% better and we just feel better. At the end of devouring a well-prepared meal, made with local ingredients we rest easy knowing we have done something good for our body and our community. We have also enjoyed meeting all the local growers and fellow locavores. The free live music at the market is also a plus. We could all use a little more culture and community fellowship in our lives.
{"commentId":1930883,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"tiffanykingstonmorrison"}
- 3 votes
#2 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:49 AM EDT{"commentId":1931028,"authorDomain":"evilfoxes"}
Several years ago, we became sharecroppers - growing a small garden on a plot owned by a neighbor. We kept him in his favorite vegetable - okra and also grew tomatoes, beans, squash, cucumbers, lettuce (in the early spring), and peppers. I'd grow up with a garden, so this two-bedroom-size plot was not a serious garden, but I managed to put up about 200 pints of tomatoes (canned - been doing it since I was a teenager), and blanched lots of beans. NOTHING is better in the winter than soup made with your own tomatoes - the acid levels are so much better when they ripen on the vine.
Sadly, the neighbor moved and we lost our little plot. We still find places in our yard to grow a few tomatoes, okra and peppers.
You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl.
{"commentId":1931028,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"evilfoxes"}
#3 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 9:16 AM EDT{"commentId":1932064,"authorDomain":"bcollins76"}
No one mentioned hunting for red meat. No hormones, no trucking and in most areas of the country deer are in your backyard.
{"commentId":1932064,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"bcollins76"}
- 5 votes
#4 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:54 AM EDT{"commentId":1932189,"authorDomain":"kevinlefebvredfw"}
My partner and I have an organic garden in our backyard, side yard, flower garden...essentially any place a plant can grow! We've grown everything from zukes to green beans, carrots to cukes.
We prefer to buy those items we cannot grow sustainably at the local farmer's market and don't mind the extra few cents it costs to eat the locally grown items. Our only complaint on those items is some are not organic, which defeats part of the purpose.
You could say we're eco-natics, or worse, but doing the right and sustainable thing makes us feel better for the future and for the future of America--money made here stays here.
Aside from that, I wouldn't drive to Peru for an organic apple, why should it ride to me?
{"commentId":1932189,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"kevinlefebvredfw"}
#5 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:09 PM EDT{"commentId":1932327,"authorDomain":"sima"}
We've been doing this since the 70's. Getting off the grid and reducing our footprint is essential for survival. To continually expand our footprints and spread the wealth will ultimately undermine our foundations. What we need to be doing is training people to sustain themselves. Why give a fish, when we can teach how to fish. In a perfect world this works, in a world where corporate greed does not dictate which seed we use, or which source of energy we can recieve. If the wealth were spread to needy areas to actually help the people live instead of trying to control the flow of wealth what a great world this could be. We know what the answer is, eventually we will get there, one little step at a time. Plant a garden, fish, raise chickens, use the droppings in your compost. Don't buy plastics. 32% of all oil used is for plastic production. Ride a bike, and buy locally. 62% of oil used is for transportation. We can shrink our footprint considerably with these small steps. Go solar!!
{"commentId":1932327,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"sima"}
- 2 votes
#6 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:24 PM EDT{"commentId":1932527,"authorDomain":"PamelaDrew"}
Plant a garden, fish, raise chickens, use the droppings in your compost. Don't buy plastics. 32% of all oil used is for plastic production. Ride a bike, and buy locally. 62% of oil used is for transportation. We can shrink our footprint considerably with these small steps. Go solar!!
Fantastic list and good for you!!
{"commentId":1932527,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"PamelaDrew"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":1932471,"authorDomain":"debbyvenus"}
I have always tried to eat locally. I am now 52, since I was 21 I canned as much produce as I could baking bread etc. I even have canned my own raised chicken and deer meat too. It is really not as hard as it sounds if you have the right equipment, such as canners both water bath and pressure canners. Read the canning books, they will tell you step by step how to preserve your own food. Follow it exactly and you should have no problems. The old books I have are from the 80's one called Root Cellaring s wonderful as is Stocking Up. The old Mother Earth days are back and should have never gone away...in my mind. Yes, I am the "old hippy" type and proud of it. We need more of that today. Please teach your children to feed themselves this way....it can help save the planet......
{"commentId":1932471,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"debbyvenus"}
- 3 votes
#7 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:40 PM EDT{"commentId":1935483,"authorDomain":"inghar2004"}
Right on, Debbie. Good for you.
{"commentId":1935483,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"inghar2004"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1932567,"authorDomain":"honeybearranch"}
We have been growing and selling produce, pork, beef, and eggs since 2005. All are raised naturally - no chemicals, no hormones or antibiotics. As people have discovered us, our business has grown substantially. The more people we talk to, the more we discover how concerned they are with the foods they eat and the effect it has on their health. We live in a small community with no major city nearby. The local grocery stores have terrible produce. What started as a venture to grow healthy food for ourselves has turned into something that's meeting a very real need in our small corner of the world.
{"commentId":1932567,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"honeybearranch"}
- 3 votes
#8 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:49 PM EDT{"commentId":1932631,"authorDomain":"barry-3"}
Eating only locally produced food is idiotic. First of all, the fact that it's produced within 100 miles of where it's purchased does not mean that it's better than food produced elsewhere. From an environmental standpoint, I want to eat only organic food that's free of any pesticide and therefor, won't buy anything grown in Mexico. Further, if the water is unsafe to drink in Mexico and that same water is used on their crops, than why would I want to consume those products? Stores like Whole Foods carry a ton of these items because they have huge profit margins (110% on avocados at Bristol Farms, for example).
I want to buy the highest quality products and some of these are going to be produced in Europe, Australia or wherever. The farmers and growers in these locations also need to make enough money to support their families. Wherever you live on the planet, some producers will be local to you. The fact that someone is local, does not mean that they produce the best products, only that they are local, so who cares? As for the carbon footprint, the real problems are things like coal burning plants in China and India, nuclear plants dumping residue in our oceans, oil refineries poisoning the air, etc. The contribution by individuals is so small that, on balance, on a planetary scale, it's basically irrelevant. I realize that everyone wants to be able to make a difference, but the fact is that each individual just isn't that important from the standpoint of planetary pollution. Yes, I'm in favor of people using solar and wind and electric cars, but what people choose to eat has an almost trivial impact on the health of the planet. That being the case, I want to be able to buy the best of any particular category of food, wherever it's produced.
{"commentId":1932631,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"barry-3"}
- 2 votes
#9 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:56 PM EDT{"commentId":1933007,"authorDomain":"peacegarden-gg"}
You are right about the impact of individual decisions on the health of the planet...from the perspective of "big picture" reasoning.
The only thing I can do is make individual decisions...you, too. So it makes a huge difference in our individual lives and the people we live or work with. Awareness has to count for something...also the money is staying local, supporting the growers who practice sustainable farming. I, too want organic and high quality food and beverage...so do most individuals I know who try to buy locally.
I think "idiotic" may be a little harsh. Let's give people who are trying to make this planet a little better the benefit of the doubt, and encourage others to open up to the idea that some things are just not sustainable. It may start with a tiny "seed", a thought provoking conversation or a book recommendation...but people can and do change. If enough individuals change the way they procure their food, then the market will respond.
{"commentId":1933007,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"peacegarden-gg"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1933151,"authorDomain":"nadawn12"}
I agree with you, peacegarden. There is no need to ridicule someone else's choice to buy only local grown foods. I am in research mode at the present, since i am in college and do not have the information or money to buy any foods other than at the grocery store. But, thanks to you guys, i now believe i can begin growing my own foods in the near future. But, Barry does make a good point. In other countries, they have already used environmentally friendly techniques and therefore some produce and meat from EU countries are actually safer than here in the states. I think everyone brings up a good point. Americans should make better decisions if possible to help the enviroment. I also worry about other developing nations, such as India, China--who are just now gaining resources to boost them from 3rd world to developed. What can we do about them? Is it our problem to deal with?
{"commentId":1933151,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"nadawn12"}
{"commentId":1934115,"authorDomain":"gwenny"}
Eating only locally produced food is idiotic. First of all, the fact that it's produced within 100 miles of where it's purchased does not mean that it's better than food produced elsewhere.
Since I live in the Bay Area that might be debatable but the point of the localvore movement is more about cutting back on transportation costs. Eating food that doesn't use as much gas is better for the Earth.
{"commentId":1934115,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"gwenny"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":1971204,"authorDomain":"getahome"}
peacegarden- if the market responds you will have less food available to you. This may seem trivial in America as there is an abundance of food at the stores now but if everything went local all around the world the economy would collapse and food would become scarce and everyone except for us gun toting republicans would die. (the reason gun toting republicans would live is because we would shoot you and take your vegetables in order to feed our families) Just a thought. If the road you are pursuing leads to Armageddon maybe you should get on a different road.
{"commentId":1971204,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"getahome"}
{"commentId":1972265,"authorDomain":"gwenny"}
@ Brad O'Neil
Because, of course, it's an ALL or NOTHING deal. You can't see this movement as a catalyst for folks to find balance, for things to get put into perspective. There will NEVER not be a global market for some things, like coffee and tea and exotic fruits. No, no encouraging people make themselves dependent on distant lands for their basis necessities is the only way to keep gun toting Republicans like you in the money. At least you admit you all are vultures who prey on the ones who are prepared . Maybe it's a start.
{"commentId":1972265,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"gwenny"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1973111,"authorDomain":"getahome"}
What keeps us in the money is finding real solutions to real problems. I am merely trying to point out how absurd this line of thought is. it is isolationism go ahead and support your local farmers I shop at the farmers market myself but I don't deny myself maui onions
on the pretense that I am saving the world. Capitalism is all about getting what you want and in turn providing what others want it is extemely efficient and it benefits the whole world. The left whines that we use 25% of the worlds resources I would counter that we pay for 25% of the worlds resources providing jobs and money to every corner of the world. We aren't exploiting anyone its corrupt local governments that exploit the poor. the further and faster we export democracy the better the whole world will become.
{"commentId":1973111,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"getahome"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1932882,"authorDomain":"peacegarden-gg"}
We have become semi-locavores over the past year or two. I am not ready to give up chocolate, coffee, wine, lemons and limes or other citrus fruit in the winter...yet.
I am willing to look for ways to support local, organic growers, including the farmer's market, local "health food" stores and best of all, a source of organic raw milk, eggs and pastured meat from the local Mennonite farm community.
It takes more planning and "work" to find these resources, but the reward is fantastic ...local, fresh and incredibly delicious food.
We grow a large organic garden and are providing much of the fruit and vegetable portion of our diet from the back yard. Right now, we are freezing berries, sugar snap peas and eating all the greens and radishes we can without bursting! We make our own yogurt, mozarella and ricotta cheese with the raw milk and are learning how to make the artisinal type bread we love so much.
To me, this is fun and like a great big science experiment...I greww up in a rural/resort area and my grandparents had a truck farm. I remember the fresh eggs and milk, meat and veggies (although the veggies and fruits were heavily sprayed).
It may cost more money, but I think I will have fewer medical and prescription expenses as I grow older (and spryer from all the fresh air and exercise involved!)
My children are grown and don't live with me anymore, but they love getting bags of great produce from our little piece of paradise. The grandchildren love to go in the garden and explore and taste.
They at least will know what real food tastes like.
As well as the book, "Plenty", there are other great reads on this subject; "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver and anything by Michael Pollen.
{"commentId":1932882,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"peacegarden-gg"}
- 1 vote
#10 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:26 PM EDT{"commentId":1932899,"authorDomain":"jrs112-fl"}
My small town where I live has a farmers market on Saturdays, and the town where I work has one throughout the whole work week...I frequent both....also in my area, there is a trend toward cooperative agriculture, where one pays to buy a share in a local farm, and then gets groceries weekly throughout the growing season.....I think anything we do is better than walmart.....and will help my local economy as well as save the environment....for a few stubborn individuals, nobody tells them what to do, and they will carry on as usual, as though everybody else is an "extremist"....ignore those people.....you will most likely begin to see them at the market when walmart's prices get jacked up by the more and more frequent "natural???" disasters in the midwest and CA, the two main "breadbaskets" for the US.....I am not religious after bush totally destroyed the whole idea of christianity...but anyway "forgive them, for they know not what they do"
{"commentId":1932899,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"jrs112-fl"}
#11 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:27 PM EDT{"commentId":1933087,"authorDomain":"pnb-1"}
According to the Dept. of Transportation, USDA, and several other agencies, our nation requires 400 gallons of fossil fuel, per person, per year to ship in that individuals food. According to the "World Fact Book" The population of the USA is 303,824,646 people. Times 400 gallons of fuel equals 121,529,858,400 gallons of fossil fuel to just ship food for USA markets every year. Not a small number by any standard. Multiply those numbers times the cost of fuel and you can see why we have an economic crisis at the checkout line.
I am a member of Kitchen Gardeners International, and Edible Estates (all can be found on line). Just a 10% reduction in food shipping equals huge reduction in fuel consumption. These issues may not save the planet by themselves but in the aggregate the impact is phenomenal.
{"commentId":1933087,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"pnb-1"}
- 1 vote
#12 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:51 PM EDT{"commentId":1933095,"authorDomain":"pnb-1"}
According to the Dept. of Transportation, USDA, and several other agencies, our nation requires 400 gallons of fossil fuel, per person, per year to ship in that individuals food. According to the "World Fact Book" The population of the USA is 303,824,646 people. Times 400 gallons of fuel equals 121,529,858,400 gallons of fossil fuel to just ship food for USA markets every year. Not a small number by any standard. Multiply those numbers times the cost of fuel and you can see why we have an economic crisis at the checkout line.
I am a member of Kitchen Gardeners International, and Edible Estates (all can be found on line). Just a 10% reduction in food shipping equals huge reduction in fuel consumption. These issues may not save the planet by themselves but in the aggregate the impact is phenomenal.
{"commentId":1933095,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"pnb-1"}
- 1 vote
#13 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:53 PM EDT{"commentId":1933341,"authorDomain":"coopls"}
I have been trying to eat local since I read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" in February of this year. I thought that since I lived in South Florida, i.e. "America's Winter Vegetable Garden," it would be easy. However, it seems we ship all of the produce we grow out of the state and ship in all of the same produce from California and South America. This is so illogical to me that this fact alone has strengthened my resolve to continue eating local even if I am eating only tropical fruit (as I am right now due to the season). I tell everyone I know about it so that they will eat local too.
I even have my group of friends on board and we get together on the first weekend of every month and dedicate a potluck dinner to eating locally. At first, no one believed it was possible to have a good well-rounded meal from local products. This is where creativity comes in handy. Now, everyone outdoes themselves and the food is fantastic. Although not everything at these meals are local, I estimate that at least 80% of what's on the table is local.
I know there are some people who claim there is very little environmental impact from eating local but I see the environmental impact every day. Where there used to be lime groves there are now golf courses. Where there used to be farms as a buffer between the city and the Everglades there are now townhouse developments where the residents insists that the swamp be drained every time their backyard floods. Plus, I'm no expert, but I am pretty sure there are more pesticides and insecticides that are generated from the golf courses and housing developments than from farms that need to sustain themselves in order to maintain productivity.
{"commentId":1933341,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"coopls"}
- 1 vote
#14 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:23 PM EDT{"commentId":1933394,"authorDomain":"coopls"}
I forgot to mention that it is cheaper for me to eat local than not to. I estimate that I save about $400 a month eating local. This is because where I used to go out to dinner and lunch frequently, now I am responsible for making my own food which really does save a lot -- about $60 a week on lunch alone.
{"commentId":1933394,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"coopls"}
- 1 vote
#15 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:28 PM EDT{"commentId":1933593,"authorDomain":"diurnalemissions"}
I thought I was supposed to dig my food out of dumpsters? Oh, that was last week's hip article.
I can only suppose the next article will be on how to subsist farm on my own composted poop.
Mother Jones goes mainstream.
{"commentId":1933593,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"diurnalemissions"}
- 1 vote
#16 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:54 PM EDT{"commentId":1933624,"authorDomain":"winsomecowboy"}
"I didn't feel like we'd be able to do it, and then I realized how, when you start looking, there are a lot of resources out there," she says.
ain't that always the way.
{"commentId":1933624,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"winsomecowboy"}
- 3 votes
#17 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:57 PM EDT{"commentId":1933754,"authorDomain":"restso"}
I'm trying to eat more locally grown foods this year, I joined a local CSA for the summer (actually for the rest of the year).
I'm only about a month in, but so far I love it. I get to try new foods almost every week, support local agriculture and eat food grown reasonably close to my home. However, eating locally also means succumbing to local weather patterns as well.
{"commentId":1933754,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"restso"}
- 1 vote
#18 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:15 PM EDT{"commentId":1934258,"authorDomain":"SoCalSurfer"}
I'll eat the food I wish to eat, if is flown in from Mars and doesn't cost anymore, and I want to eat the interplanetary import, then I will.
If you have a nice hobby like growing food for a hobby, GREAT! Please have fun. I enjoy stuff too, but I am not smug about it. Are you all playing video games? Well I like to play video games and lead a large cadre of university students who do so as well. Do we write smug articles about how great it is to play video games? NO. Do we go around telling others that they should? No. Do we write, gently, that everyone should play video games or be considered not quite right. Good for you that you eat from dumpsters and grow your own food. But for gosh sakes, quit being so smug.
I own a Prius, and you know the worse about owning a Prius is all of the Prius owners who are so smug about owning a Prius. I own a Prius because it is pretty cool technology but now everyone thinks I am smug about it.
So let's see what smug articles have I read in the past few weeks: Getting my food from a dumpster, and now only eating locally grown food. Ok, I am going out to shoot some Venison this coming weekend (Deer) and maybe go Ocean fishing for Tuna. Then I will follow that hawk's idea that I saw the other morning and get me one them wabbits from my garden. After that I will go steal some lemons from my neighbors overgrown tree. For lunch tomorrow I will take some California Lobsters from the beach (no claws), and mussels. Maybe later in the week I can get some crayfish (crawdads) from the LA River, along with some other vegetables that grown in that riverbed. There I will have eaten locally. :)
Here is my smug comment: Please read Adam Smith's On the Wealth of Nations. Apply it to your own life, you will be happier. Spent your money and time as you see fit, and let others do what they see fits in their life's best.
Now I am going to go order an alligator chowder, white bread roll and some imported beer. To bad chicken tastes like alligator, except the alligator is a little more compact meat.
{"commentId":1934258,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"SoCalSurfer"}
#19 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:30 PM EDT{"commentId":1934928,"authorDomain":"lilgeneral-5"}
As much as I hate to rain on you parade its your kind of thinking that has caused a lot of problems in this coutry where people will do anything and every thing that they want but the people in this discussion are at least trying to come up with some ideas how to better themselves and help themselves and the local farmers and ranchers save the family farm, and i'm all for that
{"commentId":1934928,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"lilgeneral-5"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1971181,"authorDomain":"getahome"}
thats the big problem with liberalism "Trying" counts results don't count for anything its all about how you feel about the problem. if you like farming thats great if you like dumpster diving have at it but the point of the previous poster was quit acting all rightous about it when all you are doing is wasting time with a hobby. By the way I will take the problems of this country over any other countries problems in the whole world! This country is awsome where else in the world can people have so much free time that they can annoint themselves saviors of the planet simply because they plant their own vegetables. Im sure the people starving in Ethiopia right now are so thankful for your carbon footprint reduction. Luckily for them some evil corportate farmers are going to send over some shipments of grain using giant wasteful transport ships.
{"commentId":1971181,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"getahome"}
{"commentId":1934273,"authorDomain":"bertob7"}
While I won't claim to be a localvore, my wife and I are making efforts to eat food produced locally. Here in Upstate NY it's not a problem since we have farms everywhere. We also have access to many farmers' markets in the area so locally grown produce, milk, eggs, beef, etc. is available almost year-round.
I'm also working on a garden at home. Some things are coming along well. Others . . . not so well. But it's fun and it's worthwhile.
{"commentId":1934273,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"bertob7"}
- 2 votes
#20 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:32 PM EDT{"commentId":1934681,"authorDomain":"dll222"}
When thinking about becoming a "locavore"- it would seem rather easy for me in Georgia. Within 20 miles, I have a working dairy, a farm that has supplied for over 30 years both beef and Berkshire pork. There are numerous orchards and farms nearby. (Even wineries and spring water.) But, after sampling some of the farms- I wonder if the food is as safe or safer. I hope so! In any case, looking to within 100 miles- I can even include fish and shellfish! So for me, being a locavore is quite possible!
What bothers me about the miles of transportation of food?
Both last year and continuing this year, I have not found a Georgia peach in any grocery store. I have only found california peaches! There are significant differences in the peach qualities- the california peach is bigger, has less peachfuzz, and less intense taste. The georgia peach is smaller- but even the smell is more fragrant. Their taste is intense and I prefer them.
Although the Georgia peaches are not in grocery stores- I was able to buy Georgia peaches from a Saturday market in the park. They got them from the downtown Atlanta produce mart!
Don't you think it is a great waste of fuel to ship produce clear across the country to a state that is called "the Peach State"!
{"commentId":1934681,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"dll222"}
- 3 votes
#21 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 5:35 PM EDT{"commentId":1935245,"authorDomain":"cswharton2001"}
LMAO When I read this article. Really loved the one who buys all fresh food from the farmers market, takes it home and cans it or freezes it in 2 (TWO) Freezers. So, She DROVE to the farmers market (probably alone), brought the products home and started up her stove, or used her electric canner for hours on end, consumed gallons of water and canned her produce. Oh Yeah, That really reduced her carbon footprint!
If you people REALLY want to reduce your carbon footprint THIS is what you need to do:
1. Walk Everywhere.
2. Grow your own food...all of it...from chickens to fruit and vegetables and nuts.
3. Live next to a river and learn to fish.
4. Eat everything raw.
5. Use a Large Leaf off a tree to fan yourself on hot days. Or jump in the nearest pond, lake or river to cool off.
6. Use your own dodo to fertilize your crops. Dig a hole in the ground to do your dodo in, but make sure it's not to deep cause you'll have to shovel it out to use it as fertilizer on your crops.
7. Dig another hole as far away as possible to store your freshly killed meat in. This hole MUST be very deep in order to keep the meat fresh for several days. Or you could build a smokehouse to keep it fresh (but then you'd have to burn wood.....better stick with the first plan).
Now, before you follow these steps, you had better check with the local city government.........They may have an aversion to people who try to live like this.
{"commentId":1935245,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"cswharton2001"}
#22 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 7:17 PM EDT{"commentId":1971145,"authorDomain":"getahome"}
this stuff is all about feeling good about yourself not about actually doing anything that will actually make any difference whatsoever. It is a hundred times more efficient to factory farm all these vegetables. If you wanna play farmer go ahead but the planets not any better for it anyone who thinks differently is just fooling themselves.
{"commentId":1971145,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"getahome"}
{"commentId":1935494,"authorDomain":"kbause"}
Interesting idea. When ya'll figure out how to grow a banana in Las Vegas I'll get on the bandwagon. Until then - I'll buy produce from wherever I can get it. This idea would work for those of you who live in agricultural friendly areas - but doesn't work so well in a desert region. Cactus anyone?
{"commentId":1935494,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"kbause"}
#23 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:02 PM EDT{"commentId":1936503,"authorDomain":"gwenny"}
LOL You choose to live where you want. I'll choose to live where I want. We'll see who either moves or goes broke first, how is that.
{"commentId":1936503,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"gwenny"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1935500,"authorDomain":"kbause"}
Or if you can figure out how to grow a pineapple here. Those are the two fruits that I would miss the most.
{"commentId":1935500,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"kbause"}
#24 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:03 PM EDT{"commentId":1941691,"authorDomain":"agieheiss"}
That's the problem I have - I live in a small desert town - our motto is we're two hours from everything. I would love to eat locally but it's hard to eat mesquite and creosote; although the Native Americans did. Our soil is so alkaline even the fleas won't live here. I'm planning on getting a greenhouse and seeing if that will work.The problem is the heat in the summer. But people who have lived here for over 30 years claim that it's just about impossible to grow veggies here. We can grow pistachoes and there are alfafla fieds but they are very water intensive. We have a farmers market but my suspicion is that the veggies come up from LA and are no different that what I can buy at Albertsons. Any suggestions? Other than moving which isn't feasible at the moment.
{"commentId":1941691,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"agieheiss"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1935597,"authorDomain":"ifjed"}
It makes sense to support local producers as much as possible. E.g., during the summer we eat a lot of very nutritious and tasty, tomato-based raw gazpacho, which allows us to avoid cooking, and we can do it by growing tomatoes and by buying our tomatoes locally, not at Walmart.
However, another problem that no one even bothers to mention is that under the Bush administration the federal government has pretty much withdraw from protecting the food supply while at the same time encouraging the importation of cheap products from countries when health and safety are not taken very seriously. So it's not suprising that we have more and more problems.
{"commentId":1935597,"threadId":"284131","contentId":"1557918","authorDomain":"ifjed"}
- 1 vote
#25 - Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:21 PM EDT{"canLink":false,"threadId":"284131","isPrivate":false}
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