Eat Local
Now why would anyone want to do that? There’s a few reasons:
- Food doesn’t travel so far, therefore it’s fresher and probably picked when ripe (as opposed to supermarket food, which is normally picked green). It’s a good bet it tastes better, too.
- Food doesn’t travel so far, therefore it uses less gasoline to bring it to you. That much less gas being burned means less demand for gasoline and lower gas prices.
- It supports your local economy.
- It encourages local farmers to produce food. The reason a lot of farmers quit farming is economic.
- You can meet the farmer or visit the farm and see how your food is being produced. This is a fun field trip if you have kids, or if you’re a kid at heart.
- It’s a fun exercise in learning about food economics. Reading labels as to what’s being produced where really opened my eyes as to how far things are being shipped.
So how do you do this? We talked a bit about this here and here, but here’s a few more ideas:
The September 2007 Eat Local Challenge has just started and they have a lot of ways you can participate — 16 to be exact. You might want to go over there and take a look.
I thought the 100 mile map tool was especially interesting. For Canada and the US you just plug in your zip code and you get a circle of 100 miles from your home, to use as you wish. If you want to participate in the 100 mile diet, that tool will help enormously.
So take a look, pick something that sounds fun, and try it!
September 5th, 2007 at 7:32 am
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