Eating Locally

In the last few months, a number of books have come out about people striving to eat locally. So, what's the big deal about this? Apparently, food in the US travels and average of 1500 miles to get to our plates! Of course, we are all aware of being able to get out of season fruits and vegetables from Chile, Mexico and California. But also, corn, wheat, meat and most other staples are controlled by a few companies, produced by a few mega factory farms and distributed centrally. Not only are the agricultural practices of these companies harmful to the environment but an amazing amount of fossil fuel is consumed to transport the food to our local supermarkets. And, to add insult to injury, the food that we receive is selected for its ability to be transported, not for its nutritional value or taste.

Barbara Kingsolver (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle); Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon (100 mile Diet); and Bill McKibben (Deep Economy) have recently written books describing their attempts to eat locally. In their attempts they found a number of things. First, much of the local food production infrastructure has been dismantled. For example, even though oats were grown locally in Bill McKibben's community, the ability to convert oats to oatmeal had been lost.

Alan and I just got back from Ithaca NY. What a great example of people consciously trying to develop a local, earth-friendly economy. Not only were there lots of opportunities to by local meats, dairy and produce, but restaurants also let you know which items were local.

Alan and I are trying to stimulate a local foods network through our website http://www.altunderground.org. We are highlighting local foods, art, music and writing. We even have a new RSS feed, thanks to learnings from Library 2.0. Check it out and tell us what you think.