Eating Locally

With the recent addition of a vegetable garden to the White House grounds, local dishes popping up at many of our favorite restaurants and Farmer’s Markets opening up all across the United States, there is a lot of talk these days about eating locally. Yet for all the recent buzz, the movement is anything but new. The idea of eating locally was championed years ago by chef and author, Alice Waters of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse. Now those simple ideas have created a buzz around the country and created a new focus on what we eat.

There are many reasons to eat locally. Eating locally is good for the local economy. Some studies report that a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. Eating locally also keeps us in touch with our local community, keeps us better in tune with the seasons, is healthier for us and just plain tastes better. Have you ever compared a tomato that has travelled hundreds of miles by truck compared to a ripe tomato just plucked from your garden or purchased at your local farmer’s market? There really is no comparison.

One of the questions that frequently pops up about eating locally is how you define your local area. Does eating locally mean you buy food that is grown in a 25-mile radius from your home? What about a 100-mile radius? Does that still qualify? Or maybe it just means you buy your produce and other edible goods from Farmer’s Markets when you can and making a conscious effort to eat what is in season. There really are many definitions about what eating locally means and we don’t think there is any one right way to define it. You can answer the question for yourself by determining what makes sense for you and how you can best help support your local community and your local economy.

There are some great tools available to learn more about how to eat locally and sustainably. To find a Farmer’s Market in your area, visit Culinate.com or LocalHarvest.org. Local Harvest will also help you find farmer’s that will deliver boxes of produce to your home, office or another centralized location. This is a great way to ensure fresh produce throughout the year. Of course, you’ll have to figure out what to do with those bunches of Fava Beans that inevitably show up in the spring and summer months.

One of the best books I have read about local eating and definitely an inspiration to me is Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. In this book she chronicles a year of eating from local farm’s and her family’s own backyard. It definitely makes you realize the challenges that we face when it comes to an exclusively local diet but it is also extremely motivating and offers many great recipes, tips and suggestions for eating locally.

However you define local eating, it is an adventure full of many wonderful surprises. Not the least of which is great tasting food that you can feel good about eating.

Written by Linzi