I am a locavore...
Fleur
there are so many eating local means more for the local economy - dollars spent locally support the local community twice three times as much as business owned by outsiders...
locally grown produce is fresher... and as a result, local food just flat out tastes better...
locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen - less spoilage - less waste...
eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic - organic food is often shipped hundreds and sometimes thousand of miles, using so much more fuel and energy to get to you, and thus polluting more...
buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons - you eat what is fresh when it is harvested, instead of imported out-of-season food...
eating local protects us from bio-terrorism - you know where it came from and who had access to it before it when on your plate - and the opportunities for tampering just aren't feasible in a market which is so much smaller...
local food connects you to your community - you get to know the people who grew your tomatoes and baked your bread...
local food equals more variety - smaller farms can try crops that you would not normally see in your local agri-business run supermarket, and things like zebra tomatoes and purple string beans become available for anyone to try...
supporting local providers supports responsible land development - land being used in a sustainable manner for farming will not be sold to developers to build McMansions - and the variety of crops helps to keep the land continuously productive and in use, without damaging it or leaving it fallow...
and if you do eat meat, you know how the animals were treated before they were killed, what, if any, chemicals and hormones went into their diet, and how fresh the meat actually is...
one of the best resource (for the US readers), no matter what your diet choices are, to find locally produced food is an organization called Local Harvest... you can find all sorts of sources for locally produced food, including CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) - which are kinda like a subsidy - but instead of the government paying farmers to grow (or not) what they think should be on the market, the consumer pays the farm directly for the food, ensuring that they make a fair amount for their products without government intervention - a fresher and more varied product than what is available in most stores... the one that i am looking at is Grant Family Farms, which is just across the border into colorado...
it is really just a logical iteration of the maxim that to effect change you have to think globally and act locally...
Access: PublicMy answers to some very good questions
Fleur
What is your purpose?
I am here to heal people's souls by helping them to understand each other and their place in the world.
What do you love, and how do (or will) your actions demonstrate this?
I have two great loves in my life, food and literature. That being the case, I love to read and to cook. I am living these loves in several ways. I am a graduate student in English literature, studying how words enrich the lives of communities, connect us to others and demonstrate what a group believes. I believe that reading and writing are key to understanding our fellow humans. This love of reading overlaps with my other passion in the form of cookbooks, which I read and collect. Cookbooks, especially historic ones or ones describing a local area, give me a view into other people’s customs and traditions through food. For me food is a connection to community, and so I love to cook for groups of people, whether it is a large gathering of friends or just my house-mates. Food is also a connection to our earth, which provides for us, and we have the responsibility to use its gifts wisely. With that in mind, I have joined a Community Supported Agriculture farm in an effort to keep my food sources local. This connects me to my food on a deeper level, lessens the impact of agribusiness exploitation and pollution from transportation and packaging, and places me in a community of others who share my values. My passion for learning and people shines out in my love of food and literature.
Write your ideal job description.
A day in my ideal life would not be much different from how I try to live now. I would like to live in harmony, or as close to it as possible, with a group of people whom I love and respect, for our differences and our similarities. I would like to work with my friends and family to raise awareness of injustice and the effects of personal choice in the world. Personal choices on a local level affect the world at a global level, and more people need to think about the ripples that personal choice make in a world that is so interconnected on all levels. Building community through food and communication is, and would continue to be, my role in this group of advocates for awareness. The current state of our economic system makes compassionate, local, organic food harder to access – a luxury, not a human right – and that should change. I would like to continue to study literature’s reflection of and impact on cultures and individual lives. Literature provides access to other’s thoughts, ideas, and world views. This access can help us to better understand our place in the world, if it is examined thoughtfully. To provide context for my place in the world, I would like to travel and experience other ways of living, eating and reading the world around me. Most of all, I would like to continue to live in a way that is mindful of the world and all of its inhabitants.
food
May 2008 