become a locavore

Is it possible to be a locavore and live in an area where there’s little farm land? And what is locavore? Is it 25 miles? 100 miles? 200 miles? I’ve heard many definetions there. Also, what if it’s grown locally but produced with chemicals? This isn’t a great option either. I would like to move the Mediterranean. I believe many of the peoples in these areas eat mostly locally which is why they are so much healthier than people in the US. I’ve gone all organic as of 02/01/08 (it was a struggle giving up diet coke) but the rest has been completely worth it.

In recent weeks, I read:
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
_Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon
_Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

The first lays out the argument for why you might want to eat more local foods—for environmental and, even more, for health reasons. The second are two very different attempts to eat more locally.

Plenty is by a young couple living in an apartment in Vancouver and attempting to eat only food (including all ingredients) within 100 miles for one year. They struggle.

AVM is about a family with a bit of land and some background in producing both vegetables and meat. They also set less strict rules for themselves, wanting only to eat local produce and meat for one year.

It’s kind of fun to read them back to back because most of us would be kind of in the middle in terms of resources for pursuing such a project. Both are well-written, but, of course, the Kingsolver book is beautiful.

I signed up for the One Local Summer blogging challenge—blog a meal a week that is made from all local ingredients from June 1 to August 31.

I wrote about the Farmers Market and lunch on my blog. Or, you could just admire the photo.

Non-local things given up (and their locavore replacements):

• Maple syrup (jam/jelly)
• Orange juice (apple juice)
• Oranges and bananas (apples and pears)

Shopping at farmers markets whenever possible makes this shift a lot easier.

I gave up veggie bacon/sausage, but I can’t find a local replacement :(

I’ve already realized my goal of eating 80% local is too ambitious for this year. Flour? Cooking oil? Dried beans? I have no idea if any of those are available from local sources. Plus, I’ve learned in recent years that when I make changes gradually I’m both happier and more successful. So, new goal: learn everything I can between now and May 1, 2009 so that it feels like a reasonable goal to consider an 80% local eating target. This will make for an adventurous year of visiting farmer’s markets, orchards, and who knows what else.

I don’t think I could ever achieve 100% locavore. There are February mornings when the only reason to get out of bed is the orange waiting for me in the kitchen. But I could maybe do 80% like the members of the Locavore Nation. I can’t get close to that now, so I think I’ll start May 1 and see if I could average 80% between then and May 1,2009. There should be weeks, maybe months, that I can get it to 100% in the late summer and early fall. With freezing, I should be able to eat a lot of local foods into the winter.

Starting small, and eliminating/replacing a few things at a time.

The first shift was milk. Buying it from a local farm (it comes in those old fashioned glass jars and it’s not homogenized)

...by Barbara Kingsolver has been eye-opening and inspiring. While I won’t take this to the extreme (would be very difficult to do while living in a NYC apartment), I plan to buy as much of my produce from the Farmer’s Market as possible. Also Fresh Direct and Whole Foods are starting to cash in on the eat local movement, so that will make finding local, organic, pasture-finished meat and dairy a little easier.