Local Yokel

The movement of eating only local food (cutely tagged as being a “locavore”) is gaining popularity each day. This movement contributes to environmental sustainability by consuming food products that are locally grown. The local food movement is an important and exciting development because it creates less dependence on industrial farming and on the gas used to transport the food. It also helps diversify species of food. But really, the main draw, in my opinion is that local food is tastier and keeps you more in balance with your environment, meaning better health.

You can set personal mileage limitations about how far the food you consume is grown in relation to your house, but this does not mean everything available at the local grocery store only 2 blocks from your house is fair game. Eating local means that if those strawberries come from California and your NYC mile limitation is 300 miles, then sorry Charlie, move along, there's nothing to consume here. It also means that you can eat what is growing within your mile radius during any season, a.k.a., “in season.” Eating locally means you can enjoy sweet corn-on-the-cob in the summer and then savor squash in autumn.

The local food movement will be fueled by the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle written by the popular author Barbara Kingsolver along with her husband and daughter. She and her family move from Arizona to Appalachia and begin a year-long experiment of eating only local food, which she documents and enlivens by adding the spice of a novelist's knack for weaving a great story. They have the benefit of living on a small farm and growing vegetables and raising livestock and also frequent the local farmer’s market to supplement what they can’t grow or raise. Her descriptions of the day-to-day life allow the reader to openly see the ups and downs of eating local for a whole year. Her biologist husband, Stephen, provides sidebars of resources to help the reader increase her/his knowledge about the subject, and her daughter Camille provides recipes and menu planning based around the foods in season. Kingsolver provides the local food movement with the exposure that it needs in a way that is accessible and usable to the general public. They have also created a website with more information and a look into their farm. I highly recommend this book as a nice starting point for learning about local food.

Living in NYC, it is near impossible to have a farm. Here are some tips and links to working local food into your life:

• Join your local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) for farm-fresh food delivered from a local farm to your area each week!

• Shop mostly at your local farmer’s market/greenmarket, located throughout the 5 boroughs.


• Read up on Slow Food and heritage breeds.


• Learn what types of foods are local to your area and what is in season.


• Grow herbs in a container in your apartment.


• If you have a small outdoor area or backyard, grow some of your own veggies! Have a fire escape? Grow a few veggies in a container.


• Set a general mile radius where your food can originate from.

• Know yourself and your limits. Allow some exceptions to the local rule when you start. This should be fun, not stressful.
  
  Good Luck!

Posted by: Michael Pingicer, M.S., L.Ac.