May '10 Full Moon EcoHint

What on Earth is a Locavore?

Distressed about that oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? Who isn't? And it's easy to put the blame on Bad, Bad BP. The idea of boycotting them is interesting but what are you gonna do? Buy your oil from someone else? I'm not sure that's going to help anything. What we really need to do is consider our own contribution to the problem by examining our individual dependence on oil.

We all know about curbing our driving habit - running out to the grocery store for one item, driving to work instead of riding the bus, etc. But what about the oil spent to bring stuff to us?

What I want to suggest for this month's EcoHint is the idea of eating locally. Most of us never think about where our food comes from. I know I didn't up until a few years ago. But the truth is, most produce grown in the United States travels an average of 1,500 miles before it gets to your table. And then there's all that food we buy out of season from even farther away: grapes from Chile, tomatoes from Holland, garlic from China, apples from New Zealand, oranges from Australia… the list just goes on and on. In most places in America the summer food growing season is just getting started so it's a good (and easy) time to begin thinking about eating locally.

So think about all the oil required to move that food half way around the world. According data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and “The Oil We Eat,” by Richard Manning in Harper’s Magazine, Feb. 2004, if every US citizen ate just one meal a week composed of locally grown and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week! With that kind of savings we wouldn't need that 25,000 barrels that's gushing into the Gulf of Mexico every day!

Here are some ideas about how to get started.

1 Shop weekly at your local farmers market or farm stand

2 Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and get weekly deliveries of the season's harvest

3 Buy from local grocers and co-ops committed to stocking local food

4 Support restaurants and food vendors that buy locally produced food

5 Preserve food from the season — freeze, can, dry — to eat later in the year

6 Grow your own food in your yard or community garden plot

7 Visit local farmers and "u-picks"

9 Ask your grocer or favorite restaurant what local foods they carry

To find out what's local when in your neck of the woods, check this site: NRDC Food Miles

For more good reasons to eat locally check here.

Take the challenge: Eat Local

Other info: Sustainable Grub

And for an inspiring and entertaining read on the subject, check out "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver.

Bon Appetit!