Policy and a Pint: Discuss Think Globally, Eat Locally

we have an awesome farmer's market here. it's a great place to get locally grown veggies and fruits, and usually cheaper than the stores.

I do consider it important

Just signed up for CSA with Harmony Valley Farms in Viroqua, Wisconsin. It's not as close as I'd like, but it's one I was able to find via Blue Sky coupons.

I've used CSA several seasons in the past. I do feel strongly about eating locally, but don't do it with the vim and vigor that I could.

I think that eating locally is environmentally sound--less transportation (cost, pollution)--ecologically sound--supporting one's area farmers, and it's also beneficial to one's health in an unusual way. Often the land in which we live provides remedies to environmental ailments. But it's a site-specific response.

To elaborate, seasonal allergies can at times be mitigated by consuming local products such as honey. It's more involved than that, but I'm giving the simplified idea. If I have an allergy to pollen, eating honey produced 500 miles away won't help me. I need to eat honey made from the very plants that induce my allergy.

A book, The Jungle Effect by Dr. Daphne Miller, reviewed here on Gather talks about my idea of indigenous foods providing for our needs uniquely.

Something's wrong with hot links today. Here's my link that will need to be cut-n-pasted: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977381041

There is nothing more local than your own garden. I am using the square-foot gardening method for growing vegetables. It is amazing how much you can grow in a very small area. I am also growing "winter crops" meaning those things that store over winter very well. These include potatoes, beets, turnips, carrots, winter squash and so forth. Also, canning or freezing your own vegetables is a good way to eat your garden vegetables year round. Also, I do most of my shopping at a new local market (Ferndale Market) that specializes in locally grown or locally produced food. The goal is not to eat 100% locally grown foods but to eat locally as much as possible. It is also not enough to eat locally - but to eat as close to the earth as possible. In other words, highly processed foods are still highly processed, grown and produced locally or not. Having said that, when we do buy processed foods, we try to buy locally processed. So the goal is to not only eat locally but to eat close to the earth. So, most of our cooking is from scratch and we minimize the use of meat products (meat products are, after processed - first by the animals themselves and then by the meat processor). The meat products that we do eat are grass-fed or pastured products - grass-fed beef, pastured chickens, pastured chicken eggs, and so on - and locally produced.
Buying locally produced foods, and pastured meat and poultry products is more expensive than the mass-produced stuff in the traditional market. This is made up for by cooking from scratch and growing our own vegetables. (By the way - once the initial preparation is done, growing vegetables using the square-foot method is a relatively low labor activity and can be very relaxing - even meditative.) This, of course, requires more time, and as we know most of us are very busy. So, where do we find the time! Well, for starters - we don't watch television!
Because most of our food is local - we can still enjoy fresh vegetables from the market (California produced, for example) in the winter time without feeling guilty.

Thanks for posting this

This has been spotlighted in the Today On Gather Post.

Congratulations!

Link that Susan mentioned: Transcript of Live Chat with Daphne Miller, M.D., Author of _The Jungle Effect_

/now reading other comments slowly to catch up

Sorry I missed your ping and this event. For future reference, a vast majority of what I write pertains to this sort of thing. Just flip through the posts on http://gatherroundtable.gather.com/ to the bulk of them.

Peace,
kmf

Thanks!

The audio is now available here, if you wanted to listen.