Green Living

I signed up again for my community’s Eat Local Challenge—from June through October, hundreds of us pledge to eat 50 percent of our food from local sources. I have to confess, I skip the whole daily calculation process and, instead, direct my energies toward expanding awareness of local food sources—which is the whole idea behind the food challenge, anyway.

            When you eat local, you reduce the environmental impact of your daily bread. (Food on the shelves of your neighborhood grocery has traveled an average of 1,500 miles—that’s a lot of oil in your tomatoes and not the heart-healthy kind.) Summer is a great time to become a “locavore.” Finding fresh vegetables is easy: I can supplement my own garden gleanings with a weekly delivery through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, or visits to several farmer’s markets, which carry a lot more than produce.

The Eat Local Challenge Web site posts regular updates on resources: where to find locally made dairy products, flour, honey, maple syrup, baked goods, and—if I were a carnivore—meat. The icing on the cake? We even have a candy manufacturer in the community, producing great chocolate from Fair Trade, sustainably grown cocoa.

No matter where you live in the U.S., you can find farmer’s markets, CSAs, food coops, even grocery stores and restaurants that make available local food at www.localharvest.com.

consumerism, energy, food

Comments (1) | Add Yours   Share This