On Quitting the Challenge

by Cookiecrumb

About four days ago, I decided to quit the Eat Local Challenge.

I made myself a burrito with non-local ingredients to celebrate.

Then I realized, aw, darn, the cheese was local.

No matter how hard I might try to be a non-participant, I find I eat locally most of the time anyway, whether I try to or not.

And that is because of my participation in the Challenge last year — it completely changed the way I shop for food.

After a tricky first couple of weeks finding my bearings last August, I learned who my purveyors should be. I kept an ear out for new sources of supply. I did my research, and it paid off: Shopping for local food became easy.

A lot of the learning came as a result of interacting with fellow food bloggers; somebody would locate a producer of a local whole-wheat flour and share the news… somebody else would nail down a perfect local yogurt and talk about it. Pretty soon we were all picking each others’ brains and/or announcing our latest find. Communal enlightenment. It was great.

So why did I decide to quit the Challenge this time?

First, because I didn’t feel that I was learning anything new. Not that being turned on to someone’s discovery of a decent, not-too-expensive local olive oil this month was unwelcome news. On the contrary. I don’t expect to be able to source all my local provisions by myself; I’m always grateful for new information.

But the new information is just data chunks. I’ve already learned HOW to be a local eater, and I wasn’t getting much satisfaction out of a droopy learning curve this time.

My second reason for quitting was because I came to see the endeavor as a little artificial. I’ve already said I know I can eat a 100% local diet for the entire month. I can do it by searching out suppliers for everything that fits my definition of local (100 miles, in my case), and simply going without foods that fall outside. It’s easy to do in Northern California. Skipping soy sauce for a month? I’ll survive.

But then I thought, why? Why would I exclude soy sauce? Or black pepper? Or any other food that doesn’t harm the local economy, the environment or international trade laws?

Well. I realized I was talking about what we’ve defined here at the Challenge as “exceptions.” We all define our exceptions in our own way. I had stridently chosen to go for a 100% local diet — just because I knew I could. Maybe I was showing off.

At which point I realized I had indeed learned something. I learned, as I said above, that I already do eat locally, probably about 75% of the time during the year when I’m not even trying.

The oddest result of my “quitting” the Challenge, though, has been to quit quitting. I jumped back up in the saddle. I relaxed a couple of restrictions, but I decided to stick it out.

And then yesterday, I made a meal from 100% local ingredients (including homemade Japanese-style pickles) and it was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.

Cookiecrumb lives in Marin County, California, and writes I'm Mad and I Eat, a blog that carelessly weaves food and politics, and occasionally devolves into utter silliness.

Comments

[VI]

Keep quittin'! (We should all quit like you.)

Great post!

[Holly]

This is fantastic. That is the thing about all of these steps toward fresh, sustainable, local. Even when you don't realize it, they change something fundamental, and suddenly, it's just part of what you do. Congratulations on quitting, and mostly on finding more freedom within by coming back on your own terms.

[Liz]

This is exactly it! I feel that local eating is so much a part of WHO I AM that the word "Challenge" doesn't describe it at all. I'm not challenged anymore! When you know where to look it's so incredibly easy to eat a more locally-based diet.

[Birdsong]

I think we can all benefit from your "quitting"... sometimes it can feel like a rut with no new information coming along. What I love about reading everyones' posts is how diverse the actions and reactions are throughout the country, and with what people are working through in their own version of the Challenge. Thanks, Cookiecrumb!

[Tana]

Wow, did this help dissipate my own ELC ennui. I've been doing pretty well with it, and am forgiving myself for not being on top of blogging. But today was the last go-round in family court for a long time, and hopefully I will regain some kind of equilibrium with my productivity. (We prevailed in court. Thank God.)

[Barbara]

One cannot quit being who one is.

Once eating locally becomes part of your identity, it is impossible to truly -quit- because that is who you are.

Good post.

Tana--ugh--family court will get anyone down. Been there, done that, have the scars.

[Stacie]

I was getting discouraged, as I am a newbie, and displaced from the Bay Area to the Midwest. I am using the month to do the learning you spoke of enjoying so much last year. But it's hard! So I popped the frozen pizza, made local, but not local ingredients in the oven, and though about giving up. But then I realized it's the learning that counts. I don't live in Berkeley anymore, and it's hard to expect this to be easy! Thanks for the thoughts on losening the definition!

[cookiecrumb]

Hey all: Thanks for the support. I proposed a non-local supper to Cranky last night, and he said, "Nothin' doin'!"
I went out for a cup of tea this morning (one of my primary exceptions), and I didn't use any sugar.
Yeah. We're hooked.
And still learning.
xx

[Jen]

ahh, Marin county!
Last year we went to San Fran for a conference. We checked into our room and headed out for a walk. We stopped at some no-name Italian place (well, it had a name; I mean it wasn't famous) to eat, then walked a couple blocks more to Union Square. Seeing all the different people all doing their own thing just seemed so normal, and normal seemed so wonderfully refreshing, that I nearly cried. The whole week we were in San Fran, I don't think my (biracial) child had one person so stunned by his curls that they "had" to touch his hair.
There are many places in this country that are not blessed with such diversity, where monocropping isn't only at the farm or ranch level, but entire counties. From here to Hereford, and beyond, cattle feedlots dominate. To the South, around Lubbock, cotton fields stretch for 100 miles. When we moved here I looked, as I always do, for farmers' markets and local produce at grocery stores or health-food stores. Even the 'health food' stores import pills and fruit from 1000s of miles away, and looked at me in incomprehension when I asked about local food. They didn't understand the definition or the reason.
I've always seen my purchasing decisions--local, humanely raised, organic--as a type of activism, but don't know how to begin here.