by Sara Zoë
I manned a table at the Portsmouth NH farmers' market this morning, and while I struggled a bit to boil down the concept of the challenge into a 12-sec soundbite I could feed people as they walked by, I was heartened at how many people stopped to pick up a brochure or let me put a sticker on their kid who said, "I just head about this on NPR" or "I read about this in . . . ." (you name it - people mentioned Time magazine, National Geographic, Mother Earth, etc.).
I've also noticed a lot of web chatter about the idea. Here are 3 via the Treehugger blog just from the past week alone:
A restaurant in Canada offering a 100-mile tasting menu.
The Food for Thought festival in Madison, WI features a recipe contest in which several categories emphasize local and sustainable foods.
and the report that fast food restaurant cooking is really really bad for air quality. (Not so local, but sort of)
There was even a post addressing the 'other side' of the eat local idea - that we take away jobs, that some crops just aren't meant to be grown in some places but are using great quantities of fossil fuels (somewhat valid), and so on. Although I don't agree with the general points, I do agree that just because its local doesn't mean its sustainable or great, which we've addressed on this blog before. Buying food with our eyes wide open, as fully informed as we can be, minimizing our impact as best we can - that's what buying locally is about.
Now to just boil that down to the 12 seconds a person walking by a
table at the market will give you when they see you with a brochure in
hand . . .
Sara Zoë is pimping the Eat Local Challenge at the Seacoast Farmers' Markets and through the website Seacoast Eat Local.
