www.eatlocalchallenge.com

NRDC promotes local food

by Julie Cummins

I was listening to KQED radio (San Francisco) this morning and heard a piece about food miles. Did anyone hear it? They referred to a recent Natural Resources Defense Council study that showed that local is better. Despite our ability to grow an abundance of crops year-round in our region, according to the study, most winter produce in California supermarkets is shipped from so far away (Chile and other Southern Hemisphere locations) that, all else being equal, you have a lower carbon footprint if you buy local, even if the modes of transport are less fuel-efficient. It said something like that, anyway. I hadn't had any high-carbon-emission coffee yet, so I can't be sure. I looked around on the web and couldn't find the story, but I did find this pdf on the NRDC site. It has an interesting chart about some of our biggest import crops, their transport methods, and their pollution potential.

NRDC also has this excellent seasonality page on its site. Select your state and the month, and you get a list of what produce is in season in your area! (Even in Alaska, they have local carrots and potatoes right now. I just had to check.)

Julie Cummins lives in Oakland, CA and is Director of Education for the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA).

Finding Justus

by Expat Chef

I can’t go home again, or at least not without a million memories good and bad flooding my mind and heart. After high school, I spent quite a bit of time seeking to be anywhere else but there. Even 22 years later, it still takes a lot for me to return to that small town community less than an hour away. Usually it’s a call from one of my best friends. Last trip, however, it was a call to the dinner table at Justus Drugstore.

When you are lucky enough to live in a small city with more than a couple James Beard award-winning chefs in it, it seems pretty odd that you’d go 40 miles north to a former drugstore in the main square of a small town to dine. Frankly, small town fare up there is usually a diner or two, or fast food on the fringes near the highway. Not exactly cutting edge cuisine territory even if it is the perfect terrior to source the food from.

2007 Food Blog Awards

The Eat Local Challenge blog has been nominated in two categories for the 2007 Food Blog Awards:

• Food Blog of the Year and
• Best Food Blog (Theme)

You can vote in these categories and many others at the Well Fed Network.  Voting is open through Friday, December 14th, 11:59 pm EST.  In addition to considering voting for this site, be sure to consider our friends at the Ethicurean for Best Food Blog (Group)!

Right to Know: Interesting Update

by Expat Chef

Seems Pennsylvania's governor, Ed Rendell, has decided to review the state's Department of Agriculture's decision to ban labeling of dairy that is hormone-free or rBST-free. The directive was led by the state's Department of Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff and passed despite the FDA allowing said labels that help inform consumers' choice.

The review follows a huge public outcry over the decision in a state that is the fourth-largest dairy producer in the nation. You can learn more about the current status of the issue in a Post-Gazette article.

A very interesting point in the discussion is that Dennis Wolff is not just the Secretary of the state's Department of Agriculture, but also a dairy farmer himself. Wolff formed formed the Food Labeling Advisory Committee which made the decision. The committee met only once, and had other dairy producers in its roster.

The Right to Know

by Expat Chef

It seems perfectly logical that we all should have a right to know what a substance is before we put it into our body and where it came from. I mean, I can look on my alarm clock and find out where it was made, and I'm not going to eat it.

Yet, food labeling legislation (COOL, or Country Of Origin Labeling) has consistently been postponed and delayed at the federal level since it was first included in the Farm Bill from 2002. It's no wonder so many of us worry when the few allowed and voluntary food labels that can help consumers make good choices are obscured.

Twelve years ago, the FDA approved voluntary labels for marking dairy products as being free from rBST or rBSH hormones. Most have to include the disclaimer that there is no reason to believe this hormone-free milk is any better, but for those of us who care, the choice is there. And, it remained there even as Monsanto (maker of the growth hormone) tried to pressure the FDA to disallow this labeling. The FDA wisely resisted Monsanto's request.