www.eatlocalchallenge.com

Lazy Locavores?

 

Produce grown, harvested and photographed by Jennifer BB

by Jennifer BB

For a fee, Mr. Paque, who lives in San Francisco, will build an organic garden in your backyard, weed it weekly and even harvest the bounty, gently placing a box of vegetables on the back porch when he leaves.  Call them lazy locavores--city dwellers who insist on eating food grown close to home but have no inclination to get their hands dirty. (Kim Severson, NYT)

Okay--first, let's applaud those who are willing to put a premium on eating locally grown food.  And for those who subscribe to Community Supported Agriculture shares or who "cow pool" to obtain fresh produce and pastured-raised beef--this is only a great help (key to survival, even) for small, local farmers.  But is it even possible to have a bounty of fruits and vegetables growing in your own backyard and NOT want to get your hands dirty?

I've been nursing a blog post for the past couple of weeks and the first sentence waxes poetic about the joy of watching the tomatoes slowly grow on my vines, picking early Sungolds and chewing on baby Swiss chard as I pull stray weeds from my raised beds.  It just takes a few minutes--about as long as it takes the water to boil for my morning tea.  I can't imagine paying someone else to do it--even if I could afford it. 

But perhaps it is like the small steps it takes to get people eating real food--I can't knock those kitchen centers you can go to to prepare a weeks worth of meals if it gets families eating balanced meals at the table on a regular basis.  I can only hope that those who have room to grow their own food but pay others to tend it, will soon discover the delight of sowing, weeding, tending, and eventually harvesting food their own hands have touched.  Check out  the full story in The New York Times here.

Shut Up & Eat?

by Jen Maiser

Amy Stewart's commentary on NPR's All Things Considered this week was a topic of conversation among ELC blog authors this week.  While Ms. Stewart believes that we should all "shut up and eat," I hardly think that many of us will be following her directive anytime soon.  Michael Pollan often speaks about the magic of voting with our forks.  Unlike major, huge, unsurmountable issues that our world faces, food issues are something that we all decide on many times a day.  I personally choose to put my hard-earned money in the hands of local farmers and local cheesemakers and local artisans over international conglomerates and mega-corporations. 

Ms. Stewart suggests that instead of focusing on where our food comes from, we should try taking public transportation or turning down the thermostat.  Most of us who are conscious enough to focus on where our food comes from don't turn off that consciousness when it comes to these sort of things -- we tend to tread lightly on the earth in many ways.

While I suspect that Ms. Stewart was trying to be sensationalist and contrarian about some of the pedantic, minutia-oriented conversations that can occur around food (and that many of us tire of at some point), I don't think that an overarching declaration against eating local is the answer.

Below, you'll find some opinions from other ELC authors around the nation.  Check them out -- I think they're fantastic.

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from Liz (Maine):

No doubt local eating is old news where you live in California, the land of plenty. But it is an absolute triumph that the rest of America is finally paying attention to what goes on its dinner plate. Please don't begrudge us Mainers or Michiganders or Minnesotans for finally catching on to what you savvy Californians have known all along: that fresher foods taste better. What's more is that we're finding we can produce our food just as well, if not better than your fine state, cutting out the factory farms, middlemen, and days of travel on the way.

I don't often dole out advice, Amy, but it seems like you need to either find some non-foodie friends or start talking up some new cause. If it goes well, the rest of us should be buzzing about it in 2013. Until then, I will continue to celebrate the foods of my state with my friends and family. Don't worry, I'll make sure not to invite you to the dinner party.

Psst,...did you hear about the spinach?

By Jennifer BB

There hasn't been a national freak out the way there was  last year around the recall of E. coli infected spinach but food recalls are still occurring and there have been two within the last month.  The first was a recall at the end of August related to spinach infected with Salmonella and the most recent was last week's Dole recall of E.coli infected mixed salad greens.  Discrete signs at our local Wegman's Supermarket and a Google search gave me the low down on the latter but I'm left wondering if this is just becoming ordinary news these days.  "What beautiful weather we're having, hey, shame about that spinach recall." 

Eating Penny-Wise: Getting the Conversation Started

by Jennifer BB

By now I shouldn’t be surprised by how often conversations about food come up with perfect strangers—but when the focus is on eating fresh and local, I’m still taken aback.  This happened most recently at a book signing for Lidia Bastianich’s new book (Lidia’s Italy).   Even though this was a cookbook event I never presume that folks are interested in the issues around eating locally.  I found myself on line for an hour sandwiched between someone who was just learning how to cook and another who was trying to figure out how to eat well with diabetes.  Without engineering it (I promise!) the conversation turned to eating locally on a budget. 

Eat Local Conversation on NPR

by Jennifer BB

Today's Talk of the Nation--Science Friday features a great conversation on eating locally and the whole local versus organic issue.  Brian Halweil, author of Eat Here:  Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket, is one of the panelists.

I only heard the last 20 minutes of the live broadcast but there was some interesting reflections by folks across the country on the issue.  For instance, one person said his food bill went up when he went to organic food and another's went down when she went to local food.

The archive of the show will be available after 6:00 pm EST today and you can get the download here.

Get Your Grub On

by Jennifer BB

When it comes to Anna Lappe, the organic and local apple really doesn't fall far from the tree.  She, along with Bryant Terry, has authored Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen.  Anna is the daughter of Frances Moore Lappe of Diet for a Small Planet fame.  My copy of Grub has just arrived and it is on top of my "must read" stack.

So what is Grub?  "Grub is healthy, local, sustainable food for all" so goes one of their definitions.  What better inspiration for an urbanite like me who is continually searching for ways to eat well, to buy,  produce and share food in ways that are just, and who doesn't mind a side dish of good food politics with my entree.