by Jennifer Maiser, Editor
In the August/September 2008 edition of Fine Cooking, I was asked to answer questions about eating locally as a part of FC's "Ask the Expert" series. As a part of the article, I am hosting a discussion forum on the FC site. Members of the public can ask questions about eating local food. The forum is open through August 25, so stop by if you're interested in asking any eat local questions!
by Jennifer Maiser, Editor
Serious Eats, this week, posted a great article about how to eat locally and sustainably on a budget. While we know from last year's Pennywise challenge that eating locally on a budget is possible, it's also easy to watch the food bills pile up when you're concerned with finding sustainable products for your family's dinner table.
Among the suggestions in the SE article, I especially like the suggestions to cut back on meat consumption, and to buy in season. In season eating offers the best value for local produce, and if you put up or preserve foods while they are in season you can have a version of them throughout the year. In addition to the Serious Eats advice, I would also suggest the following:
1) Subscribe to a CSA. CSA boxes from local farms typically offer a good value for in-season, fresh produce.
2) Get to know your farmers. You're more likely to find out about good deals on your food, and to learn what foods offer the best value that week. Just start by saying hi, asking them about their week, and asking them about the produce. Soon, many will be keeping an eye out for special deals for you.
3) Be smart about your meat purchases. Consider a cow share or meat CSA if it's available in your area (or start your own!). Choose whole chickens over boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Learn to work with odd meat cuts so that you can maximize your dollar when possible.
Jennifer Maiser is the editor of the Eat Local Challenge website. She is often found behind a camera or writing for her site, Life Begins at 30.
This one’s for locavores with friends and family who still
think you’re off your rocker. BusinessWeek now officially sees us as a market
force to be reckoned with. Next time your investment banker brother or your recent
MBA friend tells you to shut up and eat, you can recite a quote from BusinessWeek.com: “This is not a fringe foodie culture.”
The article goes on to say, “It's a movement that is gradually reshaping the business of growing and supplying food to Americans. The local food movement has already accomplished something that almost no one would have thought possible a few years back: a revival of small farms. After declining for more than a century, the number of small farms has increased 20% in the past six years, to 1.2 million, according to the Agriculture Dept.”
The article also points to the locavores' impact on food retail, where even “the giants are devoting a small but growing share of shelf space to locally bought produce.” And “it’s showing up in unexpected places. Corporations such as Best Buy in Minneapolis, DreamWorks in Los Angeles, and Nordstrom in Seattle are providing local options in their cafeterias.”
Click here to read The Rise of the 'Locavore.'
Go us!
Julie Cummins lives in Oakland, CA and is Director of Education for the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA).
by Jen Maiser, Editor
From last night's Law and Order: SVU. Robin Williams claims he can't possibly have participated in a crime at a fast food restaurant because he's a locavore. I just about fell out of my chair. (video via Serious Eats)
Brian Halweil has a great piece on Serious Eats called "Food Words for Thought: 'Locavore' as 2007's Word of the Year."
Big players up and down the food chain, from Wal-Mart to Whole Foods, are figuring out how to transport food a couple of hundred miles instead of several thousand—a challenge, since the current spread of farms and existing shipping infrastructure can make it easier and cheaper to purchase long-distance food. Industry surveys peg "local" at just a few percent of national food sales, although it's a sector soaring at 22 percent a year, according to consumer research firm Packaged Facts.
So don't call us a Locavore Nation just yet. Now is more like the amuse-bouche stage.
But one word really doesn't capture the tectonic shift that is happening in America's alimentary affairs. We are becoming more gastroliterate, as a blossoming culinary lexicon sets us a bright, new place at the dinner table.
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.
The Eat Local Challenge blog has been nominated in two categories for the 2007 Food Blog Awards:
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)!
Oxford University Press has declared the word of the year to be Locavore.
They say,
“Locavore” was coined two years ago by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. Other regional movements have emerged since then, though some groups refer to themselves as “localvores” rather than “locavores.” However it’s spelled, it’s a word to watch.
Bonnie at the Ethicurean sends congratulations to:
the original locavore four, and the legions of Eat Local Challenge participants, "Animal Vegetable Miracle" readers, and "Plenty"-inspired 100-Mile dieters who spread this important philosophical meme throughout America!
That's you! Thanks for doing everything you do to spread the word about eating locally. You deserve a big pat on the back.
NPR's Morning Edition had a segment this week about supermarket chains that are working to provide local produce. I was interested recently to hear that Raley's is among California supermarkets working to provide local food to consumers. The NPR segment is interesting as it has interviews with farmers, supermarkets, and marketing people (who expect local produce to become a $7 billion business within the next 4 years ... a statement which rather confuses me, as all produce is local to somewhere).
EatLocalChallenge.com is a group blog written by authors who are interested in the benefits of eating food grown and produced in their local foodshed.
Spanning the United States, the group is committed to challenging themselves to eat mainly local food during a specific period of time during the year.
Why do we choose to eat local? Read our 10 Reasons to Eat Local.
Interested in eating local and need some tips? Read our tips for the Eat Local Challenge.
Interested in joining a challenge? Keep an eye on this website for new challenge announcements
Check out these challenges hosted by this website's authors and affiliates:
September '07 Challenge
2007 One Local Summer
April '07 Pennywise Challenge
2006 100-Mile Thanksgiving
2006 One Local Summer
May '06 Challenge
August '05 Challenge
Need to contact us? Go to our contact page.
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