Barb from Georgia emails me a lot of questions about what we eat, what food we produce, what we can get locally. She wanted to know if I've heard about being a locavore and would I support that idea?
I believe that I've become a locavore (except for Saturdays). Ha! Nowadays it's becoming trendy to be a locavore, so I guess I've hit the bigtime. ;)
Why consider becoming more locavore oriented?
.. You're supporting the local economy, your neighbors.
... You're making less of a carbon footprint on the earth. When food doesn't have to shipped a great distance, there will be less energy and oil used. That cuts down on pollution too.
... The food will be fresher, thus tasting better and being more nutritious.
... Locally sold fruits and veggies are more apt to be picked ripe rather than green, making them better quality.
... You may be able to get varieties not offered by big commercial farms, items too fragile for shipping.
But there are downsides to a locavore lifestyle, big downside that I suspect many people won't be willing to deal with.
... Local food tends to be more expensive, sometimes quite a bit more.
... Unless you live in Hawaii, most food production is seasonal. So food would need to be canned, dried, frozen, or otherwise preserved for year around use. Even here in Hawaii certain foods are seasonal although we can grow fresh food year around.
... Many foods won't be available in your own area. Either they can't be produced or simply no one is doing it close to you.
A problem I see with people who get caught up in the locavore trend is that they feel that they have to do it as close to 100% as possible. Sort of an all or nothing thing. I don't get that. Why not just eat as local as you are comfortable with? Some of us have the opportunity to eat local, many of us don't. If you opt to buy half of your food from the local farm stands, then I'd say you're doing just fine!
This past weekend hubby and I went on our quarterly shopping trip to stock up (two weeks early but the opportunity arose to go so we did it.) I'm putting everything away today and took stock of what food items we bought that are not local.
... Nuts (peanuts, cashews, almonds)
... A roasted chicken (you can't beat the price value on a Costco roasted chicken!)
... Hummus
... Assorted spices
... Grapes
... Apples
... Cherries
... Cantaloupe
... Soy sauce
... Soy milk
... Water chestnuts
... Bamboo shoots
... Cow's milk (we can't get enough fresh raw milk around here to meet our needs)
... Butter
... Sour cream
Not bad. All our other food is local sourced, except for our Saturday restaurant splurge.
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