Fresh and local

I've read three books about food this summer: Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, both by Michael Pollan, and Animal Vegetable Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. All of them offer a lot to think about (food for thought, hee hee), and since I'm not working this summer, I've been making an effort to pay more attention to how and where I get my food. Pollan and Kingsolver both talk about the industrial food economy, the horrors of CAFOs (huge feedlots where cattle are force-fed grain, usually corn, and anti-biotics, since they're not meant to eat corn), and the general lack of a food culture in the United States. Kingsolver went so far as to make a family pledge to eat locally (and thus seasonally) for a whole year. She has the advantage of living on a farm, of course, which means growing a lot of food as well as raising chickens and turkeys. But still, a lot of the information can be taken to heart -- and it seems to be getting easier all the time to be a locavore. One of my favorite restaurants in town has been doing it for years, changing their menu every month or so to reflect what is in season, getting most of their food from farmer's markets and their own herb garden.

Buying organic is a start, but even organic foods (especially those sold at large scale 'health food' stores like Whole Foods) tend to come these days from huge industrial style monoculture farms in California. To get all that food grown, processed, refrigerated, and trucked out here uses a lot of energy. I didn't use to look very closely at the labels (and to their credit, they do label all their produce at Whole Foods) to see where my lettuce or tomatoes or strawberries came from, but lately I've been paying more attention. I bought tomatoes from Texas last week, since at least it's closer than Mexico. Today, however, I was excited to find local tomatoes, and lettuce, and carrots, and squash......all at the farmer's market. And some fresh pasta (roasted garlic and herb fettucine) and Italian chicken sausage. Dinner is practically going to make itself. It feels good to know I am supporting local farmers and sausage makers, and the vegetables taste amazing, but it's also just fun to shop at the market. I feel like a part of something, rather than just one more cog in a giant food production and consumption machine. I did buy bananas yesterday, so maybe I'm not quite ready to take the Kingsolver challenge, but one small step at a time......