For instance I read one source (quoting the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture) that stated the average fresh food on our dinner table travels over 1,500 miles. Here I am living in the heartland of America and I started noticing most of my food was being grown in Florida, California, and even Chili and Mexico. I even observed my daughter preferred buying bottled water which came from Fiji, yet we've never even been to Fiji because it would take too much of our limited vacation time to get there and back. I started to think about the impact on the environment moving this food products around the globe and realized I don't want to be a part of that. How many gallons of gas is burned to bring a head of lettuce to Missouri from California, when we can grow it here?
I also started becoming more interested in fair trade. My church, Manchester United Methodist, holds one of the largest fair trade markets in the country. Over the years I have increasingly becoming aware of the importance of fair trade and fair wages for workers. At this year's market I picked up a handy little reference book "The Better World Shopping Guide" that rated businesses on issues such as human rights, the environment, animal protection, social justice and community involvement. My daughters flipped through the easy to read book and started questioning some of our family purchases. I decided one way I can work to ensure a fairer wage for my food is through buying from local producers.
I have to believe buying locally makes a difference in my local economy, too. While I can buy cheaper tomatoes from the Wal-Mart super store, I know very little of that money is staying in my local town. Ignoring all the claims that Wal-Mart is unfair to employees, I have to wonder if a store can make a profit if it is paying a fair wage to the farm workers, yet also has to pay for shipping, storage, packaging, and marketing?
As I said earlier, these were just a few thoughts running in my head when I decided to start eating locally, but I've found other benefits along the way. First, I believe the quality of the food we have been eating is better. I am being introduced to new flavors for foods I've eaten for many years, like the fresh asparagus, and foods I've never tried before, like kale and watercress. Eating some of these vegetables within hours of being picked gives a whole new flavor and texture. I am also finding foods I've feared in the past are really quite good. With luck my children won't be near 50 years old before they find out collard greens are really good and a can be eaten in many ways.
I also know that by expanding the types of produce we are eating we are getting a more well-rounded diet. We regularly ate green beans, okra, and asparagus, but having expanded our eating horizon we have so many more foods in our diet -- adding different nutrients.
Last, I believe I am becoming a better member of my community, getting to know my local vendors, growers and producers. I've gone to local farmers markets for a couple of years, but this year I am working to get to know the people I am buying from. At this year's Fair Trade Market I took the time to get to know the person selling the meat. I enjoyed learning why they have chosen to raise their cattle grass-fed and why they are selling their meat locally, rather than selling off to a large corporation. This weekend, the CCSA I joined, Fair Shares, is sponsoring a picnic for those of us in the CCSA to get to know each other and meet some of the producers. I believe this community building experience will help reinforce my resolve to buy locally.
As I said at the start, I'm not really sure why I have started this journey, and I am sure over time some of my thoughts will become clearer. At that time I will write part II to this entry.
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