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Is Eating Local Even Possible?

By Suzi Steffen, AlterNet. Posted August 25, 2007.


The author samples some of the growing list of how-to books on eating local -- including the latest from Barbara Kingsolver -- and follows their recipes for the slow food lifestyle.

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I'm a grasshopper by nature. I procrastinate, I put off, I delay. Sometimes I simply can't get anything done -- and it's all because I love to read.

But reading can kick your ass. Thanks to books, I'm spending my summer like the fabled ant, building up food stores from local providers. Eating local -- goat cheese from the farmers' market or eggs from my friends' chickens, vegetables and fruit as abundant as weeds -- is easy right now in Oregon's fertile Willamette Valley. But I want to stay as local as possible in the winter. And that desire has turned me into an ant, the workhorse of food procuring -- I don't even have time to read for pleasure anymore, except when I'm walking to the farmers' market. And it's all the fault of books.

Why am I spending my free hours drying, freezing and canning food? Three books. One is a work of fiction, Susan Beth Pfeiffer's 2006 young adult novel Life as We Knew It. Her dystopian disaster narrative clearly reflects fears about global warming -- and terrifies everyone who reads it. The other two are the hot nonfiction books of the liberal moment, at least for those of us concerned about food security, food safety and a cleaner, less polluted environment: Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Plenty (called The 100 Mile Diet in Canada, a far more accurate title), by young Vancouver journalists Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon.

In Life as We Knew It, a huge meteor hits the moon, causing massive tidal problems and creating volcanic upheaval. Smoke spreads over the globe, causing little light to get through the particle-laden atmosphere (like the year after a volcano caused the explosion of the island Krakatoa in the late 1800s). Nothing can grow. People subsist through the winter weakly on canned food and vitamins. The intimate terror of this book causes young adult librarians and high school teachers I know to purchase food in bulk from Costco. I'm not a Costco person. I decide to go local.

That attitude only grows after I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Plenty. I must say I adore Barbara Kingsolver's essays but find her fiction a bit too didactic. Animal, a work of nonfiction, frustrates me too, especially in the sections contemptuous of city dwellers and exalting of farmers. Sorry, good lady and your family, but city dwellers tend to use less energy per person than those in rural or suburban life. You know -- public transit? Apartments? Biking or walking to work and school?

Food miles, however: Those might run a little farther. She's got me there. Kingsolver, and Smith and MacKinnon, quote an Iowa State University study that shows the average piece of food in 1980 traveled 1,500 miles before it hit our plates; Smith and MacKinnon point out that's has only increased and that it isn't counting processed food like, say, my favorite Turtle Island tofu products. Damn!

While reading the anxiety producing Plenty (the couple does not have an easy time of it), I visit San Francisco and find myself searching out a local breakfast and ending up with goat yogurt. Hello? I don't like the taste of goat milk. But I'm adapting -- after eating goat cheese for a few weeks, I'm starting to enjoy it. And there's a cow dairy about 45 miles away that delivers organic milk, half and half and cheese.

I've been trying to eat organic for many years now, but I can see that organic Granny Smiths from New Zealand maybe aren't the answer. (Plus, if you can get local organic apples, you'll see how very much better they can taste: Cox's Orange Pippin bursts in the mouth with tart beauty at the Eugene farmers' market.)

But signs are positive for locavores this year. All over the country, 100-mile diet clubs and the Slow Food movement -- as the books and associated websites show -- spread the word. And the community garden movement isn't restricted to city-sanctioned places. Heather Flores' Food Not Lawns, another book I read early this year, suggests revolutionary food growing: planting zucchini seeds in cracks in sidewalks, reclaiming junked-out city lots and generally making our cities more efficient food production places.


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Suzi Steffen is a freelance writer in Eugene, Oregon and an arts editor at the Eugene (Ore.) Weekly. Read more of Suzi Steffen at the Eugune Weekly's blog.

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Not so easy
Posted by: PJT on Aug 25, 2007 3:38 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I live in New Castle in rural Western Pennsylvania and eating local is not so easy, even though we are surrounded by farms including Amish farms. The local Giant Eagle supermarket makes a small effort with one display of "locally grown produce", a limited selection that suggests to me that they really aren't trying too hard. I refuse to buy peaches from California when they are falling off the trees around where we live right now. Where are the local peaches? You might find some at the Amish stand out in the country. The Giant Eagle sticks with their "tree ripe" Californians. Why for heaven's sake? I suppose that the loyal Giant Eagle shoppers are used to those peaches and WANT them. Not a smaller, darker, fuzzier and slightly less uniform variety from an orchard in Lawrence County, but the perfect, standard, bald, and all the same size ones from California. That's the way it is. Giant Eagle tries very hard overall. It is a great supermarket. You can buy celeriac in a jar from Germany, Irish Oatmeal, all kinds of Middle Eastern food, the produce section is vast, just not local. The meat and fish cases are always astonishing in what they have, and at reasonable prices. Giant Eagle tries hard to give the customers what they want. They just don't want local weird apples when perfect ones are available from Chile. What might change that culture? Maybe if the cost of energy rose prohibitively it will change or if the cost of labor to pick the food on the giant industrial farms went up it might change, but otherwise who knows? P J Tramdack

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» RE: Not so easy Posted by: farmertx
» Yeah, NY Apple Prices Posted by: supercrisp
» RE: Not so easy Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line
» RE: Not so easy Posted by: farmertx
» RE: Not so easy Posted by: Bozwell
» RE: Not so easy Posted by: ArtemInox
» RE: Not so easy Posted by: Bozwell
» What migh change that culture? Posted by: pdxstudent
» RE: Not so easy Posted by: jackyD
» RE: Not so easy Posted by: Be_a_Citizen_4_a_Change
A little common sense?
Posted by: supercrisp on Aug 25, 2007 5:33 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I really want to burst some of these balloons. I am a gardener. Have done it since I was a kid. I have a degree in environmental science. I recycle. Etc. Etc. What's with these people and ideas like hiding a secret garden, planting seeds in sidewalk cracks? Food and gardening should not be, to me, some sort of puerile "guerilla" game. It's food. Get real with it. Talk to your grocer about food miles. Teach people to grow things, even a pot or two of spices. Drive in the thin end of that wedge. Start gardening programs. But don't make it something that only the wealthy or the folks with lots of leisure can do. Don't condemn people because they can't do what you can. Try to be a little practical and compassionate. As to bursting bubbles. Are you sure it's a good idea to garden in urban soil? What's in that soil? Take a look at a map of toxic waste areas in your city first. Was there a coal dump? A midden that might have lead-sealed cans? Mercury? Other chemicals? Chemicals from the air that came out of auto exhausts? What would happen to a kid who ate that for significant part of their youth? Food isn't a a sport for idle idealists. I lived in Iowa City for quite a while at an epicenter of the slow food movement, all the authors and shi shi folks pushing that idea right in the middle of King Corn's hell. It WAS the wealthy. The sandal-wearing rich who live in $250,000 or $500,000 homes and drive Eurosedans. On the other hand there were people in the totally non-trendy Master Garderner program out teaching all sorts of people how to garden. There were all the foreign grad students gardening in the little plots the university allotted them. Folks with little backyard gardens. The large crowds at the farmers' market. Start with stuff people can use, not stuff you use to crow about. Crowing is not good for gardens, nor for peoples' diets nor digestion. Get over yourselves and get to work.

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» Hello Posted by: ~Fiona~
» RE: Hello Posted by: farmertx
» RE: Hello Posted by: SekhmetsatRa
» RE: Hello Posted by: ArtemInox
» RE: A little common sense? Posted by: Bozwell
» Great Comment!!!!!! Posted by: Gravitas
» RE: Great Comment!!!!!! Posted by: Bozwell
» RE: Great Comment!!!!!! Posted by: ArtemInox
» RE: A little common sense? Posted by: Be_a_Citizen_4_a_Change
» RE: A little common sense? Posted by: Jarmadi
It is easier than one would think....
Posted by: Farmertim on Aug 25, 2007 5:43 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
But the thing that needs to change more than our knowlege of how to grow stuff is the ability to think ahead and drop our long standing taught need of immediate gratification through dissconnect of where our food comes from.
Put up pickles on the first of August and you have to wait till after Thanksgiving to eat them...
Community kitchens area great help..but a little every day makes the difference...
FarmerTim

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IS GOAT'S MILK OR YOGURT ANY BETTER FOR YOU?
Posted by: bbfmail on Aug 25, 2007 6:14 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In your article you wrote:

While reading the anxiety producing Plenty (the couple does not have an easy time of it), I visit San Francisco and find myself searching out a local breakfast and ending up with goat yogurt. Hello? I don't like the taste of goat milk. But I'm adapting -- after eating goat cheese for a few weeks, I'm starting to enjoy it. And there's a cow dairy about 45 miles away that delivers organic milk, half and half and cheese.

#######

Anyone who is still drinking milk, eating cheese or any dairy products from cows, goats or whatever might consider taking a few minutes and looking at the www.milksucks.com site.

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What a fun read!
Posted by: babalucci on Aug 25, 2007 7:01 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Loved Steffan's writing style and the fact that she shows how insane it can all make you, yet doesn't give up.

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» On the contrary- Posted by: kwms
In Toronto there are weekly seasonal farmer's markets across the city.
Posted by: SayBlade on Aug 25, 2007 7:17 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
And, a year-round farmer's market downtown.

There are community gardens in the city which supply fresh produce for people in need. You can also rent a plot if you don't have a yard to grow your own.

In Ontario, another way of getting quality produce at a low price is through The Good Food Box. While there is a mix of local and imported produce, more of the money goes to local farmers than shopping at major chains like Loblaws, Sobey's and Dominion. For every 10 boxes purchased by the buying group -- and some groups are as large as 40 or 50, they get a free box which is frequently given to a family in need.

Members of my family who live in a small town buy directly from a farmer who labels the produce and meat with the distance travelled, in some instances a few metres as the edge of the field is not far from the back of the store.

There are plants that grow in fields, meadows and forests that you won't find at the grocery store and yet are nutritious, flavourful edibles. We need to relearn what generations ago people knew and that is there is lots there that's good to eat and it grows locally.

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» Wild edible plants Posted by: defrag
pop out of the box
Posted by: ankhet on Aug 25, 2007 7:36 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You'll never be able to feed yourself locally-grown produce if you continue to accept the divisions and structures in which you live. Imagine this scenario: in the residential areas, backyards are all contiguous. If you accept that atomizing arrangement with all the fences and infrastructure that maintain it, and just grow grass, flowers and recreational gear such as barbecues and pools, you're merely supporting the system that is killing you.

"Something there is that doesn't love a fence..." and for good reason. Take down the fences, join the plots, and plant food crops on these huge tracts of fallow land, probably former farmland. Learn to cooperate with your neighbors. You can't change this system individually, and getting in you car (or on your overpriced, imported bicycle), driving around shopping for tofu/organic/vegetarian/whatever to fill your freezer (from Costco/Walmart/Sears) without any thought of the big system, is mere vanity. You have to restructure the system - how humiliating/self-debasing to even consider growing zucchini in sidewalk cracks! Where is your strength? Where is your power?

The vehemence of your indignation in response will gauge for you how deeply you have bought into the system and how little you are prepared to do about it.

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» I want my fence! Posted by: Gravitas
» I want my fence, too! Posted by: Rapunzel
» RE: pop out of the box Posted by: montims
eating local
Posted by: snowhound on Aug 25, 2007 8:25 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I live in nj and do a pretty good job eating local. During the growing season I belong to a co-op of a local organic farm. I purchase raw orgainc milk from PA. I purchase grass fed organic meats from local farms in the area. It takes a little effort but it's well worth it.

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4H back in schools?
Posted by: ritadona69 on Aug 25, 2007 8:35 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm wondering about the idea of getting some sort of 4H program back into schools, and not just the more rural ones. Teaching kids, again, about how to grow things, maybe how to raise and care for an animal like a goat or a pig or a chicken--maybe that would help with the understanding of the importance of food, but also the feelings of accomplishment and connectedness associated with eating what you've grown.

I am in a Master Gardeners program here in Texas, and volunteer at a botanical garden that has a community gardening program for kids and their parents. For $5 each kid gets a plot, seeds, and access to all the tools and help they need to be successful in growing their own vegetables. It jazzes the kids so much, I can't tell you, to eat their own tomatoes and peppers. And the parents, too, get to see that planting a small garden is something they can do with their kids at home, even in pots. They go away with the practical skill set to do that.

When and why did we all get away from digging in the dirt?

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» RE: 4H back in schools? Posted by: Basenjis
Snow Gardens?
Posted by: Gravitas on Aug 25, 2007 8:37 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Do any of these books address what Midwesterners are supposed to do about fresh fruit and vegetables in the winter?
What apartment dwellers are supposed to do? Especially if they don't have lots of light?
What poor people are supposed to do if they can't afford the prices. Chicago has a green market in upscale Lincoln Park. $4 for one head of lettuce, $5 for organic, free range eggs. Well and good if one can afford it. But what if one is limiting one's food budget to $100 a month including things like pet food, shampoo etc!
While it may be good to TRY to buy local, it is very impractical for many. The last thing we need right now is MORE GUILT. Contrary to stereotypes, most middle class women over a size 2 were taught to obsess about food at our mother's knee anyway. This is just one more thing to make us even more neurotic!!!

The system needs to change. Until then, maybe people can implement programs. Like matching wannabee gardeners with seniors who have yards and things like that. But until that happens, I say just do the best you can without guilt. I have already given up my car due to global warming. Cutting down on driving for city dwellers is one of the most practical steps for now.

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» RE: Snow Gardens? Posted by: JuliaZ
» Canning? Posted by: Gravitas
» RE: Snow Gardens? Posted by: donnambirdlady
» The Eating Habits of Neurotics Posted by: pdxstudent
» You are projecting Posted by: Gravitas
» RE: You are projecting Posted by: pdxstudent
» RE: Snow Gardens? Posted by: SekhmetsatRa
» RE: Snow Gardens? Posted by: Gravitas
» RE: Snow Gardens? Posted by: SekhmetsatRa
» RE: Snow Gardens? Posted by: animalleaderisgreat
» Good Idea Posted by: Gravitas
» RE: Snow Gardens? Posted by: DA
What about your Time?
Posted by: alicelillie on Aug 25, 2007 8:48 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Fine and dandy. Eat healthier, and maybe save some money.

Problem is, though, a lot of people do not even have 5 minutes of spare time a day at least not during the week, and time is required to do what needs to be done.

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» RE: What about your Time? Posted by: ihugtrees
» RE: What about your Time? Posted by: JuliaZ
» can we try some kindness? Posted by: leftcoasttransplant
Boycott Food
Posted by: pdxstudent on Aug 25, 2007 10:06 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In a line of thinking stemming from previous comments lamenting the affordability of eating local, I'm tickled with the thought of a typical tactic of Capitalist ne'er-do-wellers' response to the problem: simply don't buy it, food that is, and let the market sort things out! Honestly, is this apparent road-block to eating local a problem intrinsic to the local food movement or the grotesque food system to which the majority of us seem to be chained. What is worse, that only the wealthy are allowed to change how they live their lives, or that a false antagonism is made between the poor and wealthy over this issue? It highlights perfectly what is problematic in Capitalism: its most supremely vaunted premise is that we have a choice in these matters.

Of course the choice, assuming we value our lives, is a forced choice: either we choose to starve or eat and live as the system allows us. In this respect, the whole game is utterly totalitarian, which the biggest sham of a free society veils, though everyone can see right through it.

What other options do we have; what do we have to lose, but this loss of power in and over our lives? We can clearly see how problematic our food situation is, though the reason most anyone will cite for why they do nothing is because they are trapped to necessity. It is obvious that revolution does not come to the willing, it is not bloodless. What is not so obvious is that people are, so to speak, bleeding at this very moment, and all it earns them is more time in the very system bleeding them and others. If people don't want to starve to death, and yet they don't want to live a cognitive dissonance, then they must give up something.

I think ranging from the comforts of some lives to lives themselves, making things right will not feel the same as living as though things were right when we know them to be utterly wrong. Who wants people to die though? Not I. I think the only one's who will of some necessity die are those who resist the kind of change necessary to make the world a better place. Unfortunately that seems like a systematic and societal loss, since we as a society organize ourselves around this very resistance.

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It's easy in Oregon
Posted by: Bambi on Aug 25, 2007 10:20 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I realize I'm a spoiled brat living here in Oregon. As agriculture land is expanding in the US, but # of farms decreasing, Oregon is bucking the trend. This is the only state where the farm #'s are increasing. Throw a stick in the Portland Metro area and you hit a tree or farmer's market.

I recommend the film "The Real Dirt on Farmer John", which is making it's second tour of the US and the World. The Real Dirt on Farmer John

Farmer John Peterson is from a midwest farming clan. He lost nearly of his acreage, but the farm found a new life and began to increase acres by turning itself into a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operation.

There are hundreds of links on the internet where you can find out about CSA's in your area. When I lived in Northern Cali, we had a CSA deliver to us every week. It was heavenly to open that box of fruit and veggies and get a sheet of recipes and farm news. We felt like we were part of the place where our food came from. All of the sudden, we were more attuned to weather: "was that heatwave gonna fry the peas, was that early rain gonna rot the zukes?"

You can make a difference if you take a little time and get involved with your community to support your local farmers, start your own garden, and cheer for the weeds growing up through the concrete!!

In Portland, the city government that takes pride in supporting urban farms.

We have several organizations here in Portland that are devoted to Urban Gardening: helping the elders and inner-city folks grow their own food. Growing Gardens.

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BOYCOTT BEEF-IT'S WHAT'S KILLING OUR PUBLIC LANDS
Posted by: WitchyNy on Aug 25, 2007 11:33 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our public owned wild lands are being taken over by the ranching industry. The government is killing our wild horses, buffalos, wolves and cougars...so the rich cattle ranchers (who are mostly stockholders in New York) can get richer. Behind this-the government wants our public lands for mining, oil drilling, and development.

Our ENTIRE food system is corrupt. One solution-Every city and town should -BY LAW-have a large Greenbelt of farms in a huge circle surrounding it. These farms should BY LAW-be locally owned only by small organic farmers.
And a big Farmers Market in the city--bypass the middleman.
Even the desert cities-can grow things such as corn, sqaush and beans.

Start with something simple in your own life. Lean to bake whole wheat bread-and store all the ingredents. Lean to make a wonderful soup-and store all the ingredients.

Remember-we vote with our dollars.

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Take a Deep Breath--We Need to be in this for the long run!
Posted by: SFSierra on Aug 25, 2007 1:27 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Consciousness can be a bitch! Once our consciousness is raised by the books mentioned by the author (don't forget Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma"), we have to reconcile our behavior with our new awareness. We each should simply do the best we can given our own situations. If we obsess too much about being perfectionists, we'll eventually give up. We don't have to have everyone buy local and organic 100% of the time to make a huge difference. We need to support family and friends who take baby steps and to live by example rather than lecturing. If those of us who are committed to a sustainable food system come across as hyperventilating neurotics, we're not going to win many converts.

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» Beside the Point Posted by: pdxstudent
Localism -- Hope for the Future
Posted by: Whitecliff on Aug 25, 2007 1:31 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Live locally...build strong community relationships and form deep local roots, buy locally as much as possible (goods and services), grow food locally, use well water and/or local water sources, start community gardens, start revitalizing local small and family-owned businesses, start local/community banks, stay around your home and local community more (use less fossil fuel) and get to know your neighbors very well, find a way to make your family and friends your neighbors, read more books & listen to more music to enrich your mind, watch much less TV because it destroys your mind, start a personal or community garden and teach your local kids how they can grow their own food, start local/small neighborhood schools and educate your community's children in both intellectual and technical skills, start a neighborhood health clinic, get solar panels on your roof for electricity and get a solar water heater, learn crafts like basic woodworking/electrical work/home repair/car repair, learn how to sew or knit and make/repair some of your own clothes, get chickens and have your own fresh eggs, read daily, travel locally, pay off all debts, start strong community groups in order to protect local interests (2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - local militias), avoid an excessive amount of big corporate media (TV/movies/trash journalism), tear down an old decrepit house house in your neighborhood and plant a community garden in its place, avoid big retail stores/malls/chain restaurants and revitalize local businesses, conserve local greenspace/farmland/forests, drive less & you will pollute less, be a community activist - work to eradicate alcoholism/drug addiction/loneliness in your local community, talk more with people (especially kids) and watch less TV, ride bicycles and/or walk more around your local community, eat more fresh and locally grown food and avoid factory-farmed and imported meat, learn how to cook fairly well, exercise more, use less & you consume less -- conserve more.

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» RE: Whoa there, cowboy! Posted by: trappedintwilightzone
» You misunderstand the proposition Posted by: Whitecliff
No, Eating Local Is Not Even Possible if you try to eat like you're not eating local
Posted by: jpaul on Aug 25, 2007 1:32 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Listen, I hate to break it to you guys and girls: but as long as you people think you NEED some special kind of food, you'll never be able to eat locally nor naturally. If you want to eat locally, just eat what is available and locally grown.

The article goes on and on about what the author WANTS to eat and the circutious steps she takes in order to get it at the exact time she wants it.
She wants a tofu brat, or she wants a special chocolate bar, or she wants some fruit in the middle of winter. Or she thinks she NEEDS a specific amount of protein. All of this, because she's trying as hard as she can to get an exact replica of the cuisine industrial food production has given us.

The way to eat locally is to eat what is grown locally at the time of year it's grown. If you live in Oregon, don't expect to eat bananas — ever. The author recognizes this, but she needs to take this understaning one step further. She can't expect to have any kind of exotic, out-of-season food if she really wants to live in a sustainable, harmonious way. All this bulshit she goes through (freezng, cannning, blending, etc) is all for naught. She doesn't NEED to eat green beans in the middle of winter. She only wants to. There's food a plenty to eat in the middle of winter that doesn't need to be put up in jars and cans. Sure, if you've got the time and you're that obsessed, go for it. But other wise, grow some root vegetables, harvest them and store them in your basement or whatever. Pickle some greens, sure. But your ultimate food source shouldn't be gourmet zuchinni pesto, or whatever the heck you're wasting your time preparing.

STOP being so complicated, and think SIMPLE.

The same is true for everyone else posting here. You've all got great thoughts and ideas. I've learned quite a bit just reading the comments. But the fact is, they're all for naught.
Planting seeds in the cracks of sidewalks? Great romanticism, but as long as you're living in the city, you'll never be free of oppression and food domination. Get out of the city.
Be free, free yourself, stop thinking like you have to eat like you've always eaten.

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» can you suggest some tips? Posted by: leftcoasttransplant
» RE: can you suggest some tips? Posted by: silverwizard
» RE: can you suggest some tips? Posted by: ArtemInox
» RE: I speak from personal experience. Do you? Posted by: trappedintwilightzone
Soybeans and rainforest destruction
Posted by: herbivore07 on Aug 25, 2007 3:46 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Good article, but I'd urge the author and other readers to take Nina Planck's assertions with a grain of salt. She is determined to promote the consumption of meat and dairy, even where it requires bending or manipulating the truth. Yes, rainforests are being destroyed for the cultivation of soybeans, but most of those soybeans are being used not to make tofu, but to feed livestock which then become meat.
(As a side note, perhaps Planck's primary credential should be something other than "former Greenmarket director"; she was fired after less than 6 months on that job.)

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» RE: Soybeans and rainforest destruction Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line
Cripes, what a bunch of preachy egoists
Posted by: kiel on Aug 25, 2007 8:30 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Wow. I find the point of view in so many AlterNet articles here to be right on, or at least refreshing. But I also have to admit that there are more self-satisfied, preachy, holier-than-thou types commenting here than just about anywhere on the Internet. Seriously--check out how many of these comments go something like, "I do XY and Z, aren't I wonderful? If you can't, you just aren't committed to being as marvelous as I am." Get over yourselves.

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Interesting - we live about 2 hours south of the author, in farm country
Posted by: Ian MacLeod on Aug 25, 2007 9:34 PM   
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I mean right in the MIDDLE of farm country, and it's still very hard to get locally grown anything. My wife and I are both disabled and on SSDI, s we get HHS coupons - $30 - for local farmer's market things, but they're VERY limited, and the prices aren't all that great. I HATE eating processed foods, which I do not trust at all any longer, but they're cheaper than everything else, and when your food budget is $70 plus $10 a month in food stamps your choice are severely limited. Even in the middle of farm country.

I've also noticed that when the farmer's markets are open, the exact same veggies - but different varieties, and not as flavorful - are on sale at our two big chain-type supermarkets here in Madras, Oregon. They always undercut the farmer's prices, too. I hope to get gleaning privileges from a couple of local farms later - in a few weeks, maybe, for garlic and some other things. The farmers here ar very generous that way sometimes.

Eating locally is designed to be difficult if not impossible. Gleaning, gathering in the woods (strawberries, blueberries, gooseberries and salmonberries, mushrooms - gourmet-type - and other things grow wild all over not far from, some just off the road, and there are TONS of blackberries on the coast) is a good way to go if you can. Being disabled and stuck close to home, it's difficult for me. When the food shortages hit, I'm not sure what we'll do. Definitely next year, though, we grow a garden. Maybe I can get a canning setup...

Ian

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local farm icecream veggie man
Posted by: kungfoofighterx on Aug 26, 2007 8:55 AM   
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It would be cool if farmers would drive a truck around the burbs and sell their vegies off the back like the ice cream man. I know most people are fickle and wouldnt buy from a farmer because it so different than the grocery store. Especially if they were cruising around on a flat bed truck full of food. I think most people who live in the "county" are used to buying from the back of trucks or from someones front lawn. In the burbs they might freak out. It still would be a cool start. Maybe if they played the ice cream truck sound or better created the veggie man's song. The other thing to think about. I know a farmer who cannot grow more than 30 acres of vegies because he will lose his subsidies. So its lots of corn and soybeans with some melons and other stuff on the side. Its also amazing to look at the compost heaps at veggie farms and see how much is wasted because it cant get to consumers. People complain about access. It seems like there needs to be a work around to the grocery store to force the issue. A farmer can make a lot of money selling veggies if they can get it to the consumer. Unfortunately people dont cook often and rarely can veggies or use fresh veggies. Lots of prepared foods. I am rambling now.

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» RE: local farm icecream veggie man Posted by: Be_a_Citizen_4_a_Change
» RE: local farm icecream veggie man Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line
why is there no mention of hunting or fishing???
Posted by: thelostsailor on Aug 26, 2007 9:20 AM   
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While I'm a tree hugging, mostly vegetarian, I saw the merits of hunting and fishing long before I recently started both. Why not discuss hunting. THERE IS NO OTHER CONSUMABLE ITEM THAT IS SOUNDER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT THAN A DEER FROM YOUR LOCAL OVERBURDENED POPULATION. While keep a local natural population healthy by increasing the food forage opportunities for others in the population, putting a deer in your freezer (or smoking) offsets a massive amount of an individuals OIL consumption and provides an incredibly rich, organic, local food source. You also do help to offset the environmental destruction your suburban spread has caused, including the squeezing of deer populations into smaller ranges.
There is little mention of oil in your article, but this is a problem at the heart of all consumption (food or other goods).

And again, harvesting fish from a healthy population (ok, not really possible outside of Alaska...but you have friends to the north, don't you!) is also a no brainer- eating local and as healthy as possible.

I think part of the issue here is having the idea that these new books are somehow conveying some new magic idea, when natives have (and had) been living as local as the land permits long before we screwed them over. And we are talking about common sense- remove OIL from your diet any way possible.
closing thought: Maybe eating food from thousands of miles away is fine if wind and solar power (damnit, but building the solar and wind generators uses only solar and wind energy too!!!) provide every ounce of energy involved.....

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Any advice for those who can barely afford to feed themselves?
Posted by: thoughtcriminal on Aug 26, 2007 11:17 AM   
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You know - the people who don't own cars, who rent squalid apartments in the low-rent sections of cities where every square inch of soil is coated with diesel residues, lead, and mercury from refineries? People who have to choose between paying their electricity bills and buying the cheapest food available at the local WalMart or similar megastore? People for whom buying organic is simply impossible based on their meager incomes - you know, the fastest growing demographic sector in the United States?

What are they supposed to do?

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas.

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biochemurgic
Posted by: biochemurgic on Aug 26, 2007 12:00 PM   
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Believe it or not, George Washington liked to serve pineapples to his guests at Mount Vernon, and constructed a greenhouse to grow them. Of course we do not need to give up all imported foods, but Washington's idea is intriguing for those of us who prefer to be as local as possible, but still crave foods that don't grow in our own climate zones. The sustainability theme could be extended by siting and constructing the greenhouses to make maximum use of solar energy.

Another idea to explore is small-scale local canneries to keep local produce available year-round. Again, solar energy might be tapped for some of the heating. Of course nearby canneries are nothing new---at least in my part of the world---so speaking to old-timers and studying some local history would be a good starting point for people who might want to investigate this option.

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» RE: biochemurgic Posted by: SFSierra
I have a graden in the city
Posted by: DrSuess on Aug 26, 2007 4:05 PM   
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Half of my backyard bacame a garden in the middle of Indianapolis this year. Perhapse there are some lingering chemicals from an old chemical plant- but lots of 40 pound bag of topsoil, bales of straw, and leaves from nearby trees remedied that. I have been trying to get over half of my food from my backyard or the weekly farmers market near where I work. It has actually been quite easy- and fun to do this. I will have to go back to "store bought" food this winter- except for the small amount that I can grow in my back pourch greenhouse.
The nicest thing about my backyard garden is the taste. Everyone knows how different store bought tomatoes are from home grown ones. Well the same is true for celery, basil, sage, cucumbers, etc.
The biggest problem I have with my garden is that I cannot eat it all- and have to shower some of it on my friends or minister at church.
Grass is the most cultivated plant in America, and it is a waste of resources. The garden looks just as nice- and it is just as useful. Having a huge grassy backyard is such a waste of precious resources. A garden is much better.

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» RE: I have a graden in the city Posted by: Ian MacLeod
Feeding of the soul.
Posted by: govindas on Aug 26, 2007 4:57 PM   
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Just like a person taking care of a cage where a bird is being kept,but neglecting to feed the bird,feeding oneself without looking after the soul is just that!We are awarded a body according to the state of our soul at death,and we should find out why some people are born in a tropical country where local organic food is available in abundance,while another one is born in Alaska!Due to a poor fund of knowledge,that can be acquired,by reading the right spiritual books,most people have been eating abominable foodstuffs,which have turned their bodies into a wreck,and their future destiny after such a sinful life is birth as an animal,that most of the time have to eat remnants of food or get killed in a slaughterhouse.The Bhagavad Gita,written by Srila Prabhupada,states clearly to eat fruits,grains,veg,milk and milk products from protected cows,that are never sent to a slaughterhouse,and thanking the Lord before eating by offering it.It also states that any intoxication is bad,inclunidng tea and coffee,as well as living selfishly,accumulating wealth in banks:a simple rural life is best.More at krsna.com

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All this talk of food & OPB's airing of "The Hotdog Program" makes me hungry
Posted by: DA on Aug 26, 2007 5:02 PM   
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