I am sorry I have not finished my blog until now. I had three wisdom teeth removed on the last day of my experiment and it knocked me off my feet for a couple days.
My last day of the Target diet included many soft foods: apple sauce, yogurt, mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes. It was a good, but very light day of food. To be honest it was nice not to have to eat local after this surgery!
So to finish my conclusion... My three favorite things about eating locally.
I loved eating fresh food. While I did eat some packaged food during my local week, my main source of nutrients were fresh vegetables, grass fed meat, and cheese from Wisconsin. It felt good psychologically and physically to be eating food I was sure was healthy.
I felt really good about helping the local economy. There is no doubt in my mind that when Plymouth begins its farmer's market that my family will buy our produce from there. This way farmers close to home will be able to benefit from our purchases and we will benefit from their produce.
Even though I'm not a huge environmentalist, I can assure you that it felt great to be helping the earth by eating locally grown food. When I was able to put into perspective what it means to have food shipped around the world for a simple dinner, I felt more passionate about eating locally.
How this project will translate into daily life...
I do not think that my family will turn to full fledged eating locally, but now that we do know which brands are local, we will purchase those. We will also purchase our produce from the farmers' market in the summer. We are now a hundred times more knowledgeable about what eating locally means and how to go through with it, thus we will be more inclined to eat locally grown food.
As I have been talking about in my blog we will most likely end up with a mix of locally grown food and food from our normal grocery store. We will not end up canning all summer (though we may try some canning) and most likely will not purchase solely locally grown food through the winter. I am more motivated to work harder in our tiny garden and grow what we can. We are looking into a CSA (thanks for your comment JTH) to provide us with vegetables and meat.
Thanks to all who have followed and supported me through this journey!
Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI was very glad to find your blog. I am currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and decided to find out more about the Locavore movement. I found a link to your blog from http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/
As a fellow Minnesotan, I wondered how this could work in our climate. You were very brave to start your experiment in March! Thank you for sharing your experience and a few great local resources for others in the Twin Cities area looking to take on a similar challenge.
I have just read all of your blogs in one sitting and am impressed with your determination. My comments will be more global than local.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why food travels around the world is because people/consumers want to enjoy different foods all throughout the year. For example, we in Australia import US navel oranges in December, January, February and March because they are out of season here. But we do export navel oranges to the US in July, August and September when the US does not have navel oranges.
As you found out when buying locally it is cheaper to buy food from around the US and the world than to buy locally. This is because many areas have a greater comparative advantage in producing certain products because of better soils or a more suitable climate - it would not be impossible to grow pineapples in Minnesota but they would be extremely expensive!
Trade between areas of comparative advantage has increased in recent decades because the cost of transporting these goods has come down -mainly because of bigger ships and bigger trucks with more advanced technology. I seem to remember that world trade is growing at double the world economic growth rate.
I see that you felt good from eating locally. The reverse side is that the economies of developing countries, and the standard of living of people in these countries would be detrimentally affected if everyone in the world ate locally.
So I guess that I am agreeing with your overall conclusions - that it is worthwhile eating locally for the freshness and the sense of community of people doing this but not to feel guilty about buying from other regions of the US when this produce is cheaper or from countries from the developing world because we are also part of this world community, as well.
John from Australia
Congrats on your experiment! I have been trying to incorporate more local foods over the past year. I've come to the conclusion that while I will probably not be able to eat 100% locally, I am going to do the best I can.
ReplyDeletePS I have an article you might be interested in if you're considering a CSA - 1- Questions to Ask Before Joining a CSA :-)
http://thelocalcook.com/2010/04/20/top-10-questions-to-ask-before-joining-a-csa/
Hi Nicole -
ReplyDeleteMy name is Caitlin Hill and I am the Assistant Editor of Plymouth Magazine. I heard about your "eating local" experiment and am really intrigued about your experience. Would you be interested in being part of an article on eating local for the October issue of Plymouth Magazine?
If you could get back to me as soon as possible, that would be great!
Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing from you,
Caitlin Hill
caitlin.hill@tigeroak.com