Summer Reading and Eating

There are two books on my summer reading list this year: Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and Plenty (or The Hundred Mile Diet) by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. Both books are non-fiction accounts of families consciously choosing to eat only local food for a year.

In Kingsolver’s case, her husband and two daughters joined her quest to eat locally while living on their farm in the Appalachian Hills of Virginia. They grew their own produce, raised chickens for eggs and for eating, scavenged the woods for morel mushrooms in the spring and bought things from local farmers. The family made some exceptions such as coffee and chocolate, choosing to purchase those non-local items from “fair trade” cooperatives.

Smith and MacKinnon, apartment dwellers in Vancouver, Canada, tried to gain a greater awareness of where food comes from, so chose to eat only products that were derived from crops or animals rasied within 100 miles of Vancouver. This restriction meant they had to find alternatives for many staple products such as sugar, olive oil and whole wheat bread.

As the two families went through a year of consciously eating from the local harvest, they learned a great deal about food and agriculture in the United States. For instance, on average, an item in the local grocery store has traveled 1,500 miles before reaching the shelf.

The global agricultural system has certain advantages, mostly in the form of convenience. If someone wants strawberries in January, he can find them in the grocery store. However, there are costs to a global food system.

The cost in energy to transport food across the globe is often much greater than the energy derived from the foods themselves. About 17 percent of America’s energy use is for agriculture – planting, harvesting, processing, transporting, fertilizing, etc. Even the pesticides and herbicides have petroleum as a base ingredient.

There is a cost to biodiversity. Many vegetable and animal varieties that Americans raised with great success just a century ago, are now extinct. While there are heirloom seed companies (like Underwood Gardens in Woodstock) that strive to preserve this genetic heritage, and projects to continue unique lines of sheep, chickens, cattle and pigs, the sad fact is that 90 percent of the world’s food comes from just 20 species.

There is a cost in nutrition. Each minute that produce is off the vine, it loses nutritional value. In other words, a tomato that was picked yesterday has more vitamins and minerals intact than one that spent the last three weeks in a crate.

There is a cost in flavor as well. Those long-haul tomatoes are not bred to have great flavor, rather they are bred to travel well. They are raised to hold their shape and color well for several weeks after being picked, so they will look good at the grocery store.

And, don’t assume that this system works well for the farmer. On average, farmers receive just eighteen cents out of every dollar spent to buy our food.

There is a different way. As Kingsolver says, if every American chose to eat just one “local” meal each week, the United States would save 1.1 million barrels of oil each week. Eating local products means that farmers earn more for their work, the diversity of food species has a better chance of being preserved, nutrition is increased and the food has great flavor.

To find local food products, producers, and farmers markets, visit www.mchenrycountyfarms.org. Visit the Woodstock Farmer’s Market Tuesdays and Saturdays, and see what is in season. Purchase a share from a local CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) farm, and get a box or locally-grown vegetables every week during the growing season.

So, eat local food. Save energy. Save species. And savor the flavor!