Thoughts on the benefits and challenges of adopting a more locally-based diet.
A growing number of food activists and authors are touting the benefits of a locally-based diet these days, and it's easy to see why: while organic produce might be better for you, it's not necessarily better for the planet if your organic tomato or organic peach has been shipped from a farm or orchard 3,000 miles away.
I try to eat locally as much as possible, choosing in-season fruits and vegetables and making an effort to visit area farmer's markets rather than supermarkets. You would think local eating would be easy in a place like Florida, where I live: after all, the weather is mild enough for year-round agriculture, even in the northern parts of the state.
You would think so, but think again: it's amazing to me how often I find produce trucked or shipped from many states away or even overseas. The worst recent example came when I was looking for oranges (should be easy in Florida, yes?) and, everywhere I went, the only choice was oranges from South Africa. This, to me, seemed worse than environmentally damaging. It struck me as downright insulting. Do we really have to bring our fruits and vegetables from the other side of the planet?
OK, so maybe the problem was that Florida orchards were in between seasons. But even California or South America would seem a preferable source for oranges then. My solution was one I think I'll be increasingly adopting as I try to localize my diet: if it's traveled too far to make it to the local grocery store, I'm not buying it.
