Why Local?

I went to Whole Foods today. As I walked through the produce section, I saw piles of juicy mangos, golden pineapples, lush broccoli, bags of grapes, and heaps of not-quite-ripe bananas. All of it was food that I would have happily gobbled up just a few months ago without thinking twice. So why did I walk by all that yummy looking produce? Why am I sticking to root vegetables, leafy greens, apples, and pears that I bought at the farmers' market? Because I'm doing my best to eat local (for me, this means I'm getting as much of my food as possible from farms in Washington State, and if I'm presented with a choice, I will always choose from the farm that's closer to Seattle).

So, why local?

It is better for the environment. Americans have all gotten used to having an abundant variety of produce to eat year-round. Unless you live in one of the warm states where everything grows year-round, in order to get the variety, it has to be imported. It may not seem like a big deal, but every time you choose local, you make a significant impact. Every time a banana is shipped from the tropics, or an apple comes to the US from New Zealand, and even when an avocado from California makes its way to the produce aisle in Seattle, it takes gas. The further your produce has to travel, the more natural resources are used, and the more pollution is pumped into the atmosphere. Our demand for strawberries in February helps to ensure our dependence on foreign oil. Not only that, but unless the food we import is fair trade, the conditions for the farmers are abysmal, and they're not making any money.

That is the argument that first got me interested, but like a lot of other people, I thought to myself, "*Gasp!* That's horrible! I should really do something about that!" while proceeding to go about my business without making many changes. After all, mangos are delicious, bananas are cheap, and broccoli goes with everything. It wasn't until I realized the impact that eating local would have directly on my happiness that I started to make a concerted effort.

Since the advent of agriculture, people have been modifying crops. If you plant seeds from the fruit that is the biggest and most delicious, then the resulting offspring will be larger and tastier. The corn that we eat today is unrecognizable from the grass that Native Americans started off with. Once farming became a massive industry, new modifications were made. Produce was selected for its durability and ability to travel long distances, as well as its size (Americans understand, after all, that bigger is always better), rather than for taste and nutritional content. Genetic modifications were made to render the mature plants of some crops reproductively useless so that farmers would have to constantly buy seeds instead of planting seeds from the crop they had already grown. What all of this boils down to is that the food that gets shipped from far away has a tendency to be flavorless and nutritionally deficient. I'll take one small, locally grown strawberry with red flesh and flavor that explodes in your mouth over 100 of the giant, anemic, flavorless strawberries that are available year round, and which most Americans have come to associate with the word "Strawberry." Not only that, but it turns out that there are more varieties of fruits and vegetables than I had ever imagined. One stand at my farmers' market has 7 types of garlic! Whole Foods has 2 (elephant, and whatever you call the garlic that you always get at the grocery store). QFC has 1. I recently made mashed German Butterball potatoes that I got at a stand that had so many types of potatoes, I didn't know where to start. (For the record, the mashed potatoes were amazing. Did you know that potatoes actually have flavor???? I know I didn't). This Sunday, I plan on buying a root vegetable called a sunchoke. I don't know what it is or what it tastes like, but I'll be damned if I don't find out.

I realize that I am extremely lucky to live in Seattle where we have farmers' markets year round and local produce that's available in January. People who live in climates with real winter can go local too, it just takes more planning. The Eat Well Guide is a great online resource to help you find local food near you. If the subject interests you, I strongly recommend reading Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.