Wow, it's already mid-June 2010 and time for another Eat Local Challenge! This year not only is the Co-op doing the Eat Local Challenge, but the staff at the University of Idaho Sustainability Center is doing it too! Thanks Jeannie and Darin and all the team. Visit them at http://www.uidaho.edu/sustainability.
This year our family is off to a great start; we've got a garden that has expanded to fill our whole (small) front yard, we've got 5 year-old chickens who are laying eggs like crazy, and I have a source for raw goat milk from which I am making our own yogurt and fresh goat cheese.
At the Moscow Food Co-op we have more local stuff than ever before. Check out the Tuesday Growers Market page on Facebook, our Eat Local page on the website (www.moscowfood.coop), and of course, visit the store on Fridays to see what the FACT team has to offer for samples and recipes featuring local products. We'll also be offering a series of food preservation workshops starting in July. Check the newsletter and website for info about these.
At the moment, I'm on vacation in the Midwest, eating fresh asparagus, chard, and other goodies from my parents' garden. When we get back home to the Palouse the eating local challenge gets seriously underway. Stay tuned for more.
Showing posts with label Eat Local Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eat Local Challenge. Show all posts
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Eating Integrity
Eating Integrity
by Kelly Kingsland, Moscow Food Co-op newsletter volunteer
The other day while I was pushing my gas powered lawn mower around (and around) my large lawn I contemplated my local diet. In light of the blaring noise, and puff of smoke emitting from the mower, my actions seem pretty futile. Especially for someone like me who eats something like an 80 percent local diet year round, the net gain in reduced imports is fairly insignificant.
So as I continued circling my machine towards my ultimate goal- a strangely satisfying shortly mown expanse that I consider my yard, I asked myself why I had taken the Local Challenge. Was it hope? Did I think I could change the world through my actions? Was it sacrifice? Was I giving up eating imported foods as some sort of offering- paying for my own or others' carbon spewing transgressions? Was I just following a national fad- locavorism is reaching a fever pitch in some circles across the country. What was motivating me anyway?
I ruled out hope right away. I am a pessimist, and through that lens think that with our current global population and consumptive addictions, pure inertia ought to easily propel us deeply and irreversibly into climate crisis- seemingly during my lifetime if you listen to some scientists. In a non biblical way, I actually believe that we are approaching the “end times” and certainly I don't see my local diet as any method of changing that course.
What about sacrifice? Am I giving up things that I love to eat in order to somehow justify my periodic airplane flights to see family, or my more frequent drives to wilderness to backpack? Am I running some internal form of carbon trade, exchanging this summer’s resisted chocolate bars for next winter’s flight to see family in Florida? I do have a deep desire to walk lightly on this planet. And I carry a bit of guilt at being American-a member of a great consuming culture that will go down in history (if there is history) as the most destructive ever. But I'm not a martyr and don't think I can right the world by forfeiting pleasure.
What about fad? Am I just doing this because everyone else is? Generally I am not very faddish, but a fad that is about NOT buying something does have its appeal. But no, while it does feel good to share convictions with the likes of Barbra Kingsolver, Gary Paul Nabhan and Michael Pollan, I have been on this kick for many years, and have come to my own conclusions about what side of the fence I want to stand on.
Having ruled out hope, sacrifice and fad, I realized that I am eating a local diet because it feels good. In addition to feeling really great physically when I quit eating sugar, chips, chocolate, and dairy products, the local diet fills me with a sense of integrity. Not righteousness, integrity. It feels good to step away from the constant and dire implications of our consumptive habits. Rather than approaching meals with a sense of guilt and acquiescence I see mindful action at work. As I fill my body with vegetables, meat and fruit that have been produced locally I feel as if I am not only nourishing my body, but also my relationship to the earth and other living beings that live here with me. Whether it reduces my carbon footprint, or buys me a trip to the wilderness or not, I like eating integrity.
One of Kelly Kingsland's current favorite local meals is steamed Artichokes with garlic aioli, Pickle Flat Farm grass fed beef burger with homemade catsup, and braised cabbage and beets. We're not missing much at all.
by Kelly Kingsland, Moscow Food Co-op newsletter volunteer
The other day while I was pushing my gas powered lawn mower around (and around) my large lawn I contemplated my local diet. In light of the blaring noise, and puff of smoke emitting from the mower, my actions seem pretty futile. Especially for someone like me who eats something like an 80 percent local diet year round, the net gain in reduced imports is fairly insignificant.
So as I continued circling my machine towards my ultimate goal- a strangely satisfying shortly mown expanse that I consider my yard, I asked myself why I had taken the Local Challenge. Was it hope? Did I think I could change the world through my actions? Was it sacrifice? Was I giving up eating imported foods as some sort of offering- paying for my own or others' carbon spewing transgressions? Was I just following a national fad- locavorism is reaching a fever pitch in some circles across the country. What was motivating me anyway?
I ruled out hope right away. I am a pessimist, and through that lens think that with our current global population and consumptive addictions, pure inertia ought to easily propel us deeply and irreversibly into climate crisis- seemingly during my lifetime if you listen to some scientists. In a non biblical way, I actually believe that we are approaching the “end times” and certainly I don't see my local diet as any method of changing that course.
What about sacrifice? Am I giving up things that I love to eat in order to somehow justify my periodic airplane flights to see family, or my more frequent drives to wilderness to backpack? Am I running some internal form of carbon trade, exchanging this summer’s resisted chocolate bars for next winter’s flight to see family in Florida? I do have a deep desire to walk lightly on this planet. And I carry a bit of guilt at being American-a member of a great consuming culture that will go down in history (if there is history) as the most destructive ever. But I'm not a martyr and don't think I can right the world by forfeiting pleasure.
What about fad? Am I just doing this because everyone else is? Generally I am not very faddish, but a fad that is about NOT buying something does have its appeal. But no, while it does feel good to share convictions with the likes of Barbra Kingsolver, Gary Paul Nabhan and Michael Pollan, I have been on this kick for many years, and have come to my own conclusions about what side of the fence I want to stand on.
Having ruled out hope, sacrifice and fad, I realized that I am eating a local diet because it feels good. In addition to feeling really great physically when I quit eating sugar, chips, chocolate, and dairy products, the local diet fills me with a sense of integrity. Not righteousness, integrity. It feels good to step away from the constant and dire implications of our consumptive habits. Rather than approaching meals with a sense of guilt and acquiescence I see mindful action at work. As I fill my body with vegetables, meat and fruit that have been produced locally I feel as if I am not only nourishing my body, but also my relationship to the earth and other living beings that live here with me. Whether it reduces my carbon footprint, or buys me a trip to the wilderness or not, I like eating integrity.
One of Kelly Kingsland's current favorite local meals is steamed Artichokes with garlic aioli, Pickle Flat Farm grass fed beef burger with homemade catsup, and braised cabbage and beets. We're not missing much at all.
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