Eat Local For the Earth

The Invevitable Earth Day Addendum

OK, let me add one more bit. A few weeks ago I attended a Bar Mitzvah service at a Conservative Synagogue. The Torah portion that day concerned some of the kosher laws. I read the commentary. This book explained that the primary reason to keep kosher was to make the act of eating holy; that kosher had nothing to do with health or food safety or sanitation. You did it because God said so. Now, while Michael Pollin is not my God, nor even Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, I feel a bit the same way about eating local. What I mean is that eating local makes me mindful of my food, it makes me pay attention to my food.

Does your sour cream have to be ingredient-less from Farmer's Natural Creamery; your yogurt from Whispering Meadows Farm; should you subscribe to Farmer Vicki's CSA. Are most of your cheeses from Wisconsin and those that are not from Champaign, Illinois. Do you pack your kidz to lunch with bags of sprouts and chips made from beets. When you go on a bender do you drink local. And do you for forsake Italian ham for that made in Iowa. Is your rice wild. Can you really stomach apples still. In other words do you eat like me and my family?

Hopefully, maybe a bit. My point is, in nearly everything that we consume in the Bungalow, we pay attention to, we see if it's local. As the stuff cited above shows, local is a pretty good standard. Just taste, local is a pretty good indicator of deliciousness. It's also a pretty good indicator or earth friendly practices, from the lack of additives and 'cides used to the lack of miles the food has traveled. On this Earth Day, pay attention a bit more to your food. Pay special attention to its localness.