Eating local vs organic

A couple of weeks ago, we had a potluck brunch for a bunch of friends and we set them the challenge of bringing only local food. We thought it would be fun to give people a taste of the No Impact experiment since stage two of No Impact Man is sustainable eating, which means,  in the extreme case of our project, we eat only food including ingredients produced within 250 miles. (And by the way, the cows in the picture live only about 100 miles away at the Hudson Valley dairy we use, Ronnybrook Farm, which provides its milk in reusable glass bottles).

The brunch was great. I didn't realize, because I am an only recently converted take out king, but cooking for each other is really a romantic and lovely way of coming together. Everybody had a story about why they chose, say, local honey for their pie instead of further-away maple syrup or how happy they were to find pears instead of apples. Bear in mind, that eating local right now is hard--it's winter. But the challenge made for conversation and it was a blast.

Anyway, we were too busy having fun to discuss the logic of eating local, and there are lots of reasons: "food-miles," "transparency," protecting local farm land, and on and on. I'll post more about the reasons later. But for now, I thought I'd offer a few concluding paragraphs from John Cloud's recent article in Time, "Eating Better Than Organic":

...I had arrived at an answer to my question: I prefer local to organic, even with the concessions local farmers must make. I realize there's something romantic about the desire to know exactly where your food is from...

...But when it comes to my basic ingredients--literally, my "whole" foods rather than my convenience foods--I would still rather know the person who collects my eggs or grows my lettuce or picks my apples than buy 100% organic eggs or lettuce or apples from an anonymous megafarm at the supermarket. Choosing local when I can makes me feel more rooted, and (in part because of that feeling, no doubt) local food tastes better.

Eating locally also seems safer. Ted's neighbors and customers can see how he farms. That transparency doesn't exist with, say, spinach bagged by a distant agribusiness. I help keep Ted in business, and he helps keep me fed--and the elegance and sustainability of that exchange make more sense to me than gambling on faceless producers who stamp organic on a package thousands of miles from my home...

Comments

[H. Spencer Young]

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.html

[Lauren]

I must say that I really agonized about my contribution to the brunch--applesauce seemed too easy, although I brought some since it was mixed with raspberries and seemed quite exotic on a cold winter day.

I also ended up making a corn salad with frozen corn from Mignorelli Farm (sp?), along with local bacon, and butter from Ronnybrook. I purchased the grub at two farmer's markets.

Since the brunch, I've been a bit fixated on the origins of my food--yesterday at Fairway Market I noticed watermelons from Nicaragua. (Would I be Oliver North if I bought one?) The Manchego cheese from Spain looked oh-so-tempting. Ole! quickly turned to Oy. It's hard to eat locally.

I've always been a die-hard recycler, and when I lived near Union Square, I was a dedicated composter--pretty easy since you can drop off items for composting four times a week. I'm not sure what else I can do to lighten my load on this earth, but I look forward to following your lead.

[Jenny]

I'm very intrigued by this project, and am enjoying reading through your site. I live in the DC area and am a huge advocate of buying locally-grown foods. They're fresher, taste better, are more nutritious, are generally organic -- and hey, you're supporting your local farmers. About.com has a good list of farmers' markets (for DC, see http://dc.about.com/od/restaurants/a/FarmersMktsDC.htm).

Looking forward to watching your progess off the grid -- good luck!

[katherine]

check out http://eattheseasons.com/

it started as a UK-guide and only just came state-side. really useful for eating local...

[Ava Hsu]

You might also want to consider joining a CSA, in which the community supports (local) agriculture by sharing in both the risks and rewards of a farmer's harvest. It's a way of fostering a community while developing a relationship with a farmer (who generally engages in sustainable agricultural practices), and also supporting a local economy (direct to farmer vs. supermarket corporate headquarters). It works by pooling the risk rather than having an individual (farmer) assume it all, which is something that could wipe a small business out. On the other hand, if he has a bumper crop it works to the advantage of the CSA members who also share in that bounty for the same fixed price. This involves a rethinking of the nature of the transaction between consumer and producer, and blurs that cut-and-dried distinction. You're supporting the efforts of someone who is trying to produce for you something necessary--food--and everyone is shouldering the responsibility of achieving that in a way that is environmentally and ecologically sustainable. The organization Just Food helps local communities find or set up a CSA. www.justfood.org

[Colin Beavan]

Thanks, Ava, for explaining about CSA's. We're in the West Village CSA, which for any other Greenwich Village types can be found here: http://www.westvillagecsa.org/.
Colin aka No Impact Man

[Sarah]

The Ted in the Time article is our (the Clinton Hill CSA's) farmer Ted Blomgren, a terrific farmer, heart and soul of our CSA, and all-around mensch.

I hope the local food movement isn't just a fad -- the Time article waffled on that question ie "is local the new organic?" There's something amazing about having our kids meet the man who grows their food.

I'll put a plug in here, too, for putting up your own food: canning, drying, pickling etc. We still have some canned peaches left over from the July fruit share from last year, as well as a cache of dried tomatoes, applesauce, corn relish, pickled onions, apple leather from CSA pickups past. Too often we think of canning as something that takes a huge amount of time, energy, and space. But small-scale preserving is possible even in a teeny NY apartment. I've made half a dozen jars of applesauce from scratch and canned them all in about an hour, including cleanup.

Also curious as to whether you're thinking about making your own clothes -- sewing, knitting etc. It's a great way to spend your tv-free time (although i have to confess that I love knitting in front of the tv!). I don't know what the net impact is, though, given that a lot of wool is shipped from all over the country. But it's a fun pastime, something you can do with friends, and you get something beautiful at the end.

[alison]

One can always find old wool knit jumpers at thrift stores, get the kids to help undo it and wind it into balls, then remake the wool into something new.

The size and scale of what you make is dictated to an extent by the size of the original garment, but some of the best kinds of creativity come from working within limitations. Besides, one can always mix wool from two old things to make something new.

[Lee]

Just wondering -- you said you make your own bread. But where do you get the flour? Are there wheat farms within 250 miles of NYC? (I live in Norwalk, CT -- close enough to you to use the same source if you have one!)

[Kit]

For those of you that want to knit but don't want wool from far away- When I was living in Brooklyn there was a woman at the Park Slope farmer's market that sold wool she had spun and dyed herself. Really lovely stuff. I now live in the Hudson Valley (not far from Ronnybrook Farms!) and there is a huge sheep and wool festival here every fall. It's in late October. You can get more info at sheepandwool.com I hear it's big fun, but I haven't yet been myself. I will definitely be going this year, tho.