Tuesday, August 07, 2007
100 km challenge
There is a push lately for people to eat locally as it is better for the environment. The world has shrank and now we can get strawberries in the winter and bananas every day and other things that simply don't grow around here. But what is the price? The cost to transport veggies and fruits and other foods from far away places is great but what about the price to us as well? I have great difficulty consuming foods that have been tinkered with. I like a good tomato but am quite happy to give up eating tomatoes to avoid eating something that has been genetically modified simply for my convenience. Strawberries are great but when they are out of season, is it worth the price to the earth to cart them up from California or Mexico just because I like them? Probably not. We didn't plant a vegetable garden this year as we are planning to reno our yard at some point in the near future. Growing our own isn't an option this year but buying locally is. So we've decided to be trendy and take the 100 km challenge. This means that we are supposed to only buy foods that come from a location within 100kms of us. At this time of year this is fairly easy to do. After completing my grocery order I was pleased to see that the average distance my food travelled to come to me was 347 km (my produce company calculates this for you). All was local except my order of 1 tub of lemon yogurt from liberte. My head argued that I should cancel that item but my heart screamed "No I beg of you, leave me my one addiction!!!" so I left it on. 347 km is a good start!! (I'm justifying my selfish inclusion of the yogurt). When in Osoyoos next weekend I'll load up on produce for freezing. I'm not sure what the rules are with transporting your own produce... but I figure semi local is better than buying from california.
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2 comments:
way to go, M, I've been thinking a lot about the same sorts of things. I've been reading about free trade and the effect of exporting and importing so much food when really our own land can grow the food we need. Combined with the presence of scary hormones and whatnot in food that has been carted up from thousands of miles away, I'm also doing what I can to buy locally these days.
I blew it today and sold out for $2.99. Pineapples were on sale at Langley Farm Market. It struck me at the checkout that there was no way the pineapple was local but I'd already swiped my card so I was committed.
Heather: there is something creepy about how a tomato which only lasts a few days when picked can travel across an entire continent and still not be ripe isn't there? Call me crazy but I prefer food prepared the way God created it for me and I'm not under the assumption that I as a lowly person need to improve upon it. To me, eating naturally is part of my desire to follow God's plan for my life. He didn't think we needed fractionated palm oil or crazy-chemical-name-I-can't-pronounce and he didn't think tomatoes needed to be crossed with fish scales to improve their growth potential in cold countries so why would I? If we believe that everything he created is perfect as is, why "fix" our food to be "better"? Anyways, just my humble opinion :-)
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