Eating Local
Recipe for America advocates building local, sustainable food systems. A healthy local food system means a vibrant local economy, stewardship for the land, and physical health of the citizens.
Examples of eating locally include farmer's markets, CSAs (community supported agriculture), community gardens, and families gardening or raising chickens in their backyards. Dollars spent on locally-produced food multiply within the community, and relationships formed between farmers and consumers promote education and healthy eating habits.
We wish to see the government stimulate local food systems by helping small farmers eliminate barriers to entering the market and deal with seasons of bad weather, bringing together local food producers with consumers, and protect community gardens from business development.
If you wish to eat locally, check out Local Harvest, Sustainable Table, or Eat Well Guide.
More pages under this heading:
Eating Local: Food Policy CouncilsEating Local: Community Gardens
Eating Local: Community Food Projects
More information
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (book)Bringing Local Food to Local Institutions (report) 2003.
Business Week: The Rise of the 'Locavore' (article) May 20, 2008.
Consumer Understanding of Buying Local (article) February 27, 2008.
Counties and Local Food Systems (PDF) (news source) Published by The National Association of Counties Center for Sustainable Communities, July 2007.
Do Food Miles Matter? (article) April 16, 2008. The report concludes that the production method used for food matters more to determine its greenhouse gas emissions than how many miles it traveled. (That said, usually buying local also means buying sustainably-produced food.)
FLO Goes Hog Wild: Fair, Local, and Organic Group Advocates Sustainable Pork (article) About UNC-Chapel Hill adding local, sustainable foods to their menus. March 5, 2008.
Follow That French Fry: Food Miles and Roadway Damage (PDF) (report) March 25, 2008.
Fruit and Vegetable Intake among Urban Community Gardeners (news source) March-April 2008.
How innovative markets serve the needs of low-income customers (article)
HR 2364: Local Food and Farm Support Act of 2007 (bill) Introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer with 20 cosponsors, including John Conyors, Lynne Woolsey, Dennis Kucinich, and Peter DeFazio. As of June 2008, the status appears as "Referred to the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities."
Locally Grown Foods Niche Cooks Up at $5 Billion as America Chows Down on Fresh! (news piece) June 20, 2007
Measuring the Impact of Public Markets and Farmers Market on Local Economies (news source)
Media Guide: Food With the Farmer's Face On It (PDF) (report) By Ken Meter. Prepared in 2002, published by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in 2003.
NYT Op Ed: My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables) (article) March 1, 2008.
Op Ed: Restore the 'Buy Local' Mandate (article) By VT State Sen. Ginny Lyons, March 2, 2008.
Show Me the Money: When Farmers Make Money, Everybody in the Town Makes Money (article) January 13, 2008.
Organizations
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (organization) The FAO has an interactive statistical database for food production and consumption data around the world (among other things).Food Climate Research Network (organization)
