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Beyond organic
Thinking Globally, Eating Locally
What does that mean exactly? What does it have to do with oil?
Eating locally means choosing food that is grown or raised near
where you live. Because it’s grown locally, less oil is used to
transport it to you. Often local food growers use little or no
commercial fertilizers and pesticides—both made from fossil
fuels—thus saving oil too.
By buying directly from local farmers, and shopping and dining at
businesses that support local farmers, you are getting the freshest,
best tasting food, contributing to a strong local economy, and
reducing oil and natural gas consumption.
How can you get involved?
Learn what foods are in season in your area and try to build
your diet around them.
Shop at local farmers' markets, or a supermarket that carries
locally produced produce, or join a CSA (see inside).
Ask the manager or chef of your favorite restaurant,
supermarket and/or cafeteria how much of the food on the
menu is locally grown, and then encourage him or her to
source food locally.
Buy extra quantities of your favorite fruit or vegetable when it
is in season and experiment with drying, canning, jamming, or
otherwise preserving it for a later date.
Plant a garden and grow as much of your own food as possible.
If you can, keep a few chickens and/or a dairy goat to
supplement your diet with good fats and proteins.
If you can, grow pasture, and put animals on your pasture.
We have learned much about organic food, personal health issues and
environmental predicaments. This new and very fast growing movement
'Localization' addresses all of these issues and more. Yet I believe what makes
this movement so exciting is that it is not about using less or being less for
fear of running out of oil or getting cancer. It is the creation of an evolved
lifestyle, the genuine creation of a heaven on earth. It is bringing our communities
in line with our new found appreciation for the unique self as being one with all.
We can and may flourish, individually and collectively.
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