There are advantages to eating locally in that you can know much better what has gone into the food and avoiding the many contaminants. I am trying to go more local than I used to but I feel in some ways I can't. I think my strong reaction was the feeling I get from some folks that if you don't eat strictly local, you're not ethical and I do not agree with that.??So I apologize in the sense that it's not eating local that's obsessive--it's a perfectly sound choice--but?in what I often feel were judgments passed on those who don't.
I actually feel a strong connection to the area I grew up in. I've never been much of a traveller and now live in the house my parents lived in. My roots are very deep there; I have never felt any other place was truly home.??? My screenname is for Seneca Lake which has been a very important part of my life, and which I love. Jeanne????? -----Original Message----- From: Simon St.Laurent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Sustainable Tompkins County listserv <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 3:19 pm Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] NYTimes.com: Food That Travels Well [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > You got that right..it's brilliant. I am going to forward this on to some > other lists because there is an almost obsessiveness, perhaps especially > among climate activists, that you've got to buy local. I don't get my interest in localization from climate concerns, though it certainly complements it nicely. I get my interest in buying local from my concern that we've created an enormously expensive system which is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term and which severs the bonds we used to have between us and our food and the people who grow it. It's not just tons of carbon, it's community, knowing where you live and how you're connected to that place and its people. > I just finished a book?called Eat To Live by? Dr. Joel Fuhrman who > advocates a plant-based diet (with some allowances for individual > needs) and who says it's exactly the rich diversity?of foods availale > that make a high quality?lifetime vegan diet possible. If your primary focus is on being vegan, I can see where eating local might not be much fun - perhaps especially around here. Of course, I've never understood some people's obsession with vegan diets as the necessary path toward ecological, ethical, or even health improvement. Different priorities, I suppose. > I had read a little bit before about the idea that reducing food's > carbon imprint involves alot more than just food miles traveled. > This article really brings it into focus. Thank You!! Food-miles by itself isn't that exciting a concept. It's a good way to illustrate to people just how crazy our industrial food system has become, but it's not a foundation on which to build a whole philosophy by itself. But then, I have embarked on eating local - NY and PA for now - and don't see much difficulty in finding good food from the area immediately around me. Citrus fruits and bananas are great, but so are currants, blueberries, and peaches. There are lots of options out there, but this one still strikes me as a good one. Thanks, Simon St.Laurent http://livingindryden.org/ _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
