So, I've truly enjoyed farmers' markets much more this year, particularly with the kids. I've also been digging into FoodieTots, a blog written by Colleen of neighboring Alexandria. She's mama to a young son and her blog focuses on buying and preparing locally grown, organic (when possible) food for her family. She includes many recipes made with ingredients bought from various area farmers' markets and her favorite CSA, Potomac Vegetable Farms.
Recently, Colleen posted about participating yet again in Farm to Philly's "One Local Summer" challenge. The idea is to prepare one meal a week that is entirely composed of local ingredients. The only exceptions are salt, pepper, spices, and oils.
I impulsively signed on (as my trusty button in the sidebar shows), because we've managed to go to a farmers' market about once a week, and I figured, how hard could it be? You can buy locally grown meats and locally crafted cheeses there, and we already get our eggs and milk locally. You can also buy local butter and I've found that it's easy enough to make our own from local cream (more on that later). Add tasty seasonal veggies and fruits (plus herbs from our garden) and we're there. Or so it would seem.
After I signed up for the challenge, I started pondering what I'd done. First of all, why is "buy local produce" a good thing? I actually gave myself a headache, twice, pondering this issue, so be forewarned.
It seems to me one shouldn't just accept this idea ("local is good") at face value, because if you think about it for even a few minutes, you quickly see that there are so many angles to eating locally grown food that the concept completely resists simplification.
I'm going to jump over how to define "local," because we have no excuse--within an hour's drive or much less, there are many farms growing a wide range of produce to satisfy most people's standards of a nutritiously diverse diet, most of the year.
So we get to the next hurdle--and for some people, it's pretty high. How do you choose between organic food and local food--if you can't have both? Even if you don't think pesticide-free food is good for you personally, it's pretty hard for anyone to suggest that chemical fertilizers and insect sprays are better for the environment in comparison to farming without them.
Perhaps you should choose the locally grown vegetables because you want to preserve local farmland from development. However, if that local farm is dumping chemicals into your local watershed, while the farm in another state is not, why should you support the closer farm? (I know, I'm catching up to this debate pretty late--I plead two kids in diapers and major sleep deprivation in recent years.)
That issue boils down to whether the environment is harmed, on balance, more by non-organic farming practices versus long-distance transportation. I'm not sure I have enough statistics (let alone the mental capacity) to untangle that one, although to be brutally honest, I suspect that non-organic production uses far more environmental resources than responsible shipping.
Meantime, one should never forget that this particular debate is a luxury beyond the reach of many.
Yet another reason to buy locally is flavor and freshness. Even that can be a tough one; I was pretty disappointed with our pick-your-own strawberries last summer (although they made a fabulous strawberry compote). Still,shopping at local farmstands (and planting a garden) puts you more in tune with the struggles of farming: it's certainly not about instant gratification.
Back to FoodieTots: what I like about Colleen's blog is that she isn't dogmatic about her eat local philosophy; she is quite open about its various pitfalls and inconsistencies. I'm still up for the One Local Summer Challenge, but all this thinking has me determined to redouble my meager efforts to support not just local farming, but local organic practices farming and local delicious farming. And, perhaps, getting to know more local farmers--there is a reason, I realize now, why I keep going back to DeBaggio's herb farm, and it isn't just for the herbs.
