Local food | The Rambling Epicure

Local vs. Non-local Food: The Arguments

Published by Jonell Galloway + Saturday, January 12, 2013 Permalink 0

I think we got spoiled by eating cheap food from all over the world. That put us out of sync with nature and skewed the price of local produce and products vs. produce and products from distant places, leading us to waste what we once had held precious because it was seasonal and local and therefore rare. Slow Food USA and Josh Viertel were right in fighting for fair wages for our own farmers and trying to lead us back to a way of eating that is in line with nature, which of course means paying a little more, but improving our health and local economy.

There are many more arguments to be put forth. Let’s talk about it: the pros and cons, your experiences, your convictions, etc. We’d love to get a big discussion going here.

Click here to watch Building a Slow Food Nation, outlining the history of Slow Food in the U.S., and including Josh Viertel’s view.

Inspiration: Hungry Mother Organics, Encouraging Backyard Farms

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, September 26, 2011 Permalink 0

What a noble effort to encourage backyard farms and urban gardening.! I would love to be part of it if I lived in the U.S.

Hungry Mother Organics has long wanted to not just sell produce, but get the average person to grow it, as well. Now the local farm is starting a 1,000 Backyard Farms campaign, along with the non-profit F.O.C.U.S. (For Our Country United States) to track and map the growth of the local food network in the Carson Valley and Reno area. Earlier in the year, Backyard farmers of any size were encouraged to sign up their gardens or farms with the campaign. Gardeners who sent a photo or rough sketch of their garden plan and their location to stacey@hungrymother.cc was entered to win $150 worth of soil and plants from Hungry Mother, which was awarded in May.

The idea was to discover how many people are already growing their own food, and how much they’re growing. This data will be used to create an interactive map, which will be available at 1000backyardfarms.org. “Ultimately, we hope to use the information to determine the number of backyard farms in the region, the acreage of the farms and estimated total food yield,” the website states.