"Locavore" was coined from the San Francisco Bay Area on the occasion of World Environment Day 2005 to describe and promote the practice of eating a diet consisting of food harvested from within an area most commonly bound by a 100 mile radius. "Localvore" is sometimes also used.
The New Oxford American Dictionary chose locavore, a person who seeks out locally produced food, as its word of the year 2007.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locavore
(My local "boundaries" will be defined as anything within the state of Maine, or when traveling, within that state, or reasonably close)
My earliest attempt at ethical eating was becoming a vegetarian. I didn't think eating meat was wrong, but I was upset about the way the meat we eat is raised. That has never stopped bothering me, but after a couple of years I relaxed my food values and starting eat meat. I found I just couldn't live without it.
For years, I've entertained thoughts of some day living on a farm and harvesting all of my own food. Besides the satisfaction of muddy hands and knees, and the romance of putting up vegatables in the fall, I've been convinced that I could grow my food in a more responsible way than what I buy at the grocery store.
I'm going to call this "the best I can do while raising a nearly-one-year-old and working full time."
I think probably it will just be local produce (fruits and veggies) beginning in June. I can make sure a lot of my dairy comes from Maine too, even if I still buy it in Hannaford. Then maybe the next step will be buying locally raise beef, poultry and fish. Fish should be easy. (I don't understand why Hannaford sells haddock that comes from Norway, when they sell local stuff down the street for the same price). And, once Bear is a bit more independent, I can start making our daily bread.
This is not a switch I can turn. I need to take steps, and only do what I can reasonably manage. I can't drive myself crazy, because I want to change this eating way of life to something I can maintain. It needs to be affordable, or even save money, at the same time I achieve the goals, I'm reaching for.
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need” – Cicero
I like Cicero's quote!
ReplyDeleteThe hundred mile diet (not diet, as in to lose weight, but as in what you eat) in Maine will not include citrus then either?
I think it would be difficult to raise a healthy boy to his potential without the proper protein of meat.
Ethical treatment of animals is important to me also! Why should an animal suffer through its short life to feed me and my family?
Also, farmed fish (not in the ocean, but in pools on land) is something of a recent obsession of mine as far as educating myself and it's impact on the environment and other fish in the sea. Ocean farmed fish is really terrible in that respect, but I don't want to get myself started here! :)