"EatLocalChallenge" news and stories

At the end of June, a few food bloggers came up with a challenge: to eat locally for the entire month of August. By July 31, nearly 50 bloggers had signed up, and dozens more Bay Area folks without blogs had signed up to participate at Locavores. Jen at Life begins @ 30 has a list of how she defines her challenge (it's meant to be defined personally). Her local radius is 100 miles, and her commitment is this: "Anything that I buy or cook for the household will be locally grown." She makes a few exceptions, like sugar (she'll try to find a local alternative like honey, but will use sugar if she must), spices (she'll use limited amounts and source locally when possible), and rice (she extends her radius to 115 for this grain).

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Barbara Fisher from Tigers & Strawberries often struggles over the many connotations of the phrase "sustainable agriculture." She has written a fabulous, well-researched definition, where we learn that "To be "sustainable," a farming practice does not necessarily have to be anti-modern; "sustainability" does not always infer a preference for traditional methods over technology." Sustainability, as she sees it, it a way of balancing the long-term and short-term interests, trading off the economic and health needs of the farmer against the needs of the ecosystem and the world as a whole. She goes on to note that, thanks to the ever-rising oil prices, "the currently dominant, petroleum-based model of agriculture will cease to be economically viable." Changing to sustainable agriculture practice would be a slow process, but, as more and more consumers demand it - and economics dictate - it's a change that can happen.
[via life begins @ 30]

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