Locavores Invade Chicago

Wow, that sounds ominous! Rather, in Chicago, and around the Midwest, the local food trend in catching on, just as it has on the coasts. September will see numerous "eat local" challenges being hosted by a variety of organizations around the country, and the Windy City's Green City Market will join in by sponsoring an eat local week beginning on the tenth.

That's good news for locavores in the Chicago area, but, as the Chicago Tribune points out, the local food movement has taken hold around the state and region. That's not only pointing to some healthy profits for farmers, but also signals a shift in how Americans related to the things they eat. According to the article,

"People are wanting to have some control in this world and this is a chance," said Abby Mandel, founder of Chicago's Green City Market. "They get to eat great-tasting, healthful food and save the environment and farmland. It's a win-win and it's something they can do."

Sales of locally grown foods jumped to $5 billion in this past year from $4 billion in 2002, according to Package[d] Facts, the market research publisher. The number of farmers markets has grown dramatically too. Federal officials counted 4,385 markets in 2006; that's up from 1,755 in 1994.

"Supporting local food and local farmers is one of the hottest trends in agriculture," said Jim Slama, founder of Sustain, a non-profit environmental group that seeks to connect growers and consumers through a program called FamilyFarmed.org. "Consumers want to trust where their food is coming from."

Of course, "local" is a bit of broad term, and in the Midwest, where long, cold winters are a fact of life, it's often viewed a bit more broadly then in areas like Northern California. In the Bay Area, true "locavores" commit to a 100-mile diet: everything they eat must come from within a 100-mile radius. Chicagoans are a bit more flexible, so local can mean statewide, or even regionally.

The Illinois state government is also getting into the act:

A proposed Illinois Food, Farms and Jobs Act awaiting the governor's signature calls for creation of an Illinois-based local food system. The legislation calls for farmer training and development, improving consumer access to "fresh and affordable" Illinois-grown food, and developing new food and agriculture-related business.

The city of Chicago has also implemented a program called "Chicago: Eat Local Live Healthy" that is designed to "[create] a climate where the production and distribution of locally grown, healthy food is available, accessible and affordable to residents year-round."

While globalized food production and distribution isn't going anywhere soon, it's encouraging to see so many people reconnecting with what's on their plate. Our ability to disconnect ourselves from the sources of our food is a product of our prosperity: we can afford to buy goods from far-off places, and even have these items picked or slaughtered out of sight. That's convenient; it also turns food, which is intimately connected with place, culture and community, into a mere commodity. When everything's readily available, nothing's particularly special. This has a tremendous environmental impact; it also takes away one element of our sense of self and community. I think you can see that where we buy our food: is it just me, or is a farmer's market a much friendlier place than a supermarket?

We're lucky in St. Louis: in addition to the Soulard Market, which is open year-round, there are numerous smaller farmer's markets around town regularly, and a new store called Local Harvest Grocery opened recently south of Tower Grove Park. Are the farmer's markets, co-ops and community-supported agriculture programs springing up in your neck of the woods? If you don't know, make sure to check Local Harvest.

Image credit: Amy Mingo and Wikimedia Commons (and please note: this image is from a Minnesota farmers market. I went for the idea here...)

Categories: food, agriculture, local, chicago, illinois, midwest

PB&J: The Climate-Friendly Lunch

Well, Rebecca beat me to this, but I think it's a great concept: The PB&J Campaign. Most of us consider a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a memory from our childhood, but the campaign (which looks to be completely independent) wants to promote this comfort food as the way to "Make a difference one lunch at a time." According to their site,

A PB&J will slow global warming. Next time you have one you'll reduce your carbon footprint by saving the equivalent of 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over an average animal-based lunch like a hamburger, a tuna sandwich, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets. That's about forty percent of what you'd save driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a standard sedan. If you were going to have a ham sandwich or a hamburger, you save the equivalent almost three and a half pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

A PB&J also saves about 962 gallons of water over the hamburger. To put this in perspective, two PB&Js a month instead of hamburgers will save about as much water as switching to a low-flow showerhead.

Have a PB&J and save 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, over-grazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution.

Ultimately (and you've probably already figured this out), the campaign is promoting meatless meals, but I think this is one of the most innovative and non-threatening ways to do it. If we take the approach of telling people "You should stop eating meat because of it's heavy environmental impact," we're likely going to get an unprintable response. But focusing on a single meal, and a single solution (though the campaign has other options if you just really don't want to do PB&J), especially one with which we're all familiar, should be a lot more effective. Sure, large-scale vegetarianism/veganism is ideal; it's likely not going to happen any time soon, though. A couple of lunches a week, though -- that's achievable, and could make an impact.

Along these lines, another GO writer, Patrick Donnelly, has a post up today on making your own "fast food." His suggestions are not only greener, but probably much more tasty than a drive-up window burger... So what are you having for lunch?

UPDATE: Bernard Brown, founder of the PB&J project, has started a blog on the site. In his first post, he addresses the question of funding... The short version: he and some friends are the sole sources of funding.

Categories: peanutbutter, jelly, food, climate, meat, meatless, campaign, activism