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Thinking a lot about food.
"Winter. It's the perfect season for fresh, ripe fruit. That's because it's actually summer in Chile. ... Chilean fruit is at the peak of perfection right now. Let the fruit farmers of Chile bring summer home to you. Chilean fruit: summer is here. Taste the summer fruit of Chile right now at Safeway." (Woman bites into peach.)
That's the voice-over from a Safeway ad I saw on TV a few weeks ago. I found it irritating for a couple of reasons. Number one, it makes it sound as though Safeway is buying boxes of perfect fruit from happy family farmers, when of course they're most likely dealing with massive US-owned conglomerates that manage a year-round supply chain of produce so that Safeway doesn't have to deal with the inconvience of seasonality.
Number two, I was pretty surprised that they were advertising -- bragging about -- the fact that the summer fruit they sell in winter comes travels 6,000 miles (or more) to our homes. I suspect most Americans don't pause for long to think about where their food comes from, or what the true cost is of buying Dutch hothouse tomatoes or Chilean grapes in January. Shipping those tomatoes burns huge amounts of fossil fuel, and anyway, how good are they really going to be after crossing half the planet?
The SF Chronicle has started a new series called Food Conscious, and the latest piece is about local restaurants ceasing to sell bottled water in favor of filtered and sometimes carbonated tap water. Water bottles are filling up landfills, and importing Swiss and French waters, like getting Dutch tomatoes, burns lots of fuel. And, of course, it's just water. Water that is being shipped around the globe to be sipped with lunch at Chez Panisse.
In the last couple of years I've started paying attention to where produce comes from. I am trying to narrow the geographic range of places I'll buy from. Living in California, I'm lucky: we can get almost everything year-round here. Much of our winter produce comes from Mexico, which, being a next-door neighbor, seems OKish to me. But maybe I will eventually do the 100-mile "foodshed" thing and try to stick to truly local foods.
Or at least, say, 75% local. Some produce simply doesn't grow here, and I'm not ready to give up bananas entirely. I've never been the sort of person to promote radical change, because I think it's too difficult to sustain. But I am increasing my awareness, making more trips to the farmers market, avoiding factory-farmed meat, reading PLU stickers for country of origin.
(I mentioned that every tidbit of food we ate in Aruba was imported, much of it from Europe. The whole concept of eating locally and seasonally is a non-issue there, since nothing grows locally or in season. It drove me nuts.)
And speaking of food conscious, Nicolette Hahn Niman's New York Times op-ed is a good reminder of some things we try to forget. Read it, and then think about the pork you eat.
March 25, 2007 2:49 PM
Recently, there was an article in the NYT or a story on CNN (I can't remember) where a woman (and her family) in the Midwest only ate food w/ in a certain distance, I think it was 50 or 100 miles. She said due to winter, she had to make some exceptions. I thought it was an interesting concept. It is something that I would never had thought of on my own. Though I do agree w/ you, if one were to do it, living in the bay area would be a good place to try it.
I saw the same article, Leishia. Think it was the NYT.
Indeed, the Bay Area is the absolute easiest place eat (mostly) locally year round. If you can find a reliable store (or make it to the farmer's market) where the people know where the food is from and you can get over the prices, because yes, it is more expensive, then you're in good shape. When I worked for 3.5 years at a local natural foods store in Santa Cruz I became so aware of what was locally in season, and also the flavor and quality differences between organic and not. Having been away from the industry for almost a decade, I still revel in the different local produce each season brings. Bring on the spring!!!
Related rant :: The term "conventional produce" drives me nuts. What in the world is "conventional" about spraying your food with toxic chemicals?!?
There's also this recent NYT article about the family who is eating locally, producing no garbage, using no paper goods, and taking no carbon-fueled transportation for a year.