The Cost of Eating Locally

Trying to keep my food sources local has been on my mind a lot of late... what will I eat? How drastically will it change my eating habits? Can I still eat healthy and stay fit? Deep Economy and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle are the culprits that are converting me from the buy it quick and cheap attitude to the let's think about where our food comes from and how can we make it as healthy as possible. It certainly doesn't help that my daily job in government community and economic development keeps my wheels turning too. And the cost? TIME. I love this quote from a book review on Deep Economy:

But unprocessed local food requires more time, thought and preparation than processed, pre-packaged stuff. So most of us continue to load up our carts at the supermarkets and big box stores while ignoring the long-term costs.

That quote hit the nail on the head. We are all SO consumed with no-time to do anything, that we've become trained to grab the quickest, easiest food. Bananas are a perfect example. So good. So simple. So quick. And So cheap. BUT - they are grown thousands of miles away, are shipped in cooled containers and are edible only about two weeks after picking. But they are cheap... why? Because of the poor labor practices in the countries they are grown in. Oh... not to mention they are sprayed heavily with pesticides - as are all produce that enter this country - to prevent any outbreaks of foreign disease or insects. (FYI - the wooly aldegid that's wiping out our native american hemlock groves was an import from China). Bananas are off my shopping list. Time - so precious, yet so very, very valuable. I've never spent so much time thinking about food and preparing it. Every weekend I'm spending hours in the kitchen, and when not in the kitchen, I'm combing recipes for healthy things to make to replace my bagel and box of cereal. Cereal - there's another bad egg. Unless you buy organic, you're supporting industrial farming and the deterioriating environment. And even the organic is questionable -- is it non-GMO corn/rice/or wheat? Where did it come from? What was the plant like where it was processed? Lots and lots of questions easily answered by simply eating locally. So what's for breakfast? Eggs, locally made organic whole-wheat sprout bread (but where did the wheat berries come from that created the sprouts?), home made butternut squash bars or bread, local organic raw milk. Lots to think about - all the time.

And another good quote from the Deep Economy Book Review:

His analysis begins to become really interesting when he begins to open the discussion of economics in terms of redefining “cost.” Take the simplistic idea that the cost of gas is comprised of extraction, transport, refining, delivery and capital costs and profit. That equation nowhere includes our collective cost of the 5 pounds of carbon released in the atmosphere for every gallon burned. It doesn’t include the social cost of lost opportunity because corporations like GM and Exxon have furthered their own interests by destroying mass transit to create more demand for gas and cars, etc. The most interesting discussion that grows out of this book is a redefinition of cost and an exploration of an economy and a society that has to absorb those costs in many dimensions not anticipated by traditional market economics.