Local Garden Harvest = Local Grown Health
Improved Health Benefits – “Local food is often safer, too,” says the Center for a New American Dream (CNAD). “Even when it’s not organic, small farms tend to be less aggressive than large farms about dousing their wares.” Small farms are also more likely to grow more variety, says CNAD, protecting biodiversity and preserving a wider agricultural gene pool, an important factor in long-term food security.
Reduces Global Warming – Eating locally grown food even helps in the fight against global warming. Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture reports that the average fresh food item on our dinner table travels 1,500 miles to get there. Buying locally produced food eliminates the need for all that fuel-guzzling transportation.
A Few Ideas for Eating Local 1. Shop weekly at your local farmers market or farm stands[1] 2. Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for weekly seasonal harvest deliveries[2] 3. Buy from local grocers and co-ops committed to stocking local food[3] 4. Support restaurants and food vendors that buy locally produced food 5. Preserve food from the season — freeze, can, dry — to eat later in the year 6. Throw a “Locally-Grown Party” and serve all local food 7. Grow your own food in your yard or community garden plot 8. Visit local farmers and “u-picks” 9. Ask your grocer or favorite restaurant what local foods they carry 10. Plan your meals to accommodate local harvests and seasons.[4] 11. One week try spending 10% of the grocery budget on local food, grown with 100 mile radius of wherever you live 12. Try one new fruit or vegetable each day 13. / Join a Gardner’s Club and connect with others to share; look for seed savers programs locally and online[5].
Online Resource: The Organic Consumers Association has information online and easily accessible for ideas on how to help individuals and communities expand self-sustainable efforts. An easy way to begin is to urge local elected officials to support locally grown organic food[6].
:: Middle Tennessee Resources:
The FARM – Summertown, TN offers classes in Eco-Village Training. An eco-village is only different from a traditional village in its ability to be sustained indefinitely into the future. In all other respects, it may have all of the features people in the industrial world have come to expect, like electric appliances, refrigeration, and video games.
“It is a misconception that living in an ecological way involves sacrifice and hardship,” says founder Albert Bates. “Many modern designs for dings, vehicles, and new materials require no change in habit whatsoever, while reducing environmental impacts significantly.” ETC has hosted courses in permaculture, organic certification professions, herbology, installing solar electricity and water heating, and yurt, bamboo, cob, earth bag, round pole, and straw bale construction, bio-fuels, midwifery, an annual children’s camp, and ongoing demonstrations in alternate energy, hybrid vehicles, constructed wetlands and sustainable farming. We inaugurated a student exchange program with Israeli kibbutz, Russian and Brazilian ecovillagers and a social justice program for training disadvantaged populations. We have ongoing projects in Palestine, Mexico, and Brazil that our graduates can become directly involved with. The Eco-village Training Center assists transition towards a sustainable society by instruction in meeting basic needs for food, shelter, energy, fuel, gainful employment, and community process and progress. It comes around to understanding the needs of Earth’s natural systems and the human role in healing and helping.
