*ding!*

Confession: I get TIME delivered. Don’t ask why, or get me started on how many times I’ve tried to cancel it. Suffice it to say, I don’t pay for it and I rarely read it. I do when a headline jumps out at me (mostly ones that involve God, although I really don’t know why I bother, it’s such a right-wing rag that it’s just irritating). Recently, however, just below the “Is the Stock Market Getting Too Risky?” and “The Dubious Jesus Tomb“, was the logo “Forget Organic. Eat Local”. Despite the spotty punctuation, I was intrigued.

The article follows the path of one man, who, when confronted in his local grocery with the choice to buy an organic apple “grown in California” (he was in NYC, but he doesn’t tell you that because you’re supposed to know. That’s where everyone lives.) or a conventional “[which] sounds better than ’sprayed with pesticides that might kill you’…right here from New York State.” Never having encountered this dilemma before, he bought both apples to compare (”both good, although the…[organic one was] mealy […] possibly from its journey”). He then sets off on a journey to discover just what local means and why it’s better than organic. This includes (carbon offsets be damned) a trip to Texas to talk to Whole Foods founder and vegan (he has a blog!) and one to California to eat at Caf?© 150 on the Google campus.

While it was an interesting read and made me go “hmm” or chuckle on occasion, most of it was filled with something along the lines of if-I-support-local-farmers-I’m-in-danger-of-becoming-a-commie-or-worse-a-Green, which annoyed me. The author, John Cloud, a staff writer, did bring up some interesting points which I’d like to discuss a little more, since we’re not afraid of being Greens here.

Farmers’ Markets
Mr. Cloud’s main complaint about farmers’ markets is valid: they’re inconvenient. I live near two, one on Saturdays and on one Thursdays. But I need to plan way ahead of time to know what kinds of veggies to get, so I usually just get fruit. If I do get veggies, it’s the staples that I know what to do with, use infrequently, and can easily get year-round: carrots, zucchini, and celery. These end up being unused and wilting or getting put into the same old [vegan, if anyone wants the recipe] minestrone (which is good, I’ve made it so often…).

His other argument against farmers’ markets is that you go to one place but have to pay a bunch of different people. I first thought that I didn’t find this to be an inconvenience, but then remembered that I once asked the manager of the Burbank Farmers’ Market (I don’t think the one in Glendale has a manager) if I could sign up for EBT, which I thought was some kind of a debit card so I wouldn’t have to go get cash before each farmers’ market… That really is the only time I use cash.

He also notes that most farmers’ markets sell conventional foods, rather than organic. I know most of the ones near me say “without pesticides” because they’re in the process of becoming organic and it’s got to be certified pesticide free land for like, what 15 years? It changes with each organic certifier. He quotes Joseph Medleson, III, the director of what Mr. Cloud calls a “liberal Washington group that supports strong organic standards”, the Center for Food Safety, as responding to his conventional local or non-local organic question with “I don’t know what local means. Do they use local pesticides? Does that mean the food is better because they produce local cancers?” [emphasis original] Which made me laugh. But it brings us to the next issue,

What is “Local”?
According to Mr. Cloud, Whole Foods’ definition of local (take note when you shop there next) is 200 miles. Google’s is 150 (hence the name of their caf?©). Gary Paul Nabhan defines it as 200 miles. EatLocalChallenge.com defines it as 100, but they’re based in LA, and it’s much easier for Southern Californians to eat local than for most others to. My farmers’ markets have people coming in from as far away as Fresno (209 miles from me). Finally, Joan Gussow’s “entirely arbitrary” definition is “within a day’s leisurely drive from our homes”. I’ve never experienced “leisure” on my way to or through Fresno…so even the definition of local is fluid and arbitrary (but, says Ms. Gussow, “so was the decision made by others long ago that we ought to have produce from all around the world”).

But what of people living in places for which (whom?) eating local is simply not an option? Mr. Cloud mentions a Google office in Dublin (I’m guessing Ireland, since OR isn’t indicated) which considered a Caf?© 150 but dropped the idea because the caf?© is “probably not” feasible anywhere outside California.

Which is too bad, I’d love to know that even my favorite restaurants buy locally (I’m often too lazy to cook). I’ve noticed that Trader Joe’s has local stuff featured in their brands. The TJ’s brand blackberry jam in Washington is from Washington (read the fine print sometime, it’s interesting to see what the same store in different areas carries). There’s a really incredibly expensive restaurant in Santa Monica that buys most of its stuff from the SM farmers’ market. Unfortunately it’s “incredibly” in the sense of “unbelievably”, so, as much as I’d like to support this (and it was good food), there’s no way I could hope to.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
I haven’t heard it called this, but a few of my sisters subscribed to Organic Express, which is a local, organic (hey, best of both worlds!) delivery service. You sign up for a size of box and a frequency of delivery. They pack it with whatever’s good at the time. Mr. Cloud finds CSAs in general to be “a little lefty” and this kind of farmer-chooses-for-you even more so. He also feels guilt from the food he doesn’t use because he’s too lazy to cook. I’ve often wanted to subscribe to this kind of thing, but haven’t been able to yet. Not only do I live in a locked apartment complex (I don’t trust food sitting on the stoop longer than an hour not to grow legs), I live in Burbank, CA. Today (March 11) it was 98¬?. Which is great if you’re a boy band, but not so great if you’re a head of lettuce. What I’d really like is to subscribe to this and then go down to my local Trader Joe’s (or wherever the local=no-more-than-5-miles pick up is). This would force me to have a healthier, more in-season diet. And, probably, to figure out what the hell to do with some of those strange-looking veggies I’m always scared to buy…

To his credit, Mr. Cloud goes to visit the supplier of his CSA, to find out if it’s organic. I think this is the main thing that pro-locals are going for: connection. If you buy from a farmers’ market, you see the same people every time. They get to know you and you, them. You know that Harry has the best strawberries but they’re gone quickly, that the honeyman’s son won’t give you as good a deal on pollen, that if it’s rained recently the orchid man sells mushrooms, and that the three brothers who sell fruit usually have oro blanco even if they’re not on display but will offer them if you walk by ’cause they know your husband loves them. If you buy locally, you’re more likely to develop a relationship with your farmer, to visit the farm, & to take an active role in your own nutrition.

Local = Seasonal

This isn’t mentioned except in passing in the article, but I’d like to bring it up. One of the main reasons I’m interested in eating local is not because it saves gas or means fresher food but because it means food that’s seasonal. Food that’s seasonal means that you have variety in your diet as well as that you have food appropriate to the climate. What I mean is, watermelon is seasonal in the summer and helps keep you cool. Squash is seasonal in the fall and is great for warm meals. I really like the thought of get-back-to-nature food. I know that it’s not feasible for me to grow crops for every season in my backya– planter box. So I’d really like to pay someone to do it for me. I’d like to be forced to use that strange veggie because it’s local and seasonal; and therefore, good for me right about now. The farmers’ markets do that with fruit but I haven’t noticed that it happens with veggies (although, I am in SoCal, so it might be the case that those veggies just never aren’t in season).

I’m sure Mr. Cloud would brand co-ops as being too leftist as well (in fact, I’m sure I read it, but I can’t find the quote just now), but my right wing sister belongs to the Santa Monica co-op, so it’s clearly something you can get over. I’ve only been to one co-op, in Philadelphia, but it seemed like a really great answer to buy-local-or-buy-convenient conundrum.

At the end of the day, I feel that I just put too little thought into eating. My mom makes a list of dinners a week in advance. Everyone knows what’s for dinner that night by looking at the list. Also, she then knows what she’s shopping for. I like shopping daily because I like having my stuff fresh and because I don’t think that far ahead when it comes to food.

My ideal would be a place that I could go to pick up a box of seasonal fruits & veggies regularly but not too regularly, at a time of my convenience, who would include recipe suggestions if the items are appropriately exotic. (I don’t think I’d know what to do with a turnip except hide it in a soup.) Heh. Maybe they’d cook it for me, too… In the meantime, I’ll shop at TJ’s, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and my farmers’ markets. I’ll probably continue to cook mostly the same stuff while occasionally mixing it up with seasonal recipes that aren’t necessarily seasonal to me.

For me, I guess, local means more intentional. Organic simply means more healthy.