Do you know your food's area code?

One of the articles we read this week was “Miles to Go Before I Eat” by Mark C. Anderson. His experiment was to eat only food from a 150-mile radius of his home for two weeks. What he gained was more than just a story, but a life-changing experience. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but he did learn a lot about food from his challenge. As you can probably guess it is not easy to eat solely local foods; even if something is grown nearby it can be processed hundreds of miles away. The drastic change in his consumption not only showed the limitations of such an experiment, but also opened his eyes to Farmers’ Markets and locally grown alternatives to supermarket stocks. In addition, he was able to give back to his community instead of feeding the industrial food monster.

Anderson’s experience made me think about trying the challenge myself. I am lucky enough to live in an area with small farms and fresh produce, but would this idea of “eating local” be feasible for urban dwellers? In a world where eating seasonally has almost decreased to the point of extinction, it is difficult for me to believe that society would give up having anything at any time. However, would people be more willing to change if they knew how much oil is used to ship their food around the country? A large portion of our fossil fuels are used for food transportation, but is this really necessary? I definitely do not advocate a lifestyle change as drastic as Anderson’s (as an ice cream lover myself I think I wouldn’t last more than a week), but if everyone made an effort to eat more locally grown food we would significantly decrease our carbon footprint and take a step towards sustainability.