Local or Local?
Real Deal or Organic Opportunist? Watch What You Buy On The Road!
With all the talk about local foods, slow food movement, carbon footprint, what do you believe? Here is the real deal when it comes to learning the lingo.
And What’s a Carbon Footprint Doing on My Food?
Local food (also regional food or food patriotism) is a principle of sustainability relying on consumption of food products that are locally grown, especially those with regional historic and/or cultural significance. It is part of the concept of local purchasing, a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. Those who prefer to eat local food sometimes call themselves “localvores” or “locavores.” The concept is often related to the slogan Think globally, act locally, common in green politics.
If local food is full of pesticides however, what good is it really?
Sometimes an organic or pesticide-free from 300 miles away beats a
chemically laden locally grown food product. The best idea? Know your food source and farmer.
A carbon footprint is the total amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases emitted over the full life cycle of a product or service. Those who buy local are working to reduce their carbon footprint and, therefore,
global warming and other eco-concerns.
Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely.
For example, if the Earth’s food resources are one big bank account, spending interest only without dipping into savings is sustainable food. Examples of non-sustainable foods are those that reduce the population of a species or product or those that use the Earth’s resources to produce without replacing them.
