choice for the environment. He notes that the shipping of food constitutes just 9 to 11 percent of its “life-cycle assessment” (the toll it takes on the environment), while things like water use, fertilizer applica- tion and harvesting techniques suck up far more. Is it really greener to buy local hothouse tomatoes if, according to McWilliams, they can require up to 10 times the energy? Is it really more sustainable to buy local rice from an arid state if aquifers were drained to grow it?


Another issue concerns economies of scale. For instance, a shipper send- ing a truck with 2,000 apples across 2,000 miles would consume the same amount of fuel per apple as a local farmer who takes a pickup 50 miles to sell 50 apples. “Local is not necessarily greener,” accounts McWilliams. So, what is? Eating less meat, he contends. And mounting studies back up his point.


Most recently, a 2009 study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a carnivorous diet requires 2.9 times more water, 2.5 times more energy, 3 times more fertilizer and 1.4 times more pesticides than a vegetarian diet.


“If I eat less meat or eat a vegan diet, I am automatically shrinking the carbon footprint of my diet, no matter where it comes from,” says McWilliams.


Growing Our Own Greg Peterson says that there is another perspective often left out of the puzzle when people postulate how they can change the world by what they eat: “Food grows for free. You just have to


buy a little seed and put a little water on it. People should grow their own food, share it and give it away.” From his 80-by-60-foot yard in the heart of Phoenix, Peterson grows 50 to 100 individual crops, from citrus trees to snow peas and greens. His neigh- bors pop in for a bowl of peaches or a few fresh eggs. He further spreads the word by hosting gardening classes for everyone from wealthy retirees with big yards to thrifty condo dwellers wanting to grow herbs on their porches. “For me, it’s about building local food systems and making neighbor- hoods more resilient,” he says. “There is also something inherently spiritual about being able to go out in my front yard and pick carrots, beets and greens to make dinner.”


Erin Barnett is the director of Minnesota-based LocalHarvest, which connects consumers with family farms, co-ops (collectively owned nonprofit grocery stores or buying clubs that give members discounted prices on health- conscious products in exchange for a fee and work crew hours) and CSAs (in which members buy a share and receive a box of local farm produce


each week). She says that these can be excellent ways to benefit our health, environment and local economies. But there can be downsides. For example, a co-op can take years to form and is typically volunteer run, which involves a significant learning curve; it also often requires members to put up several hundred dollars long before the doors open. Belonging to a CSA includes collective risk, so if it’s a bad crop year, member shares are affected. At a farm- ers’ market, occasionally a vendor will pass off conventional produce shipped in from afar as local or organic. As someone who buys eggs from a farmers’ market, grass-fed meat from a local farm, dry goods from a co-op, nuts from a natural food buying club, and has a garden that dwarfs her own house, Barnett puts it this way: Ask questions first. Then make a plan. “Everyone is going to concoct their own way of meeting their needs by balancing their relationships with local people and their beliefs about organic,” she says. “It is very complex. But at least people are talking about it.”


Connect with the writer at LisaMarshall08@gmail.com.


Key Food Websites


EatLocalChallenge.com encourag- es us to eat what is produced within 100 to 250 miles from home.


FoodCoopInitiative.coop helps communities start their own non- profit co-op.


LocalHarvest.org connects con- sumers to CSAs, co-ops and farm- ers’ markets in their area.


ota.com offers info about what organic is and is not.


TrueFoodNow.org operates a grassroots action network by The Center for Food Safety.


UrbanFarm.org gives advice on how to start an urban farm.


38 Collier/Lee Counties swfl.naturalawakeningsmag.com


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