Think globally, eat locally

May is so many things for Bay Area eaters, as Spring begins in earnest and the markets start to fill with lovely produce. What better time to rise to the Eat Local Challenge? If you follow this link, you will find perhaps more structure than you're willing to take on. I feel like it was just yesterday I was thinking of a birth plan, much less a sleeping plan or a weaning plan. Do I really need an Eat Local Challenge Plan? I think not.

But I do take this as an opportunity to act locally in my consumer behavior. Like many Bay Area food people (and isn't being a food person practically a prerequisite for living here?), I shop the farmers markets and try to think about where my food comes from. I understand that local means fresher and thus tastier, that less energy was expended to get it to me, and that I am contributing to my local economy in a very direct way. But this month, I plan to pay more attention to Local with a capital L. I like Tea & Cookies' 100-mile foodshed, that seems do-able.

I know I'll still buy things for MZ that don't comply, I'm not ready to give up her few sources of protein for the month. But let's see if we can't get her to eat more of Hodo Soy Beanery's great products. And I'll never make it through the month at all if I give up coffee. But Blue Bottle is a local business (as is Peet's). If I'm reaching for the Horizon, I'll pick up Clover Organic instead. Ben & Jerry's? Think Straus. Chicken? Why, Rocky and Rosie, of course! Oh, yeah, and plenty of wine. Good, local wine.

I may not be able to handle a plan, but I can handle a Pledge:
If not Locally Produced, then Organic.
If not Organic, then Family Farm.
If not Family Farm, then Local Business.
If not a Local Business, then Fair Trade.

Wanna join me?