What eating locally has taught me

But taking stock of my own habits, I had to admit to myself that just because I made dietary choices to avoid supporting animal cruelty on factory farms, didn’t mean that I was always eating healthily. I was still buying mass-produced, processed foods manufactured by Big Food corporations.

I wanted to know how I could incorporate local eating into my diet, and how it could benefit my own health, the community I’d just moved to, and the overall planet. Here’s a bit of what I’ve learned.

Before we get into it, I want to point out that this is not a “how-to eat locally” piece. First off, I’m not a nutritionist, and I have no business telling people what or how to eat. Second, “local” food is inherently different everywhere you go, so it’s a bit antithetical to talk in generalizations about this. Instead, this is simply an account of what I’ve learned through my own experiences—something that will hopefully help folks make their own decisions.

What does “local” mean?

A clear indication that there's no uniform approach to eating locally—there's really no single definition of what the term "local food" even means. The USDA Rural Development's Business and Industry Loan Program defines it as a food product raised, produced, and distributed within 400 miles of its origin or within the same state. However, other programs under the USDA umbrella use terms like "local" or "regional" without necessarily staying within these parameters.

Strict adherents of the "locavore" movement might use even tighter restrictions. Somewhere between 100 and 150 miles. This sounded like a heavy lift to me, but it's really not so far-fetched, according to researchers from the University of California. Two professors found in 2015 that 90% of Americans could subsist off of food grown within 100 miles of their home. Cut that mileage by half, and local food could still feed 80% of people in the US.

For my own journey into the world of eating locally, I realized fairly quickly that playing geographic detective with every single thing I consumed wasn't going to be practical for very long. My mantra from the start became that I was going to "do my best."

There are some pitfalls to be wary of when embarking on your own local journey. Namely, products in the supermarket that are advertised as local, when the food inside the container is anything but. It's similar to the way some products may have labels such as "all-natural," when there's no consensus on what that term means either. I've found it's a good rule of thumb not to make decisions based solely on what a product's brightly colored label claims. Words like "local" could be part of some "marketing gimmick," as a former Whole Foods grocery merchandiser called it.

What are the benefits of eating locally?

Early on in the process, I noticed there were a few assumptions I’d developed about eating locally that I really had no basis for. I figured a more localized diet would be better for my health, for the planet, and for the community. However, I couldn’t recall anywhere I actually read or heard any of those things. It just seemed right. I had to do more research to test out my assumptions, and—big surprise—the answers weren’t all straightforward. (Can you remember the last time an important question had a straightforward answer? I certainly can’t.)

Environmental

It seemed like common sense that a meal sourced from just down the road would have less of a carbon footprint than one that came from ingredients thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of miles away. It was this logic, in fact, that helped kickstart the locavore movement in the early 2000s.

When researchers put it to the test, however, they found that "food miles" were a relatively small factor in calculating food's carbon footprint. A 2018 study in the Food Policy journal found that transportation only accounted for about 5% of greenhouse gas emission in the US food supply chain. It turns out, how food is produced is far more environmentally impactful than the way it's transported. It's also important to understand what types of food create the largest carbon footprints during production. In general, animal-based products take a notably heavier toll on the environment than fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based foods.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, food systems account for more than one third of all greenhouse gas emissions. Even more striking—I think—is that global livestock is responsible for 14.5% of all emissions, and most of that comes from the production of beef—"the most emissions-intensive food of all."

Health

There's some more cut-and-dry reasoning suggesting the health benefits of eating locally. Food safety has been top-of-mind for me lately since I watched and reviewed the Netflix documentary Poisoned, which explores the surprising frequency in which produce—especially romaine lettuce—is contaminated with pathogens like E. coli. According to Michigan State University, when there are fewer steps between harvest and consumption, there are fewer opportunities for contamination.

Fruits and vegetables begin losing nutrients within 24 hours of being harvested. When we eat locally, we're also more likely to be eating produce that's been picked at peak ripeness. Freshly harvested fruits and veggies can contain higher concentrations of nutrients like potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamins C and A, according to the University of New Hampshire. In addition, making your own meals sourced from local, fresh produce can equate to fewer "empty calories" compared to processed foods that are often high in sodium, saturated fat, and sugar.

Supporting farmers

The rise of Big Ag has coincided with the decline of small, family farms in the US. I go further into detail about some of the factors playing into this trend in my piece about Iowa farming communities standing up to industrialized agriculture. In short, small, family-run farming operations can't compete with the sheer size and scale of production achieved on massive factory farming operations.

Purchasing food straight from a local farm is one of the most direct ways you can support community agriculture, and the local economy in general. On average, for every $100 spent locally, $68 goes back into the local economy—compared to a $43 return for $100 spent at non-locally owned businesses. A local farmers market is a great way to purchase directly from your neighbors, learn about what foods are in season, and get to know the farmers in your area. You can find farmers markets in your area using USDA's local food portal.

Another way to support small farms while getting the freshest possible foods delivered to your door is by getting involved in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), which creates a more direct relationship between consumers and farmers. People who join a CSA typically pay an annual fee of 400-700. This upfront capital gives local farmers a boost at the beginning of their growing seasons to buy seeds and other necessities. In return for their membership fee, CSA members will receive a weekly supply of vegetables, fruits, herbs, meats, eggs, dairy, flowers, or other products. The annual fees may be too steep for many households, but CSAs have grown in popularity in the wake of COVID-19.

Setting manageable goals

When you research "locavore diet" or simply "how to eat locally" online, you'll probably come across at least one article or blog written by someone who embarked on a local eating challenge, such as, "I tried to eat 100% local food for a week. Here's what I learned."

Diving headfirst into a drastic lifestyle change perhaps makes for more engaging think pieces, but in my experience, they're not the best approach for people who are actually hoping to stick with it.

Creating mindful eating habits is an essential way people can improve their own health, support the community they live in, and mitigate their carbon footprint. At the same time, however, we need to be realistic. Flipping a switch one day and limiting oneself to just the food sourced from a 100-mile radius is going to be overwhelming, time-consuming, and probably expensive. Personally, I'd take a page out of the history books, circa World War I. (Stay with me.)

Around 1918, to preserve rations for US troops fighting overseas, the national government implored citizens to cut meat and wheat out of their diet one day a week—some folks today continue to advocate for "Meatless Mondays." Picking just one day a week to follow a certain diet choice might seem insignificant, but the campaign successfully reduced overall household food consumption by 15% between 1918 and 1919.

We can take a similar approach to eating locally. Early on, I picked one day a week to go to a local farmers market and purchased enough ingredients to prepare one full day of locally sourced meals later in the week. I did this for a little while until I felt ready to bump it up to multiple days a week of local eating.

As dipping my toes turned into wading in the water, I found myself thinking more critically about the non-local foods I was still eating. As I nuked a mass-produced, frozen bag of prepackaged stir fry in my microwave, I took a mental inventory of the ingredients, and realized I could have found many of the veggies within the bag at that farmers market I'd been visiting. The ones that I couldn't find, I could easily substitute with something else.

But what about some of the other ingredients—the spices and the rice? Well, I learned two things from that line of questioning. One, while 90% of rice does originate in Asian countries, there actually are rice growers throughout Appalachia. Two, even strict locavores have a loophole known as the "Marco Polo exception," which states that "anything your average 13th-century explorer might have brought back from distant lands... pepper, and turmeric, and even the odd knob of ginger root" is considered fair game.

Another fair question: what about the winter time? While the colder months certainly present a challenge to people trying to eat foods that are in season, we don't necessarily need to go running back to our nearest major grocery chain just yet. Stock up on "cold storage crops" such as squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, beets, and other veggies that will keep for months or an entire winter when stored properly. Another option that admittedly involves more commitment is learning how to preserve produce through canning, pickling, and fermenting.

You can also continue to support local farmers through the wintertime. Many farmers grow crops year round using greenhouses and hydroponics. You may be able to find out how to stay connected to local producers by searching "winter CSAs near me" online.

Keeping the costs down

I'd imagine concerns about expenses are a key driver keeping many people from embarking on a local-food-eating journey of their own. There's no getting around the fact that Big-Ag, mass-produced food products are often sold cheaper on supermarket shelves than comparable, locally sourced foods. Just because food is cheaper, however, doesn't mean it was produced with consumers' best interests in mind.

This cost disparity is the result of systemic issues in Big Ag and Big Food, about which entire books can (and have) been written. But to put it very briefly, government subsidies for animal feed lead to a surplus in corn and soy. Huge companies use this surplus to produce highly processed foods, using ingredients like high fructose corn syrup and soybean oil. Cheap production equates to cheaper price tags at the grocery store.

Fortunately for aspiring locavores like me, there are some approaches that can help take the sticker shock out of eating locally.

• Eating seasonally: When foods are "in season," it means the farmer has just harvested them. You can get the best price of seasonal foods, because you're getting them when they're at peak supply, rather than paying extra for something scarce.
• Getting to know your farmers and fellow shoppers: Don't be intimidated if the previous tip seemed daunting. "How am I supposed to know when foods are and aren't in season?" An added benefit of going to a farmers market is that you can get face time with the people growing food in your community. Feel free to ask them about what's in season, what's growing well right now, how to get the most bang for your buck. Don't be afraid to ask more experienced shoppers too. Shopping locally is all about community, and forming these helpful relationships with neighbors is the essence of community spirit!
• Cutting down on food waste: People in the US throw away 80 million tons of food every year. That's more than a third of all the food in the country, and equates to $444 billion down the drain. You can save your own money by ensuring that your food isn't going to waste. Freeze produce that you're not going to use right away. Chef Andrew Zimmern recommends removing a drawer and a shelf from your fridge (so food doesn't get forgotten in the fridge to rot) and only shopping for a few days at a time, rather than trying to buy a whole week's worth of food at once.

A piece of the puzzle

Since I began this ongoing process of incorporating, thinking about, and learning about local foods, I've come to feel that it's not the missing piece, but just another piece of the puzzle in the quest for responsible, sustainable eating.

It's not as inexpensive or easy as running to the supermarket once a week—I'd guess that being cheap and convenient are two primary fuels keeping the Big Food machine pumping.

But there are other kinds of value that can't be quantified in dollars or hours. Eating locally provides me with a warm sense of community in supporting local farmers, a security in knowing where my food originated, and a little boost every day from eating fresh food that bursts with flavor and nutrients. When I reach for those things on the well-stocked supermarket chain shelves now, I find myself grasping at air.

If you'd like to get more involved in a community of advocates fighting for a safer, more sustainable food future, click here to learn about how you can join The Humane League and drive meaningful action that makes a real impact in the lives of millions of animals.