Difficulties in local food land...

The farm market at Stan Hywet in Akron (on thursdays from 3:30-7pmish) is very nice. visited there today.

Our most difficult obstacle in this local eating project has been our previous reliance on some convenience foods (frozen trader joe's stuff) or restaurants (we do try to patronize locally-owned ones), particularly on busy nights towards the end of the workweek after long exhausting days. Don't mind me complaining, I'm in a funk right now. The lure of the convenience food has taken us down a few times on this journey. But we journey on...

In the news...

Hey everybody! I heard several interesting stories in the news recently which are relevant to local food. I've included links for them here. On "The World" on NPR yesterday, they had a story about local foods that is sure to irritate some local foods supporters...it attempted to raise an argument that local foods may not always be best, because of economy of scale arguments (I've gotten into a similar argument with a professor concerning this sort of thing.) For instance, driving 20 minutes to the farmer's market to buy 3 tomatoes may use more fuel and release more greenhouse gas per tomato than trucking 50,000 tomatoes from California to an Akron, Ohio grocery store all together. It is a very one-dimensional argument which doesn't take into account the benefit to local farmers, food safety issues, pesticide issues, human rights issues to growers/harvesters in foreign countries, etc. I've included the link to listen to the story, it is only about 4 minutes long. Click on the link below and scroll down to "Does eating local really help?" to hear the story.

http://www.theworld.org/?q=taxonomy_by_date/1/20070709

One print story I found is about the ubiquitousness of GMOs in processed foods (apparently 3/4 of processed foods contain them in some form!)

There's a Lot You Don't Know About What's in Your Foodhttp://www.alternet.org/story/55847Nearly three quarters of all processed foods contain genetically engineered ingredients, but you'd never know it by reading package labels. Author Andrew Kimbrell discusses the risks of genetic engineering and how to avoid it.

The second article concerns radiation of foods, and with fresh foods travelling farther, more of them will soon be irradiated (or "pastuerized", as they're calling it.) One more reason to choose local.

How Much of Your Food is Being Nuked Before it Hits the Shelf?http://www.alternet.org/story/55959From fruit to spices to meat, contamination fears and market possibilities are spurring a food irradiation revival. But how safe is the practice?

The third article is about why soy may not be best as your primary source of protein...although the jury is really still out on that one...

The Dark Side of Soyhttp://www.alternet.org/story/56087Is a staple of heathly diets in America making us sick?


Happy eating!
Erica

Vacation plus holiday = food and fun!

Last week we rented a cabin in Hocking Hills and spent the week hiking, canoing, and enjoying the peace and quiet of being away from the city. We started off the week by loading up the coolers with all of our local goodies from Crown Point and the Peninsula Farmers' Market, packed up the car 'til we couldn't stuff any more in, and began our three hour drive to Logan, Ohio. While in the area, we ate at several restuarants with the Ohio logo on the door, signifying that they use locally-grown or raised ingredients in their menu. We even made a stop for dinner at a restaurant in Athens where my brother cooks.

Saturday we returned to Akron, stopping at Crown Point to pick up our weekly veggie share. Yay! Carrots are here! I have to admit the three of us ate most of the carrots on our way home, they are by far the best carrots we've had.

Wednesday, July 4th, we met with family for a fantastic picnic/cook-out in the park, featuring Rose Ridge grass-fed burgers! Yum! Of course, we had to top the burgers with Meadow Maid grass-fed cheese. So, this may not be the most low-fat weight-loss inducing diet, but we aren't going hungry! We also munched on the last of our delicious Crown Point sugar snap peas. They are so good raw that I never even cooked any of them this year...we've been eating them as snacks and in salads. Ethan (our 4-year old) loves them!

That's all for now!

In the works...

Hi All!

A new entry from us is coming soon. Spent a fantastic week in Hocking Hills enjoying the peace and quiet of nature...will have lots to talk about soon...once we find a few free minutes! To be continued...