When I see a sign ‘locally grown’, I’m thinking “in this district”. But that may not be what you think when you see or hear ‘locally grown’, or what the creator of the sign ‘locally grown’, is referring to. Talk to others you know, and ask them where they think something comes from when they hear or see ‘locally grown’. I have this question in my survey, with the choice of answers as: 1) district 2) county 3) state 4) country? So far, people’s survey answers have been across the board. What does that tell us about perception? Labels and terms can be complicated and confusing. We tend to categorize to simplify the process, especially since we have to figure this out every time we go food shopping.
Life seemed simpler back when we didn’t have as much choice or certainly not as much information about the food we buy and eat, as we do today. As I grew up in the 50’s, my family lived in the city. My parents shopped at Safeway for the bulk of items, but there was daily milk delivery from the local dairy (near the city) , weekly bread pick-up from the local bakery (a few blocks away), potatoes were bought from a local farmer ( outskirts of the city) in the fall that lasted us all winter, and sometimes we bought a ’side of beef’ (cut up and packaged) from a local butcher (within the city), that we stored in the freezer. So even then
‘ local’ had a lot of different meanings depending on what item you were buying. I don’t remember any talk of what the dairyman, baker, farmer or rancher put into the milk, bread, potatoes or the beef before we bought and ate it. Most everyone seemed to basically trust that the food we bought and ate was good quality, good value and good for us. I also remember that many items were just not available out of season. It was a big deal to get the first pick of the season when fruits and vegetables became available. The ability to eat seasonal produce beyond the season, was extended by way of freezing or canning the food items.
Nowadays…its a bit different. In the January 2010 issue of Martha Stewart magazine, there’s an interesting article written by Carol Ness entitled ” Fresh Thinking:organic, local, seasonal”. She writes, “…picking out a head of lettuce makes you feel as though you need advanced degrees in agriculture, chemistry, economics, and nutrition” (p 99). There is lots of food terminology to inform ourselves about. I found this article to be helpful in simplifying the explanations and comparisons of the general categories : organic, local, seasonal.
Within all categories the same issues were discussed : Flavor, food safety, cost, environment, nutrition and bottom line. I’ll elaborate more on this article from my perspective at a later date. Meanwhile you can read the article for yourself at the following web address :
http://www.wholeliving.com/article/fresh-thinking-how-to-shop-for-fruits-and-vegetables