Where does YOUR food come from?

Today was the first day of this season's Farmer's Market in Portland. Joy! As I was walking around with my mama friend Amy and thoroughly enjoying the bounty of local Portland produce, I realized that this was the perfect topic to blog about.
As parents, we are responsible for what our child eats. And, as you are what you eat, what a parent feeds their child should be carefully selected. The eating habits and choices you teach your child as a toddler will likely be choices that remain with them for your child's entire life. So, if you want the best for your child, feed them healthy foods. At least most of the time!
Today I want to talk about the importance of eating locally. I realize that depending on where you live, your options for eating local may vary throughout the year, but everyone can manage to eat locally at some time during the year. Eating local has many advantages for the environment and for the health of you and your family:
1. Your food does not have to travel thousands of miles to get to you and so large quantities of fossil fuels (contributing to climate change, people) will not be used to get your food from where it was grown to your plate (the average food travels between 1,000 and 1,500 miles to get to you! Yikes!)
2. Also, because of less travel distance, local food is fresher, and has more nutrients. Better for you!
3. You keep your money local, which improves where YOU live!
4. You have a chance to actually meet the people who grow your food. You can find out how it is grown (is it organic? pasture-raised?) and you can now be more connected to what you eat.

So, how does one eat locally? Summertime, is a wonderful time for local foods. Farmers markets abound in many cities throughout the country. If your city does not have a Farmer's Market, why not try to start one? Contact the city and local farmers and see if you can put one together! Or, many CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farms exist. For a CSA, you pay a fee to get a weekly box of fresh produce from a local farm. You create a relationship between you and the people who grow your food, and you get fresh and local produce every week during the growing season. Google CSAs in your area!
Or even better yet-- GROW YOUR OWN FOOD!! All you need is a little outdoor space, some seeds and some love. I won't get into gardening today, but everyone can grow at least something that they can eat. If you live in an apartment without any outdoor space, try a window box of herbs or rent a space at a community gardens in your city. Portland has wonderful community gardens where you pay a small fee to rent a garden plot. It is a wonderful way to grow food, meet others in your community and to improve your neighborhood. Many towns have community gardens. If your does not, try and start one! There is nothing more local than something grown with your own hands!
And, during the off-season, just try to be more aware of the food choices you make. Look at produce labels at the grocery store and just start to realize how far your food has traveled. Do you really need to eat asparagus from South America in the winter, or can you wait until the summer when you can eat it fresh? Ask your local grocery store to buy local when possible. Request signs on the produce clearly stating where it came from. Portland's local chain, New Seasons, is wonderful about this, and makes choosing local foods much easier.
And lastly, realize that you can only do so much.... you may not be able to eat only or even mostly locally, but every time that you choose local over non-local, you are benefiting your family, your community and the environment! Sometimes eating local can be more expensive for your pocketbook, but in my mind, the benefits are clearly worth it.
And, with this, I have to highly recommend reading Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma. I know most of you parents out there probably don't have a lot of time for extracurricular reading, but this one is worth it. Really.