How is the May Eat Local challenge going so far for me? Not so great. But I didn’t really expect it to. I have learned some things though.
Knowing that the farmer’s markets are open in other cities brings up an ethical point for me. I don’t think that I should make a trip especially to go to the farmer’s market. It seems wasteful. Other people may disagree with me on this. Should I drive an hour each way just to buy local produce (some of which is grown near here)? This is complicated by the fact that I would think nothing of driving there to see a movie that I couldn’t see here. Going there uses much less gas than buying produce shipped from California.
I keep thinking that I could go if I was combining it with something else I had to do in the area. Farmer’s market and a movie, perhaps.
It’s a tricky dilemma, isn’t it?
My local shop – i.e. the one I can walk to, happens to be a very large supermarket. To buy true local produce I have to get in a car – so you end up balancing environmental impacts.
It frustrates me no end that I live in a rural farming area, yet the farm shops and markets really aren’t up to all that and aren’t really worth the extra effort to travel to them.
While I like the idea of supporting local businesses, if that means supporting somewhere that has manky produce left over (as they’ve sold all the good stuff to the shops and supermarkets presumably), has apples from Africa flown in when appleas are actually in season here (yup – actually found that in one farm shop here) and at the same time are much more expensive, the incentive to eat local becomes very very small.
Still, as you say, it’s becoming more fashionable now, so who knows, maybe it can only get better.