BCGR - Locavores
By: Chris Whited, KRBC News
Updated: January 21, 2009
The food that ends up on the average American table has traveled about 15-hundred miles and that burns up a lot of fossil fuel. To reduce the impact more people are choosing to eat food that's grown locally. They call themselves Locavores.
Vicki Hartman and her family are Locavores and only eat foods grown within a 100 miles of her home in Rochester, New York. She tells us "it takes a little bit of extra legwork, a little bit of extra thought. But it's not really that hard and there are lots of benefits. : "More than anything we want people to think about it and ask the question, if i am going to eat this right now, is this something i could be purchasing local. If so what would that look like or is there a substitution that would work really well here."
Hartman started up the eat local challenge at this area farmer's market.She says there are a few good reasons to try and eat local. First it shrinks your carbon footprint. Secondly it keeps your money circulating in the local economy and finally it can save you money. She says "people think they are going to be spending a lot more money and they might actually be shocked at taking 10 dollars and walking through a farmer's market and seeing how far it gets them.
Julie white has been a Locavore for over a year and does almost all her shopping at local markets. "Buying things in season and then preserving them for the long haul really keeps my food bill down. I do a lot of canning and a lot of freezing. Almost every week i buy something in bulk. Blueberries, peaches, whatever it is tomatoes, and i put those in the freezer" she explained to us.
Locavores are allowed some exceptions. Coffee and rice are things that aren't grown in most parts of the united states. The word locavore is even in the dictionary. In 2007 it was the new american oxford dictionary's word of the year.
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