EAT LOCALLY

When people ask me why I went vegetarian, my answer is normally well I thought it could be a good way to make myself eat more vegetables, but every since I went vegetarian I've been reading about it and because of the environmental implications I'm really excited about being vegetarian and trying to eat more local and seasonal vegetables. The environmental advantages to eating locally are astounding. Today is an intro on just the effects of eating locally on U.S. oil consumption.
 

Here are the facts:

We’re consuming 400 gallons of oil per year per citizen for agriculture -- 17% of national use (close second to vehicular use)

Synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and hebicides use oil and natural gas as starting point and in production. More than a quarter of all farming energy goes in to synthetic fertilizers.

Each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles.

In addition to traveling there are other steps that need oil: drying, milling, cutting, sorting, baking, packaging, warehousing, and refrigeration

If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal)composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week.  

Think about it.

There are a lot of other perks to eating locally- which I’ll get in to in the future weeks, but oil consumption is a major issue in an of itself so I just wanted to highlight those facts.



If you’re like me and live in an area that has a year round farmer’s market, this isn’t an impossible task. It may cost slightly more to buy vegetables at the farmers market but it will be worth it taste and your ethical food consciousness (if you have one... or maybe are developing one with this post) If you’re not sure if you have a year round farmers market, try using the website Eat Well Guide You can search in your area for local distributers and also plan a trip so you can know where to stop along the road. I’m going to try to do this when my mom and I drive from Pittsburgh to Florida next month.

It may seem difficult to eat locally in the middle of February, but while we’re waiting for the spring crops to grow, see if you can find some locally grown winter squash! As I mentioned above, even just one local meal a week is helping a farmer, helping the community, and helping the country.

Try this Butternut Bean Soup:
2 Butternut or hubbard squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
1 1/2 dried white beans, soaked overnight and drained
2 medium portobello mushroom caps, sliced
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 Tbsp thyme
1 Tbsp sage
4 tsp rosemary
Olive Oil

Combine beans and spices in a large saucepan, add water and cover amply and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until beans are tender and most water has cooked off. Add mushrooms toward he end.
While beans are cooking drizzle a large roasting pan with olive oil and arrange squash skin side down. Cook at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes until fully tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from oven and serve each half squash filled with a generous scoop of the bean soup


(facts and recipe from the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver)