Growing a New Food Paradigm: Vermonters Plant Localvore Chapters
by Robin McDermott
Previous issues of Vermont Commons have questioned whether our state has the agricultural resources to feed itself. Now, groups of people throughout the state are learning firsthand just how easy (or difficult) this might be. It all started last August when a small group of people from the Upper Valley area of the state decided they would try to go for one month eating only locally grown and produced foods. They got the idea from a group of like-minded people in the San Francisco Bay area who did just that and called themselves "Locavores." The Upper Valley group decided to call themselves Localvores (with an "l") and signed pledges promising to eat food grown and produced within a 100 mile radius of their homes during the month of August.
Sure, eating only local food during our bountiful harvest season at the end of the summer sounds like it would be a pretty easy thing to do. But what this group discovered is that there are not only some limitations, but some gaping holes in our local food system that can make "eating local" a challenge.
In today's world, when we are used to eating whatever we want when we want regardless of the season, the Upper Valley Localvores learned quickly that they would have to make some substantial changes to their diets and they would have to do some serious research if they were going to make it through the month.
But the group persevered. By the end of August they had a renewed appreciation for local agriculture, tremendous respect for the farmers in the state who grow food, and enough enthusiasm to fuel several other similar groups throughout the state.
Today there are at least five Vermont Localvore groups (Champlain Valley, Mad River Valley, Central Vermont, the Upper Valley, and Brattleboro). The common thread among all of the groups is the "Challenge." This is the "main event" where members of the group pledge to eat only locally grown and produced food during a specified period of time. Most groups are holding their next challenge in August; we in the Mad River Valley have chosen mid-September for our Localvore Challenge.
The rules for the Challenge vary from group to group. Some are very strict; sticking with totally local ingredients. The Upper Valley Localvores allow each participant a number of "wild cards" that might include non-local foods such as chocolate, coffee, or olive oil as examples. The Champlain Valley Localvores have created a series of "Marco Polo" rules that range from allowing spices that a sailor could have carried in his pocket for 6 months, to allowing anything that will get you through the Challenge.
Obviously, in August, the abundance and variety of vegetables makes eating local pretty easy. Who can't make a dinner out of corn on the cob with local butter and tomatoes fresh from the garden on a hot August day?
But, what if you wanted a salad? What would you use for salad dressing? Vinaigrette is great on freshly picked lettuce, but what would you use for oil? Olive oil would be a good choice, but since olives don't grow too well in Vermont you would need to find another source of oil.
And, what about bread? There are a lot of exceptional bread makers in our state, but very few of them use wheat or grains harvested or processed in Vermont. Dried beans (legumes) are a great source of protein, but try to find local black beans or kidney beans in your grocery store. Do these types of beans even grow in Vermont?
Even things that you would think would be easy to find like local milk and butter can be tricky. Ask about the origins of that "Vermont" milk at the grocery store and you may be surprised to learn that it comes from dairy farms in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and beyond, depending on the time of year, according to a January 2005 article in the Vermont Guardian.
Being so picky about where out food comes from might seem like splitting hairs, but it does make you start to think about how self-sufficient we Vermonters really are when it comes to food.
And, we haven't even talked about eating locally in the winter yet. The Upper Valley Localvores held a "winter challenge" this past January and other Localvore groups plan to follow suit next winter. Obviously the winter Challenge is even more…challenging. Planning is the key to success. Putting up food in the fall for the winter Challenge is important. Between canning, preserving, drying, cellaring, and freezing you can have some great meals even on the coldest of winter days, but it isn't something that you can decide to do in December or January. You need to be thinking about and preparing for the winter Challenge in August.
Contrived? Maybe. But when you think about it, getting ready for a winter Challenge is not that unlike what was done 50 or 75 years ago before refrigeration and convenience foods, and before we transported food across the country and around the world. The only difference with the winter Challenge is that it is for a limited time, and you always have the convenience of the local grocery store to fall back on if the going gets tough.
So, why should people take the Localvore Challenge? Because taking the Localvore Challenge is an educational process. You can read all you want about eating locally and supporting the local economy, but experiencing it first-hand is different. That is when you really start to appreciate just how tough eating local can be. As you become familiar with the resources that we do have available in Vermont and more importantly, what we are lacking, you gain a much better appreciation for the hardworking farmers that we do have in the state. You start thinking differently about the choices you make at the grocery store. Do you really want to pay a dollar for something when only 8 or 9 cents of that dollar goes to the farmer? Who is getting the rest of that money? How much is being spent on transportation costs, packaging, additives and preservatives to extend the life of the products that often travel a thousand miles or more before they reach our table? What about the fossil fuels used to make, package and transport food products? And, what about the taste? Can a tomato from Israel really taste as good as a local tomato? After eating locally for a week, you start to question what you are buying and eating and are much more aware of where your food is coming from.
You can't just turn off questions about where your food is coming from at the end of the challenge; they become a part of how you choose your food in the future. That is why Vermonters should challenge themselves to eat totally locally for some defined period of time. Whether you join a formal Localvore Challenge or you challenge yourself to prepare even just one totally local meal, it will be a perfect appetizer to a whole new way of looking at your food.