Triangle's cornucopia

Eating local effort might start with small bites

What does it mean to "eat local"?

That depends on whom you ask, but it's safe to say that a burger and fries at the corner fast food joint doesn't count.

The concept of "eating local" focuses on where food is grown or produced and where it is consumed. "Eat local" advocates promote buying as much food (preferably organic) as possible from farmers in the same area.

"At C'est Si Bon, we try to use as much as we can from the market," said Chapel Hill cooking instructor Dorette Snover. "Especially for the children's classes. It's a nice farm-to-table connection."

Eating local is not a new idea, of course. In the days before the global economy, eating local was the only option. (It still is in parts of the world.) People either grew food on their own farms and in their own gardens or bought or bartered for what they needed from neighbors.

But the advent of refrigeration, and sophisticated agribusiness and distribution systems mean that the modern grocery store is overflowing with foods from around the world. You can buy tiger prawns from Hong Kong, melons from Chile or tomatoes from California -- usually for prices that are quite reasonable.

So what's wrong with that?

Many nutritionists, economists, environmentalists and others are looking at the way we produce and purchase our food and are concluding that global is not our best option, said Bill Landis, an associate professor in the department of human environmental sciences at Meredith College in Raleigh.

Big factory farms that use pesticides and fertilizers are more likely to damage the environment than small-scale, organic farms that cater to local markets, for example. All those trucks crisscrossing the country loaded with food use up a lot of precious fossil fuel (and produce pollution). Individual communities benefit by keeping money close to home and by keeping local farmers in business.

And then there's the matter of taste. "Food is just going to taste better fresh," Landis said. "Think of a tomato grown 3,000 miles away. In terms of taste, you're far better off eating local."

Local practice

But is it practical? To determine just how feasible it was to eat local in the Triangle, Landis got a grant to conduct an availability survey with Meredith graduate student Jennifer Watson in spring 2005.

"What we wanted to do was to find out what local organic foods were available in the Research Triangle area for each season of the year," Landis said. "Then, based on that information, we would see if we could create three-day menus for each season, using as much local, organic food as possible."

From their survey, Landis and Watson discovered that area farmers could easily meet the typical person's nutrition needs, even in the wintertime. Except for items like spices and olive oil, the average consumer could survive, deliciously, on local foods, they concluded.

A summer menu might look like this: scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and cantaloupe for breakfast; chicken, a mixed green salad with tomato, cucumber, radishes and goat cheese for lunch; a grilled steak, baked potato, asparagus and carrots for dinner; and an apple for a snack.

"Overall, we found that if you eat a local, organic diet, you're eating a really healthy diet loaded with fruits, vegetables and fresh, whole foods," Landis said.

But he admits the survey and its menus are largely theoretical. The study did not look at cost, for instance, and local, organic food generally costs more than supermarket produce. Local organic farmers also could not possibly support the food needs of the entire Triangle.