a challenge!

"i wish we still lived in the times when you could challenge someone to a du-el."

if we are all observant readers of shleydom, and i know we are, we will notice to the left that there is a new 'distraction'. (look left.) this isn't so much a distraction as a directive. it's a link to the 'eat local challenge' website and their new 'challenge', which is to eat local food for a week in april.

as you will see, you can define for yourself what eating local actually means. it could mean you eat only things from your farm. it could mean you eat from a 100-mile radius. it could mean, in the case of some prospective participants, that you eat things from the midwest, specifically the mississipp/ohio valley region. in all cases, it might be difficult to find out what is local and what isn't, as some packaged foods don't give you any inkling as to where they came from. oh sure, the picante was made in NEW YORK CITY, but where did those maters come from? and the jalapenos? grown on the hudson? and so the challenge might be to find a local meat, egg or dairy source. it might be to buy in-season veggies from the budding farmer's markets for a week. it might mean to feast upon all the canned products you put up last season. i think the important part of the exercise is to become conscious of the resources used to get your food staples from their origin to your belly. how far did it travel- which is to say, how much fossil fuel was used hauling that truckful of cheerios? what else went into its production? did you SEE the feedlot where that steak came from? (if you did, maybe it wouldn't seem so scrumpcious). eating locally means that you have the opportunity to know more about what went into those eggs in your quiche- beakless chickens snacking on corn feed or little cluckers pecking around for their natural dinner of grubs, seeds, and bits of green?

another aspect of the challenge you will notice is the budget- many people think it's financially prohibitive to incorporate local and/organic/sustainable foods into their budget. looking at supermarket prices in comparison to "farmer's mark-up" prices, it is easy to see why. (incidentally, i will soon be working for 'whole pay check'.) the only thing i can say about this is: shit, man, ya it's expensive and i, of all people, am strapped for cash, but i still manage to get the things i want in my pantry. granted, i do not have a family to feed, but, if you look at the budget on the website- well, my food budget is about half that for a single income household. it's only a week- see what you can do with your usual weekly budget. you probably won't be stockpiling items in your pantry, but you might also end up with some fresh and yummy things that your children won't have to pay for in greenhouse taxes, health problems from pesticides, etc. that's the uber-leftest hippie explanation, but, well, it's true. what did they say about global warming- "eh, i'll be dead by the time the ozone layer disappears, whatev."

also noteworthy:
alcohol is not included in the budget, so you don't have to drink anhauser busch for a week.
participants are encouraged to blog about it!
the act will make you pay attention to how you might do things differently in your daily routines: cooking times, shopping times, etc. it may be that for the week you spend a lot more time doing both of those things and start thinking, "shit, i'm eating locally but i'm sure driving around a lot getting my food." true, but compare it to the distance driven by one train full of grain (grain train!) from the plains to, i don;t know, jersey, then one semi truck full of that one commodity produced to the supermarket warehouse, then another truck full of several commodities to your local supermarket. that's a lot of traveling, too. the difference is that someone else is taking the time.


ok, i've babbled enough about this.
stay tuned for tomorrow's challenge! it'll have to do with composting......