We've all heard about how local foods are "better for you" and how global foods help you "expand your horizons in cuisine." Some people think that being a locavore, or someone who eats only foods grown and produced within a one-hundred mile radius of their home, is the way to eat. Others think that eating foods grown from all over is the way to go. This next challenge will help you decide which food system you think is best.
Local food system
Pros:
- Eating locally is better for the environment. The food doesn't have to travel a long way to reach its destination, meaning that pollution emitted through transportation is minimal.
- Eating locally supports the local economy and community.
- Eating locally helps you get a firm understanding on where your food comes from.
- Shopping for local foods can be time consuming, for you have to discover many details about jut one ingredient to make sure it is truly local.
- A locavore has a much more restricted diet than the average person. A locavore where I live (Seattle/King County) would be without mangoes, bananas, imported cheese, rice, and other essential foods.
- In Seattle, a lot of locally grown fruits and vegetables are not in season during the winter (berries, peaches, etc.). This goes for many other regions too.
Global food system
Pros:
- The types of cuisine you can make are endless, and many exotic foods are available. Plus, the most common fruits in the United States (bananas, apples, etc.) are available in stores everywhere in the country.
- Eating globally supports the economies of countries that depend on produce sales to survive.
- When many vegetables and fruits aren't in season during the winter, fruits grown in tropical environments are shipped to the United States so we can have produce.
- A lot of fuel that hurts the environment is used to transport the food.
- Buying mainly globally grown foods hurts the farming economy in your community because they have less customers. Why buy a peach from California if you can get a basket of peaches from your neighbor's peach tree for free?
Please comment on this post stating your opinion about local and global foods, and take my local/global challenge! If you like my blog and you have a Gmail or Google account, you can follow my blog. If you have a YouTube account, please subscribe to my channel! If you don't have any of these but you love my blog, email me at tweenchef123@gmail.com and ask to join the mailing list. Also, please remember to tell your friends about this website! Healthy eating and cooking is extremely important to me, and I want to inspire others just like Jamie Oliver and Rozanne Gold inspired me.
The results for the poll are in! 4 or 5 of the votes disappeared, so I kept a tally of all the votes I counted on my whiteboard at home. The real results are:
Ultra Thin Pork Chops: 2
Mediterranean Burger: 6
Hawaiian Chicken: 12
Rosemary Alfredo Chicken: 10
Hawaiian Chicken is the winner! Sarah and I will be filming it over our spring break, and it should be up before we get back to school. At the end of the month, I'll be filming a gluten-free dessert video (peach crisp). It's so good you can't tell it's gluten-free. Please vote on the new poll to decide the fate of the next video.
I was reading the pros and cons of both food systems, and I came across the global food system con, why buy peaches from California when you could get them fresh from your neighbor? Then I wondered, what exactly do you mean by local and how far can you travel to still have local food? Are California and Oregon considered local to Seattle?
ReplyDeleteCalifornia is not local. Some parts of Oregon (cities like Portland and Eugene) are sometimes considered local, but most of Oregon is not. Good question, Sarah!
ReplyDelete