Earth Day Tip #14: Become a (Part-Time) Localvore!

New vocabulary! A localvore is a person who only eats locally-grown and produced food. Why become a localvore, even part-time?

• Less resources, mainly fossil fuels, are spent on the packaging and transportation of your food
  

• It supports your local economy instead of big corporations, who are also some of the biggest polluters
  

• You're eating fresher and less processed foods because the food doesn't have to travel as far or need to be preserved
  

How local do you have to stay in order to be a localvore? Many people differ on what they would consider "local" but the standard is 100 miles or less from your home. If you can eat food within a 100 miles of your home, you're a localvore!

You can even take it one step further and start a fruit and vegetable garden in your own home (especially now that you've started composting and will have all that fertilizer soon)! Tomatoes are super easy to grow, as are fruit trees. Fresh herbs turn ordinary dishes into WOW dishes. Even for those living in New York City, you can find some space for a small herb plant. Perhaps in the corner of your kitchen counter, or even your window sill.

Try being a localvore for a week and see how easy it is. Or try it with certain foods (particularly meat and dairy products) to lessen your environmental impact.

© Connie Hum 2009