Distance Rips Us Further and Further Away

So today is Blog Action Day, with the theme centered on raising awareness of issues regarding the environment. It seems appropriate then that I write about something that I'm so passionate about...although I wasn't aware that there's actually a name for it until just a few months ago.

Agroecology: an ecological approach to agriculture that views agricultural areas as ecosystems and is concerned with the ecological impact of agricultural practices (http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/agroecology)

Getting closer with...
Agroecology: the science of sustainable agriculture; the methods of agroecology have as their goal achieving sustainability of agricultural systems balanced in all spheres. This includes the socio-economic and the ecological or environmental (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agroecology).

And what I find most interesting...
Agroecology: ecological knowledge is used to inform human management of nature for the production of natural products for human use in ways that minimize environmental impacts (http://envs.ucsc.edu/graduate/) because it adds another lens to look through: examine the deeper social processes through which the institutions that structure our social and ecological agendas have been constructed.

Clearly this can be a series of blogs rather than just one--maybe that's the point of this blog action day. So I'll start with one question for you to ponder--from where does the majority of your food come? This is a question that is popping up more and more in the consciousness of people in the US--from articles in the New York Times to best sellers such as The Omnivore's Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Living Locally to the new Buy Local signage being displayed in Whole Foods stores.

Have you noticed? Do you pay attention? When you hit up the produce aisle, do you turn over the apples to see if they are from Washington or New Zealand, do you refuse to buy a peach when it's from Chile rather than Georgia, does it matter to you if your lettuce travels three thousand miles?

It should. In addition to the fact that the fresher your food is, the better it tastes (don't believe me? Eat peas straight from the vine or pick blackberries on the side of the road in August...do they really compare?), we are sending our food on near-pointless journeys in many cases. Why, in Louisiana, are my peaches coming from California??? In addition to the ridiculous amounts of fuel being used to truck these items across the land, we are also using oil to keep the trucks refrigerated and the storehouses cool.

I'm not saying I'm perfect, by no means. Sometimes I need those Driscoll's strawberries. But the fact is that, for the most part, the less your food has traveled the less impact it will have on the environment. What are some ways to find local foods? Grow it yourself, obviously. Shop at local grocers--they're more likely to carry regional foods (in Louisiana, that's Rouse's). Find your farmer's market. Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, you get the freshest produce).

What are you doing to reduce your ecological footprint? Does your mouth know what your foot is doing?

More to come in the next few weeks...