The farm-to-table/local food movement is very popular right now. It has expanded beyond high-end restaurants to more casual cafes, bars and coffee shops. Even in restaurants that don’t have a specific farm-to-table mission, you  can still often find a local coffee brand on the menu or cheese from a local dairy included in your sandwich. The local food movement is growing and expanding, along with the healthy food movements and the organic food movement. Budget grocery stores now carry organic produce. McDonald’s offers “healthy” options. My own chain grocery store proudly marks all the local produce they sell…

Incorporating a higher percentage of locally-produced food from small-scale farms into our lives is important in the way that shopping at local businesses is important: because it keeps money in the community and it diversifies our economy. Local farms not only benefit the people who own them, but also tend to pay higher wages than huge agribusinesses, and they often treat land and crops in a more sustainable manner.

On a purely pleasure-based level, I also believe in the value of good local food. Family traditions and celebrations so often happen around the table. I want everyone to be able to enjoy local strawberries in a pie and realize how much better they taste than the commercially-plumped up ones we get in cartons at the store. I want everyone to understand where eggs and butter come from, and that those foods might even be produced a few dozen miles from your home. But how feasible is this vision?

IS AN ALL-LOCAL DIET EVEN POSSIBLE?

On the Strong Towns Strength Test we ask, “If you wanted to eat only locally-produced food for a month, could you?” I have a hunch that almost every town would answer “no” to this.

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