inspiration

[cashewy]

I picked up the local sunday times today and read a featured artilcle about a group of 80 seattlites doing a new challenge of eating only foods that grow within 100 miles of where they live!!

there is also a new book out called "plenty" by a vancouver couple with this commitment. IN THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA!! I love it!

and will also add that i feel this is extremely important principle not just for our environment and local community but for our health. Eating what is in region and what is in season puts us into harmony with our environment.

As a new raw foodist I am concerned with the focus on all of the tropical delicacies. while I have totally indulged and enjoyed my fresh coconuts, dates or avocado...it seems really out of integrity to the concepts of sustainable and wholesome living and eating. Food for thoughy xoxoxo

[alicemagooey]

remember, you live in a bit milder climate than some peeps.!!.

i have been freezing ( yes, some local foods, but not all)
and trying to make some kind of provision for when gardens are not possible because of 3-6 feet of snow on the ground..( for more months of the year than i wish to think about !)

but , yes.. it is a most excellent thing to go local.
especially when we CAN !
this 'golocal thing'
has been in the mainstream media as food for thought for some time.
..
good thought, indeed. good practice, indeed..only wish we could do it all the time.( 4 seasons)

alice

[the_lab_rat]

cashewy,

I totally agree with you! It's so awesome that the newspaper picked up that story, and that so many people are trying to make that effort! I've eaten only organic produce for like a decade but only within the last few years have I been eating locally grown whenever possible. I guess I was just ignorant beforehand--I never really thought about where the produce came from :rolleyes: Now, I feel like if it doesn't grow here in season, I have no business eating it. Like, I was about to do a coconut-water fast, but realized upon looking in the hfs that the coconuts aren't organic or even from america :( So scratch that idea. It's fun to try crazy new fruits and stuff, but totally not worth the strain on the environment. It's 'funny' to me how many people won't eat packaged or prepared raw foods (like dehydrated things, crackers, etc) because they aren't "fresh" but they'll still eat fruit shipped here in a truck from 10,000 miles away :p

[liquidicious]

I doesn't believe this "puts9. us in harmony with our environment", but to eat things as fresh as possible is essential as we all believe on this forum, so that is something that will almost always be true if you get your food locally & in season.

& I think it is a bad idea because there are so many great super-foods that you cannot get locally!
& I believe that we only need the known nutrients & enzymes from foods & not this "harmony", I just think that this concept is useless & is derived from the over-generalization of "we should eat as nature intended" or "we should eat as free animals do, because free animals are always healthy".
& this is just a simplification to escape deep analyzation of things, & in this case it is [what our bodies needs].
we acctually have a lot information about nutrition & experimental results on animals, so we shouldn't over-imitate free animals... or we will soon crawl on the ground!

[EZ rider]

My two cents worth. I think the issue is eating foods made and nutured in a way that they can become a part of our bodies. I think live foods accomplish this wherever they are grown.

[alicemagooey]

i still come back to
PRACTICAL THOUGHT..
(not speculation)

some of us living in cold Northern Climates would STARVE if we only ate locally grown produce year round.

how complicated is that?

As long as we are able to get things in those months when the ground is frozen down two feet from other places, well..How wonderful,how fortunate that we are able to obtain it from other places.!!
I do try not to take this GREAT BLESSING for granted..!
I am sure i have..taken it for granted..it is so easy to do so..

If we hope to live raw here in my area, for instance,..we are fortunate to be able to procure fresh produce from afar..!!
with this crazy world going the way it is, who knows about the future.
But for now.. gosh, we sure are blessed.
alice

[cbowden]

Cashewy, this is an issue I have been grappling with for the last couple of weeks. I just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.' She and her family lived for one year on only what they could grow/raise (with a few exceptions like Olive Oil). Her concern is that so many people have no idea where the foods they are eating come from and the impact huge agri-businesses have on the local farmers. Granted she is not raw and not even vegetarian but I do have to agree with the 'eat local' premise.

My struggle is how do you eat locally in the winter if you're not in southern California or Florida? Not all of us live on farms either. We are forced to buy our food.

Is it possible to be raw and eat locally? In the winter? Any ideas? Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[cashewy]

So, there is some defensiveness coming up with this question.....and I really appreciate the differing ideas that are surfacing. I especially like liquidiciousness' thought on our ability to apply our analytical minds and find the MOST BENEFICIAL solution to a given question. If the question is how do we get the best nutrient level out of what we eat versus the question of what is the most comprehensively sustainable way for me to eat.....the answers are going to be quite different.

and I like to compare those motivations because both have esentially a totally positive and valuable outcome for the whole. figuring out how to serve both takes major commitment

so, do we really believe that typical consumers would be so supportive of the organic food movement if it didn't benefit their own narcissistic/egalitarian drives? The superficial desire to just "feel better" without having to change has nothing to do with liberating consciousness.

in terms of the "what would we eat??" question....it is possible to grow pretty much any green year round in almost any climate. I might not have macademia nuts up here on the canadian border but I have hazelnuts and walnuts and filberts. I don't have coconut oils but I do have flax. Root vegetables and squashes can last all winter. I don't have pineapple but I do have amazing berries and apples, pears, plums etc.......seaweeds, green algeas and on and on.....

thanks for all of the replies...xoxo

[cbowden]

So, Cashewy, are you then living a locally, sustainable raw diet? If so, how is that working for you greens-wise?

[cashewy]

no, as i said in my first post, i have been eating experimenting with some of the more "super-food" tastes such as coconut etc. I was just inspired by that article to re-visit this idea and check my self about my own decisions and integrity on the matter. Basically, since it is summer about 95 percent of my food comes from local farmers market. I get nuts/seeds and spirulina from the store. I have been eating almonds and cashews but just got a line on some local hazelnuts so I am going to try to switch over. I am putting an end to the coconut thing......I guess I'll have to go to Hawaii now!!

I am adding raised beds to my yard and I am going to do some kale and collards for the winter and stick to squashes etc but I know that when fall comes I am going to want some grains.

I am not trying to be dogmatic or propose that THERE IS ONE RIGHT WAY to be a wholesome/conscious being. I just felt a lot of sudden inspiration in that newspaper article of people making a commited decision to change their conditioned way of doing things and even though it wasn't easy or convenient or comforting, they were willing to sacrafice those needs for what they considered a greater good.....supporting local economy, lowering transit costs and pollution and simplifying what they considered essential. it's beautiful and i thought some people here would get what i got out of that.

i don't really jive with the all or nothing/ purist or hypocrite way of thinking. I just think it is best to really examine what is true in a situation and then be true to it. So, I am asking myself, am I after the out of region season foods because I want to indulge my senses and I can afford it and I want what I want even if it is somewhat greedy and puts a greater demand on the whole.....or am I really trying to take in the best quality nutrient into my body to become a more conscious vehicle that can produce a higher quality contribution to the whole??? If I take my concern for myself out of it what is the best action to take?
and the cool thing is that I am free at all times to choose or to change!

thanks xox

[barose]

I doesn't believe this "puts9. us in harmony with our environment", but to eat things as fresh as possible is essential as we all believe on this forum, so that is something that will almost always be true if you get your food locally & in season.

& I think it is a bad idea because there are so many great super-foods that you cannot get locally!
& I believe that we only need the known nutrients & enzymes from foods & not this "harmony", I just think that this concept is useless & is derived from the over-generalization of "we should eat as nature intended" or "we should eat as free animals do, because free animals are always healthy".
& this is just a simplification to escape deep analyzation of things, & in this case it is [what our bodies needs].
we acctually have a lot information about nutrition & experimental results on animals, so we shouldn't over-imitate free animals... or we will soon crawl on the ground!

ITA!

With that said, I do buy what is possible to grow local (and organic!), especially in California where we pretty much live on easy street food wise.

But dont many if not most of us live on bananas (green smoothies)? Bananas are not local to the U.S. so that would eliminate a staple in most of our diets - please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, you would have to pry young Thai coconuts from my cold dead hands, LOL.

[ChaiLife]

ITA!

With that said, I do buy what is possible to grow local (and organic!), especially in California where we pretty much live on easy street food wise.

But dont many if not most of us live on bananas (green smoothies)? Bananas are not local to the U.S. so that would eliminate a staple in most of our diets - please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, you would have to pry young Thai coconuts from my cold dead hands, LOL.

That is sooooo true! LOL The earth would actually stop turning if I did not have my chocolate banana milkshakes. :cool:

Interesting topic though. I love eating what grows naturally in my own area but feel very blessed to be able to try foods from far and exotic lands. Don't think I would want to give that up. I don't see much difference in eating an apple that I have had in my firdge for a few days and eating a coconut that was in shipment for a few days. They may have been harvested at the same time. They are both alive and filled with nutritional goodness. But to each their own. :D

[the_lab_rat]

But dont many if not most of us live on bananas (green smoothies)? Bananas are not local to the U.S. so that would eliminate a staple in most of our diets - please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yep, that's exactly why I don't eat bananas :) I probably average 2-3 bananas per year, and that's usually only if someone gives one to me, like how they give out free food after running races and stuff. Good point though, I think a lot of raw foodies would feel deprived without their precious bananas and young coconuts :D

Cashewy, thanks for your post... I'd been pretty comfortable with how much local stuff I was buying, but it really got me thinking more deeply about it. Like, there are occasions when I don't buy local, and I was thinking about this overnight and I'm starting to reconsider my motives on such occasions...and starting to realize that locally grown doesn't just apply to fruits and veggies, but other products too. I'm definitely going to make an even deeper commitment to buying local and living more sustainably from now on. For instance, giving up "comfort products" that I don't need and doing better planning for what we'll plant in our garden. I'm so glad you posted this!

...oh man, my parents bought bananas :rolleyes: I see I have my work cut out for me... :D