About
In spring 2007 we moved to Boston from Brattleboro, Vt. Up there, a beautiful harmony of hippies, urban transplants and old farming families make it very easy to find and consume a pretty amazing variety of local/regional food.
We didn't really want to have to negotiate the little rules we'd made for what we eat (e.g. no meat unless we know where it comes from), and so we set out, here in Boston, to find sources of localish, sustainable food in the area.
So we know all of this stuff works, because we've done it ourselves. It isn't always cheap, but it's not out of reach. For example, we are a queer couple -- a grad student and a food writer -- with (literally) a combined salary of $30,000 last year. We don't have trust funds. And we do alright.
One caveat is that you will have to do more than unwrap a Trader Joe's burrito and pop it in the oven. But learning to cook is like learning to make out. You will love it.
We think it is unfortunate that the local foods movement has so far belonged to either earnest Vermonters in their wrinkly linen OR richies who drop entire paychecks at fancy shoppes on their way home from sucking corporate ass.
For us it's more about the old "you are what you eat" truism. We don't want to be pesticides and growth hormones and beakless chickens who never see the light of day. So we don't eat those things.
VERY IMPORTANT: We don't recommend trying to get everything you consume from local sources. Obviously that would eliminate great joys like coffee, tea and olive oil. This is not meant to be an ascetic exercise. We prefer to think of it as a quiet little revolt; people taking back control of what they put into their bodies and how they want to spend their money. But this revolt will yield no bloody battles, only delicious food.
What Most People do
- a weekly blitz to the Grocery Store
- eat food that has been processed into oblivion
- eat meat from animals stuffed with antibiotics and growth hormones
- eat fruit/veggies cultivated in a sweet cocktail of chemical fertilizers
- give their money to Big Food Companies who care nothing about you or the environment, but do care very much about $$$
What we try to do
- eat from some combo of farmer's markets/fancy sustainable shoppes/direct purchases from farms/and yes, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, co-ops
- eat meat that comes from animals whose brief lives were not spent in the Abu Ghraib of feedlots
- eat fruits/veggies that taste fresh because they actually are
- help preserve farm land in New England and line the pockets of growers/producers who work their asses off and are usually very sharp, interesting people
