Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Local Food Challenge Over

Effort to eat only local foods called off
Man ends his quest after eight months, with a banana
By Beth Casper
Statesman Journal

Justin Rothboeck ended his yearlong attempt to eat only local food at the end of January.

With four months to go, Rothboeck quit trying to eat only food grown, processed and sold in Oregon and Washington.

Bananas were the first food in his grocery cart.

"I felt like I was doing it for the wrong reasons in the end," the former vegan said. "I was doing it more out of a sense of guilt than actually enjoying it."

Rothboeck said he realized that by driving all over the Willamette Valley to find local food, he likely spewed more carbon than his local diet was preventing. Read More

It is interesting to me to read about the difficulties that Rothbeck had sticking to a local diet, when he lives in a very agriculturally diverse area. I have always said that I have no problem with people that want to eat local, I just think that in our area of the world, it would get really boring after awhile if we had to eat locally. These niche markets can work really well for some in ag, but we have to realize that farmer’s markets don’t work everywhere.

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