localvores

Two posts in one night! I must have a lot of homework to avoid!

Recently, I've gotten really curious about the localvore movement -- a food movement based on only consuming locally grown and produced foods. So I did some googling, and there's a great resource for those in the Lansing area at Lansing Area Localvores. I think it's a really great idea, considering all the drawbacks of our current food production infrastructure, the machinations of which are pretty dangerous and (I think) insane. Michigan residents are lucky enough to live in one of the few stats that can support mass agriculture, we should take advantage of that.

I'm also really impressed by the commitment of all the localvore set-ups I've seen to bringing healthy, affordable food to lower-income neighborhoods. The link between poverty an health is so pronounced, and I think a large part of that is that cheap food is almost always unhealthy food. It's cheaper to make and transport mass produced synthetic food than fresh fruits and vegetables.

And I'm especially happy to see that several of the farmers markets in the Lansing area take food stamps. Really, I think that's awesome.