Generalities

Being a locavore is about food choice. Where it gets challenging is when those choices are constrained or nonexistent.

The food we eat every day comes from one of three categories. There is food we make for ourselves from ingredients that we buy. When it comes to food made by others, sometimes we have a choice in who makes our food and how they make it, and sometimes we don't.

The first category, food we make for ourselves, is often the easiest to alter towards a more local, sustainable diet. The second category, food made by others of our choosing, is not too difficult to localize either, at least in New York City, where there are a lot of restaurants that pride themselves on local, sustainable ingredient sourcing.

The third category is the real beast. Every day we are faced with situations where the food is made by others, and we have no choice over who made it. Sometimes we don't even know who made it, much less where the ingredients came from. Work lunches and dinners out with friends, food at parties and events, or in airports and foreign places all pose a significant challenge to maintaining a local, sustainable diet. I get stumped by this category quite often.

In this blog I am planning to record what I eat each day, and what percentage of it is local, organic, and sustainable. I will also include links to stores, farms, restaurants, purveyors, and web resources that I like or that I discover along the way, as well as links to the odd recipe here and there. Please feel free to ask questions or offer suggestions in the comments section.