The Roving Locavore

In Vermont, where I grew up and often visit, and in the Boston area, San Francisco and Berkeley, the eastern shore of Maryland, Auburn, Alabama, and Rome—where the itinerant lifestyle of an academic has led me—I’ve nourished my appreciation for seasonal, local food.  As a teacher, mother, cook, occasional gardener, and, of course, eater, I try to emphasize the value of deliciousness, freshness, variety, and fun as well as sustainability. These are the ideas I’d like to share in this blog, along with some simple and tasty recipes.

My son, Jack, though only four, appreciates these aspects of food already.  He loves trucks, and plays with particular intensity when his toy tractors are seeding and harvesting the rug or lawn.  But his smile really shines when we play outside in the dirt—planting herbs and tomatoes, watering the cucumbers, looking under strawberry leaves for the biggest, juiciest berry.  One of the reasons I look for local, organic food is that it’s fun, and often involves meeting new people and being outdoors.  Why else would Jack have seen a young farmer hypnotize a chicken at a birthday party? It’s also healthier for my whole family.  That pesticide, herbicide, and fungicide residues stay in our bodies and show up in blood and breast milk is well-documented.  That local organic apples, carrots, cheese, and beef taste better can be documented by any eater.

Local, organic, and sustainable all have different implications for food production and distribution: local food may not be organic; organic food often isn’t local (or produced on a small scale); sustainably produced local food is what to aim for, but when it’s not available, we can make trade-offs and at least try to eat locally or organically. There are many good reasons for seeking out local, sustainably produced food when possible.  Here are a few:

1.    The food is fresher, and therefore better tasting.
2.    Fresh, organic food is healthier.  Nutritional value declines after harvest.
3.    Sustainably produced food that travels a shorter distance to your plate requires less fossil fuel consumption and causes less greenhouse gas emission.
4.    You support small businesses, rather than big industry, which cares more about profits than food quality or consumers.
5.    Local food from small producers is safer: contamination is less likely and easier to trace if it does occur; and if the food is sustainably grown, it will not have pesticide or fungicide residues.
6.    You contribute to the economic health of the region.
7.    Industrial food prices don’t reflect the hidden costs of their processes to the environment or to human health.
8.    You get to meet the interesting and committed people who grow your food and care for the land in your region.

That’s why I strive to be a locavore. Why roving?  This summer, Peter, Jack and I spent our time in Vermont, Boston and Cape Cod, and the Catskills to visit friends and family. Just before apple and cider-doughnut season, in early September, we flew to Rome, to spend the year living at the American Academy in Rome and making short trips all around on the high speed trains, taking in the landscape and the art, history, and food that grows from it.  Here in Rome, I enjoy both shopping at the open air markets and cooking with the amazingly fresh Italian ingredients, and the delicious meals and gardens of the Rome Sustainable Food Project, located at the Academy.  Jack is having his own culinary adventures at Scuola Arcobaleno (Rainbow School) where they serve big bowls of delicious pasta or rice every day for lunch, and where the children tend a playground vegetable garden.

Here in Rome, I did a bit of volunteer work as a writer for Bioversity International, in particular, their campaign Diversity for Life, which fosters education about agricultural biodiversity and the value of traditional foods.  The world’s diet is becoming more homogeneous and less nutritious, as old knowledge and traditional crops are being lost.  Bioversity is doing everything they can, in their limited grass-roots way, to push back against this enormous tide.  I’m excited to be involved.

And in my other writing life, I’m finishing a doctoral dissertation on four eighteenth-century and Romantic authors, the short title of which is Scandalous Figures.  If I haven’t been posting, I’ve probably been busy thinking about Don Juan.

Thanks for reading!  I welcome your comments.

A word about products and recipes: If I endorse a particular product, I do so because I think it is good.  I receive no payments of any kind.  If a recipe is from a particular source, I will attribute it.

All content on this site, © Amy Campion, 2009, 2010.