Growing a Better Life

1774 Words8 Pages
Growing a Better Life The problem with eating healthy these days is, with so many GMO’s, natural flavors, and thousands of different words to disguise sugar in ingredients, one finds it hard to know where their food actually comes from. There are a number of reasons why people choose to participate in the locavore lifestyle. These motivations include healthier food, environmental benefits, and economic or community benefits. A locavore is a person interested in eating food that is locally produced, not moved long distances to market. One common definition of "local" food is food grown within 100 miles of its point of purchase or consumption. The locavore idea is meant to help people with the same interest come together; grow and sell your own food so everyone knows what they’re eating isn’t being tampered with. In “The Locavore Myth: Why Buying from Nearby Farmers Won’t Save the Planet” by James E. McWilliams, McWilliams makes the point that buying locally won’t help because “by focusing on transportation, they [locavores] overlook other energy-hogging factors in food production” (345,) but if everyone could come together to make local farming easy and resourceful it would solve the problems brought forth by McWilliams essay. An easy way to solve this problem would be to have farms in each city, and each farm grows or raises a specific crop or animal. As mentioned before, McWilliam’s biggest issue with locavores is transportation. “A shipper sending a truck with 2,000 apples over 2,000 miles would consume the same amount of fuel per apple as a local farmer who takes a pickup 50 miles to sell 50 apples at his stall at the green market” (346.) McWilliam’s goes on to express many mathematical examples of how one is wasting more energy, time, and resources into storing, eating, and transporting their food, even if they are eating and buying it locally. But the
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