Wow, the NY times has stirred up the locavores and their ilk recently with an op ed piece calling for the locavore movement to use numbers, math, to back up their claims that eating local saves money, saves pollution, has less environmental impact, and what have you. Can you imagine? MATH?
The folks at Grist.org have done an amazing job at rounding up the locavores - the prominent ones - to rebut the NY Times op ed piece. Their work is is nothing short of profound. Thank you grist.
I, however, like to think of myself as a non-conformist in as many ways possible. But not a hipster. For that nonconformity, I leave it to a friend/coworker. My nonconforming leads me to discount much of what Budiansky says as well as much of what those prominent locavores have stated in their reactions to his article.
You can find the NYTimes piece at
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/opinion/20budiansky.html?_r=1
and the Grist.org piece at
http://www.grist.org/article/food-fight-do-locavores-really-need-math-lessons/.
For me, and I presume Trisa, our choice to eat locally and to produce our own is a personal decision. We didn't choose to go through this experiment to save the world, save the climate, change people, or for any activist reasons. We did it to educate ourselves and to hopefully give back a portion of what God has blessed us with.
We have a tiny piece of dirt, a small house, small bank accounts, great jobs and great families and friends. We are blessed with good neighbors and trials and times that make us carve out a life for ourselves that we enjoy, that we can learn from and grow. Nearly a decade ago, I took a two day course on living a focused life. I learned that most people don't "peak" in life until shortly before they retire. Their highest earnings, their most enjoyment from family, work, education, etc all comes just before they stop "working." If there's one reason Trisa and I do what we do it's because "we want to." No one has to hold our hands to go and learn how to garden, to go to jobs we LOVE, to spend our money on the things we both need to spend it on and WANT to spend it on. Where our desires and passions meet up with our actions (we call those VALUES) is where we focus our time, energy and resources. There and only there. Our values change and will always continue changing. They are different than they were nine years ago when I first studied a focused life. They will be different in ten years from now. But, no matter what our values are, we'll be "peaking" for decades. We'll be "achieving" (or at least attempting to) our goals and living our life in-line with our vision and focus WAY before retirement and WAY after.
Trisa and I have done the exercises I learned nine years ago together for the last six years at least once per year. We've found that a profound change has taken place: we live a life we like and love and can see God's generosity to us in that life. You might ask if we think everything is easy or if we do things we don't want to do. the answers are NO and YES. Of course we have to do things we'd rather not, it's our duty. But the bigger picture remains - our vision of our future and our life many years ahead instead of tomorrow. When we go to work at our day jobs, when we garden, when we go to farmers markets, when we sell wine, take classes, read books, spend time with family and friends, do things we'd rather not, etc., all of it is focused and intentional (usually). We've found ourselves in vocations and work that is "in tune" with our wiring, our desires and passions. It doesn't feel like work. It all feels like life, abundant life.
We hope to give back at least a little of what we've been given. THAT'S why we're locavores - and why we're growing as much food as we can on our small piece of dirt at our small home.
M
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