Another lab I really enjoyed was my locally grown food lab, here is the excerpt and a couple pictures:
Sustainable Communities – Locally Grown Food
Lab
There is much discussion today
about getting our communities to become more sustainable. This is due to the
fact that American communities today require vast amounts of energy. One of the
reasons for the amount of energy used is due to the fact most all resources
must be imported into the community, sometimes thousands of miles. One way to
reduce the energy used to import resources is to obtain those resources
locally. Food is one item that really does not need to be shipped so far. Here
in Florida does it make sense to ship tomatoes from California when it is
possible to grow them here? Most people would say not. Even if the crop can be
grown more efficiently someplace else the energy used to ship will likely
outweigh the growing efficiency. In this lab prepare a meal using all locally
grown food. When we say locally grown we consider a 100-mile radius from your
home or city to be local. Crones cradle reserve
http://www.cronescradleconserve.com
in Citra carries locally grown food items.
1.
Describe your “locally grown” meal.
This lab
for me was very enjoyable to do because it is usually what I do everyday! In
the past couple years have become much more environmentally aware, which has
not only affect my personal health but that of our beautiful nature. My family
and I made the decision to start eating “clean” meals where we would also be
able to lean more towards the organic side. I am going to show 3 pictures of
just some of my “locally grown” meals. The first one is my breakfast with
locally baked bread (it had no brand name), almond milk, and the blueberries on
top were from the farmers market as well. The second picture is the one of my
mid morning snack which is usually fruit or my green juice that I personally
make. I always like buying organic fruits and veggies (at the farmers market)
for this because the idea of a pesticide cocktail doesn’t appease me. The last
one is another breakfast option I have which is asparagus (from Ocala farmers
market), grape fruit (from Ocala farmers market), and flat English muffins, and
an egg white.
2.
Where did you obtain the food?
All the
produce that I organically consume come from the Ocala Farmers market at the
square on Saturdays. It’s not far from home and it is a great place to also
grow relationships with the farmers themselves.
3.
How do you know that the food was locally grown?
I usually
check out the website from growers before purchasing and most of them have
banners with the website information as well.
4.
How difficult was it to find the locally grown food?
When I
started looking a couple years ago, I never thought it would be so easy to
find! I can find it just 15 minutes away from home.
5.
How does the taste of the meal compare to similar
meals you normally eat?
It usually
is the same meals I normally eat, I’m a regular at the farmers market.
6.
How does you purchasing locally grown products support
your community?
It helps
out so much with our community economy and also our local workers as well.
7.
How does you purchasing locally grown products improve
the environment?
We do not
have to use energy in exportation, travel time and gas usage, and reducing
chances of waste.
8.
What other things could be locally produced besides
food, which would help the environment and community?
I noted in
a following lab that we could produce several locally produced items: Honey,
bottled water, eggs, milk, and even meat.
