Locally Grown Food

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.