• On Earth Day yesterday the dining halls were rainbows of fresh flavor and color. In honor of Earth Day, Dining Services offered many local, organic, Earth Day-friendly foods for lunch. The salad bar included many organic vegetables, the baked potato bar featured local potatoes from, the vegetarian mushroom stew featured local mushrooms and potatoes and the spaghetti and marinara sauce was entirely organic. Additionally, the fresh baked breads were made with local, organic flour.

    As spring has finally arrived, the time to consider being a localvore is NOW! Localvores are people who are committed to eating food grown only within their foodshed—a region often defined by each localvore individually. Such eating practices came to my attention several years ago when I discovered the blog of Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, a Canadian couple who, after being stranded and fending for themselves at their cabin in the Canadian wilderness, decided to attempt to eat hyper-locally for an extended period of time, thus: the 100 Mile Diet.

    Smith and MacKinnon restricted themselves to eating food produced within 100 miles, but others may define “local” differently. In southern California, you may be able to find all the locally-produced food you need in a much smaller region. In Minnesota, perhaps you would restrict yourself to the 5-state area during most of the year, but focus even more locally during the summer growing season. But why eat locally in the first place?