On Eating Local

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, “eating local”? This phrase, eating local, can mean a variety of things. Alice Water’s work through Chez Panisse - which sparked the launch of the Farm-to-Table movement - and Barbara Kingsolver’s 2007 book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” set the stage for conversations about local eating over the last two decades. In 2020, the phrase “eating local” took another major shift as COVID-19 created challenges for local businesses. The focus on sustaining small, local companies turned the focus away from food sourcing and towards the regional economy and the people preparing and selling their wares. Today, we’ll dig into the different forms “eating local” can take—and reflect on what value it might bring to our lives.