Local lifestyle

Mathew Barker

writer

The pioneers of Alberta ate locally every day. They spent much of their time working to survive and learning how to do without.

When food from all over the world became easier to buy and transport, most of the pioneers happily started to consume those foods and would never dream of going back to the good old days.

The lack of time and the effort required to eat locally in Alberta today makes it even more difficult for the average person to practice eating local as a lifestyle. It’s unfortunate that eating locally will never catch on, but it makes events like Common Ground even more important.

Eating locally keeps people healthy, supports the business of local agriculture and saves the environment by cutting emissions from food suppliers outside of the province.

This is one of the best solutions that will get this world on the path to peace and prosperity, but in Alberta the route to eating locally is fraught with hardship and struggle. In a country that can potentially be covered by snow for up to six months, there are only a few short months that can be used to farm. In today’s busy world, the average person is also frequently tempted by restaurants that will never consider buying ingredients locally and but products that aren’t produced locally.

Turning local eating into a lifelong practice isn’t easy. Only a few dedicated people who are willing to live on a seasonal diet and can manage to resist the non-local goodies that are available will be able to survive on a local food only diet.

Perhaps it is more accurate to say that only the most masochistic would be willing to try to turn eating locally into a lifestyle. Attempting to eat locally seems like an impossible task to do for longer than a week.

Eating locally can work for an individual who is unwilling to move to a place with ample fertile farm land, year round growing weather and a temperate climate. All that has to be done before this lifestyle is attempted are these simple steps: build a greenhouse and quickly develop some simple gardening know-how.

The skills of a trained gardener will help you grow all of the desired vegetables that become out of season or too expensive to purchase over the winter weeks. The next step is to quit school or any hobby that you have grown accustomed to doing. The time needed to learn how to preserve food and to keep the newly-built greenhouse free of weeds usually consumes most of the local eaters time.

To ease the inevitable fat, caffeine and sugar withdrawals that always come, all that is needed is a comprehensive cook book and the training required to replicate the tasty meals that had to be given up for the eat local lifestyle.

Unless these three things are met, short of starving to death, the difficulty to change eating habits to a local eating lifestyle is near impossible. If someone manages to eat locally for even a week they should be congratulated.