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Affordability and Eating Local

Posted by Alaina Browne, March 23, 2007 at 4:47 PM

One of the challenges of eating local aside from seasonality and geography is cost. In his interview with Anne E. McBride on Leite's Culinaria Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, reiterates a point he makes in the book:

"There is definitely a class issue here. To do the right thing, when it comes to food choices, takes more money, there's no question about that. It's one of the biggest problems we face. But there are a lot of Americans — more than half, I would say — who have the wherewithal to spend a little bit more money on better food choices. I think, in a large part — certainly for my audience, probably for your audience —, it's a matter of priority rather than affordability. . ."

Our friends at Eat Local Challenge are putting this to the test with the Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge, to find out if it's possible to eat locally within an average American family food budget, without going through the exercise of a household budget's re-prioritization. Those choosing to participate in the challenge taking place April 23-29 will be attempting to stick to budgets based on statistics from the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistic. I won't be participating this time around, but I'll certainly be following along to see how the participants fare.

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Tags: Eat Local Challenge, eat locally, Michal Pollan