Eat Local Challenge

Could you eat 80 percent of your food from within 100 miles of home? Our great grandparents would furrow their brows and look at us sideways for asking such a question. But these days we're used to foods from distant places having a regular spot on our plates. Even foods that DO grow here can have a harder time making it to the grocery shelves than the same food grown hundreds of miles away and shipped here for our consumption.

Thank goodness for our northern Michigan farmers markets, CSA farms, local food distributors, co-ops, restaurants, businesses and successful efforts to promote local foods. They all make it a lot easier to eat locally than it would have been several years ago.

And that'll come in handy if you're up for the Eat Local America challenge, presented by co-op grocers nationwide. The Grain Train Natural Foods Market in Petoskey has joined in and issued a challenge this summer, inviting you to consume 80 percent of your diet from food grown or produced locally. The challenge runs August 20 through September 17. To participate, just sign a large poster in the front of the store and try your best. No check ins, or tallies, they'll take your word for it.

Jaime Jankowski, the co-op's Membership & Marketing Manager, and Jack Laurent, Grocery Manager, are beginning the challenge early and blogging about their experiences at the Eat Local America website. Anyone who takes on the challenge can blog about it there. If you do, let us know by posting a comment here with a link to your blog. You're also more than welcome to open an account on Up North Foodies and post your experiences here, sharing tips and local resources.

Before she started, Jaime wondered how it'd go without coffee, vanillla and other cravings for distant foods. But it sounds like she's off to a great start. "Every day that goes by," she blogs, "I find more and more local products which is making my challenge so delicious!"

If you need more encouragement, consider that Michigan is the second-most diverse state in agricultural production, with more than 200 different products. And eating locally helps our economy. If every Michigan household spent just $10 per week on Michigan-produced food, it would generate nearly $40 million each and every week.

You can read more about the challenge and eating locally in the Grain Train's summer newsletter. And if you take the plunge, let us know!

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