Eating locally is a growing movement that is good for your health―but even better for the planet.
Everyone everywhere depends increasingly on long-distance food. Since 1961 the tonnage of food shipped between nations has grown fourfold. In the United States, food typically travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to plate―as much as 25 percent farther than in 1980. For some, the long-distance food system offers unparalleled choice. But it often runs roughshod over local cuisines, varieties, and agriculture, while consuming staggering amounts of fuel, generating greenhouse gases, eroding the pleasures of face-to-face interactions, and compromising food security. Fortunately, the long-distance food habit is beginning to weaken under the influence of a young, but surging, local-foods movement. From peanut-butter makers in Zimbabwe to pork producers in Germany and rooftop gardeners in Vancouver, entrepreneurial farmers, start-up food businesses, restaurants, supermarkets, and concerned consumers are propelling a revolution that can help restore rural areas, enrich poor nations, and return fresh, delicious, and wholesome food to cities.
“Part journalism and part manifesto, Eat Here is the definitive work on the most interesting and encouraging change in the way Americans eat now.”
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“A lively, convincing case for taking food seriously…and thinking ‘slow’ rather than ‘fast.’ …It’s a rich trip, and the food is better.”
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“In these modern times the ability to eat whatever we want, whenever we want, defines what it meant to be an American…. I appreciate books like Eat Here because they challenge one to thing about the difficulties of this equation.”
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“Want to know all the benefits of growing food close to your home? Eat Here is your book. Don’t be surprised if you’re amazed at all the pluses.”
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