Chicago’s Green City Market kicks off their Locavore Challenge this week (9/10-9/24) in which they ask people to take a two-week pledge to eat only foods produced in Illinois and border states. A number of local restaurants will be participating by providing “locavore options” on their menus.

I’m pleased by any attention brought to the idea of eating locally-produced foods, but I tend to bristle a bit at these short-term “events” where people try to endure the pain of changing their habits for a short period of time. Changing your shopping and dietary habits is a difficult process and not something that can be taken on in a cold turkey mode.

I’d love to see the organizers of this event follow up with some participants a year later and see if they held on to any of the changes they made during the two-week event.

I’m skeptical about the effectiveness of these challenges and I don’t like how they frame eating locally as something that you need to “endure”, but I’m still hopeful that the Locavore Challenge can turn a few people towards locally-farmed foods.

If you’re taking the challenge, we’d love to hear from you in the forums.

Read original blog post

The Green City Market has set up a blog for a some people to report back on their “challenge” activities.  On one hand it pleases me to see some people trying to eat local, even for a short term.  It is interesting to see them wrestle with the topic, both on a broad sense–how to define local,  lay out exceptions, etc., and from a specific sense–where can I get the food I want, how to deal with not having all my shopping needs in one place, etc.  On the other hand, it annoys me that some of the questions exist.  Not that people have questions.  There should be tons of questions.  What annoys me is the lack of resource these people have shown in researching their venture by looking here and to Vital Information.  We did not dive in for the sake of an event, so take advantage of our chops.  What's more, come and discuss with us.  We can help!  We have been doing it for a lot longer than you (no offense).

I pipped in on the topic of local nuts and local tofu, both available, although one a bit easier than the other.  The questions belie the nature of these challenges that I believe annoys Michael (I say believe, but I cannot speak exactly for him).  By the time you have figured out where to get your local nuts or your local this or local that, you can safely go back to eating the way you did.  Will you just be satisfied that you spent two weeks wishing for nuts?  I have said repeatedly that the key to eating local is time.  It takes time to know how to meet your local needs, and more, it takes time to see what works.  For instance, how can you know if you have stored enough food for winter until you have gone through a winter trying to eat off of your stored food?  

Me,  personally, I hope you take the challenge.  I hope you stick with the challenge.  I also hope you take better advantage of the people who have survived many an eat local challenge before you.