Local Food in the (Local) News: Columbus Dispatch Covers the 100-Mile Diet

As the ideals behind eating locally spread through the national media via best-selling books, articles in Time Magazine, the New York Times and through the blogosphere, I am pleased to see the trickle-down effect at work.

Smaller market news media are picking up on the trend, and reporting on it.

Which makes sense, really, when you think about it. The central theme to eating locally is eating locally–so it is rather amusing that much of the first media coverage of the movement has come from large, national sources.

I was thus thrilled to be contacted by a reporter from The Columbus Dispatch a few weeks ago when she told me she was writing about the “100-mile diet” and wanted to hear what I had to say about it. I was happy, not because I was going to be quoted in a newspaper, (along with another local food blogger, Columbus’ own Lisa Dillman, author of The Restaurant Widow) but because that means that the issue of eating locally is catching the attention of not just trend-watchers in the coastal cities, but has also come into the awareness of journalists in the so-called “flyover” states.

(As a resident of one of those flyover states, I have to say, I dislike the term immensely, as there is a lot of goodness down here on the ground in the midwest to be experienced, and there are plenty of good folks down here, doing lots of good stuff. So there, take that, snooty coastal citizens, nyah.) (Okay, not all coastal folks are snooty. But for the ones who sniff disdainfully and call Ohio a flyover state, I repeat–nyah.)

I think that reporter Carin Yavorcik did a great job outlining the ideals of eating locally, and she very covered the fun and challenging aspects of it quite well. She didn’t dwell on the difficulties, and instead, emphasized the positive aspects of it, especially the fact that fresh food tastes better.

(Because as far as I am concerned, we locavores are going to interest way more people by talking about good-tasting food than we are by preaching about carbon footprints and ecological impact. Some people just turn off their ears when they hear about the environment, but boy, if you talk about how tasty a real, live, homegrown tomato is, they suddenly are beating a path to your kitchen, panting for a taste.

Read the article here, and let me know what you think of it. And, while you are at it–if you would like to see your own local paper cover local food, drop them a line and maybe send a copy of this to them in email.

And spread the word about those tasty tomatoes. They are in season right now and are glorious.

4 Comments

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1. I liked the article and I agree that it makes eating locally sound possible and enjoyable.

   As a late mention, I loved the beekeeping essay as well.

   Comment by wwjudith — July 13, 2007 #

2. Barbara. sorry to have to use this place to send you the following message but I have sent you 2 mails that possibly you did not receive.

   Dear Barbara:
   RE: woks
   In your blog article “Let’s talk woks”, in one place you write about a wok with a 6 1/2 inch bottom circumference and in another place you mention one with an 8 inch diameter.

   Please let me remind you that circumference = diameter x Pi or 2 Pi Radius, so both terms can not be used interchangeably. I would appreciate if you could clarify this matter.

   congratulations on your blog, very good and professional. I look at it almost daily

   best regards

   Rob

   Comment by Rob — July 13, 2007 #

3. I am thrilled that this is getting wider press. I actually get annoyed at the articles that make it a challenge, and present it as some extreme sport – “I went a year drinking no coffee, and growing my own wheat with a grow light in the basement…” I can tell you, I’m not giving up my Indian spices for ANYTHING. Who cares if they come from Sri Lanka…

   For me it is about options. Once one starts looking around at what IS available locally, and asking stores what they have that’s local a) it starts a great dialogue and b) you end up with some great new discoveries about local foods that you didn’t know before. It broadens your pallette, not limits it.

   Comment by Diane — July 13, 2007 #

4. I’m from MI and I hate the term flyover states as well, but quite frankly I don’t want all of the coastal folks and people from the southwest to find out what we have here and suddnely move,either! I am excited to get tomatoes from the farmers market tomorrow- I haven’t had any yet this summer.

   Comment by Courtney — July 13, 2007 #

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