What is local?
eggsinhand
Buying good, clean, and fair food is not easy. It could actually be downright complicated.
What it really comes down to is supporting our local suppliers who have good practices when it comes to food sourcing.
I shop and buy all the time here on Martha's Vineyard at Tisbury Farm Market. This grocer makes an effort and they carry decent food and products. Some of their selection of food and products have been raised and marketed with a sensitivity to the environment and others have not.
While I support this market daily, I do always buy local produce and eggs that are from chickens able to be outside running around and having a good life.
Tisbury Farm Market happens to have all kinds of local eggs - they are not all from farmers who have chickens outside running around soaking up the rays and eating bugs... but that said, when given a choice between that and an egg from a farmer I do not know from far away, or (God forbid!), from an organic grower in Milwaukee, I will always choose a local Vineyard egg.
But how do you know which egg is which when it comes to local?
Ask your merchant! It's a simple question:
"How are these eggs raised?" If the answer is that they do not know, ask again until you get an acceptable and true answer! This is the only way that we can communicate to our food suppliers, fish markets, and grocer, that we want to know and we want them to know. It is ultimately about trust - your trust in your grocer/food supplier and their trust in their sources.
Ask your grocer:
"What is local?"If they don't have anything local on their shelves, and therefore you don't buy, they may reconsider their practices.
Larsen's has SOME fish that are local: fluke, bluefish, bass - others you will need to ask about. They sell loads of fish that are farmed-raised and badly harvested fish: shrimp, salmon, and blue fin or yellow fin tuna that is not from around here.
I will say that there is some good farmed shrimp from the US, but not all of it. So far, to my knowledge, none of the local markets are carrying anything like it. Wild Maine shrimp is okay, and the pink shrimp from Oregon and Canada are okay, but I don't see it anywhere here. BUT - we could ask!!!!
With tons of choices and lots of questions, no matter how you decide to shop for well-sourced foods and products, we are still left with loads to think about...
For more information on some of the topics in the post above and well-sourced foods, I invite you to read on:
Catch of the Day is Going Extinct