The Red and Black

Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: News

Media Credit: JOSH D. WEISS Chef Jerrod Sellers, slices cooked eggplants in the Farm 255 kitchen on Wednesday night. [Click to enlarge]

Leave the supermarket behind, it's "Eat Local Week" in Athens.

Between today and Sept. 27, Athens restaurants will feature locally grown produce.

The event, sponsored by Georgia Organics, is part of the statewide "I'm a Local" campaign.

Locally it is coordinated by Promoting Local Agriculture and Cultural Experiences and Farm 255.

Craig Page, executive director of PLACE, said this is the first statewide initiative to raise awareness for eating locally.

"It is a really easy way to access local food through the restaurants that we normally eat at," Page said.

The participating restaurants are DePalma's Italian Cafe downtown, Harry Bissett's New Orleans Café and Oyster Bar, East/West Bistro, Speakeasy, The National, Farm 255, Five & Ten, White Tiger Gourmet Food and Chocolates, The Grit, Last Resort Grill, Mama's Boy and La Dolce Vita.

Ciné and Farm 255 are showing "Mondovino" Sunday. The film shows how the wine industry hurts local wine producers. Farm 255 will feature wines from the movie.

A workshop called Preservation and Presentation will be given Monday

A big emphasis with local foods, Page said, is buying at the height of the season - when local foods are the cheapest. Page said we tend to "lose track of our locality," and buying locally builds community.

Page said many people think eating locally means 100 percent of your diet is from local food, when in fact, a diet consisting of five to 10 percent local food is enough to support local growers.

"One meal a week with local ingredients would change everything," he said.

The cost of local food is a little higher than food from grocery stores. Page said the cost of "local food is the true cost of food."

He said food from grocery stores is heavily subsidized making it cheaper.

Page said our food travels an average of 1,500 miles before it reaches us. Rising gas prices will therefore raise the cost of food.

James Porter, a University ecology professor, wrote in an e-mail, "Eating locally grown food will be an important part of the success formula for creating a sustainable future. Local produce greatly reduces the amount of energy required to transport the food to your dinner table. It increases the value of local farm-land and promotes sustainable use of local natural resources. "

Additionally, locally grown food is environmentally friendly.

"Locally grown organic food is unbeatable for its reduced environmental impact and its enhanced nutritional value and taste," Porter wrote.

"Eating locally grown food will be an important part of the success formula for creating a sustainable future. Eating locally grown food is part of a larger 'Go Green / Grow Green' movement emphasizing local organic farming, with less reliance on pesticides and other agro-chemicals," he added.

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