Eating Local in Italy

Travel sometimes points out major differences in the way folks think about the things that are important in life, like food. Eating local has recently become a popular buzz term--but what's condsidered "local" to eaters in the US? John Cloud, in Eating Better Than Organic, takes a crack at answering the question:

A Whole Foods spokeswoman told me the eggplant was grown in Florida, which is too bad because eggplant grows easily in the Northeast. But in the company's defense, very few customers care whether their food is local. Most who do, shop at farmers' markets. Also, there's not even a standard definition of what local means. To Nabhan, who inspired many local activists with Coming Home to Eat, it means eating within a 250-mile radius of his Arizona home. Many who blog at a site called eatlocalchallenge.com aim for a stricter "100-mile diet."

Here in the Lunigiana, my neighbors have a much narrower definition of local. At dinner with them last night, the wild boar we ate was shot pretty near our back yard (wild boar are considered vermin around here as they tear up the landscape something horrible). The polenta under the stewed boar was produced entirely by my next door neighbor, who once dug up one of the Lunigiana's ancient stelle statues in one of his fields. The wine came from two sources, both cellared within 100 feet of my house. The mirto, a myrtleberry liquor popular in Sardinia, was made two houses down. The chocolate "salami" (yes, it's a dessert) was made in the house where we ate. The bees we complained about made our local honey, and the hives are next to our propane tank.

Now that's what I call local.

Want to know how you can get started eating local? About.com has the answer: Local Foods with Molly Watson.