Lately, I have found myself struck by the curiosity of the global system we have created regarding the exchange of goods.  (Well, to be honest I started this post two years ago, so…by “lately” I mean on and off for the past couple of years.)  We have so effectively integrated the global trade of goods into every aspect of our lives that most of us have lost the knowledge of what can actually be produced locally (from start to finish) based on the raw goods that our surrounding environment can naturally produce.  Besides food, much of what gets stamped with the “local” label is only referring to the assembly/production of the good, but, not that its entire constitution is comprised of that which was locally sourced.

I am currently reading, The World Without Us.  In it, Alan Weisman makes a comment regarding the cessation of human nomadic behavoir, “Food now migrates to us, along with luxury goods and other consumables that never existed through most of human history.”  Before we developed the practice of agriculture we had to travel to food, then we lived side-by-side with food, growing and then harvesting it.  It is only relatively recently that we have been able to bring food to us and yet, the majority of people living in a developed country now daily eat a diet of “fresh” food that travels to us from hundreds to thousands of miles away.  This is not to mention that processed food/drink has made its way to practically every corner of the world: The Coca-Cola Company’s 2008 Year in Review shows that per capita consumption of their beverages is up for each of their highlighted geographic regions (Eurasia and Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Pacific).

I am not naive.  Well… I am, but not completely.  There are so many things that I would have a hard time changing (uh-hmm, shampoo.  I am not sure how my already difficult and frizzy hair would react to homemade shampoo) or completely giving up (mmm…chocolate) if Kendall and I ever decided to take a “live off of our land” approach.  While, we currently have no land to “live off of”, there are things that I could give-up that, as of right now, I have chosen not to.  And to be honest, I can’t see myself ever going 100% local, but over the past couple of years I have been working towards educating myself to the origin of what I buy and choosing to buy local, especially when the option to do so is available.

The decision to buy local is not just about the gas miles, although that is an important aspect of it. For me, it has more to do with being connected. I have talked about this before and the more I begin to live my life this way the more convinced I am of its truth. Time and energy is spent debating standards, certifications, and labels and I understand why this has become necessary and why in many ways it is or can be good.  However, I have decided to use standards, certifications, and labels as a place to begin the conversation. Going out to farms, volunteering, and talking with farmers about their values, ideology, and practices tells me more of the information I want to know than any label can.  The chocolate I buy is made by Theo Chocolate here in Seattle.  It is “the only organic, fair trade, bean-to-chocolate factory in the United States”.  When my parents were in town for the shower last month we took a tour of the factory and I feel like I know so much about the company, their values, the locations they source their cocoa beans from, and the artisan methods they use to produce the chocolate.  Standards, certifications, labels, and terms point me in the right direction but they don’t always get me to where I want to be.  Doing research and interacting with people and companies is usually what ends up making the biggest informational difference.  I should note, that it helps that for the most part these are small, local businesses that I am interacting with.  I should also note, that one of the things that makes this process a little more difficult is that I am trying to find local businesses that use sustainable practices.

For those of you interested in taking this step here are a few suggestions to get you on your way:

1. Pick a starting place.  Prioritize what area of your consumer life that you would like to begin to “localize”.
2. Food is usually the easiest place to start buy local.
3. Try to find organizations that already focus on local products.  Farmer’s markets and Grocery Co-ops often sell more than just local produce.  Often you can find meat, dairy products, eggs, pastries, soap, and many other local artisan crafts at these places. These organizations have already done the work of gathering local goods for you, take advantage.  If you are looking for something in particular you can ask around at these places and you will often get a very helpful, knowlege-based response, even if it is not the one you want to hear.  Consignment stores are also a great place to find local goods.  I have found that independently owned, local bookstores are usually owned and staffed by people involved in the community around them.  Go out to places that you will find locally-minded people and you will often find people that already have a wealth of information that they are more than willing to share.
4. Talk to people in your community.

I also wanted to provide you with a few books as resources.  Most of the books I found are focused on food; so, I tried to find some that were not about food that were at least close to the topic of local.  If, anyone has other books to recommend please let us know in the comments.  Also, there are a lot of eating local cookbooks out there for those of you interested.

Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets

Eat Where You Live: How to Find and Enjoy Fantastic Local and Sustainable Food No Matter Where You Live

Bringing the Food Economy Home: Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally

The Hundred Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating

No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process

Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

I bought this book about 10 days before I found out I was pregnant.  There has always been this deep need that regularly manifests itself to me, through daydream, to have a simple place of my/our own to retreat to.  A place of solitude.  Of simplicity.  And of nature.  At the time we were looking for land to buy that could meet my desire for separation from the world and Kendall’s desire for running water.  I would go to the library and read through every issue regarding green, prefab buildings hoping that within a year or two we would be able to plop one down and call it our place of rest.  So, it is no surprise that after reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food and loving it, that I put A Place of My Own on my wishlist and bought it for my birthday.

However, a couple of things transpired at once resulting in my daydreams of a place near a river, in the woods, with running water having to be put on hold.  The biggest event being news of the pending baby.  This also meant that the second bedroom that had been Kendall’s office for so long, which, he had recently vacated after getting the opportunity to rent a space with a great community of guys, and which, I had begun to transition into a studio that would function as a room of my own where I would create, write, and relax would now be needed for baby.  This room of mine, which I had been so excited about, was such a big deal that it was often the one of the first things that people remarked about when finding out I was pregnant.  Yet, the realization that I was going to have a baby only served to reinforce the fact that having a space of my own was important and from the beginning I decided that me and Baby would share that room.

With the swift reality of my “place” being significantly downgraded to “space” (still a luxury I know), compounded with my morning sickness making reading anything but out of the question, it is only now that I have picked up and read A Place of My Own (and that only at Kendall’s strong encouragement).  It is curious then, given my new circumstances, that I quickly came to feel, even while still in the midst of the preface, that this book may be more timely for me now than it was when I bought it.

It’s a book about significant turnings in the season’s of one’s life.  It is about the need for that which is concrete and tangible.  Pollan needed a physical structure in which he could work out his internal stirrings.  He needed a place to daydream.  For, “[w]ithout its daydreams, the self is apt to shrink down to the size and shape of the estimation of others.”  As someone with a very active internal world, this connection between the intangiblity of thoughts and the reality of the physical made sense to me.  I need a physical space that provides me with the freedom to mentally explore and one that also has the ability to reconnect myself and my thoughts to the physical world when I come back down.

In mid-July my sister, Kathryn, threw me the greatest baby shower.  It definitely did not/would not fall into the traditional baby shower category, but that is part of what I loved about it.  She made it custom.  Just for me.  I love that what mattered most to her was that I felt comfortable, loved, and celebrated and not that the shower follow an etiquette that she knew was not important to me.  Over the years I have found that to be known and cared for by someone does not happen easily or often.  Therefore, when someone in my life takes the time to invest so steadily and deeply as my sister has it really means the world to me.

A huge part of who I am, as you may have gathered from this site, has to do with my desire to live my life in a way that hopefully leaves the world at least a little better than I found it.  This means caring for the Earth and the people living in it.  Since, Kathryn managed to put together something very special that, more than anything else, made me feel cared for and known by incorporating my values (including these ones) I wanted to share a little bit of the day with you.

For those who like stories:

The shower was a relaxed picnic that took place at my favorite beach here in Seattle.  The day before, she and I headed out to the farmer’s market to pick out fresh, local and organic fruits and vegetables.  We left the market, our bellies stuffed with all sorts of delicious samples, bags of fresh produce, and some cherries that were gifted to us by a farmer.  Kathryn then transformed our loot into a delicious spread that we all enjoyed at the shower with the sun over head, grass under feet, and a beautiful scene of Mt. Rainer and Lake Washington before us.

In the evite, Kathryn requested that the presents come unwrapped because babies love trees too.  This also served the double purpose of keeping me out of the gift-unwrapping-spotlight.  What unfolded next was so much better than the usual formal unwrapping of presents.  It casually began with someone wanting to show me what they brought and ended with all of us sitting under the shade of a tree, exploring and passing around the various gifts.  We then lazed around chatting until friends dispersed and then we packed up and headed on our merry way.

For those who like lists:

Here is a list of the ways that Kathryn made the shower an event that treaded lightly on this Earth that we are trying to protect for our little one so that he can play freely and safely.

1. The table center pieces were potted plants from a local nursery (which I got to take home!).
2. We used real silverware.
3. The napkins were square pieces of fabric that she cut out using pinking shears to keep them from fraying with the idea being that I could then sew them into a quilt for our baby boy.  (I thought this idea was genius!!!!)
4. For glasses we used cleaned out mason jars.
5. We used serving platters that we had around the house.
6. Saved glass milk jugs with corks served to hold our drinking water.
7. The food was bought from local, organic farmers.
8. Invitations (which were adorable) were sent using evite to save on paper.
9. Presents came unwrapped and I loved that those who couldn’t bear to bring a gift unwrapped they brought it in a reused gift bag or a reusable grocery bag.
10. Finally, my own little tip:  we registered using alternative git registry which really allowed us to customize what we registered for to fit our lifestyle.  For example, we were able to register for used or organic baby clothes, give a few suggestions for where to get them, and add the quantity we needed.

Thank you to everyone who pitched in to make this day special; and a very special thank you to Kathryn.