Reminder: Eat Local!

via MetaFilter. Here is a video on Vimeo highlighting the dire situation of importing foodstuffs in Canada. The main message is to buy and eat local! I'm amazed at the amount of imported food products. Esp. the part about the meat, and in Alberta nonetheless! I remember in Calgary how fantastic the Crossroads Farmer''s Market was. It was seriously worth driving out there to get food. In Germany, supermarkets- and even most farmer's markets- will display country of origin, and in most farmer's markets you can indeed buy direct from the farmer. The big gap in information is the local produce shop which gives absolutely no information whatsoever concerning origin or bio-status (read organic) so as a rule of thumb I never buy from them.

One thing curiously left out in the video are Bananas. In many supermarkets bananas are the no. 1 product hands down. I was amazed to find that out. Of course, they are all imported. I wonder how things would change if Bananas fell out of favour.

It's nice that they focused much attention on produce, but I'd love to see another piece of this sort on the meat industry. I don't mean a vegetarian you-better-stop-eating-meat-right-now video, but more about the industry, the economics of importing meat, the land and energy used to produce it and the returns we get from that investement. I'd be happy with a buy local, buy high quality, buy less message for meat that would be more effective than a beleaguering peta advert.