Any vegan Locavores out there?

[Koalamom]

I am in the middle of reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and it is all about one familys journey eating local food for a year. The managed it well so far ( I am half way through the book), but all their meals are meat, eggs and/or dairy. They make it sound impossibel to eat local and well being a vegan. Anyone a local eater and vegan?

[red and lulu]

we are mostly locavore, or at least try to be. late spring through fall we shop exclusively at farm stands and the farmer's market, and are part of a csa — we don't buy any produce from grocery stores. we get our bread from a local baker and our coffee from a local roaster. the health food store sells lots of locally sourced dry goods, locally made bulk tofu, etc, though when it comes to stuff like spices, pasta, grains, beans, etc. we just get what we need from the store. in the late spring, summer, and early fall it is pretty easy to eat local and be vegan here. and surprisingly inexpensive! it gets trickier in the colder months when our local produce is limited to root veggies. then we're big time cheaters

[laohaire]

I don't see why not, if it's not difficult to be vegan then why would eating local vegetables be harder?

I'm only a former (anti factory farming) vegetarian, never a vegan, so I might just be missing something about veganism that might require dependence on faraway foods.

But I will also add that eating local is a continuum. You don't have to live a strict 100 mile diet to eat local. Just join your local CSA and shop your local farmer's market and you're doing great. If you still get rice and tofu from the grocery store that's fine. I

'm big on local but I don't impose artificial stress on my life which huge, sweeping rules about it - I just make conscientious choices, buy 100% of my veggies locally (which is easy for me), buy 100% of my meat locally (which is not much because I can't afford much, but that's what fits in my values), and while I have cheese and milk and butter and bread available to me locally I only buy it sometimes ($$$). I also keep rice in my diet, and it's not at all local, plus we do still buy bananas for DD. We try to keep fruit local but I'm not above buying a bag of oranges at the store; I just try to do it mostly in winter so they come from the USA and not South Africa, for example.

I try to reduce my footprint in various ways like line-drying and using family cloth, but I don't have solar panels. I would love them, sure, but it's what I can do. Just do what you can do, you know?

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by bluebirdmama1

I am in the middle of reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and it is all about one familys journey eating local food for a year. The managed it well so far ( I am half way through the book), but all their meals are meat, eggs and/or dairy. They make it sound impossibel to eat local and well being a vegan. Anyone a local eater and vegan?

I love that book.

Although I'm not veg*n anymore, my 13yo dd is vegetarian and we've discussed eating locally with her. Her ideal diet would be completely local vegetarian, and I'd love to be able to help her get there - she just has to change her tastes a little bit.

I think in order to find out if it's possible for you to be a vegan locavore, you need to first find out what grows in the area you've designated as local. It would be hard to be a vegan locavore if your area does not grow the staples you need (beans, grains like wheat and rice, nuts, various sources of oils like olives or coconuts, etc.).

It also depends on what you consider locally produced. Do you only consider foods that actually grow locally to be 'local' or is it okay if the coffee beans are roasted locally but not grown locally? Same for bread - is it local if it was baked in your town but the wheat comes from 1000 miles away? That's a good way to compromise if you find that many of your staple foods are not grown near you.

I think the author does make a good point that it is much easier to be an omnivore locavore because the calorie-dense animal foods can be produced locally in almost any location, but I wouldn't say it's completely impossible to be a vegan locavore, especially if grains, beans, and nuts are grown nearby.

Interesting topic!

[lactivistmama]

I am not a vegan "yet" But I try and eat local as much as possible. I haven't found a local source for grains.

[Sayward]

I am veg*n and I eat high-local, especially through the spring-summer-fall seasons. However I don't stress local over other certain ethical concerns. Personally I do NOT believe that local is always better, from an ethical or environmental perspective.

I *highly* recommend you check out the book Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly

Also remember, just by being veg*n we are already doing much more for the environment than omnivores, many many MANY times over. Not that it's a contest.

[catnip]

It's hard to find loally grown legumes and grains in many areas because they just aren't profitable enough to grow on land that isn't very, very cheap. Which means not close to cities. Sure I can get specialty stuff like edamame and fresh chickpeas, but not bulk dry legumes. We stick with local and seasonal for our perishables, and don't sweat the dry stuff like pasta, flour and legumes.

[somegirl99]

Not 100% by any means but as much as possible...lucky to live right next to farmland. I often bicycle 7 miles down to the nearest one which grows lots of different kinds of beans as well as fruit.