Proposal

I would like to examine the culture surrounding local foods.  It has been recently become more of a mainstream focus and the question I would like to ask is, “why are people choosing to grow their own or locally source their food?”  I feel that there are many resources I can access in order to find a wealth of information on this subculture.  I have already read two books on the subject called Plenty and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Michael Pollan also does quite a bit of work on locally sourcing food and eating as close to the earth as possible.  There are numerous blogs devoted to people eating locally (usually within 100 miles) for an entire year and they write about their experiences during the process.  I would like to interview some of the local farmers who provide their crops to local restaurants and also those who provide CSA’s, Community Supported Agriculture.  I would be interested in hearing about their growth in the past couple of years and continued interest of people in knowing where their food is coming from.  Two aspects of this culture that I am most interested in are the socioeconomic that seems to be a factor and programs like those that Alice Water’s started, which are incorporating local foods into schools.  We are the only country in the world where are poorest people are the fattest; everywhere else in the world the poorest are the most malnourished.  It has become that those with money are the ones who are able to buy food from the local farms.  Alice Water’s is a chef from California who has not only brought local foods and gardens to public schools to teach children about food but has put these programs into some of the poorest schools where high fat, processed foods are the norm.  She is helping these kids and our country establish a food identity, interested in growing, harvesting, cooking, and preserving heirloom varietals.  This is important because as our country progresses, our farm to table food is diminishing.  There is a whole group of people in this country and throughout the world determined to protect our food and our farmers.