Sunday 18 January 2009

I'm not an omnivore, I'm a locavore, and other social experiments...

Right now I'm listening to a US radio programme called 'The Splendid Table'. It's a great programme about food and eating and if you have any interest you can listen online at http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/

This week's show is all about eating locally and I loved the idea of (though not so much the comments about) eating locally for an entire year. I think, as a whole, we take the origin of our food completely for granted. As a veggie, I have to be a tiny bit OCD about food because I've opted to not eat certain things. But being super attentive to where your food comes from instead of what it comes from is quite an interesting and thought provoking proposition.

My first thought was that, there's no way I could do this for a month, let alone a whole year. But having said that, I have lately been thinking about doing some kind of silly experiment. My most recent thought (after listening to another radio programme where pensioners complained about their financial situation) was that it would be interesting to try to live on a state pension (something like £90 a week) for a month.

Any thoughts? Should I try to eat locally or live frugally? Or perhaps complete and utter madness and try both at the same time? I have a feeling I'm going to regret ever having brought this up...

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