Eat Here Now

On an island where 90 percent of our food is imported, sustainability starts with eating locally.

 

Jill Engledow

 

Photography by Jason Moore  |  Jill Engledow  |  Cecilia Fernández

I made a salad the other day with bright green lettuce, chopped chard, Maui onions and vine-ripe tomatoes, all from my favorite table at the farmers’ market. I tossed in a few broccoli florets, still fresh more than a week after I bought them at the Swap Meet. Then I pulled out the cellophane bag of multicolored peppers from my favorite big-box store. Glancing at the label as I chose a pretty yellow pepper, I was stunned to learn that these vegetables had come all the way from Holland.
   
Yes, Holland, as in the Netherlands. In addition to tulips, apparently the Dutch grow multicolored peppers, and send them all the way to Maui.
   
This experience got me thinking about what we eat, where it comes from, and what the ramifications might be of eating food from so far away. Can we legitimately call these peppers “fresh” when they have traveled from halfway around the world? How do I know the stuff I find at local farmers’ markets is in fact locally grown and not just picked up from a wholesaler? How difficult—and how expensive—is it to find truly locally grown food? And what are the hidden costs of eating food grown in faraway places?