Sustainability and Local Food

Sustainability often does not come to the mind of a suburban boy. In a suburban environment, we buy our groceries from supermarkets where the food often comes from many countries away. I see many experiences of sustainability and eating local from my AP Environmental Science class or from TV. One of the most unique ideas I’ve seen is a full completed cycle of recycling and reusing. The project provides hydroponic vegetables and fish that both use material waste from the other to as food in a sanitary matter. By the way, the project lies in the middle of a city.

                The golden idea of eating local does not ring much, but my family now starts to eat more local. My parents own a car repair shop and many customers bring extra vegetables from their gardens to share with my family as we’re friends. The produce taste so much better than supermarkets. Sometimes the food becomes ridiculous as one time a student from UGA gave a huge melon that they test in the agriculture department at UGA. The sheer size surprises me still to this day. Also, we now have a farmer’s market to get delicious produce.

                Sustainability mainly means the efficient use of every material and joule of energy to get the most output, while keeping minimum waste from the environment. Often the idea doesn’t apply to my daily life in Acworth, GA, but my family attempts to improve our efforts. Then eating local just means sourcing your food within a certain radius and knowing where the food comes from. It’s better to know what you’re eating when you know how you got it.