Loco for Local

This morning, I received a horrifying email from Amazon.com that read:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

Because you've shopped books on international cuisine at Amazon.com, we thought you might like to know about the latest selections in our International Market.

International Market?! On Amazon? I'm trying to wrap my head around this one. You can order five-pound bags of "Byzantine Olives" on the internet. Or microwave pork rinds in habanero flavor.

I'm so annoyed by this. Of course, I could go on an anti-corporate rant about how Amazon is now the online equivalent of Wal-Mart, capable of undercutting its competitors based on the sheer volume of goods it sells. But that's not really why I'm upset.

I hope you can forgive a sappy personal anecdote, but it's the only way I can really describe my displeasure.

My paternal grandmother, whom I call Yia-Yia, came to the U.S. from Greece at age 19. She married a man she'd never met who was ten years her senior. When I was a kid, Yia-Yia would take me to a few specialty markets in Salt Lake City. The markets sold awesome Greek, Italian and other Mediterranean goods that couldn't be found in most grocery stores. More notably, the markets provided Yia-Yia with a taste of her lost culture. The clerks at the stores were almost always recent immigrants themselves, and Yia-Yia would chatter with them in a haze of broken English, Greek, and whatever other languages came out as they discussed ingredients, recipes and the regional names and tastes of the items in the store.

I still love these local markets, and because I live in the Bay Area, I can find one in virtually every neighborhood. Just a few weeks ago, my neighborhood produce and Asian foods market cashier saved my dinner by making sure I bought some rice vinegar to add to my sushi rice. But these little gems exist even in small communities: A good friend of mine — who is and fantastic cook and whose Indian father owned a restaurant when she was young — found a great Indian market just outside of our small college town south of Dayton, Ohio. And remember, Yia-Yia lived in Utah.

Of course, these goods aren't totally sustainable. They are imported, and their presence in my community cost a lot of carbon. But supporting these local markets is an investment in the economic and cultural sustainability of a community.

But just to be serious for a minute, Foreign Policy has deemed eating local more than just a personal choice (gee, thanks old white guys!), asserting that "a more natural and heterogeneous system" of agriculture could help feed the poor. And on your next trip to the farmer's market, let your favorite farmers know that $5 million in grants just became available to local producers via the USDA's Farmer's Market Promotion Program. In the meantime, do as I say and not as I do and stay off Amazon.

Photo credit: jurvetson