Local economies purposefully restrict the region from which we source thegoods we need. Instead of relying on cheap transportation to import theskills of others--in the form of products--we are required to cultivate andnurture the necessary skills in our neighbors. Nothing illustrates thispoint more poignantly than a local food system. The one hundred mile diet is a useful way of defining an economic region.If no one within a hundred mile radius grows cantaloupe it is likely that wewill not be eating cantaloupe this year. However, we need not accept thisabsence as a perennial condition. Chances are that one of our neighborsknows a farmer or a local gardener who would be willing to plant a fewcantaloupes next year. Local knowledge of human skills and ecologicalcapacity enables us to recruit others to fill gaps in the local economy Dan Barber has taken this approach in creating menus for the Blue HillRestaurant (http://www.bluehillnyc.com) in New York City and Blue Hill atStone Barns (http://www.bluehillstonebarns.com) in Pocantico Hills, NewYork. Both restaurants seek to use the bounty of the local landscape intheir recipes. The restaurant's menus read like a list of seasonallyavailable products. Blue Hill at Stone Barns links the restaurant directlywith a working farm. The menu is not just dictated by seasonal production,but by the choices made on the farm. If this year the Tuscan Black Kale isa hit in the restaurant, next spring there will be more coming up in thegarden. The connection between the farm and the consumer, in this case therestaurant, means a responsive organism that can change and adapt to newdemands. How, if we are to return to a locally based food system, would it bepossible to supply the needs of the entire population? Currently, asignificant portion of our food comes from a few very productive places.These epicenters of food production arose from our collective decision tobase our diets on crops that grow only under certain conditions. Returningto a more locally based diet, such as is offered by Dan Barber and Blue HillRestaurant, will require shifting our preferences to those crops thattraditionally sustained the inhabitants of our home places. Yes, this meansno more avocadoes on our New England table. Sally Fallon Morell, founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation(http://www.westonaprice.org) argues that traditional diets, includingpasture-fed meat and animal fat, are basis of a local food economy. Movingforward with a more localized diet would require reevaluating our foodchoices to include more products that can be produced locally from availableresources. Along with food choices, a local food system also has toevaluate the source of farm inputs. Fallon Morell's diet considers animalsa valuable source of fats and proteins and the basis of fertilization forother crops. The diet she expounds develops both the health of individualsand the ability of the community to sustain itself. These traditional diets create the framework for what Anna Lappé, a foundingprincipal of the Small Planet Institute (http://www.smallplanet.org), callsfood democracy. With food prices spiking on the back of rising oil costs andunsustainable agricultural choices, her new book, "Grub: Ideas for an UrbanOrganic Kitchen," argues that we must return to a more sustainable,locally-based, and organic food system in order to feed ourselves. It isaccess to the land and the means of producing healthy food people that arethe basis of democracy in any society. Reclaiming our health and our voiceis ultimately tied to a regional food system. In addition to outlining theadvantages of an organic food system, "Grub" is a cookbook of traditionalrecipes that rely on seasonal and local foods. Scrumptious! The E. F. Schumacher Society will be hosting Dan Barber, Sally FallonMorell, and Anna Lappé for the 28th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures onSaturday, October 25, 2008 at the First Congregational Church ofStockbridge, MA. Tickets are 25 BerkShares/Dollars and 15BerkShares/Dollars for members of the E. F. Schumacher Society, seniors, andstudents.

For more information on the event or to pre-register please visithttp://www.smallisbeautiful.org, email efssociety@smallisbeautiful.org orcall (413) 528-1737. The annual lectures are sponsored by the Gardener'sSupply Company (http://www.garderners.org)
Sincerely, Michael Gordon for theE. F. Schumacher Society140 Jug End RoadGreat Barrington, MA 01230efssociety@smallisbeautiful.orghttp://www.smallisbeautiful.org

Board of Directors: Jessica Brackman, Starling Childs, Merrian Fuller,Hildegarde Hannum, Eric Harris-Braun, Constance Packard, Joseph Stanislaw,Nancy Jack Todd, and Charles Turner.Board of Founders: Ian Baldwin, David Ehrenfeld, Satish Kumar, JohnMcClaughry, and Kirkpatrick Sale.Advisory Board: Tanya Berry, Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, Lisa Byers, OliviaDreier, Hazel Henderson, Wes Jackson, Amory Lovins, John McKnight, DavidOrr, Michael Shuman, Cathrine Sneed, Lewis Solomon, John Todd, Greg Watson,Barbara Wood, and Arthur Zajonc.