This will mark the ninth year that The Murie Center has presented the Spring Earth Festival, an event that brings together the local community in celebration of the value of wild nature–and Earth Day, of course. As usual, the offering of events covers a wide range of sustainability topics, from a presentation by Creative Energies on Solar Energy Options to a screening of Everything's Cool (a hot documentary about global warming).

But the event I'm looking forward to most is A Locavore's Night Out, scheduled for Tuesday, April 24th, from 5 to 9 pm at The Wildwood Room in Victor, Idaho. (Don't bother to reach for the dictionary–you won't find the word locavore. To the best of my knowledge, the word comes from a group of San Francisco women, calling themselves the locavores, who challenged folks to "celebrate their foodshed" in August 2005 by only eating foods grown or harvested within a 100 mile radius of the city.)

According to event organizer Sue Muncaster, "locavore" means one who eats a diet consisting of as much locally harvested, produced, bottled, baked, etc. food as possible. A Locavore's Night Out will highlight the bounty of our local farms, ranches, canners, breweries, bakers and florists through a community-wide celebration of food.

A Locavore's Night Out should also offer a great forum for exploring the challenges we face, as a remote mountain community, to overcome the tremendous energy expenditure associated with the U.S. "food system" as it is presented in the chart below (courtesy of 21 Acres).

With processing, packaging and transportation accounting for 37% of the energy use in our food system, eating locally grown products can contribute greatly to reducing the carbon footprint of a typical meal.

Just in case you can't make it to A Locavore's Night Out, here's a list of nine ways to eat locally (courtesy of The Eat Local Challenge):

1 Shop weekly at your local farmers market or farm stand

2 Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and get weekly deliveries of the season's harvest

3 Buy from local grocers and co-ops committed to stocking local food

4 Support restaurants and food vendors that buy locally produced food

5 Preserve food from the season — freeze, can, dry — to eat later in the year

6 Throw a "Locally-Grown Party" and serve all local food

7 Grow your own food in your yard or community garden plot

8 Visit local farmers and "u-picks"

9 Ask your grocer or favorite restaurant what local foods they carry

Carbon Neutral Journal's stats are brought to you by Blue Spruce Cleaners.

Popularity: 10%