"Local" is a vague term. Food grown in California is local, when compared to food that was grown in another hemisphere. But one definition that is commonly used is that Local Food is any food that has been grown, raised, or cooked within 100 miles of where you live. For those of us in Marlborough, that includes any food from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, southern Maine, and even parts of New York state.

There is another aspect of Local Food that is important to its proponents: locally owned. Buying milk that was produced on a farm here in Massachusetts is nice. But if that farm is owned by a petrochemical company, then buying from that farm is not really buying local.

That's it, really. "Local Food" means buying from your neighbors. It's a rule of thumb, rather than a brutally stringent regimen. It's about choosing to buy your food from close to your home when possible.

Why buy Local Food?
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