Organic vs. Local
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November/December 2000
Karen Lehman and Julie Ristau Utne Reader
At Rebekah's restaurant in rural Plainview, Minnesota (population 3,000), there's a quiet revolution taking place, one homemade chicken pot pie at a time. The buffalo served in savory sandwiches travels less than 50 miles on its journey from paddock to processing plant to reach Rebekah's oven. The chickens are raised in a neighboring valley and processed at a nearby on-farm facility. The butter ('not a stick of margarine on the premises,' declares the menu) comes from the town's co-op dairy. And the tomatoes in the soups come from local farmers' summer harvest.
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As a result of buying local, the menu at Rebekah's changes throughout the year. 'There are reasons to eat food with the seasons,' asserts Diane Lutzke, Rebekah's co-founder and cook ('not a chef,' she says, 'a cook--someone who cooks!'). 'Take the root vegetables in the fall. They have nutrients that we need at that time of year. When you store them in a root cellar, they've begun to dry out a little by late winter. That makes the flavors more intense for the February stews. In spring, the greens come up first, and they act like a tonic. Then in summer, the vegetables are juicy and full of water that helps cool you.'
The restaurant not only buys local, but also makes a point to buy organic foods when they're available. Sounds right, doesn't it? If the choice is between local and organic, we'd like both, please.
Karen Lehman and Julie Ristau share the School of Agriculture Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems at the University of Minnesota, managed by the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture.
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