Presented by
Robert Gardner and Sophie Gardner

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

Just when you thought you reached the holy grail of upscale, healthy, hip eating; a whole new movement snuck up.  The New Oxford American Dictionary declared locavore as the 2007 word of the year. 

The “locavore” movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better.  “The word ‘locavore’ shows how food-lovers can enjoy what they eat while still appreciating the impact they have on the environment,” said Ben Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press. “It’s significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way.”

Robert Gardner, one of the founding members of LTHForum.com loves to eat.  He’s discovered that the way to eating bliss is by eating local.  For over three years he and his family have tried to get (nearly) all their food from the Upper Midwest, a food zone Gardner calls the Big Ten Conference.  Beyond pleasing the palate, Gardner and his family have discovered the many other benefits from eating local.

With the farmer’s markets finally open, a lot of Chicago gourmets are heading outdoors to buy fresh asparagus, strawberries and other early season crops. Gardner wants you to keep on shopping through the end of the season and then continue to eat local.  Gardner will discuss how you can add more local to your plate even in the darkest months.

Rob and his family’s eat local adventure has been written up in the Chicago Sun Times, Medill News Service and the Oak Park Wednesday Journal.  Gardner recently published an essay on eating local in the Chicago Tribune’s Sunday Perspective section, and blogs almost daily at vitalinformation.blogspot.com.  He is also a contributor to the Eatlocalchallenge blog.

Program hosted at Kendall College.