Food in Boston

Thanks to a huge amount of research by local community gardener, artist, and food purveyor Laurel Kirtz, I’m happy to point to a new page on this blog, Resources. There you’ll find lists and pointers to Boston-area local-food-friendly grocers, events, cooking resources, farms, restaurants, and more.

I’m only beginning to sink my teeth into all of it, and hope to at least get links in place for more of the listed resources that have web presences. Corrections and additions are most welcome (my email’s over on the right side of the page).

While skimming a roundup of the New York City green scene, which includes a bunch of food-related events and organizations, I couldn’t help but wonder how things in Boston compared. Upon reflection, it turns out to have been an interesting year for local food.

If nothing else, Bostonians have been getting folks together to talk about food. This year’s events included the Tufts Food Symposium, the Food Project’s Farming the City conference, the ACGA conference, Barbara Kingsolver talking about her family’s year of eating locally, Vandana Shiva in Cambridge, local growers & grocers at the JP Forum, and more growers & grocers at Lucy Parsons.

In addition to all the gabbing, Slow Food put on a couple series of potlucks, as did my community garden, the Food Project, and many others. A number of food-related bike rides went down (and I missed them all; next year!). A bunch of folks I know started gardens for the first time, and started putting up their own & other local produce for the winter.

Looking forwards to 2008, it’ll be interesting to see if our apparent momentum towards more local & sustainable foods keeps on movin’. Off the top of my head, there are a few stories to watch. JP’s incomparable City Feed will be adding a second, bigger location and has indicated that they’re aiming to purvey more local foods. Harvest Co-op (hey, new web site!) has a few new directors on its board (including yours truly) with commitments to a healthy local food system. Brown & the Food Project are working together with Yale and other northeastern schools to build the student movement for sustainable and responsible food on campus.

Other notable local events for ‘07? Things to look forward to in ‘08? Your comments, as always, are appreciated.

The Boston metropolitan area is a great place for food: it has a wide variety of restaurants, farmers’ markets, farm stands, CSAs, and community gardens; a number of decent grocers; and plentiful opportunities to learn more about food and eating.

The Boston metropolitan area has some serious food-related problems, including substandard food in our schools, an alarming number of people who can’t afford enough food to keep themselves and their families healthy, unjust distribution of fresh and healthy foods among the neighborhoods, and a bizarre obsession with Dunkin Donuts.

This blog seeks to celebrate the former, and highlight solutions to the latter.