Green Living
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What is the greenest city/state to live in? (for food)
I was wondering if you could recommend some places in the US to live that had a large abundance of local and natural food. I'd love to live in a place where it's normal to hunt for your own meat, raise your own chickens, buy fresh milk from the farm, and and have plenty of local resources for produce, etc. Here in Central FL, people look at us crazy when we say we bought a cow, and most of the farmers markets contain imported produce, and hardly anything local. Sam's Club seems to be the food source of choice for most. There is a community of farmers here, but it's small and a small selection. I want to find a place where it's the standard to buy local and have more of a selection than Kraft cheese and Oscar Mayer bacon. DH works remotely so we are entertaining the idea of exploring other parts of the country.
Re: What is the greenest city/state to live in? (for food)
I'm predicting a lot of people are just going to list their own locations, but hey, write about what you know!
I don't have any stats to back it up, but I feel like southeastern Pennsylvania has what you're looking for. There are tons of local farms in central and southeastern PA and New Jersey, and we have lots of farmers markets and even the regular supermarkets often have local produce featured. There's also places to buy meats and such. The farmers markets near me have buffalo, chicken, eggs, milk... I don't really seek that out, but I'm sure if I put effort into it I could find more. There are definitely farms in central PA where you can get a whole cow and that type of thing. (Remember on J&K+8 when they went to buy the cow?)
I still wouldn't say it's the standard to buy local, I'm sure most people don't really care, but it's definitely catching on as more farmers markets and such start up. Also, because of the area (big city [Philadelphia] and affluent suburbs), there are lots of Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and similar stores, and there are more farmers markets starting up, so maybe people are starting to care more.
The Seattle area has a great local foods movement, and all of that is very normal, depending on where you live. I think chickens (at least roosters) are starting to be unpopular in the actual city! And of course, our friendly neighbor, Portland.
I think Denver also has a pretty good local food movement, and has more sunshine and lower costs than Seattle. But less local seafood!
I've also heard good things about Chapel Hill -- availability of local foods and that sort of mindset, as well as just an overall nice place to live - and that would be a lot closer to you!
If I were to move out of the PNW, I would look at Denver and Albequerque (which also I believe has a pretty good local food movement, although its not as easy to grow stuff there as far as I know, as it is here!).
We lived in Denver for 8 years, so I'm a little biased, but there is a huge emphasis on local and natural foods there. Great farmers markets, tons of vegetarian-vegan-local foods restaurants (but fancy and casual), CSAs, community gardens, etc.
Right now we live in rural western MA where there is also a big emphasis on "green eating", but we are moving back to Denver next year and I can't wait! The best part about the Denver/Boulder area is that you have the convenience of a big city, but the great outdoors is your playground.
But if I could move anywhere solely based on natural foods, it would be to Santa Fe, NM. Hands down the best natural foodie town I've ever been to.
I'm a lurker, but this post was really interesting to me. I think that it's pretty easy to support local food between may-oct (though some of our fruits are just stretching the 200 mile "rule"), but the rest of the year there is nothing. I would love to live somewhere that had a longer growing season, though I can't complain about the climate here. I wish that meat/poultry was a bit easier to get your hands on. We're lucky that CO is a pretty progressive state (or maybe the denver/boulder area more) when it comes to being more "green", but we still have a ways to go.
Need help with high fat food ideas? Chunky Monkey
Again with the writing about what you know.... Wisconsin! We live in the Madison area which has farmer's markets nearly every day of the week during the summer, the largest on Saturdays with hundreds of local vendors selling meat, veggies, fruit, flowers, etc. There are many places to buy local foods and it's so easy to get around downtown by bicycle. I know they have also passed an ordinance so you can raise chickens in the city. Also, Wisconsin is huge on hunting (deer, turkey, duck, etc.) and fishing. I've lived in many places throughout Wisconsin but have found Madison to really embrace going green!
Lucky you with being able to move so freely! ?
I have to disagree. I've been living in Wisconsin for three months and have been having a heck of a time trying to find fresh produce! There's two stands that sell fresh fruits and veggies but the selections are so limited I've never even bought from them. It's mostly corn which I'm not a fan of. At least compared to San Diego it's slim pickins here, but then again I don't live in a very urban area so maybe that's why it's limited.
But I'd say of all the options you have- Seattle is the best for what you're looking for. I've never been there myself but I've heard it's fantastic and my ex goes often and sends me pictures of their markets and they are impressive!
Well I think that's pretty true anywhere. I mean, its winter!
I think part of eating locally is getting back in touch with seasons.