If You Can Do One Thing Green: Eat Local

In North America, fruits and vegetables travel an average of 1,500 miles before reaching your dinner table. Buying fresh, local food is not only environmentally sustainable but also preserves flavor and nutrients. You can look for local produce at your supermarket or buy direct from a farmers' market or from a farm through a Community Supported Agriculture group (CSA). But for best prices and abundant supply, nothing beats growing your own.

If you want more than a flowerpot on the fire escape, consider joining a community garden. Gardening is great exercise, and community gardens provide everything their members need: tools, water and help. "Not only does community gardening help to conserve open space and beautify neighborhoods; it is also a way to feed neighborhoods and get the freshest, highest-quality food," says Ruth Katz, the executive director of Just Food in New York City. And "gardens are great community centers," she adds.

Another great option: Now's the time to sign up for a CSA to receive produce throughout the summer and fall. Members prepay a fixed seasonal fee to a local farmer in exchange for a weekly share of the harvest, delivered to town.

Whether you garden, shop at the greenmarket or meet the farmer at the CSA drop-off point, take your children along; it's never too early to learn that tomatoes don't grow in supermarkets. And it's fun.

Resources:
*Eat Here: Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket by Brian Halweil (W. W. Norton, 2004, $13.95). See review at thegreenguide.com.
*To find a community garden in your area or tips on starting your own, consult your local parks department and see communitygarden.org.
*For information on joining a CSA group near you: nal.usda.gov, or call 800-516-7797 sare.org and justfood.org.
*To find a farmers' market near you: ams.usda.gov.