In the U.S., vegetables and fruits travel an average of 1500-3000 miles from farm to plate and the distances are increasing. Our choices for food and wine can affect this situation.This Dinner Theme reflects, in part,  the Earth Charter Principle 7d “Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards.”

Guests’

Family, Friends, City/County Planners, City/County Parks and Recreation Folks, Farmers, Cooks & Chefs, Restaurant Folks, Whole Foods Market personnel, Single Person interested in meeting a hot tomato or top banana.

Setting

Kitchen/Dining Table, Picnic Table, Backyard, Park, Community Center, Vineyard (lucky you if you have this nearby), or green grocery store.

Tablescape

Live veggie plants (local) or veggies/fruits in basket in center of table, Pyramid of gardening tools, Stack of vegetables and fruits.

Art/Music

• Soundtrack from 1951 Broadway musical Top Banana. Music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer.

Menu

Hot Tomato sauce with spinach pasta; local veggie salad; local fruit dessert; local wine (if possible) or sustainably produced wine or favorite beverage.

Conversation Opener

Describe food you especially savor; or eating experience that was memorable—funny, exquisite or totally awful.

Questions to be Asked After One Glass of Wine

• How do the foods you ate as a child compare with those you eat today?
• What role do family or communal meals play in your life?
• Discuss the following: In the U.S., vegetables and fruits travel an average of 1500-3000 miles from farm to plate and the distances are increasing. Tax dollars subsidize the petroleum used in growing, processing and shipping these produces plus direct subsidies to large-scale industrial farms. Environmental costs and health costs add to this. Agricultural fuel use is $22 billion (paid by taxes; direct Farm Bill subsidies for corn and wheat ($3 billion), treatment for food related illnesses ($10 billion), agricultural chemical cleanup costs ($17 billion), collateral costs of pesticide use ($8 billion) and costs of nutrients lost to erosion ($20 billion)—adds up to national subsidy of $80 billion, about $725 per household each year). From Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, et.al. 2007.

Actions

• Participate in food production to the extent that you can, i.e., garden in yard, porch box or pot in sunny window. Plant some for the hungry in the community and donate produce to a shelter, day care center, neighbor or food bank.
• Learn origins of food you buy and buy the food produced closest to your home.
• Shop at Farmer’s Markets and grocery stores, which provide locally produced foods.
• Eat at restaurants that serve local produce and humanely raised meat.
• Participate as a group in Discussion Course on Menu For the Future prepared by Northwest Earth Institute (some of questions above were taken from this).
• Lobby local government for free space for community garden i.e., unused athletic field, plots in parks, etc.
• Consider the Operation Bon Appétit Dinners as communal meals with a purpose and keep them going.
• Read another resource: YES! Magazine Spring 2009; Food for Everyone: How to Grow a Local Food Revolution.

Closing Toast

“This we know, the Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth. We did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves.” –Chief Seattle