They grow their own vegetables. They raise backyard chickens. They bypass the supermarkets to buy groceries from farmers they know.
They are global food dropouts, and they don't trust the conventional food system's impact on the environment, their health, animal welfare and flavour.
But even those dedicated to eating locally and organically admit that escaping the global food system can be tricky.
Lesson 1: Be aware of your choices
Even if you can't afford to buy local, free-range and organic, and don't have the resources to grow your own, the first step is to simply be mindful of the consequences of your food choices, says Jes Goulet of Cobble Hill, B.C.
Ms. Goulet grows much of her own fruits and vegetables, raises hens for eggs and buys her other groceries from an organic delivery service. She recognizes not everyone has the time, yard space, inclination and ability to do the same.
But, she says, it starts with “sitting down and in your head evaluating, ‘Okay, these are the different sources for this particular food? Which one of these is ideal? Can I afford it?'… and trying to get the best you can with what you've got.”
That often requires making sacrifices. Ms. Goulet estimates she spends $200 a month on organic milk alone for her family of four, but has cut costs in other areas to keep her total grocery bills to about $400 a month. Even though it's less expensive to buy organic milk in plastic jugs, she's willing to pay more for the stuff that comes in glass bottles, since she prefers the taste and the bottles can be reused instead of recycled.
Ms. Goulet says she was raised on homegrown food, but since having children of her own, now aged 5 and 8, she's had a greater interest in where her food comes from.
“It no longer is about, ‘What am I putting in me?' ” she says. “I can make bad choices all I want, but I wanted them to have the best start.”
Lesson 2: Start small
If you were to analyze the lifecycle of every grocery item you bought, you'd be paralyzed whenever you went shopping, says Liz Gaige, the Vancouver resident behind the website LocalDelicious.com.
“You don't have to change your whole diet,” she says. “But if you just shifted 5 per cent of your grocery budget into eating more locally, eating more healthfully and … thinking about where your stuff's coming from, it has this huge impact.”
Ms. Gaige says she's always had an interest in “the artisan approach to stuff,” and has been buying her food at farmers markets long before it was popular to do so. She believes in supporting small, local businesses as a way of strengthening the local economy and building community ties.
But it doesn't matter what your motivations are for dropping out, she says; every step has greater consequences. If you start buying organic meat, for instance, simply because you want a better-tasting option, that decision may also be better for the environment and more humane, she says. And once you start examining one aspect of your food, it becomes natural to scrutinize other parts of your diet. For example, if you consider buying organic, free-range eggs, you may soon find yourself buying organic, free-range chicken and other meats too.
“I never expected to be like a tree-hugger, but I kind of am just because of these small, incremental steps that I take,” Ms. Gaige says, noting that she grows some vegetables in her yard, and buys non-medicated meat and organic produce.
“I'm not going to agonize and spend my life freaking out about every food decision, but it's about, on a greater consciousness, ‘Okay, what am I trying to accomplish here?' ”
Lesson 3: Plan how you'll feed yourself over the long term
