Joan Dye Gussow is that rare person on this planet who lives what she believes. And she believes emphatically in eating locally. We ate breakfast today at her house on the Hudson River in Piermont, NY---the strawberries, blueberries and raspberries had just been plucked as locally as a few yards out into her garden plots lapped by the tidal Hudson. As best as she can, 77 year-old Joan eats from her 12 raised beds and assorted pots and side plantings, year round. 
A nutrition educator by trade, she is professor emerita at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, has sat on numerous boards, and is friends with most of the stars in sustainable ag/organic gardening and so on. Her latest book, This Organic Life, published by Chelsea Green in 2001, grabbed us by the small hairs in the chapter titled " California and the Rest of Us." We Americans demand and expect cheap food year round, regardless of the season and we pay mightily for it, our taxes keeping the flow of bought and/or stolen water coursing into the irrigated fields of the deserts of California. It's an insane situation that has put farmers out of business across the US and left many major metro areas across the country dependent on produce from the West.
And Joan asks how long can the West provide?
" There are many threats to California's continued fruitfulness--soil erosion, air pollution, salinization of irrigated land,the invasion of exotic pests, and land subsidence are among them. But the two most worrying are the disappearance of farmland and the competition for water."
Another ramification that strikes Foodie's mind is that "terrorists" could easily disrupt or block the flow of food heading east in trucks. Ponder that the next time you observe airport security personnel nonsensically herding elderly ladies into machines that seek out hidden explosives by sending puffs of air into their blouses and up their skirts.
Most of us cannot grow all our own food--even Joan buys grains and grapefruit juice and surely Belgian chocolates ( we must ask her!) from beyond her garden walls--and a commitment to eating locally does not require us to give up all taste for globally traded products. We are only entreated to wake up to what we eat and who produces it and why we want it or think we need it.
Please read this speech Joan gave to the Connecticut Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association in 2003, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq.
I have been reading about the life of Joan Dye Gussow , In addition to her books, she has also produced a variety of articles on food-related topics. Gussow currently lives, writes, and grows organic vegetables on the west bank of the Hudson River!!!
Posted by: Jackin NYC | April 26, 2011 at 09:41 AM
I recently moved to the Napa Valley and have started eating organic. I have so much more energy now. istrongly recommend it.
Posted by: Joan Loof | August 28, 2008 at 09:30 PM
I agree that eating organically is better than not. I live in Seattle where organic food is widely available. Since i started feeding my family organically, my kids seem to have calmed down, get sick less, and they get along better. My sister Janet loof and myself Joan Loof have had the same results.
Posted by: Joan Loof | April 20, 2008 at 01:07 PM
When gardening and growing food for your family for an example it's better to try the organic way becasue this way you'll be sure that you're eating something that is not full with pesticides and other harmful ingridients.
Posted by: Cara Fletcher | August 08, 2007 at 06:22 AM