How Can We Eat Local All Year Long?

TreeHugger prattles on and on about eating local food: it doesn't have to go as far, so it can be picked and arrive at your table fresher, and doesn't cause an excess of greenhouse gases to be spewed into our atmosphere as a result of shipping, and that makes it better. That's all well and good during the late spring and summer, when growing season is at its peak, farmer's markets are more plentiful and local produce is easiest to come by, but what about in winter, when everything cools off? Tom Philpott, staff writer at Grist and farmer in North Carolina, knows a thing or two about local food production, and has written an article about how to do it all year 'round. His answer: small farms (like his) and greenhouses, where temperatures can be raised by the sun and regulated and maintained by thermal mass, thus producing summertime-like conditions all winter. He's built a greenhouse, and will be trying it out himself this winter. Read the whole article for more thoughts on the local food revolution, in ::Grist.