Well, that depends on who you ask.
For me and my family, it's about eating what's in season and sourcing those products as close to home as possible.
But, unless you're super hard-core, there's many things that aren't available in Alberta.
What do you do if you're not willing to cut them out of your lifestyle?
Here's the Food BullsEye that I follow.
Centre (where most of our food comes from)
- Local, Organic (certified or not).
- Grown and Raised within Alberta, but the closer to Edmonton the better.
First Ring
- Western Canada, Organic (BC, AB, SK, MB)
- We joined Skipper Otto's CSA this year and will be getting a share of Salmon this fall. YUM!
- Sea salt from BC would also fit here.
Second Ring
- Canadian Organic. From the west coast to the north coast to the east coast.
Third Ring
- Imported. Fair Trade and Organic.
- Mostly for teas, coffee, chocolate, fruits, olive oil, etc.
Fourth Ring
- Canadian, Commercial Agriculture (standard grocery store stuff)
- Rogers Sugar out of Vancouver is an example. Cheeses with the blue cow. In our area flour, unless otherwise stated, is from Alberta/Western Canada.
- I do a lot of baking for others, most of the time this is where those ingredients come from.
Fifth Ring (very small)
- Imported, Commercial Agriculture (the majority of standard grocery stuff stuff)
- We dip into this outer ring only in times of desperation.
This is our ideal bullseye. We try to stick with it. Some months we're really good with our food choices, other times, not so much.
The point is to make it part of your lifestyle, and that takes time. Change doesn't happen overnight.
You have to be ok with that before embarking on a sustainable food journey or you'll just end up disappointed with yourself.
Enjoy making your own food bullseye and embrace the challenge!
