Whatcom County - Thinking Local

Who'da thunk... Whatcom County Sustainable Connections in FORTUNE Magazine.

'Small-Marts' take on Wal-Mart
Small, local groups nationwide are fighting back against big business and helter-skelter globalization.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer
August 30 2006: 8:39 AM EDT

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Local businesses in Whatcom County, Wash., next month will exhort their customers to "Buy Fresh Eat Local."

Some people in the scenic, mountainous region will take a pledge to nourish themselves for a week entirely from the local food shed - drinking milk from local cows, eating fresh-baked organic bread and patronizing restaurants like Flats Tapas Bar, which will serve such dishes as flatbread with all-local smoked salmon, caramelized apple, gouda cheese and hazelnuts.

Others will enjoy the Downtown Carrot Jubilee, a chance to taste local carrots harvested that day; they'll wear "I Ate Local Today" stickers.

"We want to help raise awareness of the value of local food systems," explains Max Morange of Sustainable Connections, a network of more than 500 Bellingham-area businesses that sponsors the annual event. "We're losing farmland very quickly."

So committed to localism is Morange, a 25-year-old slow-food activist, that last year he churned his own butter rather than buy spread "imported" from elsewhere.

The campaign is a stunt, to be sure, but it's also evidence of a backlash - against look-alike chain stores and helter-skelter globalization. ... (full article)