Collegiate Times

I am writing in response to the letter titled: "Making purchasing local food more realistic for students" (CT, April 20).

Being concerned with food budget is not a crime. What I find worrisome, however, is when other eaters do not eat locally based on misconstrued or uninformed opinions. Every food at Farms and Fields Project is not local.

I wish it all were, but there are many obstacles. Firstly, we face challenges of seasonality. During the school year, many things simply are not growing here in Virginia and the region. In normal circumstances, we would use canned or flash frozen food. Virginia presently lacks the facilities to do this on a large scale. This forces us to ship food from far away locales.

Secondly, some of Virginia Tech's purchasing policies do not allow us to buy plentiful local foods (which, may I add, are quite cheap). Form your own opinions on this issue, but I personally bought about two pounds of fresh local snap peas today for $1.50, a local bunch of leafy lettuce for the same price, and a pound of organic carrots for $.99. I loaded myself down with groceries from Eats today for about $15.

I dislike basing this article fully on the scope of price because one mustn't look at the issue of "local food" or eating sustainably as a narrow scope with one basis. It is so much more than that. I encourage other students who want to educate themselves more about the mission of Farms and Fields (which includes sustainable and organic foods that are not local), as well as connect to many valuable resources about sustainable food to visit http://farmsandfieldsproject.wordpress.com/ - the official blog. I would also encourage students to contact me and join the Virginia Tech Sustainable Food Corps.

Elena Dulys-Nusbaum

sophomore, environmental policy and planning