Who, what, where?

That is the real question. Well, my name is Isobel Grad. I received a Watson Fellowship for the 2011-2012 year to pursue an independent project of my own design. During this year I will be traveling to Iceland, Madagascar, India, Greece, and Poland (and maybe a few places in between). My goal is to visit very different places around the world and learn what I can about their relationship to “local” food. In the United States we have our “local food movement,” and this is, as far as I can tell, a way for us to deal with environmental degradation, climate change and help support local communities and jobs. This is a good thing. But how does it work around the world? What can they grow locally, and how is local agriculture implemented? I assume that everyone is able to live locally, or people never would have lived in a place. But I think everyone has expectations of what is good to eat, and what they want to eat, and obviously that doesn’t always align with what’s from around where you live. So hopefully I’ll learn something about what is and is not inherent in local food production and consumption, and what the social, economic and environmental implications are of “food from around here.” (and let’s not forget learn to cook some new and exciting things along the way.)