Real People Eat Local

Zakia Nelson, an epidemiologist, began focusing on local food when she was pregnant, in particular because she was concerned about the quality of typical grocery-store meat. Here's what she has to say about local food:

"I work in public health, so I'm always thinking and reading about environmental health exposures. Being somewhat familiar with the U.S. meat industry, I have concern about the conditions in which meat is being slaughtered and prepared. I trust local foods to not have many or any issues regarding synthetic pesticides, chemical exposures and bacterial contamination.

"I was a vegan for more than 10 years, and then a vegetarian who ate some limited amounts of fish, eggs and dairy for another five. I decided to go back to meat when I was pregnant, about two years ago. I just felt hungrier, like I needed something I hadn't needed before. I felt like I wanted a little more iron in my diet. It was at that point I found out about local, natural, grass- fed, grass-finished meat. I was really pleasantly surprised.

"We've been buying meat - both red meat and poultry - - from three different farms. I love bringing local food, natural meat and organic meat home. I feel as though it's fresher. It tastes better. And I feel comfortable feeding it to my son. This is the kind of meat that makes me comfortable to eat meat."